by Luke Dumas
First published 2026
Emmett Truesdale weighs over three hundred pounds and works retail in Southern California. He carries childhood trauma and feels stuck in every aspect of his life. After countless failed diets, he enrolls in a clinical trial for Obexity, a new weight loss treatment. The drug works with terrifying efficiency. Emmett sheds pounds at an impossible rate and his entire life transforms overnight. People treat him differently. Everything seems perfect until the side effects kick in. He loses chunks of time and develops strange cravings he cannot control. People who mistreated him start vanishing from his life. Police reports describe a cannibalistic killer stalking the area. Emmett suspects Obexity is changing him into something monstrous, but he cannot bear to return to his old body now that society finally accepts him as human.
Genres: fiction, horror, contemporary, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: body-horror, unreliable-narrator
Setting: California, Southern California
352 pages · Hardcover · Atria Books
Content warnings: body-horror, graphic-violence