Fascinating, accessible and darkly humorous look at cannibalism in different species of animals, as well as human societies at various places and times. As a zoologist, Schutt starts us off with facts about tadpoles, spiders, praying mantises and fish before looking at debates over cannibalism among the Neanderthals, cannibalism as a sometimes-overblown racist rumour during colonial times, medical and ritual cannibalism in various societies, Christianity and the idea of transubstantiation, placenta-eating and more. Schutt stays away from rehashing some of the most notorious human cannibal serial killers that many of us are already familiar with. He's more interested in patterns and perceptions in our world than individual horrific examples.

The end section on kuru and prion disease felt a bit bogged down to me and there are a couple moments where he falls into western/colonial descriptions of Indigenous societies as "primitive" or "stone age." I also would've liked to see a bit more discussion on cannibalism in modern popular culture, but overall it was a really interesting read and left me with a lot of fun facts and ideas to bring up among my less-squeamish friends.