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jessthanthree's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Body horror, Blood, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Rape
Moderate: Animal death, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Homophobia, Child death, Sexism, and Colonisation
Minor: Transphobia, Stalking, Abortion, and Abandonment
yrioona's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-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
3.5
A lush, vivid, gory, and sexy take on the "undead/shapeshifter" genre(s), dense with historical texture and a profound sense of place. I found this a bit uneven -- sometimes characters make choices or reel off dialogue in service to the plot but not grounded in their personalities/motivations, and sometimes Das's language (which is gorgeously descriptive) trips over itself with overwrought phrasing and flashy word choices -- but when it works it really works! The nested, nonlinear, narrative structure (and the interplay between this structure and all the um, devouring) is beautifully done. There is something a bit first-book-y about this but it's still something really special.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Murder, and Cannibalism
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Colonisation
kell_xavi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
3.5
I was enamoured with this writing at the very beginning, Das’ canny worldbuilding on the intricate foundations of mythos and South Asian history. The stories herein are a poetic and gritty recovery of people, fundamentally, though their forms and settings carve the shape of the narrative. The courage and tenacity of one woman (a major player in the text) is an especially strong point, and the choices of the shapeshifters who take the bodies of men deepen what initially appears as swaggering brutality.
There is much about the body here, a visceral beastliness and texture to embodiment in many forms—though it is characterized by releasing of waste, blood, semen more often than is my preference. There is also a violence towards bodies, in their ripping apart and consumption, or the devouring of the title. Sexual encounters are carnal and animal as well, filled with pungency, passion.
This is not a book for everybody, but I appreciated the ways in which Das made his shapeshifters seem more animal than supernatural, with an intensity to their worldliness. There is heat and bulk to them, rage and suffering. There is also a culture told by ritual, language, and customs that I could follow in their repercussions while not fully understanding their meanings. Where romance and human-creature relationship are prevalent in many supernatural novels, The Devourers is a welcome subversion. This book at once denies those plot lines, and works them back in, with more messiness and devastation that creates small, earned moments of tenderness.
My last point, and another delightful subversion, is that this book is very queer. When we first meet him, the narrator (Alok) is quietly and somewhat shamefully bisexual; however, though I emohasize it here, in the text this queerness and gender is shown as a part of having a body—of embodying, using and changing flesh. The shapeshifters can choose the appearance of their first (humanoid) selves and their second (beastly) selves, altering gender or appearing with multiple genitalia. They are also sexual in a way not precluded by gender. Though women are treated with a misogyny that fits the historical context, the author (and the narrative) focus/es on agency and inner life of Cyrah with empathy and admiration.
There is much about the body here, a visceral beastliness and texture to embodiment in many forms—though it is characterized by releasing of waste, blood, semen more often than is my preference. There is also a violence towards bodies, in their ripping apart and consumption, or the devouring of the title. Sexual encounters are carnal and animal as well, filled with pungency, passion.
This is not a book for everybody, but I appreciated the ways in which Das made his shapeshifters seem more animal than supernatural, with an intensity to their worldliness. There is heat and bulk to them, rage and suffering. There is also a culture told by ritual, language, and customs that I could follow in their repercussions while not fully understanding their meanings. Where romance and human-creature relationship are prevalent in many supernatural novels, The Devourers is a welcome subversion. This book at once denies those plot lines, and works them back in, with more messiness and devastation that creates small, earned moments of tenderness.
My last point, and another delightful subversion, is that this book is very queer. When we first meet him, the narrator (Alok) is quietly and somewhat shamefully bisexual; however, though I emohasize it here, in the text this queerness and gender is shown as a part of having a body—of embodying, using and changing flesh. The shapeshifters can choose the appearance of their first (humanoid) selves and their second (beastly) selves, altering gender or appearing with multiple genitalia. They are also sexual in a way not precluded by gender. Though women are treated with a misogyny that fits the historical context, the author (and the narrative) focus/es on agency and inner life of Cyrah with empathy and admiration.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Violence
Moderate: Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Cannibalism, Body horror, Gore, and Colonisation
Minor: Vomit, Excrement, Biphobia, Animal death, and Classism
poisoned_icecream's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Child death, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Rape, Death of parent, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Death, Gore, Excrement, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexism, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Violence
sunn_bleach's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Violence, Cannibalism, and Body horror
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Transphobia and Medical trauma
sistaharlem's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism
Moderate: Rape
gardensnail's review against another edition
dark
sad
medium-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
2.25
This book made me mad. It is a beautiful piece of prose that tells a horrid story. There are glimpses of what this book could have been in that prose: a romance, a thriller, a story told entirely in letter. But none of these it accomplishes well. By Part 6, I was exhausted; already having known who the mysterious man was. The other narrator, Alok, waswas as similarly uninteresting. Neither Alok nor the mysterious man felt like real characters of their own. They were superceded by the other bits of the story.
This, to me, was the most egregious. There were moments in the book where I felt I understood what the author was trying to say. Both Alok and the Half-man are outsiders for some innate quality, born out of and into a violent world that is against them, to parents they have complex and distant relationships with. Their coupling felt detached and distant. I wanted so badly in those moments to wish there was romance in it. But there wasn't, and there won't be. It filled me with incredible sadness. The very last pages are the worst, sealing it as a tragedy. I would be hesitant to describe this book in terms of its flirtation with transgenderism; but Alok's inability to not only come to terms with his sexuality, but also gender identity and/or expression is crippling when we only learn about them in the last few pages. I wish it were not so. But again, it is the finality of this book. There are no good conclusions, and no happy endings. It goes in and out.
I can't say its a bad book. Or that I would never recommend it. Again, the prose is unlike anything I've read before. However, it is a book that I will likely never want to read again.
This, to me, was the most egregious. There were moments in the book where I felt I understood what the author was trying to say. Both Alok and the Half-man are outsiders for some innate quality, born out of and into a violent world that is against them, to parents they have complex and distant relationships with. Their coupling felt detached and distant. I wanted so badly in those moments to wish there was romance in it. But there wasn't, and there won't be. It filled me with incredible sadness. The very last pages are the worst, sealing it as a tragedy. I would be hesitant to describe this book in terms of its flirtation with
I can't say its a bad book. Or that I would never recommend it. Again, the prose is unlike anything I've read before. However, it is a book that I will likely never want to read again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Cannibalism, Violence, Murder, and Rape
absakaabby's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Beautifully written. Weaves you through folklore and myths over centuries with such a mystical ease. The craving for love in each of the characters is felt.
There are times when some descriptions are gruesome and unsettling though. I found myself skipping through the last 30 pages while it tried to reiterate everything the book had already said.
There are times when some descriptions are gruesome and unsettling though. I found myself skipping through the last 30 pages while it tried to reiterate everything the book had already said.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Sexual assault, Excrement, Homophobia, Rape, and Sexual violence
cryptid_kt's review against another edition
dark
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Cannibalism
Don't know the tag to use but my god so much pissing, why, it was gross. I was prepared for gore, I was not ready to hear about people pissing on themselves MULTIPLE TIMESsmoothlikebutter's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Death, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence
Queer werewolves