For Human Use

• Author: Sarah G. Pierce
• Genre: Horror
• Publication Date: February 10, 2026
• Publisher: Run For It

Thank you to Orbit and Run For It for sending me an ARC of this book and the audiobook version in exchange for an honest review.

An unforgettable debut, For Human Use is a twisted tale of modern love that bends every genre, sears itself into your brain, and presents a horrific romantic comedy unlike anything you’ve ever read before.

★ “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

Modern dating is dead.

Finding a human connection online has become impossible. Enter Liv: a dating app that matches people with dead bodies. Somehow, it has taken the world by storm. Millions of users are convinced that life with a corpse presents a better alternative to conventional relationships.

Flailing against Liv’s popularity, venture capital superstar Tom Williamson—whose company is funding Liv—isn’t buying it. Mostly because dating an embalmed cadaver, let alone monetizing it, is obscene.

Believing that Liv is the future, Auden White, the insufferable “visionary” behind the app begins demanding more and more funding, quickly making enemies with Tom.

It’s no secret that Tom struggles with people, dead or alive, but when he has a chance meeting with the woman who knows Auden (and his secrets) best, Mara Reed, he realizes everything is about to change for all three of them.

With Liv’s userbase growing by the day, the need for cadavers rapidly increases. Humanity might not want to connect with other living, breathing people anymore, but they do want to connect with something. What could go wrong?

The idea of this book was so interesting and unique that I couldn’t pass up a chance to read it. It is one of those books that cross genres, including elements of horror, science fiction, and romantic comedy to make a completely different type of story that I wasn’t expecting at all. It was so creative that it was hard to fit into any type of box, and it’s basically impossible to compare this to any other book that I’ve read. Reviewing this one is going to be … tough.

I frequently struggle with books that involve an excess of suspension of disbelief. I’ve written a few reviews where this becomes an issue for me and leads the story to feel too unbelievable. In this book, it’s clear that a huge amount of suspension of disbelief is required in order to enjoy it. At least it is made clear from the summary alone—focusing on a dating app involving live humans matching with corpses.

There are a few main characters with POV chapters—Tom and Mara are the main characters, although there are some chapters from Auden’s perspective. The audiobook is narrated by Marie Hawkins and Eric Burgher, and I have to admit that I do enjoy audiobooks with more than one narrator. I would have liked to see another narrator for Auden’s chapters to further differentiate them from Tom’s since there was a lot of overlap between their thoughts and discussions along with some experiences. At times I would get a little mixed up between Tom and Auden.

It took me a while to really get into the book, for a few different reasons. To start with, none of the characters are actually likable. They’re all ranging along the morally gray axis, with some teetering closer to villain than just morally gray. It wasn’t until I really got to know the characters a bit better that I was able to set aside my dislike for them and just be open to the story. It makes it tough to get into a story where you don’t have any characters that you do like. Another thing I had a hard time with was the ick factor of the idea of a Tinder app to match people with a corpse. While I was able to suspend my sense of disbelief for this horror/sci-fi concept—our world keeps getting weirder and more unpredictably upside down anything could happen—my struggle was in how I viewed the idea of having a corpse around as a partner. Tom shares my viewpoint and often speaks out against the concept of Liv in his job role as financial consultant or venture capitalist something or other. 

While I felt more comfortable with Tom once I realized he saw the concept of Liv similarly to me, a lot of the story got lost for me because of the business jargon. I’ve heard of the term venture capitalist, and all I really know is that it involves throwing around large sums of money to fund promising businesses, so all the discussion about finances was way over my head. This made the pace feel uneven—faster when the discussions involved people, and slower when business lingo made an appearance. 

The other thing that was a tough point for me to get past was the fetishization of dead bodies. While the idea of necrophilia being mentioned frequently and at least one mention of cannibalism occurred in the book, the author didn’t really explore either topic in depth. There were also some other concerning topics that came up but weren’t really addressed, including grooming and statutory rape, yet to me they didn’t feel as sensitively done as they could have or should have been done. 

Of course the corpse dating app isn’t all there is to the story—there’s also a weird romantic triangle between Tom, Mara, and Auden, with Mara having been previously involved with Auden. This is exactly why they don’t suggest dating at work: It makes for some sticky situations. The way the connection develops between Tom and Mara, and all of their interactions as they get to know each other was one of my favorite parts of the story, although it was fraught with secrets and miscommunication. The romance hinged on two of my least favorite tropes—love triangles and miscommunication. 

Overall, this was an interesting read although parts of it were confusing to me. The characters grew on me the longer I read, although the book was broken up into several parts that felt like there was a jarring change between each part, rather than having the storyline and character arcs smoothly transition. It’s the kind of book you won’t be able to enjoy if you are unable to suspend your disbelief enough to imagine our world where a relationship with a corpse is not only acceptable, but something advertised by influencers. The story delves into how heavily our society focuses on appearance and social media presence: influencers cash in on their corpses using social media, and people are impacted by the algorithm pushed by the influencers and find themselves copying them and posting pictures or videos that push the boundaries even more. If you have a hard time visualizing this, just remember why Tide Pods are specifically labeled: DO NOT EAT. I found the discourse on social media and how it influences so many aspects of society, including what is acceptable and what isn’t, to be the most fascinating side plot line of the story, even if I really struggled to root for two people to succeed in love when I didn’t really like them too much. 

Bottom line: A really interesting take on apps and the direction our society could be heading in, with elements of horror, rom-com, and sci-fi as well as sharp satire. 

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, and I may earn a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase through my links.