Eat the Rich by Sarah Gailey

Illustrated by Pius Bak and Roman Titov
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Warning, this review contains spoilers, but then again, so does the title.

Joey and her boyfriend, Astor, go to Astor’s family home for the summer - Crestfall Bluffs. Astor is worried about coming back home as a recovering alcoholic, so while Joey is apprehensive about meeting his family, she pulls it together to help him keep it together. She also wants to make a good impression as she may land an internship at a prestigious law firm owned by one of the many affluent families of Crestfall Bluffs. But, when she sees Astor’s father murder a man and the rest of the rich eat him, she has to come to terms with what is expected of people in this world. She decides to do the unthinkable in order to be accepted, and it comes with an even bigger price - those who start eating human flesh can no longer be satisfied with other foods. Joey befriends and later falls in love with the nanny of Astor’s much-younger brother. The two work together to turn Crestfall Bluff on its head and instead of eating the poor, they eat the rich.

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In the author’s note at the end, Gailey indicates she wanted to leave a pretty big plot hole unfilled, and that is why would someone want to stay in this world that exacts such a tole on them. There's probably a much larger societal critique here as many things about Western society require folks to participate in systems that ultimately hurt them. But, to me, the bigger plot hole is what happens at the end when they run out of rich people at Crestfall Bluff? This leads into my overall dissatisfaction with the ending of the story, which was severely rushed and came to an untidy resolution in a small amount of pages and understandably left a lot of things unanswered due to lack of space. The story overall feels like an attempt to be critical that trips and falls at the end instead of being poignant.

There is a lot of violence, cussing, and the use of drugs and alcohol. This story might have appeal with adult audiences, but isn't one I'd recommend for high school shelves.

Sara's Rating: 5/10
Suitability Level: Adult

This review was made possible with a digital reader copy from the publisher.

Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Publication Date: May 24, 2022
ISBN: 9781684158324 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 5/10, Suitability: Adult, Comicbooks, Horror, Family, ​Survival