Season to Taste or How to Eat Your Husband - Natalie Young

Season to Taste or How to Eat Your Husband by Natalie Young
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

'Always let the meat rest under foil for at least ten minutes before carving...

Meet Lizzie Prain. Ordinary housewife. Fifty-something. Lives in a cottage in the woods, with her dog Rita. Likes cooking, avoids the neighbours. Runs a little business making cakes.

No one has seen Lizzie's husband, Jacob, for a few days. That's because last Monday, on impulse, Lizzie caved in the back of his head with a spade. And if she's going to embark on the new life she feels she deserves after thirty years in Jacob's shadow, she needs to dispose of his body. Her method appeals to all her practical instincts, though it's not for the faint-hearted. Will Lizzie have the strength to follow it through?

Dark, funny and achingly human, Season to Taste is a deliciously subversive treat. In the shape of Lizzie Prain, Natalie Young has created one of the most remarkable heroines in recent fiction.'

I was sent this book in exchange for a honest review.

Once I had read the blurb I thought the book sounded really different and intriguing, I was a little apprehensive of starting it as I had heard it was gruesome, something that I don't really like in books. However I had also heard a lot of people talking about this book so thought I would give it a go.

This is about Lizzie, the opening few pages we realise that she had murdered her husband, Jacob. She hit him over the head with a garden spade and now she needs to dispose of the evidence. She did not have a happy marriage to Jacob and now that he has gone she does not intend on paying for his departure. She intends to get the deed over with and begin a new life in Scotland.

I found the book way too gruesome for me, I did not enjoy reading about Lizzie chopping him up, freezing him and then finding ways to cook him. I understand that the book is meant to have dark humour, it was dark - humorous? Not for me.

The story is told with very little emotion and I feel that I could never really get to know any of the characters. I found it written quite bluntly, there is no remorse from Lizzie she is truly focused on how she is going to get to Scotland and when. I also didn't find it a particularly quick read. The recipes do break the text up, however I didn't enjoy reading the recipes, these were also written in scrawly hand writing which at times became difficult to read.

Overall I did not enjoy this book at all, which is unfortunate as there was quite a lot of hype about it, it just wasn't for me. If you enjoy dark humour books and are not squeamish then you will probably enjoy this read. It just wasn't for me.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending me this in exchange for a honest review.