Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle Review

What if you could have one last meal with someone you’ve loved, someone you’ve lost? Combining the magic of Under the Whispering Door with the high-stakes culinary world of Sweetbitter, Aftertaste is an epic love story, a dark comedy, and a synesthetic adventure through food and grief.
 

Konstantin “Kostya” Duhhovny is a haunted man. When he was a child, his beloved father died shortly after their family immigrated to Brooklyn from Ukraine, and ghosts have been hovering around Kostya ever since. Kostya can’t exactly see the ghosts, but he can taste their favorite foods. Flavors of meals he’s never eaten will flood his mouth, a sign that a spirit is present. Kostya has kept these aftertastes a secret for most of his life, but one night, he decides to act on what he’s tasting. And everything changes.
 

Kostya discovers that he can reunite people with their deceased loved ones—at least for the length of time it takes for them to eat a meal he prepares for them. He realizes that perhaps his life’s purpose is offering closure to grieving strangers—and that he might finally be able to find closure himself.
 

Kostya sets out to learn everything he can by entering a particularly fiery ring of Hell: the New York culinary scene. As his kitchen skills begin to catch up with his ambitions, Kostya is too blind to see the catastrophe that looms. And the one person who knows Kostya must be stopped happens to be falling in love with him.
 

Set in the bustling world of New York restaurants and teeming with mouthwatering food writing, Aftertaste is a whirlwind romance, a heart-wrenching look at love and loss, and a ghost story about all the ways we hunger—and how far we’d go to find satisfaction. Lavelle’s debut is a multi-course tasting menu of a book that will sate, delight, excite, comfort, and inspire even the pickiest of readers.

Sometimes sweet, sometimes sour, but most often bitter-sweet and remorseful, Daria Lavelle’s debut novel Aftertaste is a heartfelt and unique speculative fiction novel featuring an amazing premise. Haunted by the aftertaste flavors of strangers’ loved ones and their associated memories, Kostya’s lasting grief and its close association with food is a concept that’s not only relatable but also a genius with endless potential. While primarily a speculative fiction and magical realism fantasy novel on paper, Aftertaste’s ambitious story crossovers into a variety of other genres such as a romance story, literary fiction with the Soviet immigration experience, and surprisingly a supernatural thriller; there’s something for everyone. But as expected for a novel focusing on the dearly departed and their loved one’s memories, Aftertaste is at its best during the quiet, poignant moments heightened by wonderful and touching introspective reflections.

“Food could do that. It could tell stories. Not just cuisines or component parts, but histories-of the people who’d prepared the dishes, the way they evolved them over time, the way they made them theirs. Leaving behind a recipe was a way to be remembered and savored and loved even after you were gone. A way to live forever.”

Emotions and food go hand in hand and Aftertaste runs with that as far as possible. Largely centered around the culinary world and restaurant industry, the novel tells the story of Kostya’s difficult childhood centered around the loss of his food-loving father. The anchor of a Soviet immigrant family suggested to now be Ukrainian based on references to Kyiv, the absence and grief of his father is a recurring theme that runs throughout the novel. While varied in tone and content identified by distinctive “parts”, there’s an underlying feeling of melancholy that adds an added layer of depth behind every one of Kostya’s actions as well as the people around him. The pain and void left by his father fresh on his mind, Kostya’s unusual ability to taste the ingredients and foods of others around manifest itself as a constant reminder of those lost but never forgotten, the ones that are hardest to let go.

Easily the most notable highlight of Aftertaste is its heartfelt and tender moments. While most of them consist of the living being reunited with their loved ones via Kostya’s food, some are shared entirely by the living. While the actual content varies substantially, anywhere from a spouse lost too soon, a forbidden love that could never be, even a reunion of friends, the emotional connections are moving. While solid plotting sets up the novel for success, it’s Lavelle’s relatable and carefully pitched writing style that makes Aftertaste to be as distinctive as it is. Not content merely settling for a sappy sob story, the deep musings on grief, regrets, and the what ifs are handled carefully and quite intelligently, giving the read a sophisticated and polished feel (noteworthy for a debut published novel). Food and beverage metaphors are to be expected per the premise, but Lavelle’s writing avoids coming off as try-hard or silly and instead is impressively creative and insightful. A perfect example of Lavelle’s effective work connecting food with emotive character work is best represented by the variety of dishes, memories, and people, some of which aren’t always warm or nostalgic.

