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jodie_ennifer's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
From the second I heard about this book I knew I was going to love it. It doesn't beat around the bush and gets straight into the action. Devon is a hard character to like at times however you feel for her struggles straight away.
Would say as a mum this packs a punch in terms of the story.
A great gothic, Si-Fiy thriller with undertones of feminism, patriarchal dismantling and motherhood.
Would say as a mum this packs a punch in terms of the story.
A great gothic, Si-Fiy thriller with undertones of feminism, patriarchal dismantling and motherhood.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Child death and Child abuse
rampant_reading's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
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
5.0
Horror novels are slightly outside my usual comfort zone for reading, but I’m so glad I decided to push my boundaries and give The Book Eaters a read! Though I was very creeped out at times during the book, I accepted this discomfort as part of the reading experience with a novel this dark, and was able to embrace it! My favorite part of this book was the driving relationship between Devon and Kai, and the intense love between them. Devon is so well written, in that each of her actions is perfectly justifiable from her point of view. She is willing to do whatever it takes to protect her son, whether or not it is the “good” or “morally right” thing to do, which drives the story forward. To me, The Book Eaters feels like the most original fairytale I’ve ever read, earning it a full five stars as my rating!
One thing that I especially loved which was unique to the audiobook was the short interview at the end with the author and the narrator, Katie Erich! It made the book extra meaningful to me when I got to listen to the narrator speak about her experiences as a neurodivergent and hard-of-hearing person (both of which are identities I share). I was delighted to hear a bit about someone like me working in the audiobook industry, especially after listening to and loving the entire story and the narration! As of August, this is my favorite audiobook of 2022, and I sincerely hope that Katie Erich will continue her work in the industry!
My Recommendation-
If you enjoy dark novels with rich and original magic in them, you should grab a copy of The Book Eaters! I would caution more sensitive readers to take a look at the content warnings, as this book does go to some graphic and potentially triggering places.
Content Warning (taken from the author’s website): Body horror, gore, explicit violence, domestic abuse, violence against children, cult-like environment
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, and Child abuse
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Gun violence
wearyreader's review
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
I’ll start with the positives: The writing style is great and there is a really well managed back and forth of timelines from what I’ve read so far. But, with that I still had to stop.
I DNF’d at 65 pages which is about 21% for the problematic similarities to Romani peoples. As far as I have read, these are what I’ve found.
This group of people are noted to not be human, that they must take extra care to appear human when being amongst people.
They used to be able to travel, but now they can’t because of paperwork issues. (They are undocumented, and they don’t report the birth of their kids, marriages, ext) [Page 3, talks about how our main character has no ID, passport, birth certificate, ext]. The families are noted to not do anything, just hang out where they live. Although some families differ, our main character’s family’s home is noted to be run down and not taken care of. The estate is overgrown and not worked. But it’s important to know they all have really nice, new cars.
The Book Eaters are many different families across Britain. (They used to travel more but can’t now because of the said lack of documentation) Their kids run around dirty, uneducated, and without any outside contact. Women are ‘rare’ and are treated like princesses. Women are only fed fairy tale books and books about compliance while boys are fed adventure stores and stories of valor and more educated texts. When they turn 18 they are dressed like princesses and immediately married off to another family.
They are married to a man (of any age) to produce a child. Once the child is born and give a few years, they are married off to another man to produce another child. After that child (unless they can produce a 3rd) they are allowed to retire at their home family and continue to just exist without further purpose.
Oh, and there’s still a dowry involved in this to entice the woman’s original family to comply with the forced birthing process.
When they are married off, the ‘knights’ ride motorcycles around a
limo to escort her to the new family in the style of a caravan.
But, the Book Eaters publicly are just people who live off the land and stick to themselves and are local legends. Should an outsider stumble upon them, they are drained of who they are/captured, and sent somewhere way far away without their family or loved ones knowing.
The Book Eaters are monsters. You are either born a book eater or born a dragon (someone who instead of eating human knowledge, must eat human experience aka brains). So you are either born ‘normal’ or a monster, inherently evil/with evil urges. These dragons get stripped of their freedoms and are then covered in tattoos which signify that they’re dangerous.
It is noted that indeed, their heritage is Romanian. Straight up.
Am I reading too much into this Maybe I am. But there is too much
intersectionality with the harmful stereotypes or Romani peoples that
it feels so blaringly obvious to me. Instead of the usually paranormal
media depiction of being Lycanthropes and Fortune Tellers, they’re indeed vampiric alien monsters.
