Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

130 reviews

remaininlullaby's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

i got into this expecting to read a story about a mother who moved mountains for her child. i kinda got that, but i also got way too many pages of men trying to oppress women/mothers by using their children against them & ugh. i wish i'd read some cws first bc while it wasn't actually triggering for me i found all these sect-/cult-like tendencies to be vERY uncomfortable and unsettling.
the whole "love doesn't have rules or a cost & also isn't necessarily good all the time" was a cool touch tho.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Pregnancy, and Misogyny

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Murder, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Trafficking, Child abuse, and Alcoholism

Minor: Infertility, Rape, Homophobia, and Medical trauma

cassie7e's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I think I've found a new author to bingeread!
I read this book with very little knowledge of what I was getting into beyond "people who eat books" and that made every layer of context a wonderful discovery! I loved the ominous oppressive atmosphere, the literary references, the nonlinear timeline, the nuanced internal conflicts given the external circumstances.  This book is fantastic for the story itself, and on top of that provided some much needed representation.

I think what keeps this from being a 5-star for me is that it is not invested in a lot of world-building. I don't think that hurts this story necessarily but I generally prefer books with more intrigue and complex details. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, and Body horror

Moderate: Blood, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Death, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault

pettigrew143's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Cannibalism, Death, Violence, Murder, Blood, and Sexual assault

brandilovesbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Hester is a Book Eater- a human-like species that eats books to gain knowledge.  She is raised as a princess, given fairy-tales to eat.  Her job is to marry and have a baby.  Then she'll marry another and have another baby.  

The Book Eaters is a story of how far someone will go for the people she loves the most.   It is a story of family, both blood and found.   

I will definitely be reading the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Alcohol, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Cannibalism, and Sexism

macaronoui's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Misogyny, and Emotional abuse

anastasiamakes's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A story of motherly love, and the lengths one will go to to protect her child in a world pitted against them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Death, Blood, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, and Rape

Minor: Alcohol, Confinement, Cursing, Gun violence, Slavery, and Vomit

bubbly_lara's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

What a brilliant book! 
The setting, atmosphere and mood were very dark and gloomy, but in a good way (reminded me a bit of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's "Mexican Gothic"). 

I really liked the story, the characters and the writing style. Highlighted quite a lot of quotes, I'll put three further down below.

The themes of chosen/found family and trying to find who you are as a person outside of the people you grew up with, what is expected of you vs the pursuit of what makes you happy deeply resonated with me. 

Highly recommend if you're looking for a slightly spooky, rather dark and grim story of a young mother trying to break her son and herself free from familial chains and expectations, hoping to one day have a better life for themselves.

"Memory was an anchor. It could ground you in a storm, keep you from drifting.
But anchors could also weigh you down and keep you from sailing free."

"For here was the thing that no fairy tale would ever admit, but that she understood in that moment: love was not inherently good."

"- What price do you put on love? 
- No price. There isn't one. Love doesn't have a cost. It's just a choice you make."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Blood, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Grief, Gun violence, Violence, and Abandonment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Violence, Gore, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Alcohol, Grief, Infertility, Blood, Classism, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, and Body horror

Minor: Incest, Outing, Rape, Torture, Trafficking, and Adult/minor relationship

caitmacd's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Murder, Gun violence, Misogyny, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Emotional abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Sexism, Pregnancy, Infertility, Body horror, Physical abuse, Addiction, and Cannibalism

kimmag92's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Book Eaters was much better than the internet led me to believe. The quickest way I can think of to describe this book is The Handmaids Tale but with aliens. Book eaters were created by an alien being they call The Collector and live in an insular closed off society where women only consume fairy tales, are taught nothing of the real world, and who’s only value is to have children. It’s a duel timeline story where we follow a book eater named Devon who is trying to find the Ravenscar book eater family who have something that can save her son Cai who is a mind eater.  

I do agree with others that issues Devon faces resolve somewhat easily but I think that is purposefully. Devon will never have a fairy tale ending so the only aspect of those stories she can have is things work out for her though what happens to her is far from happy. 

I think the negative feelings towards this book are a product of a few prominent “book-fluencers” saying they didn’t like it and then everyone enmass deciding not to read it. If you like Handmaids Tale type stories then you’ll like this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Abandonment, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Vomit, Medical trauma, and Violence

daffodilcherry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A book about monsterous love and burning down the whole damn system. It took me until about a quarter of the way through the book to really get hooked, and then I devoured the rest of the book. I loved the development of Devon & Cai's relationship, their gradual understanding. I especially loved the worldbuilding of the 'eaters, and the different relationships between the cast.
Wheelhouse items: monsterous love, mother-child relationship, secret society, immersive worldbuilding, butch lesbians, chaos lesbians, burning the whole system down, fairytale subversion. 
Content warning explanations:

Devon is coerced into relationships with older men for conception of children, one of which is outwardly physically violent towards her.
 Theme of forceful separation between mother & child is very prevalent.
The eaters either eat books or people's minds, many scenes showing mind eating done by the child character, including that of a baby. 
One of the 'eater families trafficks humans to work for them.
One of the villanous characters has religious delusions about mind eating.</Spoiler>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Violence, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Body horror, Death, Child death, Misogyny, Sexism, Murder, Gun violence, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Trafficking

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia