Review by Booklist Review
Beatrice was born into Seagate, a cult that worships Flesh Martyrdom, a total disavowal of enjoying food. But she loves the rich creations of the earth and instinctively knows that can't be wrong. Meanwhile, Reiko, a student from the Low Quake, has escaped a community endangered by poverty and climate change and is now exposed to the life of the Elite, with their beauty obsessions and hypocritical loftiness. She's willing to do whatever it takes to be part of the Above, to take what they have and make it hers. Beatrice and Reiko fight to snatch pleasures in a world that wants to deprive all but the most wealthy of any kind of hunger or temptation. Porter's newest is simultaneously a dark capitalist dystopia and a sexy allegory of queerness. It takes on the toxicity of purity movements and beauty culture in a well-built world where sex is encouraged and indulged but chewing in public is taboo. Porter's narrative digs into how religion and capitalism infiltrate societal norms on a big scale and into the pain of unlearning trauma and fat-shaming on a deeper scale, while delivering the stories of two lovable, complex characters and a convincing, moving conclusion.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Porter (The Seep) uses exquisite dystopian worldbuilding to critique the Western obsession with controlling women's bodies in this powerful sci-fi fable. Reiko Rimando hopes to escape the poverty of the often flooded Bastian region with a scholarship to study artistic tech in the Middle, and even harbors secret aspirations of a rarified life of wealth living in the sky of the Above--but then her funding is pulled, and she instead turns to cybercrime and artifice to scam the rich. Meanwhile, Beatrice Bolano escapes the extremist religious community of Seagate where hunger is holy and eating only the minimum to survive puts citizens "closer to angels than animals" but casual public sex starting at puberty is nearly a cultural requirement, in pursuit of her dream of becoming a chef. Though at a distance from one another for most of the novel, Reiko and Beatrice are linked by their discovery and love of the same secret thousand-year-old book: humble kitchen maid Ijo's cookbook-memoir. Porter's sensual descriptions of even the simplest foods, inspired foraging, and creative cookery will resonate with those who love foodie fiction, while her visceral and blatant expressions of body, racial, and class stigma and fetishism give her allegory a heavy punch. This is sure to impress. (Apr.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Beatrice Bolano dreams of food. Tasting it, cooking it, eating it, and simply enjoying it. But she was born into a cult of "flesh martyrs" for whom the rejection of food's pleasures is an offering to heaven. Reiko Rimando, a child of the lower-middle class, also wants better for herself. Both women escape from their origins in search of more in a world that will punish them every way it can for their temerity, in the name of a doctrine that is based entirely on a lie designed to subjugate them all. The science-fictional nature of their world is a thin screen for the book's commentary on the fetishization of thinness, the repression of women's desires, and the way that corporate greed and mass consumption culture intentionally turn women's attention from their own self-actualization to false goals that demean and degrade their intelligence and their will. VERDICT The two storylines in Porter's (The Seep) latest, particularly Beatrice's story of accepting herself for who she is and what she loves in spite of everything, will make readers hunger for more.--Marlene Harris
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Two young women living on a distant planet are linked by an ancient book whose protagonist serves as a role model as they struggle to overcome their individual circumstances. Born into a cultlike community known as Seagate, 16-year-old Beatrice Bolano wrestles with her illicit fascination with food. Seagate is run by the ALGN Church, a sect that extols starvation as a form of worship. Followers refrain from eating in public, take appetite suppressants, and exile people who aren't skinny enough. When Beatrice decides she's ready to take the enormous step of fleeing Seagate, a kindhearted black-market cookbook dealer helps spirit her away. Interwoven with Beatrice's story is that of Reiko Rimando, a talented artist from a poor family who wins a full scholarship to college. Over time, Reiko becomes disillusioned with academia, realizing her classmates are mainly rich kids who couldn't care less about hitting the books. Jettisoning her aboveboard professional ambitions, she puts her youth, beauty, and intelligence to work as a con artist until a love affair threatens to shatter her hopes of making a financially independent life for herself. Both Beatrice and Reiko eventually find their ways to a centuries-old book called The Kitchen Girl, an autobiography by a woman named Ijo, that ends up shaping both of their trajectories. Chapters from The Kitchen Girl are interspersed throughout the novel but don't appear frequently enough to comprise a complete narrative thread. While engrossing, the novel is hampered by weak dialogue and a thinly drawn setting. Occasional references to multiple moons, airships, and a race of Indigenous residents known as the Free-Wah aren't enough to make the planet Beatrice, Reiko, and Ijo inhabit come alive as a fictional world with its own history, culture, and place in the cosmos. Rather, their planet feels like a facsimile for modern Earth that serves as a staging ground for an exploration of real crises: climate change, income inequality, systemic racism, corporate dominance, religious fundamentalism, the outlandish cost of higher education, and more. An enjoyable novel that deals with timely issues but falls short in complex worldbuilding. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
