Review:: Chew: Taster's Choice, by John Layman

Title: Chew: Taster's Choice

Author: John Layman

Illustrator: Rob Guillory

Series: Chew, #1

Format: Paperback

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

If cannibalism and eating decomposing dogs bother you, then Chew may not be right for you. If those things don't bother you... then I don't know. They certainly didn't bother me, and I felt like I should have enjoyed Chew, but I didn't like it that much.

The premise is two-fold: First, post avian flu, chicken is now banned. Second, the protagonist is a "cibopath" and so gets psychic readings off anything he puts in his mouth that is a food substance. Except beets. Bad things happen, protag's partner is badly injured. Then he has to go work for the F.D.A. (Food and Drug's Administration, in the US) which acts a lot more like an action movie than we normally think of.

But I don't know. It just didn't click with me. And I felt like it should have. Maybe it was the fact that I wasn't entirely enamored with the art. Maybe it was the fact that everything seems built on small jokes, rather than actual characterization. Or maybe it's just okay that I didn't like it that much.

My roommate did, though. So maybe you will.