Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

60 reviews

kshertz's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.0

It was not for me! I couldn’t get into the world and the eating of brains. I didn’t connect to the characters so I found myself not really caring what happened to them. It took me a long time to push through and finish this book!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

I’ll admit that I just don’t like dark gothic stories. If you do, maybe give this interesting spin on a vampire story a try. The book eaters and mind eaters concept kept me intrigued enough, and the out of order storytelling was interesting. Check content warnings before diving in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Grief, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Abandonment, Death, Murder, Ableism, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Homophobia

Aphobia

yaelaed's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Blood, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Grief

Minor: Gaslighting, Abandonment, Confinement, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Rape, and Sexual assault

mareelynn's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

 I was expecting a lighter fantasy tale about the ways the books we devour become a part of us. Instead, Sunyi Dean's debut novel is more of a modern gothic horror with variations on vampire/zombie tropes, a Mother & Child duo on the run from vicious, irredeemable bad guys, and a quest for a Magic Pill that's gonna fix it all.

I found most of the flashbacks to Devon's youth tough to get through, and then the pace finally picked up just in time for the book to end. The uneven characterization of Devon and Cai is balanced with some poignant prose, especially when Dean writes about the fierce, unconditional love between a mother and child. I just wish there was more about book eating in The Book Eaters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Violence, and Abandonment

Moderate: Rape

charlie_reads101's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

3.75

An awesome vampire reimagining that doesn’t shy away from the inner darkness of the people, even the ones we’re supposed to root for. Motherhood, monsters and more book quotes than you can imagine; I recommend for anyone who wants to read about fairy tales and how “real” life isn’t one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, and Death

ms_sarah621's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book has really good writing and a great premise. I wasn’t fully expecting the book to go so deep into the Family dynamics and the darkness of the Family. I was hoping for a thriller/horror story about this woman and her child. But, it was about motherhood, feminism, creating family, trauma, and religion/cult beliefs. Some of this took me out of the world and distracted me. However, the writing is just so well done, and Cai’s character is indescribable. I really kept reading to get more from him. And that ending….. anyways, I enjoyed this. I wish it focused more on the book eaters occasionally, rather than trying to be deep. But I think that’s just a it’s not you, it’s me thing. Typical of me. I would definitely recommend to others and truly did enjoy the story and the comparison of fairytales and deviating from them throughout. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pregnancy

catriona176's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Abandonment

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Rape, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Violence, Pregnancy, and Slavery

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

eggfartz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Pregnancy, Cursing, Gun violence, Alcohol, Blood, Cannibalism, Confinement, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Sexism, and Vomit

squisheebee_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

This book was much paced much slower than my usual reads. Even though I didn’t read it straight through because of the pacing, I loved every minute I was reading.

Incredible, flawed, queer anti protagonist & her “monster” child who I could not help but adore. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, Sexism, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Homophobia, and Misogyny

Moderate: Trafficking, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Death, Pregnancy, and Grief

Minor: Sexual assault, Violence, and Rape