While I DNF this book that is due to my own personal struggle with the writing style.

The concept is fantastic I however struggle greatly with the conversations between the divine and the FMC when they’re interacting with another character. It’s just too many POVs in a paragraph. It simply just overwhelmed my adhd brain.

But this would be a great read for someone who can handle that kind of narration between characters.

This book took a little while to get into but it was a great read - the story is so well written and captivating! Great story, writing and can’t wait to see more from this author!

Thank you netgalley and the publishers for the ARC. I saw the description for this book and instantly thought this was going to be the book. I enjoyed the plot and character development. The story felt original and was engaging. I will read more by the author.

💕Yud-hay-vav-hey!💕

What an intense ride this was baby!

✨️The Divine Flesh ✨️ has assimilated me, and I am one of her sweet sweet babies now, baby!

Let's start off with the trigger, baby! This is cosmic horror and splatterpunk! So there will be a lot of triggers here, it's an awesome read, just beware! (check the bottom for them!)

We start off with Jennifer-baby, a junkie, drug mule, loser and MC, ✨️The Divine Flesh✨️ a cosmic goddess stuck inside Jennifer-baby, and Darryl, Jennifer-baby's ex-husband and boyfriend of the ✨️The Divine Flesh✨️ all in a love triangle, where there's mirror people from other dimensions, murderous racists, insane evocative imagery of cosmic horrors beyond comprehension and a crazy addictive storyline that leaves you thinking into an existential crises and a possible end of it all.

This was so damn good, divine it's an understatement! I can't wait to add a physical copy to my collection, and may I say look at that cover, ugh so damn beautifully baby!

I would like to thank Drew Huff and NetGalley for the privilege to read and review this majestic e-book ARC, seriously, this was crack.

Triggers:
(DV, SA, Child abuse, extreme violence, bigotry, violence, gore and possibly leaving out some)

I probably say this a lot but it's literally only because you humans are just so gosh darn brilliant! I loved this book from beginning to end. The Divine Flesh had the most amazing sense of humor. Part One you begin to love the Divine Flesh, Jennifer and Daryl. I got to part two and was like WOAH (I don't want to give any spoilers so I am only giving reactions.) The entry of Susan was absolutely beautiful, the concept of the gods just absolutely kept me flipping through pages like no other. I cannot wait to read more of your stuff. This was an absolute masterpiece. It had the perfect amount of gore, the sexy scenes were right on point. Congrats and thank you. I loved it.

A very silly book that kind of reminded me of the John Dies at the End series. Tad bit of spooks with a bunch of humor that is not exactly hilarious but it's very very silly.

4.25/5 stars.

I'll be honest - this book felt like I was taking some drugs right along with Jennifer. But it was a good trip, all in all. I don't think the summary can truly capture just what this story is about, since it is the sort of body horror that makes your skin crawl (with a thousand mouths growing on your tongue?) and hair stand up on the back of your neck.

Jennifer has always been host to the Divine Flesh, an ancient god who has the ability to manipulate dead/dying flesh and create something new with it. Jennifer is a junkie who has never said no to a drug or drink that's crossed her path, living in what seems to be a blackout state, teetering on the edge of consciousness and sanity. Both vie for control of her body, constantly speaking through subconscious.

That is, until Jennifer takes the aforementioned drug in the summary and splits them in two.

What isn't mentioned in the summary are some of the side stories including <spoiler> beings from different universes, brought by their dying God; small town racists who want to cleanse their world from junkies and drug dealers like Jennifer; and the mystery of a 10-year-old lynching of a man. While reading, I wasn't sure how Drew Huff was going to tie all the ends together, but they do a pretty decent job at it.</spoiler>

The reason for the 4.25 stars is really two-fold. The first, I feel like the pacing was a little off. The beginning was slow, even beyond setting the scene, and then we are thrust into this chaotic dreamscape of the Divine Flesh's creation. The second, also to do with pacing, is that after the midpoint, it feels a little choppy with the timeline. The story flows, but the interspersed non-linear sections throw me out of my reading flow. But that works for what the story is and being in Jennifer's mind, so it's not exactly a minus!

If you like body horror, cosmic gods being Loving (in their own way), and a story that isn't about redemption as much as realization, this one is for you.

Extreme cosmic body horror alert 🚨 God is a woman…and she’s a freak! (Read the content warnings, it gets uncomfortable at times.)

Oof this book almost sent me into an existential crisis. It’s pretty fucked up and gets grosser/better as it goes on. Crazy, weird, and world-bendy with violence, gore, and a horrific love cult thing happening. Lots of drugs, lots of self loathing, and lots of abuse.

