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A review by fiekesfiction
What We Devour by Linsey Miller
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
In what we devour Lorena Adler has a secret- she holds the rare power of the noble and the vilewrought, inside her. She's content to live an unfulfilling life so long as no one uncovers her true nature. But when the notoriously bloodthirsty and equally vile crown prince comes to arrest Julian's father, he instantly recognizes Lorena for what she is. She makes a deal, a fair trail for her betrothed's father in exchange for her service to the crown. She is taken away from the world she knows in service of a terrible plan that will have deadly repercussions if achieved. Sacrifice is something she knows all too well though, and as she is led deeper into the complicated maze of secrets, divided loyalties come to a head and Lorena must decide which power she will ultimately serve- a flawed authority or herself.
Many trigger warnings, including: Self harm (cutting), child death, parents death, factory-related accidents, child neglect and abuse, sibling deaths, references to mass suicide, filicide, mentions of canniblism, aphobic comments/ microagressions
<b> “What do you want, Lorena Adler?” The sundered crown had asked all those weeks ago, but wanting wasn’t the problem. Not wanting, this lack, was the problem.
People could forgive discretions that came from wanting, because everyone wanted something. But the moment I didn’t and it interfered with what they wanted, I was unnatural. I wasn’t. I wasn’t unnatural or lacking or cold. I wasn’t missing out. I had tried so hard to separate myself from everyone else, to make myself unappealing so as not to disappoint. And I was wrong. It was his problem to deal with. I was simply someone who didn’t desire him the way he wanted. And he couldn’t deal with it.
“My existence isn’t about you.” I hissed. “And I am done, justifying my life to people who don’t even think I’m a person.” </b>
What we devour is a horror(ish) ya dark fantasy story. It takes place in a world with a very complex magic system. There's no slowly getting into it or explaining what's going on. From the first chapter you are thrown right into it. At first this was very confusing. The complex world was explained more and more each page. If you like fantasy world, it's pretty cool. But if it's not something you read often you'll probably have a hard time getting into the story. You really have to accept the fact that you have no idea what's going on at first and keep reading. Although I do appreciate a good complex magic system, I did think that the confusion should've lessened more throughout the book. Instead I never stopped feeling a bit lost about how things worked. It has a lot of explanations on the history of the world and it's dystopian feel. There was just a lot going on especially near the end and it was a bit hard to keep up with what was happening exactly. Basically there was so much history and magic, that the actual basics of how the magic works were lost on me and I could not see the wood for the trees.
The magic system is still not entirely clear to me yet, but here's the basics. In this world people either have the power to create or destroy or both. But whenever you create or destroy something you have to make a sacrifice. Specifically this means people drawing blood, hurting themselves or murdering, to be able to get power. Lorena has a vilewrough and noblewright which means she has both the power to destroy and to create. She is also unbound, which means she is not bound to serve anyone. When you sacrifice there's the choice to sacrifice part of yourself or taking something (voluntarily or involuntarily) from others.
As you can imagine, the book is very dark. It is about characters having to choose between giving a lot of themselves or hurting others. This is a very clever spin on the class system and the idea on who should rule or how they should rule.
In that it is extremely attention grabbing and easy to read. (Or rather, to devour.)
It was formerly described as a beauty-and-the-beast retelling and though it's only a loose one, you can clearly see those elements from the beginning. The big overlying sentiment is eat-the-rich and basically a fight against capitalism. Though this was at times layered on rather thick, the way the magical world was designed and mirrored reality was really unique and fascinating.
Then of course there's the characters. Main character Lorena Adler makes a lot of questionable decisions, but she's also intelligent and cunning and it's easy to sympathize with her. She is brave enough to make hard choices. She is kind and complex. And she is also unapologetically ace. Her thoughts and conversations about this really resonated with me and it's also a big part of the way she behaves. It was not her whole character, but it was part of her throughout everything she did. She hid parts of herself because of the expectations an ever-sexual society ascribes to certain actions. She has a lot of internal and external struggles around this and I thought those were handled really thoughtfully.
Then there's a 'dangerous mysterious apathetic bad-person' crown prince love interest, Alistair. Maybe his description sounds like a basic YA love interest, but he really was more complex than that. He and Lorena had really big differences and a lot of problems arized from that. I did like reading about his relationship with Lorena. Even as they grew closer, there always remained some sense of strain between them because of their fundamental opposites. I thought their dynamic was very unique.
Notable side characters include Basil, Lorena's non-binary colleague and Lorena's friend Mack.
I also really liked the role Julian played in this story, I didn't expect it but was pleasantly surprised.
