THE SUMMER I ATE THE RICH

A 17-year-old girl loves to cook—but she might just make you eat the rich, literally.

Brielle Petitfour dreams of becoming a renowned chef, serving up food from her Haitian culture to Miami’s upper crust via her elite supper club. But she’s also a zombie—or a zonbi, as they’re known in Creole. Brielle’s immigrant mother suffers chronic pain from an injury sustained while working for the white Banks family, the same people whose company makes the medicine she needs to keep her pain at bay. But now Mummy’s insurance is refusing to cover it. Then Brielle is offered a summer fellowship—with generous family health insurance benefits—by the outrageously wealthy and greedy Bankses, who make this proposal in order to smooth over a situation involving Brielle that’s a potential “PR nightmare.” Brielle accepts: She can help her mother and, with her zombie gifts, maybe even get revenge. Creole phrases and Haitian folklore are woven into the story, adding to the atmosphere. Brielle’s five sisters back in Haiti serve as a sort of Greek chorus, and their interspersed chapters fill in the rich backstory. The authors have a lot of important things to say about generational wealth, racism, capitalism, and class, but the rules of Brielle’s monstrous zombie powers remain unclear, and the many themes that are explored limit the deeper development of Brielle as a character.

A unique if unevenly executed take on the zombie genre.