There are quite a few characters, but the structure of the story is one you have to jump right into. The world building and plot are twisted and shaped along the way. The characters are a hard sell, (quite unlikable) but they make the book worth reading.
Also, I’m in love the cover.

The most shocking part for me was the epilogue? Because what? A HEA after all of that? I never had a clue what was going to happen 😱

The cover and synopsis instantly pulled me in. I was so, so excited to get started and have it potentially be a new all time favorite. Unfortunately, that wasn't what ended up happening. I restarted this book a total of three times, hoping that I was just picking it up at the wrong time. After the final try, making it approximately 11%, I have decided to DNF. While I'm very interested in The Divine Flesh as a character, I couldn't get in to this writing style. It was so long winded, but also confusing. I would rather read a spoiler review than actually read the book for myself. I am so heartbroken. I really wanted to love this.

Take Clive Barker’s lurid world building, mix in Chuck Palahniuk’s audacious nerve, and top it off with Rachel Harrison’s storytelling, and you have something approaching The Divine Flesh. With her sophomore novel, Drew Huff presents a book that roars, equal parts rage and redemption, terror and transformation. This is what modern horror should be doing.

The Divine Flesh (Dark Matter Ink, March 2025)

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7037352855

Are YOU a freak, pervert, or weirdo endlessly attracted to (and possibly aroused by) depictions of flesh transformed and desecrated? You should read The Divine Flesh. Even if the answer to that question is no, you should read The Divine Flesh.

In this story of tendrils, deities, and parasites, God is flesh. All is flesh, almost. The body is home for violence, for sex, for drugs, for worship, adoration, and for abomination. The novel, broadly, follows Jennifer, her husband Darryl, and their relationship in the face of a fight against addiction, parasites, Gods, fascism, and human vessels carrying larvae.

Drew Huff, a name that is appearing more and more frequently in short-story genre collections, pulls from a conceit of scorned lovers, addicts, and a cosmic love triangle an epic, exhaustive, and over-reaching treatise on female bodily autonomy, Queer rights, and the apathy of a God that allows babies to be born addicted to heroin, to name but a few. In fact, the gamut of moral, theological, and philosophical musings is so wide there’s the temptation to fault the novel for it’s inability to focus, but this would be futile in the face of what is essentially one long, too long possibly, gooey climax with all the sloppy chaos that that entails. What I’m saying is The Divine Flesh is baggy and scatty and full of narratives asides, but they feel encoded into the very DNA of the book. What else could a book about a transformative God in love with humanity and yet painfully unaware of the violence of Her kindness be if not too ambitious?

Obvious allusions to Clive Barker and David Cronenberg do little to minimise the text’s originality and offer a post-modern-ish edge to proceedings. However, it is Twin Peaks, specifically The Return, that feels the most thematically aligned with the part domestic and part inter-dimensional darkness lying at the centre of this novel. In both texts, ‘creator’ figures from a realm beyond ours construct and shape the tragedies of our lives, escaping through places and acts that hang on the very edge of reality: gas stations, drug deals, and sites of domestic abuse. This shared energy extends to Barker too, and present in all of these texts is the idea that the most infinite and unimaginable cruelty exists not in creatures beyond our understanding but in the homes of the nuclear families of America.

This darkness, this violence, this reprehensible ugliness thrives in the contemporary right-wing, both in this novel and in general, destabilised by their own anxieties and driven by capitalist enemies into spaces of pure hatred. Huff’s point is clear but not didactic: conservatism is American threat, and it is festering in plain sight.

A must read.

Thanks to Netgalley, Drew Huff, and Dark Matter Ink for the ARC.

A rambunctious, hedonistic, evasive, exhilarating, unbelievable, perfect book. Reading about starved sincerity, suicidal gods, and the intrinsic weakness for healthy, horrifying love was a brilliant shock to my system. Never came across a book like this. The Divine Flesh has easily become - 10 days to the end of the year - one of my favorite books of 2024, and perhaps of all time.

a truly disturbing read. super funny. super twisty. it was so damn slow but omg i ate it up. I just got into horror books this year & i found a new fav author. I AM BUYING A PHYSICAL COPY OF THIS!

✨REVIEW: 5/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
🫀The Divine Flesh by @druhuf 💕

🎀synopsis: Jennifer Plummer and the Divine Flesh have exactly three things in common: 1) they’re trapped inside Jennifer’s body; 2) they despise each other; and 3) they’re in love with Daryl Plummer, Jennifer’s ex-husband.

