Jennifer has a lot going on in her life; she's a drug runner, an addict, and she shares her body with a flesh-goddess called the Divine Flesh. They're in the same body, and they don't get along at all, constantly fighting for control and destroying each other's lives in the process.

I'm not sure on this one guys. It started off really strong, with a very unique voice and a truly original idea. I've honestly never read anything like this before and at no point could I predict what was going to happen next.

There's a lot of gore and body horror throughout the book. We're thrown into it right from the start, and it doesn't let up at all. Usually I love a gory story, but I think there was just so much of it and too frequently that it lost it's 'shock value' and impact and became a little repetitive instead.

There were a lot of plots and threads going on in the story all at the same time and I did lose track of what was happening a little. I found the Mirror People and their eggs fascinating, I loved the complex dynamic between Darryl, Jennifer & Divine Flesh super interesting, and the small-town setting & characters compelling, but we jumped around everything happening so much that I didn't feel like I got a chance to enjoy any of them as much as I should've. I do wonder if the story would've worked better as a collection of novellas, with each plot point getting its own time to shine.

The Divine Flesh was a really original story that was weird in all the right ways. I loved the vibe and the idea, but unfortunately it just didn't land for me.

The Divine Flesh is an exhilarating journey that combines elements of the bizarre, the mystical, and the surreal into a story that feels almost dreamlike in its intensity. From the very first page, it pulls you into a world that is at once disorienting and captivating. The book offers a unique blend of mind-bending imagery, philosophical musings, and unexpected twists that keep you on the edge of your seat.

The narrative is a rollercoaster ride, with moments of pure chaos woven seamlessly into deeper, more thought-provoking reflections on existence, identity, and transformation. The characters are fascinating, complex, and often enigmatic, making it hard to predict where the story will go next. It's a book that doesn't just entertain – it challenges your perception of reality itself.

One of the most compelling aspects of The Divine Flesh is its ability to blend the abstract with the concrete. The writing is both beautiful and strange, as the author pulls you through vivid, surreal scenes while maintaining a core of emotional depth. It’s one of those books where you can’t help but wonder what’s real and what’s a manifestation of the protagonist’s mind, making every page feel like an exciting puzzle to unravel.

what a crazy book! a mix of cosmic/Eldritch and body horror! it is definitely a lot and can be a little confusing at point (i do wish some chapters would start of defining who is narrating/talking). i think it was a really fun and crazy concept. this is so far the only body horror book that has made me a little queasy with essentially just once sentence haha. if you was something with a lot of substance i definitely recommend this. and there are many parts where you think "why is this like this?" just wait, you'll have an explanation. overall i enjoyed this book and it definitely sucked me in and kept me reading!

This story follows a woman possessed the Divine Flesh, which takes over her body at random times. They hate each other and constantly fight for control, blaming the other for their lives being a mess. The Divine Flesh just wants to create new life (but you can’t create anything from nothing, so she needs bodies), Jennifer just wants to survive hers (former foster care kid turned drug addict and drug mule), or so they say.
The story is quite confusing at first as it just throws you into the deep end of a world where a woman sometimes blacks out and the Divine Flesh takes her over and creates her children out of Flesh. The first third of the book is a bit tough to get through because of this. The story moves fast, but I was constantly trying to slow it down, figure out if I missed anything in the world building, trying to make sense of it. But once I got over that, the story really took off and I had a really good time. There are many perspective switches, making the story feel vibrant and fleshed out (ha!), moving along at a feverish pace and dragging you along for the ride.
It’s crass, it’s gorey, it’s gross and elbow deep in the guts of everything depraved and if you allow yourself to be enveloped by that, you will have a great time. Once the story settles down in a small town in Idaho is when the character’s really get to shine, which is when the story really started to work for me. We don’t only get to explore Jennifer’s feelings, but also Daryl’s (her ex) and the Divine Flesh as she changes. There are also a multitude of side character, some worse than others and quite a few you wish would die sooner than later (looking at you Trojan!), but their perspectives also add to the unsettling feeling, add to the horror and add to the confusion and so they worked really well.
Do mind the trigger warnings, there are very few nice or kind people in this story, but if you are interested in a book about cosmic horror and filled with body horror and incredibly well written terror, this is a book to check out!

TW: ableism, abuse, animal death, animal murder, body dysmorphia, body horror, csa (mentioned), death, drugs, eating disorder (mentioned), gore, grief, gun violence, homophobia (mentioned), murder, racism, rape, sexual assault, suicide, transmisogyny (mentioned)

Where do I even begin? When I read the synopsis, I was very intrigued, it seemed like it was going to be great. But my tune changed when I actually started reading. I didn’t understand what was going on. Tbh, I still don’t know what was going on now that I’ve finished reading it. While the concept could have been so great, it was poorly executed. There were too many subplots, too many characters, too many additional names for the same character, and it was just trying to do too much that I just got lost. I really thought that it was going to be some mix of Invasions of the Body Snatchers, walking dead, alien something or other, but it was more of a hot mess. I wanted to like it, but unfortunately didn’t. Hopefully, there’s others out there that get it and enjoy it. This just wasn’t for me.

