Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

93 reviews

matcha_pages's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

First half of the book flew by, I was totally engrossed in the world of book eaters. Between the action scenes and the psychological chills this book had my full attention.  Sadly, the ending was rushed and a bit choppy. We're also left with unanswered questions, may be the author was planning to write a sequel?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Death

Minor: Trafficking

schausjk's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This was mesmerizing. I really appreciated the worldbuilding, and even though I doubt a sequel would be likely, I'm really interested in seeing where these characters would go.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Gore, Trafficking, Death, Body horror, Blood, Child death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Murder, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Grief, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Lesbophobia

catriona176's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Abandonment

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Rape, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Violence, Pregnancy, and Slavery

heartofhorrors's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Murder, Death, Infertility, Sexual content, Trafficking, Grief, Gun violence, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, and Violence

idontlovejessica's review against another edition

medium-paced

 YMMV on the scope and depth of this novel. Admittedly after a diet of hard sci-fi and political thrillers, I was a little disappointed by this. There are so many fun threads and lore details I wish we could nail down and explore! My friend informed me that the author drew on the experiences of people who escaped cults and that greatly helped me contextualize this novel in a, honestly, smaller scope. Others have compared it to Handmaid's Tale and I found myself also comparing it to that, but if it is a cult allegory rather than a Conservative Republican American allegory I think it works really well! If there are future additions I'd love to explore how firm the Bookeaters abilities/disabilities are. Can they not read because of society, trauma, or is it because of biology? How effective is the ability to eat books? I'm currently obsessed with multi-personalities and fusion personalities (Shout-out The Locked Tomb and Steven Universe) so I'm very excited to explore how Kai evolves. Overall a read I found underwhelming, but so full of neat ideas I spent many more hours trying to dissect and fix what I thought was lacking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Grief, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexism, Abandonment, Cannibalism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, Incest, Rape, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Murder, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault

squisheebee_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

5.0

This book was much paced much slower than my usual reads. Even though I didn’t read it straight through because of the pacing, I loved every minute I was reading.

Incredible, flawed, queer anti protagonist & her “monster” child who I could not help but adore. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, Sexism, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Homophobia, and Misogyny

Moderate: Trafficking, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Death, Pregnancy, and Grief

Minor: Sexual assault, Violence, and Rape

sarmckay's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Starting this review by saying that this is definitely not my usual genre-and there were moments where that really mattered in some of the more descriptive horror-y sections, and that’s why I can’t rate it higher than 3.5 stars. If you like horror, I’d recommend it. 

Devon was a great main character, a mother who would stop at nothing to protect and save her children, but her son, Cai, was not my favourite character.

I found Cai incredibly unlikable, which I guess is part of being a mind eater? But still, very hard to connect with the character and want him to succeed

I really enjoyed the ending, although the big twist wasn’t hard to spot it was still fun to read. Couldn’t put it down for the last 100 pages. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Stalking, Blood, Pregnancy, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Vomit, Rape, and Trafficking

captainsillypants's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Rape

Moderate: Slavery, Grief, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Sexual violence, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, and Sexism

Minor: Trafficking and Slavery

lemerrier's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Cannibalism, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, Grief, Violence, Pregnancy, Gore, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, and Blood

Minor: Trafficking and Infertility

corrin_takara's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Toxic relationship, Rape, and Trafficking