🫀my opinion: I had two sleepless nights because I needed to finish this book 🫠, and I don’t regret losing a few hours of sleep...don’t judge me, pls. 🙂‍↕️💞

The story is about Jennifer, a girl with a drinking problem and.... Inside her is the ✨Divine Flesh✨, an entity, a kind of god that wants to be released... and it happens.

It’s a bit hard to explain for me everything I felt reading the book, it was definitely a very crazy trip 👀, it has body and cosmic horror. Plus really good sarcasm and lots and lots of twists and turns where I didn’t know what else to expect anymore… 😂

And that’s what I loved about this book; you really can’t know what’s going to happen next with Jennifer or Daryl or ANYONE.

🎀Highly recommended if you:

✨Like Jennifer's Body.
✨Like bizarre concepts.
✨Like the idea of possession (or possessions) of the same body.

The Divine Flesh is a delightfully macabre body horror that keeps me glued to every single page. With every skinsuit bursting and fleshy bits enveloping yet another person, I keep asking "What the f*** did I just read???". But the payoff is just sooo goood.

Docking a star because I get a little confused about the constantly switching POVs and timelines. Sometimes I have to back up a few pages and reread just so I have a firmer grasp of what's going on.

I think I may be obsessed with this book? Has the Divine Flesh Herself gotten Her loving tendrils into me and assimilated me? Maybe?

This book is an absolutely unhinged, deranged wild ride, following a junkie and her ex-husband as they combat - but also love - a cosmic Eldritch murderess monster goddess called the Divine Flesh. Although truly horrific and disturbing, I often was laughing out loud and could not put this book down. I also had no idea what was happening or where it was heading - though it does eventually make sense in the end and wrap up nicely (?). There were several points I was thinking "my God, this is insane, this must be the finale" but then I'd realize I was only 38% or 56% through, and it only got more insane as I went.

The Divine Flesh, who is trapped inside Jennifer the Junkie's body and fighting for control, talks like a silly little kawaii princess who just wants to PLAY with FLESH please Jennifer let her OUT! TEEHEE! it was just so ridiculously silly and I dunno, I just love her. Flesh abominations and brutal murder sprees and all.

It is absolutely not for the squeamish or faint of heart - there is gore, body horror, sexual violence, violence against children, drug addicts, religious zealous, racists, homophobic hillbillies - truly check your trigger warnings before diving in. It reminded me a bit of Chuck Palahniuk's early writing (Guts, Invisible Monsters, Snuff). But also like, if Venom and Men in Black had a crazy meth horror baby. Take that how you will.

And the cover... *Chef's kiss*. Obsessed.

I was happy to receive a review copy / ARC from Netgalley, thank you NG, Drew Huff, and Dark Matter INK!

2.75. Thank you to NetGalley and Dark Matter for the digital arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Where do I begin. This book is weird which I tend to love. It had a lot of body horror which I also enjoy however I got tired of it since there was just so so much. I loved the divine flesh as a character and when we were with her I was having a great time. Where I felt this went wrong was just how many things it tried to do. Addiction, serial killer/rapist, mirror people body snatchers, getting siblings out of foster care system, religion and everything going on with the Devine Flesh and Jennifer. I felt this made it unfocused and difficult to follow and stick with. It took me awhile to finish because I just got fatigue from all the body horror and well flesh of it all. I feel like if the book had when pared down and focused and or in shorter form I would have enjoyed it much more.

'The Divine Flesh' in a word is unhinged. An unapologetically weird cosmic horror about a dysfunctional drug mule and the Eldritch Goddess trapped inside of her. The writing is grotesquely vivid, the descriptions of the body horror were gruesome and not for the easily squeamish.

The overall story felt like reading a fever dream and keeps you on your toes throughout with my only issue being that it dragged towards the middle before picking back up again for the ending. There are quite a few heavy topics including but not limited to drug addiction, alcoholism, emotional abuse, self harm and SA. The characters were interesting to read about with all of them being flawed in some way or another, you never know who to root for from one moment to the next.

Thank you, Net Galley and Dark Matter INK, for the ARC!

i wanted to like this book so badly, but it just wasn’t for me. the writing felt choppy and all over the place. so much was happening at once which made it hard to follow along with the plot. loved The Divine Flesh though! She truly carried the chapters that i made it through. i wish the book was more about Her than Jennifer.

