For Human Use by Sarah G. Pierce Review

In a speculative American future, an app LIV makes it possible to own a human corpse as a companion. While “living with The Dead” becomes a sensation across the country, founder Auden, Auden’s stepsister, Mara, and funder Tom, grapple with their lives and decisions as the reality of the country becomes increasingly morbid and bleak. 

Through third-person narration, we see LIVs trials unfold— Auden is a strange man with gruesome interests in embalming who is set in changing the world by letting people live in the presence of dead bodies. Tom is a reluctant millionaire who started funding LIV early on, but in increasingly upset by the actuality of how weird it is that people are living with corpses. Mara is finding a life for herself in the city while figuring out her relationship with both men. These alternating perspectives, along with a few others sprinkled in,  give us a panorama of a country rapidly changing as people start to view the dead and the living as equals. 

With this fascinating and undeniably dark premise, it’s interesting to watch the world building play out. Central plot points revolve around social media and teenagers using the LIV app. Society begins to demand access to bodies. Auden, Tom, and Mara all have secrets and flaws. 

While at times the pacing felt uneven, I did enjoy this book and found it to be very well-written. I would recommend it to those willing the embrace a morbid premise that is executed in a way that it will make you feel uncomfortable the whole time. I mean this as a compliment to the author, Sarah G. Pierce. 

I listened to the audiobook for this and it was a truly stellar production by Hachette audio and narrators Marie Hawkins and Eric Burgher. I thought Hawkins did a great job enrapturing the essence of Mara’s personality in her voice, and it seemed very fitting for the character. For most of the book I thought Burgher was two different people because the narration felt so specific to the character perspectives. 

Thanks you Hachette Audio, Run For It, Sarah G. Pierce, and Orbit books for the eARC and ALC.