Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

61 reviews

atamano's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, and Death

Moderate: Gaslighting and Violence

sunnydale's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

3.0

This book succeeds as a gothic allegory exploring the ways both targeted abuse and impersonal violence are used to maintain an oppressive culture. If it were marketed primarily as an introspective novel about a woman's journey to free herself and her children from abuse, people might not be so disappointed that the SFF elements aren't at the forefront. I don't think the physiology and culture of the otherworldly race are underdeveloped, but they aren't emphasized. 

I wasn't disappointed by the focus on Devon's personal arc. I was, however, disappointed that the crucial parts of that arc happened almost entirely in the past. The present-day chapters feel like they're only there to build tension as you wait to figure out what led up to them—they don't carry the narrative weight of half the book, despite getting half the book's "screen time." Characters like Hester, Cai, and Killock are intriguing, and I wish they'd been given more depth. 

Overall, I found the worldbuilding compelling, and I'd be interested in revisiting the world to learn more about mind eaters in particular. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Misogyny, Violence, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Sexism, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Child abuse, Vomit, Alcohol, Abandonment, Slavery, and Gun violence

Minor: Drug use, Acephobia/Arophobia, Medical trauma, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Body shaming

Physical abuse specifics:

Matley chokes Devon until she passes out, and it takes her a long time to recover. This happens immediately after she gives birth to Cai. She is also pinned down when Matley and his guards arrive to take Cai away.

There is no explicit sexual content or description of sexual assault, although Devon's relations with her husbands are nonconsensual. A lot of discussion of Devon's children being taken away from her. Her children are also threatened with violence.

leonormsousa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

REP

lesbian MC, sapphic LI, asexual male SC, disabled Indian-British SC

QUOTE 

“For here was the thing that no fairy tale would ever admit, but that she understood in that moment: love was not inherently good.
Certainly, it could inspire goodness. She didn’t argue that. Poets would tell you that love was electricity in your veins that could light a room. That it was a river in your soul to lift you up and carry you away, or a fire inside the heart to keep you warm. Yet electricity could also fry, rivers could drown, and fires could burn; love could be destructive. Punishingly, fatally destructive.
And the other thing, the real bloody clincher of it all, was that the good and the bad didn’t get served up equally. If love were a balance of electric lights and electric jolts, two sides of an equally weighted coin, then fair enough. She could deal.
That wasn’t how it worked, though. Some love was just the bad, all the time: an endless parade of electrified bones and drowned lungs and hearts that burned to a cinder inside the cage of your chest.
And so she looked down at her son and loved him with the kind of twisted, complex feeling that came from having never wanted him in the first place; she loved him with bitterness, and she loved him with resignation. She loved him though she knew no good could ever come from such a bond." 

THINGS I ENJOYED 

• Sunyi Dean's writing is stunning (something I've confirmed in her two recent short stories), and I think I might read everything she puts out there
• So many great and strong passages! (I'm not one to annotate but this book made me want to)
• We love a book that doesn't shy away from talking about misogyny and oppressive societies
• How the author explored the topic of love, especially maternal love and how it can twist your moral boundaries (see the quote I included)
• The queer rep <3
• The concept of book and mind eaters was so interesting and original, and the chapter introductions with the lore really made the experience better
• It really stuck with me (it has been 4 months since I read and I not only think about it but almost feel like rereading it)
• The dual-timeline storytelling works so well

THINGS I DIDN'T ENJOY

• The ending was a bit too rushed and even almost “too easy”.
• Some details were given a lot of emphasis in the book but then ended up not playing any part at all, which felt a bit misleading and incoherent.

THINGS THAT I'VE SEEN CRITICISM ABOUT AND WHY I ACTUALLY LIKED THEM

• The world-building is limited - I think that the vagueness and unresolvedness of this book fitted it quite well. It's very rooted in Devon, so for me, it made sense that we didn't knew much about the book/mind eaters origin or lore (or other topics of the book in general) because she didn't knew it as well, either because she wasn't given that information as a woman or because it was not knowledge the book eater society had at the time.
• The abrupt ending - I actually like open endings and thought this one fitted the book well

READ IF YOU ENJOY

• creepy books with grey/dark characters
• stories about unhinged women trying to break free
• topics like misogynist societies and motherhood
• urban fantasy/sci-fi elements as a means to uncover and discuss real-life situations