The Divine Flesh reads like the most beautiful nightmare that you have ever had - involving eldritch horrors, the most cursed love triangle you could ever imagine, drugs, murder, and meat puppets. Troubled Jennifer holds the Divine Flesh within her, a goddess that wants nothing more than to change the world with her love: except love looks a lot like turning bodies into abominations. After being offered the opportunity of a lifetime (a drug that promises to sever the connection between her and the Divine Flesh forever) Jennifer soon realizes that she has a lot to learn about love and saving the world. She is the unlikeliest of heroes - selfish, damaged, with no prospects and nobody who truly cares for her. At no point did I have a single idea of where this was going and I loved every moment of it.

If you read (or watched) John Dies at the End and wondered if it could get any more depraved or bizarre, The Divine Flesh is the answer for you. The writing is creative and unconventional, the world-building effortless, and the ending is satisfying.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dark Matter INK for this ARC - my thoughts and opinions are my own.

The premise to this called to me, and I couldn’t wait to read it, but it was too much for me. It was constantly repetitive while simultaneously being all over the place and so out of left field that I couldn’t make sense of it or really allow myself to take it all in. I love dark horror and sci-fi, but I do want a plot and this one fell short. I sat on this for weekss and tried several times to change my mind on it but ultimately I couldn’t. While I didn’t enjoy it, I do think it’s incredibly creative and that there is definitely a target audience that would appreciate it more. Thanks to Dark Matter Ink for my eARC.

I've never done mushrooms, but I feel like I did mushrooms when I was reading this. The cosmic horror/body horror kind of reminded me of Andrew Van Wey, which I VERY much enjoyed. However, I do feel like this was a much longer story than needed to be. The pieces that were excellent really stood out, but it did contain a lot of fluff to get there. Thank you for my ARC!

WTF did I just read?! There’s no denying that this author has writing talent, but WTF is this?! I was lost for the first half of it. Eventually I did start figuring it out, but there are so many different POVs, that it took a while to piece the puzzle together. Not only do we jump between the characters, but we also have sentient entities living inside the main characters, which adds an additional layer of POVs. I’m honestly surprised I kept up as well as I did, and that I was able to finish it so quickly. I read the whole thing over the course of five days. I give it a solid 3.5-4 stars. It was well written, imo. Just a lot going on. It’s also very messed up. At least a dozen trigger warnings if not more.

To briefly summarize the plot: A dimensional god gets bored, shreds her own universe, invades ours, and becomes the “God of love” as portrayed in the scriptures. Just one thing, SHE is having a mental break and she’s psychotic. She wants to eat everybody, digest them and make them “better,” because she “loves” them so much. The only person capable of stopping her is a barely functional drug addict.

This book is so twisted. Lots of body horror and gore. There’s SA, violence, death, monsters, and drug abuse. The entire thing has icky religious undertones, where religion is twisted and is not a healthy thing at all. I felt a knot of disgust in my stomach while reading. Especially the SA scenes. I recommend proceeding with caution if you are sensitive to triggers. It certainly is unforgettable. Kind of wish I could forget it, but it is what it is. I do think the writing style is unique and well-done considering what the author was trying to pull off - POV wise.

I was satisfied by how the book ended. Won’t read it again. Probably won’t read more by this author because the style is a bit too graphic and gory for my taste.

PS. I didn't see the average rating on goodreads until after I finished reviewing it. Amused that my score ended up falling in line with most other reviewers, at this time.

All the stars!!! Such a fun ride. I loved the banter and the body horror. Very imaginative and I will absolutely read more from this author.

A pretty good entry to the niche "weird things happening in a small town" subgrenre of science fiction/horror. The story lost me a bit at the end, both thematically and on the surface level, but the journey to get there was, for the most part, satisfactory, and even occasionally excellent. This book contains a lot of visceral body horror that was somehow done really well, at least from the pov of someone who doesn't typically read body horror stuff, and the way the story combines that with the more scifi cosmic horror stuff is brilliant.

I am so thankful to Dark Matter INK, Drew Huff, and Netgalley for granting me advanced access to this book before it hits shelves on March 4, 2025. This book was crazy and I could NOT put it down at all. I was simply hooked from the start.

A parasitic god??? This was a fever dream or an acid trip of a novel about gods and the creators. I really dug the body horror, and the cover artwork. This book gave so much weird girl energy that I think it fell a little flat.

*I received a free ARC from NetGalley*

Happy Pub Day to The Divine Flesh!

The Divine Flesh is staggeringly unique. Delightfully disgusting—and not just its titular character.

Huff's greatest strength is in her character writing. DF and Jennifer have incredibly distinct voices in both their dialogue and narration, but even the minor characters shine. Huff is uniquely adept at establishing a point of view character's driving force, idiosyncrasies, and making them sympathetic with a skill and speed I've never seen before. And she often does this right before that character's end.

While I had issues with the worldbuilding to start (why are DF and the Mirror People the only unearthly creatures here? Where are the other supernaturals?), Huff's overarching plot and its incredibly satisfying resolution settled them.

