The Summer I Ate the Rich

By Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite

Book Overview

Just add garlic, lemon, and a dash of the one percent.

This smart, biting novel explores what happens when a Haitian American girl uses her previously hidden zombie abilities to exact revenge on the wealthy elites who've caused her family pain.

Brielle Petitfour loves to cook. But with a chronically sick mother and bills to pay, becoming a chef isn't exactly a realistic career path.

When Brielle's mom suddenly loses her job, Brielle steps in and uses her culinary skills to earn some extra money. The rich families who love her cooking praise her use of unique flavors and textures, which keep everyone guessing what's in Brielle's dishes. The secret ingredient? Human flesh.

Written by the storytelling duo Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite, The Summer I Ate the Rich is a modern-day fable inspired by Haitian zombie lore that scrutinizes the socioeconomic and racial inequity that is the foundation of our society. Just like Brielle's clients, it will have you asking: What's for dinner?

National Indie Bestseller
A Recommended Read by CBS Mornings Plus

"These young women are incredible authors." -CBS Mornings Plus

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374390533
• ISBN13: 9780374390532
• Release Date: April 2025
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.8" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 14 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grade 9 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Delicious!

Honestly, I saw the cover and the title and I was sold on wanting to read this! Brielle is quite the interesting character, being a zombie who can act mostly normal, enough that most people can't guess what she is. Though it turned out to be less Hannibal or Sweeney Todd with his meat pies and wholesale slaughter as Brielle only gives a light dusting of special ingredients (carefully stolen from a few bodies in a funeral home) on the food she serves to the rich. So, sadly she does not actually eat the rich, she feeds them and gets her revenge and a better life for her and her family that way. It definitely turned out differently than what I expected, a good message about wealth inequality and poverty and some interesting cultural facts about Haiti and their type of zonbi as opposed to the American version of a zombie. It does flow quickly and did keep me interested the whole time cause I had to know what Brielle was capable of. And I liked the twist at the end and how Brielle uses her powers to help her family in Haiti and then what happens back in Miami with her internship. So though I hoped there would be more brain eating and Brielle getting her revenge with a snack along the way, it was still a good read though not the horror story it seems to be toting in the blurb describing the book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book.