The Correspondent
Virginia Evans
Shares the Fiction genre and themes
Envy of Angels
by Matt Wallace
A short, fast, darkly funny novella about two struggling line cooks who land jobs at a New York caterer whose clients are demons, goblins, and worse.
What It's About
Envy of Angels opens the Sin du Jour series. Two talented but broke New York cooks, longtime friends trying to survive a brutal restaurant industry, take work at an unusual catering company. They soon learn its real business is feeding the hidden supernatural world, and that its kitchen operates under rules, and stakes, that no culinary school prepares you for. Their first big job is a high-profile banquet for infernal guests, with a menu that tests how far they are willing to go for a paycheck.
Wallace writes in a quick, punchy, profane style closer to an action comedy than a brooding urban fantasy. The book is a novella, so it moves briskly: there is little slow worldbuilding, and much of the fun comes from the oddball staff, the gross-out kitchen invention, and the procurement crew who hunt down ingredients that don't exist in ordinary markets. Under the jokes there is a real feel for kitchen culture: the exhaustion, the camaraderie, the pride in craft, and the way the work can grind people down.
Reading it feels like a long episode of a cable series that knows it has more seasons ahead. It is satisfying on its own, but it clearly sets up a larger story. If the tone grabs you, six more short books follow.
Read this if you…
- love kitchen culture and shows or books like Kitchen Confidential or The Bear, and want them with demons
- enjoy irreverent, fast-moving urban fantasy with an ensemble cast
- want a short read you can finish in an evening that launches a complete series
Skip it if you…
- dislike crude humor, swearing, or gory, gross-out food imagery
- prefer slow, richly detailed worldbuilding and deep character interiority
Key Ideas
- 1
Restaurant work as its own kind of hell
The supernatural premise exaggerates something true about professional kitchens: punishing hours, unstable jobs, and bosses who demand everything. Lena and Darren's willingness to accept a very strange job reflects how little security working cooks have. The book uses the joke to say something sympathetic about the people behind the pass.
- 2
Moral lines drawn in the kitchen
The central dilemma asks what professionals will cook, and for whom, when the client is powerful and the money matters. The story treats this with humor but not flippancy, letting characters disagree about complicity, loyalty, and doing the job right versus doing the right thing.
- 3
An ensemble of competent weirdos
Much of the appeal lies in the Sin du Jour staff: a gruff, legendary head chef, an eccentric pastry specialist, and a paramilitary-style procurement team. Each gets just enough sketching to feel distinctive, and the found-family energy among them gives the series its warmth.
- 4
Friendship at the center
The bond between Lena and Darren anchors the chaos. Their history, mutual frustrations, and loyalty give the story an emotional spine beyond its gags. Darren is gay, and the book treats this matter-of-factly as part of who he is rather than as a plot device.
- 5
Gonzo invention over careful mythology
Wallace prefers bold, outrageous set pieces to a tightly systematized magic. Demons, angels, and stranger creatures appear with bureaucratic politics and culinary preferences, played for absurdity and occasional horror. Readers wanting rigorous rules may be frustrated; readers wanting surprise will be entertained.
Limitations
Because it is a novella, Envy of Angels can feel thin: several supporting characters are sketched rather than developed, and the world's rules are introduced in quick bursts rather than explored. Some readers find the jokey, adrenaline-fueled voice wearing, and the humor leans on shock and excess. The ending resolves the main job but deliberately leaves threads for later books, so readers wanting a fully self-contained story may feel shortchanged. The series grows richer as it goes, which means the first entry is arguably the lightest.
Questions Readers Ask
- Can I read Envy of Angels as a standalone?
- Yes. The main storyline, the banquet job, wraps up within the book, so you get a complete adventure. It does introduce characters and conflicts that continue across the seven-book Sin du Jour series, so if you enjoy it, reading the sequels in order (starting with Lustlocked) is the best way to follow the larger arc.
- How does it compare to The Shambling Guide to New York City?
- Both put an ordinary worker into a hidden supernatural New York and play it for comedy. Mur Lafferty's book is about writing a travel guide for monsters and is gentler in tone. Wallace's is rowdier, gorier, and more steeped in professional kitchen culture. If you liked one, the other is a natural next read.
- Is it more horror or comedy?
- Mostly comedy with horror flavoring. There are gruesome moments and dark ideas, especially around what gets cooked, but the tone stays energetic and funny rather than frightening. Think of it as a raucous urban fantasy caper rather than a book designed to scare you.
- Published
- 2015
- ISBN
- 9780765385284
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Category
- Fiction
Book details and cover from Google Books.
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