Spoilers ahead:

Unfortunately, The Divine Flesh often bites off more than it can chew. There are too many plots working within this book that leave the middle overwrought. While the minor characters' storylines add texture to what is going on with the Divine Flesh and Rosetown, many of them take up too much time for too little payoff—especially Trojan, who was given so much screentime that could have been pared down to just his impact on Rosetown and hand in character deaths, rather than dedicating several scenes to torture porn that honestly had no real bearing on the plot but did have the desired impact of making me miserable. This is particularly egregious with Susan, considering how quickly and unsatisfactorily that ended.

The thing that made this book take so long to read, though, was the formatting. For some reason, the entire thing is written in bold except for what is italicized, which made it weirdly burdensome and eye-straining to read. Hopefully this is a defect of the ARC only.

The Divine Flesh (the book) is worth the read if only for the Divine Flesh (the character) and her bubbly body horror, and the complex twist of the relationship She and Jennifer share with Darryl.

I DNF around halfway. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, and the story was a repetitive loop of itself. Repeating the same information over and over again with no new additions. Not for me.

I was really drawn in by the premise (and the cover, what a work of art) and the book seemed to be pretty much up my alley. Weird cosmic horror where a woman has an Eldritch God (called The Divine Flesh nonetheless) inside her body! I was sold!

Unfortunately, it ended up not being for me and I had to DNF it. I would have loved this to be a novella focused a lot more on The Divine Flesh and Jennifer. I felt like a lot of subplots were being introduced at once, very important subplots at that, and at the same time as we were presented with the world building. It felt confusing and it made me wonder if I had missed some part of the lore while reading it.

The body horror was very well written and will definitely work for readers who enjoy it. The Divine Flesh was also a very interesting character. Also, while the characters are extremely unlikable, it works really well for the narrative.

What eventually made me decide to DNF this one was the pace and the structure. It truly wasn't working for me.
I'm giving it a 3 star rating because even if it was a DNF for me, in no way does this book deserve a low rating. I understand I wasn't the targeted audience.

Happy pub day to The Divine Flesh by Drew Huff! Unfortunately... I kinda hated this.

It started off good enough, with a promising premise (young woman grappling with an all-powerful space goddess possessing her body, chaos ensues) and a super unique voice. But that voice quickly became grating and confusing. The book is bloated and maximalist to a fault. I found there were too many characters, too many plotlines (like the intergalactic drug trade of mirror people larva... huh?), it's way too long, and the graphic body horror that started as a plus became too much... there's only so much bone smashing/flesh reforming/organ disintegrating I can take, and body horror is my favourite subgenre so make of that what you will! For all of the shit being thrown at the wall here, like eggs, goddesses, religious psychosis, phagocytosis, etc., very little of it meshed together and stuck for me.

2 stars for the goopiness and a unique idea.

Thanks to Netgalley and Dark Matter INK for the e-ARC.

I enjoyed this, although I struggled to follow it at times and found the main characters getting confusing, however fully aware that is what would happen in a possession!
The imagery was wonderful and in depth, and the twists were enjoyable and became easier to follow once I got to know the characters better

This book is an absolute fever dream! I spent the first part of it desperately trying to understand what the hell was going on, but at some point I just let go of that and went whichever way this rollercoaster of a book was taking me. And boy was it a rollercoaster. I honestly don't even know how to write this review because I think this is just one of those books that you have to experience for yourself.

I still don't really know how I feel about this book. I was drawn to it because of the gorgeous cover art and I definitely did enjoy some parts of it. However, I gave it three stars because some of the gore, violence and abuse in this book was just too heavy for me. I would definitely recommend reading the trigger warnings before deciding whether or not you want to read this book!

Thank you to Dark Matter INK and Netgalley for an advanced copy of The Divine Flesh. For full disclosure, I DNFed this book at 40%, as I don't believe I was the right audience for it.

Jennifer's got too many problems to count; she's addicted to so many substances, she's trafficking intergalactic goodies, and her ex doesn't love her anymore... oh, and she's sharing her scarred, battered body with a cosmic entity called the Divine Flesh, that is constantly trying to break out of Jennifer's control (and is also in a relationship with her aforementioned ex).

This book throws you into the action right away - there are no dull moments, there is no time to gird your loins for what's coming ahead. If you're someone who needs a linear, logical timeline, I would skip this one. Huff throws us into the middle of Jennifer's woes, and pieces of the past and Jennifer's life flow organically to us. I personally loved this style, as it kept the action rapid-fire and on edge.

Where this book failed (for me, not in general) was that it was too much of everything. I think Huff took on a lot, and there's too many characters and a lot of cosmic backstory that I wasn't getting, and some of the plot was revealed through exposition (characters explaining their motivation) instead of occurring naturally. However, there is some GNARLY (positive) body horror and some of those scenes are gonna replay in my head for a while (again, positive).

This is not a bad book, not by a long shot. It's just not for me, and not at this time. I'll probably go back and try to read it again sometime in the future.

Make sure you check trigger/content warnings before you start reading! This book covers a lot of ground and much of the content could be triggering for readers.