Review: For Human Use by Sarah G. Pierce (Spoiler Free!)

Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for the eARC!

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The book: For Human Use by Sarah G. Pierce

Before we even start, if you can’t suspend your belief that the world is just OK with dead bodies everywhere, I would highly advise against reading this.

Content warnings

• Grooming
• Set-incest?
• Corpses
• There are no direct descriptions of what is typically thought of in regards to necrophilia

The Synopsis (from memory)

Liv is the hot new dating app, except instead of traditional dating, you’re swiping for corpses. Pick one and it will be delivered right to your door for companionship. This is the rise and fall of Liv, the relationships surrounding the app, and a commentary on the loneliness epidemic the world is facing (I think).

Buy For Human Use here!

The Good

The writing: I really enjoyed the writing style of this. It felt fairly casual but not in a bad or lazy way? I’m not really sure the best way to put it, but it’s not stuffy writing.

We occasionally get thoughts in all caps, which I can see people disliking (it’s not often) but I write like that so I liked it.

The cover: I mean, look at it!

Pacing: I thought this book was the perfect length and the pacing was just right. It was fast paced and things kept moving the whole time. It kept my interest and the whole time I wanted to see what was going to happen next.

The whole concept: I mean, come on. People matching with corpses for companionship on an app? Them being shipped right to their door? Equal rights for The Dead? Corpses IN RESTAURANTS!?

This is such a weird concept for a book, and the second I heard it mentioned I immediately looked for it on NetGalley because I HAD to read it as soon as I possibly could. I loved it.

I think this is a good commentary on the loneliness epidemic happening now. People are so lonely and having such a difficult time making connections with The Living that The Dead are a much more appealing option now.

The lack of necrophilia as we know it: Apparently there are levels of necrophilia, and what we typically think of when we hear the word is not described at all in here, which I appreciate. I don’t want to read that.

It’s kind of implied that it COULD happen, because no one can control what is being done once the corpse is delivered, but it’s more said that they’re primarily used for companionship.

The lack of explanation?: At first I wished we got a little more explanation of where this came from and WHY everyone was just.. fine with it? But then I thought about it and decided I preferred it as-is.

I don’t need to know why it’s accepted. It just is. I was also a little curious about the logistics behind all of this for a while. How do they get the bodies? What do people do with them when they’re done? How many can you have at once? Things like that.

But In the end, I don’t need to know all of that. I think it could have bogged the story down a bit more, and getting that into detail would have been too much?

Like, I think just accepting that this is the way that it is and that it all runs smoothly is the best way to approach it. If you want all the details, you’ll probably be a little disappointed.

Buy For Human Use here!

The Grievances

The romance: It’s not that I didn’t want the romance to happen (I did), it was just SO frustrating at certain points. And I know that’s the whole point in romance stories but I don’t like when we get to the conflicts.

This opinion stands in regular romance books, too. I hate the conflicts. Aside from that, I did like the partnership and was rooting for it the whole time.

The corporate lingo: I’m not a business lady. I don’t know anything about the stocks. The corporate business stock market lingo was beyond me at some points (what on Earth are futures?) but not enough that I couldn’t still grasp what was going on.

Buy For Human Use here!

Should I read For Human Use by Sarah G. Pierce?

If you can’t suspend belief that this is widely accepted, absolutely not.

If you like weird books, yes, absolutely.

Have you read For Human Use? What did you think of it? Do you want to read it?