Book Review: The Divine Flesh by Drew Huff
Drew Huff’s The Divine Flesh is a visceral and unflinching exploration of humanity, addiction, and identity, wrapped in a darkly imaginative tale of cosmic horror. This novel is not for the faint of heart, as it plunges readers into a nightmarish world where body horror meets interdimensional power struggles and the limits of morality are tested. With its bold narrative, complex characters, and unapologetically grotesque imagery, The Divine Flesh carves out a space in the intersection of horror and speculative fiction.

A Twisted Duality
At the heart of the novel is Jennifer, a deeply flawed protagonist who serves as a vessel for the titular Divine Flesh, a being both horrifying and oddly endearing in its psychotic cheerfulness. This duality is central to the story, as Jennifer’s struggles with addiction and self-destruction mirror her constant battle with the entity that inhabits her body. The tension between Jennifer and the Divine Flesh is brilliantly depicted, showcasing their bizarrely co-dependent relationship.

The Divine Flesh’s perspective adds a chilling yet strangely comedic edge to the narrative. Her godlike ambitions and obsession with assimilation stand in stark contrast to Jennifer’s gritty, grounded struggles, creating a fascinating interplay of the cosmic and the human.

Themes of Transformation and Identity
The novel delves deeply into themes of transformation, both literal and metaphorical. Jennifer’s journey is as much about battling an external threat as it is about reclaiming her sense of self. The Divine Flesh’s constant attempts to reshape Jennifer—and, later, the world—serve as a grotesque metaphor for the invasive pressures of addiction, societal expectations, and the struggle to define one’s identity against overwhelming forces.

The story also examines power dynamics, especially through Jennifer’s relationships with the people around her and the Divine Flesh’s godlike control. These dynamics are further complicated by Jennifer’s history with her ex-husband, Daryl, whose own arc intertwines with the central conflict in unexpected and poignant ways.

A Bloody, Gut-Wrenching Plot
The plot is relentless, filled with moments of shocking violence and graphic imagery that will leave readers both horrified and captivated. The murder of Daryl and his friends sets off a chain of events that escalates into a full-blown cosmic horror showdown. Jennifer and Daryl’s quest for vengeance against the small-town bigots who killed him serves as a framework for unraveling the deeper, more disturbing conspiracies lurking in Rosetown, Idaho.

The small-town setting is used effectively to create an atmosphere of claustrophobia and decay, with the festering corruption of the town mirroring the grotesque transformations wrought by the Divine Flesh. Huff spares no detail in depicting the body horror, making the Divine Flesh’s powers both awe-inspiring and utterly repellent.

Content Warnings and Impact
It’s impossible to discuss The Divine Flesh without acknowledging its extensive content warnings. Huff tackles difficult topics with unflinching honesty, which may be a strength or a drawback depending on the reader’s tolerance for graphic content. The depictions of body horror, addiction, abuse, and discrimination are intense, but they serve the story’s purpose of confronting the darkest aspects of humanity and existence.

Readers should approach the book with caution, but those who can stomach the graphic content will find a narrative that is deeply rewarding in its exploration of resilience, morality, and the cost of redemption.

Strengths
Complex Protagonist: Jennifer’s flaws and struggles make her a deeply relatable and compelling character, even as she grapples with a godlike entity inside her.
Imaginative World-Building: The concept of the Divine Flesh and the cosmic stakes at play are unique and horrifyingly creative.
Unapologetic Themes: The novel’s exploration of addiction, identity, and small-town corruption is bold and thought-provoking.
Atmospheric Writing: Huff’s prose is vivid and visceral, pulling readers into the grotesque world of the Divine Flesh.
Potential Drawbacks
Graphic Content: The extreme violence and body horror may alienate some readers, even those accustomed to dark fiction.
Pacing: The relentless intensity of the plot can feel overwhelming, with few moments of respite to balance the chaos.
Complexity of Themes: The novel’s ambition sometimes makes it difficult to juggle all its thematic threads, leaving certain ideas underexplored.
Final Thoughts
The Divine Flesh is a bold, grotesque, and ultimately unforgettable work of speculative horror that challenges readers to confront their own discomfort. Huff’s ability to blend cosmic horror with raw, human emotion sets this novel apart, making it a must-read for fans of body horror and psychological thrillers. However, its intensity and graphic nature demand a careful approach, ensuring it’s a story best suited for those who can appreciate its unflinching examination of humanity’s darkest corners.

Rating: 4/5
Perfect for fans of Junji Ito’s body horror, Caitlin Starling’s The Death of Jane Lawrence, and the existential dread of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation. The Divine Flesh is as grotesque as it is profound—a twisted masterpiece of modern horror fiction.