Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

104 reviews

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

sassysophie's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

While the idea behind the story is really interesting and had a lot of potential, I felt like the pacing was of. And the writing made the book dry and hard to read. I had to push myself to finish it. I couldn't connect to the story and noticed that early on. The only remotely likeable character was Jerrow. However I think you're not supposed to like the characters. The best part was having an asexual character.
I can see thatn some people would really like this book and the writing style, though I am not one of them. Will not reread this at any point in time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Murder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Slavery, Pregnancy, and Trafficking

purplatypus's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Pregnancy, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Misogyny, and Murder

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Trafficking, Acephobia/Arophobia, Cursing, and Infertility

toopunkrockforshul's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Super interesting premise and setting, and some beautiful prose

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy

Minor: Sexism and Slavery

bsparx's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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

3.0

I loved the concept of The Book Eaters. I enjoy the twists on original ideas, legends, and myths, but I feel it’s rare to come across an adaption of an idea which is so original. So interesting. The Eaters are akin to vampires, but not. They subsist on books. Books! What a marvellous idea to consume books and therefore consume all the knowledge within. I love that concept. Of course they have their supernatural gains and their limitations.

The Book Eaters have strength, night vision, move with stealth, and amass a great deal of knowledge, but they can’t write and they aren’t creative thinkers. Throughout I kept thinking, “but why not utilise accessible technology?” They’d just have to eat up on it. As I read on though I realised the eaters really do not think outside the box. They’re very controlled and regimented with their existence. What they’re fed with books dictates their worlds and they don’t get a chance to develop critical thinking. Their environments are quite abusive and toxic.

A Note: I didn't find the story too triggering though, regarding the toxicity and abuse, except for in some instances 
so please be aware of triggers if you decide to read The Book Eaters. It's a very controlled and misogynistic environment

Apart from the trigger warnings and toxic environments, which is part of and does add to the story, The Book Eaters is not only about survival and breaking against your predetermined confines, but it’s about love. What we do for love, how we define it, and how we define ourselves in the face of it.

The story itself was a steady pace and easy to follow along. I felt there could have been more, but the plot was entertaining and I do love there was some LGBTQ+ representation in there without making a big show of it. I feel there could be more stories in this world too. It’s a stand-alone novel, but I found the story of The Book Eaters had me wondering more about the hidden lives that only got touched on.

The Book Eaters is definitely a dark fairy tale full of interesting concepts. It’s a book I’m happy I was able to read and am pleased to be able to pass it on to someone else to enjoy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexism, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Rape

Moderate: Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Infertility and Pregnancy

georgia7's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Physical abuse, Rape, Abandonment, Blood, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Death, Infertility, Murder, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Slavery and Alcohol

nasabl3's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

A great story about abuse, control, and embracing the monster our side of love

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking

Minor: Rape

raichou's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

I read this book because of a reading challenge and did not really know what to expect. It was so much better than what I thought would happen! 

I really liked the story, the world building and the characters. They all had their flaws, no-one was perfect, but that's what I really enjoyed about it. 
Everyone had their reasons to do the stuff that they did and it made perfect sense. 

The time jumps where a great way to learn about everything that happened before and the author used them, while Devon explained it to other people, so it fit right into the narration.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism

wlreed312's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Confinement and Gore

maya_reads_books's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexism, and Blood

Moderate: Misogyny and Murder

Minor: Trafficking