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A review by belladonnashrike
The Devourers by Indra Das
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
I looooved this, loved the writing. very lush prose and a gorgeous story about transformation, trauma, love, & humanity. it gave me interview with the vampire vibes almost immediately and much like that story, this didn’t disappoint! I adore stories about the intersection of humanity and the supernatural and this really encapsulates everything I love about that sort of narrative.
I wish some things were explored more, such as Alok’s relationship with his ex and the significance of gender - gender is so important in this novel and i wish it was spoken about more at the beginning, but I really enjoyed this nonetheless. I think the author handled the (very) rough topics well and I love the transformation allegory so much - also extremely well done.
I loved Alok and Cyrah (especially her, I adore her) so much. they felt so real to me and I just want to know more about them, but this shouldn’t be a series. I like where the stories were left.
I often skim reviews before reading a book, and I read multiple times about how (summarizing) gory and gross this book is but it honestly felt very tame. yes there’s entrails and sinew and blood but it wasn’t as much as I was led to believe. am I the weird one? there IS a lot of piss imagery but it’s about a werewolf-type of creature. they’re dogs. they are territorial. it makes sense!
anyway, I was really bewitched by this book. i’ve had it sitting on my shelf for years and just never picked it up for some reason but I’m so glad I finally read it!
additionally: I often read the acknowledgements and all the extra stuff at the end of books and I was very pleasantly surprised with the final lines in das’ acknowledgements. very indicative of their character and I do appreciate this inclusion.
content warnings in moderate tag bc i’m lazy
I wish some things were explored more,
I loved Alok and Cyrah (especially her, I adore her) so much. they felt so real to me and I just want to know more about them, but this shouldn’t be a series. I like where the stories were left.
I often skim reviews before reading a book, and I read multiple times about how (summarizing) gory and gross this book is but it honestly felt very tame. yes there’s entrails and sinew and blood but it wasn’t as much as I was led to believe. am I the weird one? there IS a lot of piss imagery but it’s about a werewolf-type of creature. they’re dogs. they are territorial. it makes sense!
anyway, I was really bewitched by this book. i’ve had it sitting on my shelf for years and just never picked it up for some reason but I’m so glad I finally read it!
additionally: I often read the acknowledgements and all the extra stuff at the end of books and I was very pleasantly surprised with the final lines in das’ acknowledgements. very indicative of their character and I do appreciate this inclusion.
content warnings in moderate tag bc i’m lazy
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Murder, Rape, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Vomit