Do you like gore and monsters? Then this manga might be right up your alley.

*A spoiler free review*

Shokuryou Jinrui can only be described as "repulsive made beautiful". The first thing to draw your attention is the top-notch art with great character designs. The touch is realistic and the gross stuff comes off as sickening as it can get - just like it should.

The story is pretty standard survival horror which brings close the ugliness of human nature but there are also some more imaginative twists. If you have read the authors' previous work Apocalypse no Toride the pattern seems familiar: an isolated place, a naive main character who gets thrown into a mysterious situation, a diverse cast of more or less messed up characters, a narrative leaning heavily on flashbacks and of course, the awesome monsters.

The characters are nothing special but some of them have interesting motives and backstories which made me feel for them. When I say there are a lot of flashbacks - I mean a lot. It almost feels like the story progressed more through the flashbacks than with the present story line and all the possible character development happened in the past. Fortunately the pacing is pretty good and every chapter has some twist that makes you want to know what happens next - or what has happened before. While the story ended up being shorter than I expected, I still like the way it was concluded.

Overall this is a solid horror story which had potential to grow even better. The scenario portrayed is interesting and on top of the gory stuff the story presents us matters which can make one question the line between a human being and a monster, both figuratively and literally.

Recommended for fans of monster and body horror and readers of sci-fi, survival and psychological stories who have stomach for visually and mentally disturbing content.