The characters didn't have the biggest emotional impact on me, it also felt like the world and plot was prioritized over them. This was also shown in the way the characters treaded each other, while their joking around was fun and realistic, it at times lacked real emotional scenes at appropriate times. specifically when no one really grieved after someone just died?
Overal this was a very dark story with a great (biromantic) asexual main character and it could've been a new favorite if I was a bit less confused. (I might reread it at some point and maybe enjoy and understand it more the second time!)
Many trigger warnings, including: Self harm (cutting), child death, parents death, factory-related accidents, child neglect and abuse, sibling deaths, references to mass suicide, filicide, mentions of canniblism, aphobic comments/ microagressions
<b> “What do you want, Lorena Adler?” The sundered crown had asked all those weeks ago, but wanting wasn’t the problem. Not wanting, this lack, was the problem.
People could forgive discretions that came from wanting, because everyone wanted something. But the moment I didn’t and it interfered with what they wanted, I was unnatural. I wasn’t. I wasn’t unnatural or lacking or cold. I wasn’t missing out. I had tried so hard to separate myself from everyone else, to make myself unappealing so as not to disappoint. And I was wrong. It was his problem to deal with. I was simply someone who didn’t desire him the way he wanted. And he couldn’t deal with it.
“My existence isn’t about you.” I hissed. “And I am done, justifying my life to people who don’t even think I’m a person.” </b>
What we devour is a horror(ish) ya dark fantasy story. It takes place in a world with a very complex magic system. There's no slowly getting into it or explaining what's going on. From the first chapter you are thrown right into it. At first this was very confusing. The complex world was explained more and more each page. If you like fantasy world, it's pretty cool. But if it's not something you read often you'll probably have a hard time getting into the story. You really have to accept the fact that you have no idea what's going on at first and keep reading. Although I do appreciate a good complex magic system, I did think that the confusion should've lessened more throughout the book. Instead I never stopped feeling a bit lost about how things worked. It has a lot of explanations on the history of the world and it's dystopian feel. There was just a lot going on especially near the end and it was a bit hard to keep up with what was happening exactly. Basically there was so much history and magic, that the actual basics of how the magic works were lost on me and I could not see the wood for the trees.
The magic system is still not entirely clear to me yet, but here's the basics. In this world people either have the power to create or destroy or both. But whenever you create or destroy something you have to make a sacrifice. Specifically this means people drawing blood, hurting themselves or murdering, to be able to get power. Lorena has a vilewrough and noblewright which means she has both the power to destroy and to create. She is also unbound, which means she is not bound to serve anyone. When you sacrifice there's the choice to sacrifice part of yourself or taking something (voluntarily or involuntarily) from others.
As you can imagine, the book is very dark. It is about characters having to choose between giving a lot of themselves or hurting others. This is a very clever spin on the class system and the idea on who should rule or how they should rule.
In that it is extremely attention grabbing and easy to read. (Or rather, to devour.)
It was formerly described as a beauty-and-the-beast retelling and though it's only a loose one, you can clearly see those elements from the beginning. The big overlying sentiment is eat-the-rich and basically a fight against capitalism. Though this was at times layered on rather thick, the way the magical world was designed and mirrored reality was really unique and fascinating.
Then of course there's the characters. Main character Lorena Adler makes a lot of questionable decisions, but she's also intelligent and cunning and it's easy to sympathize with her. She is brave enough to make hard choices. She is kind and complex. And she is also unapologetically ace. Her thoughts and conversations about this really resonated with me and it's also a big part of the way she behaves. It was not her whole character, but it was part of her throughout everything she did. She hid parts of herself because of the expectations an ever-sexual society ascribes to certain actions. She has a lot of internal and external struggles around this and I thought those were handled really thoughtfully.
Then there's a 'dangerous mysterious apathetic bad-person' crown prince love interest, Alistair. Maybe his description sounds like a basic YA love interest, but he really was more complex than that. He and Lorena had really big differences and a lot of problems arized from that. I did like reading about his relationship with Lorena. Even as they grew closer, there always remained some sense of strain between them because of their fundamental opposites. I thought their dynamic was very unique.
Notable side characters include Basil, Lorena's non-binary colleague and Lorena's friend Mack.
I also really liked the role Julian played in this story, I didn't expect it but was pleasantly surprised.
The characters didn't have the biggest emotional impact on me, it also felt like the world and plot was prioritized over them. This was also shown in the way the characters treaded each other, while their joking around was fun and realistic, it at times lacked real emotional scenes at appropriate times.
Overal this was a very dark story with a great (biromantic) asexual main character and it could've been a new favorite if I was a bit less confused. (I might reread it at some point and maybe enjoy and understand it more the second time!)