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Violence, Gaslighting, and Death

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Blood, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Child death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Stalking, and Vomit

Minor: Trafficking, Acephobia/Arophobia, Homophobia, and Slavery

ashleyrunswild's review against another edition

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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Slavery, Rape, Sexism, Trafficking, Misogyny, Body horror, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Vomit

mourningstarr's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

1.75

The plot was really intriguing, unfortunately it ended up falling flat for me. What I thought was going to be a cool read with a new kind of character ended up being just another boring book about a mother willing to do anything to save her kid 🙄🙄

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Pregnancy, Infertility, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

deirdreanais's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

upperjackpain's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Drug use, Violence, Sexual violence, and Gun violence

Moderate: Sexism, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Confinement, Rape, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Murder, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror

Minor: Torture

sarah984's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

1.0

If you remember that era in the early 2000s where everyone was making zombie media but it wasn't really cool anymore, so they were all sort of ashamed about it and like, "well MY creatures aren't zombies because they [one random gimmick; it's a fungus or whatever]," even though they totally are zombies - this is that but with vampires.

Even at the end I was totally unclear on how book eating was supposed to work. The characters' homes are full of intact books and they have fangs so I assumed they drained the book's "essence" or something, but later a character is putting ketchup on one, or soaking it in water to make it easier to eat. Book eating is always sort of elided, which is kind of funny because mind eating (a sort of mutation that some book eaters have that requires them to eat brains) is so vividly described on multiple occasions.

The characters all sound the same and half the book is characters describing events that have already happened to each other, so there isn't much suspense until right at the end. There is one problem that hangs over the characters for most of the runtime but then is IMMEDIATELY solved the second it actually comes up, which felt kind of pointless.

The romance is terrible; the characters barely talk and suddenly the kid is calling them girlfriends. This woman is the only one the main character really interacts with, which is sort of weird for a book billing itself as feminist. She looks at most other women with either pity or scorn. There is an extremely weird chapter where characters quote the dictionary definition of asexuality at each other that ends up being almost insulting, and the "I ruined a baby with my son's Autism Beam" bit was ridiculous.

I have no idea what the book was trying to say: parental love can be self destructive? Fairy tales destroy the imagination? The author really likes Tomb Raider and needs to make sure we know it?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Confinement, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Infertility, Xenophobia, Medical content, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Car accident and Child death

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

the book eaters is a gripping, dark, somewhat disturbing, and imaginative book w/ a good execution - if slightly rushed end - but it's above all a reverse fairytale of sorts that details how a princess changes as a consequence of all the trials she's gone through.

it's a trip to witness devon evolving from a sheltered, naive child unbeknownst of the world's dangerous reality to a harrowed woman who makes tough choices and willing to do anything to protect her child. how the world and the system oppresses and commodifies her, and how she grows into herself to game and turn against them. 

what i like most abt the book is its worldbuilding, how dean takes advantage of the 'eating books' idea oft fantasized by book lovers and turns it into this dark, gripping, yet understandable story propelled by its own rules, culture, politics and machinations that mirror the real world in many aspects. how it could be hiding in plain sight is intriguing as well, and i rly am fascinated yet disturbed reading it. moreover, while the novel can turn very dark w/ its concept of mind eaters, much of the violence and gore feel true and never gratuitous.

it's a lil weird though how the 'present' takes place in such a short period and oft gets overshadowed by devon's more interesting past; only when the crew reaches the ravenscars' manor that things truly pick up in the present. furthermore, a few parts is predictable and the climax feels rushed, cutting off when neither devon nor the reader has had time to fully process things. a sequel seems certain though and im interested to see how things develop w/ devon's hopeful rescue of salem.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent and Forced institutionalization

purplepenning's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I don't usually do horror or horror-adjacent and I literally just finished reading it on a dark and stormy night when I still have a touch of fever, so I need a beat before crafting a real review. It's undoubtedly fascinating, though! And the writing is lush but not overly so. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Gore, Violence, Addiction, Blood, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Acephobia/Arophobia, Body shaming, Rape, Medical content, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Infertility, Abandonment, Body horror, Vomit, Cursing, Drug use, and Gun violence

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, and Trafficking