As I mentioned, I have stopped reading here. I cannot review anymore than this. There are also more reviews here on Goodreads and other places that report that the book ends up being about not book eating but the family being a cult/cult-like activity. So, I will not be
continuing even more so.
Sadly, I believe this book will be in some subscription boxes so I feel for those who might not be prepared for it and for those who have no idea about the intersectionality of this.
I DNF’d at 65 pages which is about 21% for the problematic similarities to Romani peoples. As far as I have read, these are what I’ve found.
This group of people are noted to not be human, that they must take extra care to appear human when being amongst people.
They used to be able to travel, but now they can’t because of paperwork issues. (They are undocumented, and they don’t report the birth of their kids, marriages, ext) [Page 3, talks about how our main character has no ID, passport, birth certificate, ext]. The families are noted to not do anything, just hang out where they live. Although some families differ, our main character’s family’s home is noted to be run down and not taken care of. The estate is overgrown and not worked. But it’s important to know they all have really nice, new cars.
The Book Eaters are many different families across Britain. (They used to travel more but can’t now because of the said lack of documentation) Their kids run around dirty, uneducated, and without any outside contact. Women are ‘rare’ and are treated like princesses. Women are only fed fairy tale books and books about compliance while boys are fed adventure stores and stories of valor and more educated texts. When they turn 18 they are dressed like princesses and immediately married off to another family.
They are married to a man (of any age) to produce a child. Once the child is born and give a few years, they are married off to another man to produce another child. After that child (unless they can produce a 3rd) they are allowed to retire at their home family and continue to just exist without further purpose.
Oh, and there’s still a dowry involved in this to entice the woman’s original family to comply with the forced birthing process.
When they are married off, the ‘knights’ ride motorcycles around a
limo to escort her to the new family in the style of a caravan.
But, the Book Eaters publicly are just people who live off the land and stick to themselves and are local legends. Should an outsider stumble upon them, they are drained of who they are/captured, and sent somewhere way far away without their family or loved ones knowing.
The Book Eaters are monsters. You are either born a book eater or born a dragon (someone who instead of eating human knowledge, must eat human experience aka brains). So you are either born ‘normal’ or a monster, inherently evil/with evil urges. These dragons get stripped of their freedoms and are then covered in tattoos which signify that they’re dangerous.
It is noted that indeed, their heritage is Romanian. Straight up.
Am I reading too much into this Maybe I am. But there is too much
intersectionality with the harmful stereotypes or Romani peoples that
it feels so blaringly obvious to me. Instead of the usually paranormal
media depiction of being Lycanthropes and Fortune Tellers, they’re indeed vampiric alien monsters.
As I mentioned, I have stopped reading here. I cannot review anymore than this. There are also more reviews here on Goodreads and other places that report that the book ends up being about not book eating but the family being a cult/cult-like activity. So, I will not be
continuing even more so.
Sadly, I believe this book will be in some subscription boxes so I feel for those who might not be prepared for it and for those who have no idea about the intersectionality of this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Murder, Death, Infertility, Rape, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Stalking, Sexism, Misogyny, and Confinement
Moderate: Homophobia, Cultural appropriation, Xenophobia, and Racism
Minor: Alcoholism and Drug use
shivapriya's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Gun violence, Child abuse, Abandonment, and Cannibalism
ju_shi's review against another edition
Baby treatment was too disturbing
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse and Child death
azrah786's review against another edition
4.75
[This review can also be found on my BLOG]
**I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
CW: violence, blood, gore, body horror, murder, death, domestic abuse, child abuse, confinement, pregnancy/child birth, alcohol
--
A refreshing urban fantasy-horror mashup based around supernatural beings who consume books that will draw you in from the very first page!
The Book Eaters introduces us to Devon Fairweather, a daughter of one of six Book Eater families that covertly coexist with British society. Alternating between dual timelines, the narrative has an air of mystery to it with chapters set in the past depicting Devon’s upbringing and what life as a female Book Eater entails, slowly uncovering how she has ended up where she is in the present, on the run to protect and save her Mind Eater son.
With writing that effortlessly captures both emotion and atmosphere, trust me when I say it’ll be hard to put this book down. Truthfully I feel like my words are insufficient to sum up how brilliant it is.
