A review by sambutwithbooks
Star Eater by Kerstin Hall

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

This was a cool twist on the genre but tbh I wanted more horror from a book casually described on Twitter as "cannibal nuns". I loved when the book actually leaned into the body horror aspects of the plot but when it came to the actual uh, cannibalism....it fell short. 

Especially when El learns that she's a rare type of nun whose body, when consumed to excess, would make the person eating her super powerful- I never really felt the urgency of her being basically hunted for nearly half the book. 

Another issue I fought with was how binary the plot was. The characters- especially the women- are incredibly queer but there's practically no room made for trans or non-binary characters in this world. 

The ending was a little too neatly tied up but at the end of the day I did mostly enjoy this book, I just wanted a little more from it.
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