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.

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. With darkly funny dialogue and a premise that shouldn’t feel this plausible, Pierce lures you in with laughter, then leaves you staring into the abyss of your own algorithmic despair.

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.


★ “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

★ “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