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iloivar's review
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
Graphic: Alcoholism, Infertility, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Gun violence
Minor: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Trafficking, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
trickphoenix's review
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual content, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Trafficking, Car accident, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Fire/Fire injury
mlfey's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Cannibalism, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infertility, Rape, and Sexism
jodie_ennifer's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse
Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol
Minor: Child abuse and Child death
wearyreader's review
- 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 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.
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Stalking, Murder, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Xenophobia, and Cultural appropriation
Minor: Alcoholism and Drug use
thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Sexism, Forced institutionalization, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Medical content and Pregnancy
poetry_shaman's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Sexism, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Classism
Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Slavery