**I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
CW: violence, blood, gore, body horror, murder, death, domestic abuse, child abuse, confinement, pregnancy/child birth, alcohol
--
A refreshing urban fantasy-horror mashup based around supernatural beings who consume books that will draw you in from the very first page!
The Book Eaters introduces us to Devon Fairweather, a daughter of one of six Book Eater families that covertly coexist with British society. Alternating between dual timelines, the narrative has an air of mystery to it with chapters set in the past depicting Devon’s upbringing and what life as a female Book Eater entails, slowly uncovering how she has ended up where she is in the present, on the run to protect and save her Mind Eater son.
With writing that effortlessly captures both emotion and atmosphere, trust me when I say it’ll be hard to put this book down. Truthfully I feel like my words are insufficient to sum up how brilliant it is.
"..we can only live by the light we're given, and some of us are given no light at all. What else can we do except learnt o see in the dark?"
Dean’s prose gives the story a fairytale-esque feel to it however, the suspense filled storyline that has our dear protagonist darting across modern day Britain also adds a realistic edge to it all. It sure sent my mind to questioning the possibility that this hidden society could so easily be more fact than fiction.
Though the inspiration from Vampirism is evident, the lore within this story is so wholly original and I can’t commend Dean’s creativity enough. The concept of Book Eaters hooked me in from the moment I read the synopsis and as with any good monster story my fascination as well as my dread only grew with each turn of the page. And don’t even get me started on the Mind Eater side of things.
If you’re like me and not really a horror person don’t let the label scare you away. Though there is a fair bit of gore, the horror elements in this are more eerie than panic inducing – the equally fascinating and unsettling kind that make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. Yet the true terror comes from the attitude towards women in the story and the views on body autonomy that mirror parts of the real world today.
"For here was the thing that no fairy tale would ever admit, but that she understood in that moment: love was not inherently good."
Alongside outstanding commentary on the patriarchy, is the thought-provoking exploration of the themes of motherhood, morality and survival. Devon is such a well written character and watching her grow and come to terms with the lengths she will go to for the sake of herself and her loved ones was so compelling.
A powerful and gripping read that will stick with you as though you’ve ingested it yourself. Super excited to see what Sunyi Dean writes next!
Final Rating – 4.75/5 Stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Gore, Body horror, Murder, Death, and Alcohol
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Confinement, and Pregnancy
Minor: Child abuse
georgeanna_'s review
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Murder, Infertility, Trafficking, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Gore, Death, and Alcohol
sunbirdbooks's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
A chilling tale picking apart the nature of complicity and preservation, be it of self or culture in which eerily familiar monsters devour literature and make minds into a meal. An almost perfect debut with slight pacing inconsistencies; a new all time fave.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Trafficking, Gaslighting, Murder, Medical trauma, and Sexism
Moderate: Pregnancy, Trafficking, Confinement, and Rape
Minor: Child abuse, Infertility, and Torture
utopiastateofmind's review
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
The Book Eaters is an action packed emotional tour de force. Beginning as a story about motherhood and sacrifice. About what we would do to take care of the ones we love. It quickly morphs into a book about socialization, sexism, and agency. The magic world building idea is unique and thoughtful from the very first moments. How books serve as a symbol for the stories we are told, forced to learn as truths. All the ways we can control our society, lives, and families via books.
On the reverse side, The Book Eaters is a testament to the importance of imagination, possibilities, and stories. To illustrate that we can be limited by what we think of the world. The options that are present to us. But that once we can foresee a new opportunity, a new ending, our lives transform. My heart broke for Devon throughout the entire book. To the ways her decisions, her bodily control, her love is held against her. As a methods of control.
The Book Eaters is an action packed emotional tour de force. Beginning as a story about motherhood and sacrifice. About what we would do to take care of the ones we love. It quickly morphs into a book about socialization, sexism, and agency. The magic world building idea is unique and thoughtful from the very first moments. How books serve as a symbol for the stories we are told, forced to learn as truths. All the ways we can control our society, lives, and families via books.
On the reverse side, The Book Eaters is a testament to the importance of imagination, possibilities, and stories. To illustrate that we can be limited by what we think of the world. The options that are present to us. But that once we can foresee a new opportunity, a new ending, our lives transform. My heart broke for Devon throughout the entire book. To the ways her decisions, her bodily control, her love is held against her. As a methods of control.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Child abuse
natashaleighton_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Pregnancy