Name: Chew: Family recipes
ISBN: 9781607066217

John Layman

Tony Chu is a detective with a secret. A weird secret. Tony Chu is Cibopathic, which means he gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats. It also means he's a hell of a detective, as long as he doesn't mind nibbling on the corpse of a murder victim to figure out whodunit, and why. He's been brought on by the Special Crimes Division of the FDA, the most powerful law enforcement agency on the planet, to investigate their strangest, sickest, and most bizarre cases.

Chew: Family recipes

Maggie Gordon

I know this is a popular volume of Chew, but it disappointed me. Toni is fridged. For those not familiar with the term, it's when a female character is killed primarily to motivate a male character. Toni is pretty badass herself. She's a NASA agent, super smart, amazingly capable, and has her own unique food power. She's kidnapped by the Vampire and he murders her when he can't steal her power. In a really gruesome scene. Seriously gruesome. Dismemberment gruesome. 

Some might suggest that Toni had a lot of agency. She knew about her death because of her future-seeing abilities, and she tried to go a lot of good with that forewarning. But she still died and largely to prompt Tony to get more serious about taking down the Vampire. Good story telling often requires consequences and tension, but writers often use the bodies of women to get this across. Even when written well, this type of plot twist is frustrating. 

Space Cakes is an exciting, plot-heavy novel, but losing Toni was a serious blow, particularly for a series so light on good female characters already.

Omar AlHashmi

Damn... its tough when something sad happens in Chew, since all the characters are so lovable and jovial. However something shocking did happen, and it happened in a very "Chew" style which I love, so I can't wait to finish this series, it's starting to become one of my favorites