“Seven Heinz packets dissolved in boiled New York tap. Mix with a plastic spoon in a Styrofoam cup. Serve with broken saltines, if available. Ketchup soup. He sucked back tears as he stirred. *redacted for spoilers* That dish was proof-the aftertastes didn’t have to be sophisticated. They didn’t even have to taste good… But that was the thing about food you ate when you had nothing: the smallest things-warmth, crunch, calories, someone making it for you, taking care of you even if only in some small way, or making it for yourself, proving that you could survive even when the world didn’t want you to-could make it the best thing you ever ate.”

Besides the focal ghost and memories of food premise, Aftertaste also has other storylines that are connected to Kostya’s ability and connection to the afterlife. From a bar dishwasher accidentally finding culinary inspiration to an aspiring chef, the story also chronicles Kostya’s growth and journey through New York’s culinary scene and restaurant start-up industry. While not necessarily the main appeal for the book, Lavelle’s lavish visual descriptions of foods and their preparation are a treat for food porn fans and as well as the heat and pressure of restaurant kitchens. As a health inspector by day, I found my literary counterparts incredibly amusing when they cited Kostya for violations while also finding the atmosphere and kitchen dynamics to be well portrayed. As varied as the people he encounters, the food and dishes Kostya prepares are varied and I frequently found myself googling different foods due to how diverse Lavelle is with the dishes featured. What starts as simple meals for one becomes a professional career that directly leads into the novel’s other intense storylines featured in the back-half of the book.

While the character work, depictions of grief, and explorations of death is outstanding, at times the novel feels like it stretches itself a bit thin and the scope of the story growing more than manageable. Kostya’s cooking endeavors lead into back alley deals and seedy arrangements with a growing sense of danger and mob activity (the weakest element of the book). The second half of the book also transitions the story into something of a paranormal thriller as the ghosts tasting Kostya’s prepared aftertastes and the afterlife start to go awry. While the ideas and concepts are very creative and ambitious, most notably a recurring theme of hunger and emptiness, I found myself less interested in the more dramatic thriller sections that felt less memorable and impressive compared to the earlier somber and heartfelt moments. While far from being poor, I found they paled in comparison to how lyrical and personal the earlier quieter tone of the story was. If I were to analyze the novel deeply, I think these plot elements felt rushed in execution and perhaps a bit of misplaced expectations on where the story was going on my part didn’t help. The book’s blurb and summary touches on this darker afterlife-centered storyline, but the execution of the great ideas was a bit of a letdown. I found Aftertaste to be a remarkable magical realism contemporary drama but a somewhat run of the mill, above-average paranormal thriller/horror (very light horror mind you, squeamish or hesitant readers do not be afraid of the horror genre listed).

The other element that was generally good but could’ve been more effective was Kostya’s relationship with Maura. While Maura’s character is great and her backstory compelling, something about the romance felt a bit lacking to me. Their comical yet serious first meeting followed by their growing relationship was great but something about their connection and the jump to love got a bit lost in the story. Their unorthodox arrangement and the unexpected plot twist involving Maura’s motives and the aftertastes were really good, but in the flurry of the afterlife ghosts, the tastings, Kostya’s restaurant, their romance somehow became one of the less interesting elements for me. Like the paranormal thriller elements, the pacing likely hindered their progression with so much going on and in general, both the romance and ghostly mystery elements felt quite rushed and crunched. The ideas were excellent, especially the very creative and solid final part leading up to the perfectly bitter-sweet on-brand ending coming full circle with its motif about salt, but the whole last third of the book could’ve been far more impactful and moving with at least another 50 pages or so. The final arc also resolves Kostya’s long-running grief and loss of his father and though the novel delivered serviceable closure, it lacked the level of detail, nuance, and time that made the early chapters so moving. That said, across the back half of the story, Kostya’s roommate Frankie is the best secret weapon of the book and the way Lavelle plotted and utilized him narratively, I have nothing but praise for his character, friendship with Kostya, and his place in the ending. Speaking of the ending, I give Lavelle major props for not undermining the mature story with a contrived HEA, and her beautifully written depictions of spiraling and dying are brilliant (but again, if only the ending arc had doubled its page count).

Inspired, moving, not to mention incredibly creative and ambitious, Aftertaste is a fascinating speculative fiction novel filled with a lot of heart. While not every element of its complex story felt fully utilized or given enough time and attention for maximum impact for me, Lavelle’s excellent and nuanced writing is enough on its own to warrant an easy recommendation. The various narrative elements and ideas also gives the novel great crossover appeal while still having a lot of substance, making it a particularly good book to pick for those new or hesitant to read more standard speculative fiction or paranormal thriller stories. I was disappointed that I barely missed out on getting the ARC for this novel when it was promo-ed earlier this year, but I’m happy to have been able to read it at last and I’m really looking forward to whatever story Daria Lavelle cooks up writing next!