For Human Use - by Sarah G Pierce (Paperback)

About the Book

"LIV is the #1 dating app in the world. Life with a living partner can be tricky. But LIV offers a solution! Date a corpse. Romantic relationships mean having tough conversations and rough patches. An embalmed body, though? Well, they've got no opinions, desires, or complex emotional responses. What was once taboo is now a booming business. At the center of this revolution are three living, breathing humans who all feel quite differently about the new world they've built. Tom is the venture capitalist rockstar who's mortified he's funding the whole thing. Auden is LIV's visionary founder who's ready to see his app succeed no matter what. And Mara is caught in the middle. Auden loves her, and Tom is infatuated, but she's really only interested in finding out where her life could go next. Forging a business relationship based on a dating app for corpses is one thing. But navigating a messy love triangle will be almost impossible"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Sarah G. Pierce's debut, For Human Use, is a glossy, razor-cut spiral into algorithmic obsession and capitalist absurdity where the dread hits hardest because it reads like a headline you've already scrolled past.

★ "A wildly entertaining debut. Sarah G. Pierce cleverly skewers our modern era of disconnection and corporate overreach. But amid the horror and humor there is a deeply human love story at the heart of this book." ―E.K Sathue, author of Youthjuice

When Liv, a sleek new app that matches users with dead bodies, becomes a cultural obsession, the world doesn't recoil. It invests. It scales. And it starts asking how many more cadavers can be sourced before Q4.

Tom, a venture capitalist, knows this should be a hard no. But really, who can argue with a spreadsheet? The founder Auden is insufferable and Mara, who knows too much, is just trying to survive this Brave New World of bloodless tech-managed desire.

Twisted, smart, and disturbingly plausible, For Human Use is for the emotionally exhausted and professionally complicit--perfect for readers who didn't know they were craving a crossover of Severance and John Marrs' The One.

★ "An utterly ingenious horror-romcom, darkly zeitgeisty, and unnervingly plausible--funny as hell, too. You will not forget this book." ―Heather Aimee O'Neill, author of Read With Jenna book club pick The Irish Goodbye

★ "A razor-sharp satire of venture capitalism, online influence culture, and The Discourse, Pierce holds a mirror to an all-too familiar reality where the unthinkable becomes thinkable if there's profit to be made and prestige to be gained. A human romance in a world gasping for human connection, this one goes places!" ―Bitter Karella, author of Moonflow

Review Quotes

"[A] unique and hilarious horror rom-com that bends genre norms in every direction... Pierce manages to deliver genuine horror while also exploring questions about intimacy and relationships."--Booklist

"Audacious, darkly satirical, and absolutely gripping, For Human Use feels like the most entertaining social study of our current culture . . . . a shining beacon in daring, modern fiction."--Capes & Tights

"Sarah G. Pierce sharply and hilariously satirizes the dating industry in this horror romance of epic proportions."--CrimeReads

"It is a satire of how broken people are in terms of human connection... This is a book for a really, really impressively strange mind, and I mean that as the most complimentary possible thing I could say about it... I cannot stop reading it, and I cannot read too much of it at the same time."--Pop Culture Happy Hour

"An utterly ingenious horror-romcom, darkly zeitgeisty, and unnervingly plausible--funny as hell, too. You will not forget this book."
--Heather Aimee O'Neill, author of Read With Jenna book club pick The Irish Goodbye

"A wildly entertaining debut. Sarah G. Pierce cleverly skewers our modern era of disconnection and corporate overreach. But amid the horror and humor there is a deeply human love story at the heart of this book."--E.K Sathue, author of Youthjuice

"From the crackling dialogue to the cracking pace, For Human Use is a surprising and stunning literary debut--a smart horrormance packed with big ideas and brilliant satire on both today's dating scene and the world of investment capital."
--Craig DiLouie, author of My Ex, the Antichrist

"A razor-sharp satire of venture capitalism, online influence culture, and The Discourse, Pierce holds a mirror to an all-too familiar reality where the unthinkable becomes thinkable if there's profit to be made and prestige to be gained. A human romance in a world gasping for human connection, this one goes places!"
--Bitter Karella, author of Moonflow

About the Author

A writer and photographer with a Master's in Art History, Sarah currently lives in Manhattan with her poker-playing husband (whom she met on a dating app for living people), and their son.