Reviews tagging 'Incest'

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

8 reviews

esme_may's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Body horror, Sexism, Alcohol, Gore, Violence, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Blood

Moderate: Physical abuse, Infertility, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Confinement, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Child abuse, Acephobia/Arophobia, Gun violence, and Rape

Minor: Trafficking, Homophobia, and Incest

tinyjude's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad fast-paced

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

4.0

Very intriguing concept and development. I liked how it perfectly encapsulated the patriarchal, oppressive and cruel world created by the Families and the damage they create to all those poor little girls by just feeding them fairy tales and not preparing them for what's to come. I liked Devon's fierce personality and the characters' grey morality portrayed through the things she is forced to do for Cai and what Cai has to suffer too. I liked that it was sapphic and we also got a tiny bit of asexual representation and some decent men amongst monsters. It is true that the ending and love plot felt rushed but I liked the approach and the points the author wanted to criticize and how they were addressed in the book unequivocally. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Rape, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Death, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Cannibalism, Drug use, Incest, Alcoholism, Infertility, Kidnapping, Child abuse, and Body horror

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

I’m so fortunate that A) this book exists, B) I added it to my TBR, and C) I got to read it. I don’t even remember how this ended up on my TBR, but I’m glad I did. This story is slow, layered, and beautifully written

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Murder, Grief, Sexual assault, Rape, Physical abuse, Violence, Ableism, Domestic abuse, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Chronic illness, Sexism, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Blood

Moderate: Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Cursing, Infertility, Cannibalism, Car accident, Bullying, Pregnancy, Stalking, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Torture, and Body horror

Minor: Incest and Child death

Eugenics

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

sammirosewater's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Slavery, and Torture

Minor: Abortion

bubbly_lara's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

What a brilliant book! 
The setting, atmosphere and mood were very dark and gloomy, but in a good way (reminded me a bit of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's "Mexican Gothic"). 

I really liked the story, the characters and the writing style. Highlighted quite a lot of quotes, I'll put three further down below.

The themes of chosen/found family and trying to find who you are as a person outside of the people you grew up with, what is expected of you vs the pursuit of what makes you happy deeply resonated with me. 

Highly recommend if you're looking for a slightly spooky, rather dark and grim story of a young mother trying to break her son and herself free from familial chains and expectations, hoping to one day have a better life for themselves.

"Memory was an anchor. It could ground you in a storm, keep you from drifting.
But anchors could also weigh you down and keep you from sailing free."

"For here was the thing that no fairy tale would ever admit, but that she understood in that moment: love was not inherently good."

"- What price do you put on love? 
- No price. There isn't one. Love doesn't have a cost. It's just a choice you make."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Blood, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Grief, Gun violence, Violence, and Abandonment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Violence, Gore, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Alcohol, Grief, Infertility, Blood, Classism, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, and Body horror

Minor: Incest, Outing, Rape, Torture, Trafficking, and Adult/minor relationship

_nika_'s review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

I have to say this is incredible well written for a debut novel. I really enjoyed the dual time lines and especially that they match up for the last couple chapters. 
I also found the premise very intriguing, i only wish we’d learn more about the book eaters backstory. 
It also wasn’t as spooky as i would’ve liked but that may just have been a result of going into it expecting a straight up horror story when it’s more a thriller. This novel is more about motherhood, womanhood, and humanity, and less about the actual concept of mind & book eaters. If you go in with that as your expectations it’s for sure an enjoyable story, personally i just would’ve preferred a deeper dive into social & moral commentary on the idea of mind eaters. However the characters were well written, three-dimensional and i adore that there’s lesbian and ace representation. My favourite character was probably Hester, i loved her personality and i would’ve loved reading more about her. 
I could definitely see myself rereading this in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Incest, Pregnancy, Murder, Rape, and Torture

Minor: Child abuse

ocean_the_reader's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I thought the premise sounded amazing, but it was poorly executed. What is in the description isn't even the main focus of the book. 

I was confused on how book eating even worked because when they said they ate books it sounded like they both physically ate it and read it. And it was never even really explained.

The only reason I didn't dnf this was because I found the past time line much more interesting than the present one. Since it had stuff actually happening. It could have been a novel in its own.

I was just very bored the whole time since next to nothing happened for most of the book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Incest, Murder, Misogyny, and Pregnancy