VBT# Nourish - Laura Baggaley

VBT# Review- Nourish - Laura Baggaley - July 2026

Imagine a world where nobody eats. No Sunday roasts, no warm toast, no biscuit dunked in tea. Instead there are liquid injections and vitamin pills, and a generation of people who wouldn't know what taste is. That's the world of Laura Baggaley's Nourish, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since.

Our hero is Cal, who lives in a post-food society where people receive what's known as Nutritional Provision. It's tidy and efficient, and everyone accepts it as simply how things are. Then Cal's father dies, and he's sent to a fancy boarding school. It's there that he finds a rare edible substance, something that shouldn't exist, and it makes him question everything he's ever been told about nourishment.

What I loved most is how the book gets you thinking about the small, ordinary things we take for granted. The smell of something baking, the way a meal brings people to a table, the comfort of being fed by someone who loves you. Baggaley takes all of that away, and you feel the gap. It made me want to go and put the oven on.

Cal isn't left to work it out alone, which is one of the warmest parts of the story. He joins forces with classmate Andi, who happens to be heiress to the Nutritional Provision Corporation. That's a wonderfully tricky friendship, because she's tied to the very thing they're starting to doubt. Their investigations lead them into trouble, and when a friend's life is in danger, they have to decide whether to risk everything to expose the truth.

Underneath the thriller, Nourish is a book about friendship, grief and taking risks. Cal's loss sits quietly at the heart of the story, and I liked that the book lets it be part of his journey rather than something to rush past. The idea that food is bound up with love, memory and care felt very true to me.

It's a dystopian thriller aimed at teenagers and set in the near future, which makes it all the more unsettling. It doesn't feel like a far-off fantasy, but like a "what if" sitting just around the corner. I think it would spark wonderful conversations in a classroom, a book club, or around your own kitchen table.

Teens and  YA fans who like their dystopias thoughtful, and anyone who's ever felt that a good meal is about more than fuel. Read it with something delicious nearby. You'll thank me.

Amazon: https://link.amazon/B0h5YNnL2