The Book Eaters: the SUNDAY TIMES bestselling gothic fantasy horror – a debut to sink your teeth into

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Also I hope her next book has a different narrator. This one was just awful. She reads absolutely everything at the same clip, with the same inflection. Dialogue sounds the same as scene description which sounds like the quotes that open each chapter. She's always at a seven in terms of intensity, which is either way too much or not enough depending on what's happening. The end result is that it mixes the story into a dull hum of white noise. Also "coup" is not pronounced "coop." I actually looked it up because hey, maybe it's a British thing, but no. She says "coop," and she says it a LOT. As a child, Theo used to play in the woods and valleys throughout the barony. He had even been to the cave which the grimoire Death's Worship later used as its base. The themes in this book were really on point and well explored. I loved seeing the insight into book eater culture and how the mind eaters are treated as monsters and the politics within the book eater world to control them. One of the Families has a substance called redemption which means mind eaters can eat books to survive but they are beholden to this one family having a monopoly. There is also a lot of discussion around religious fanaticism (but not actual religion more just an allegory) and the world of the book eaters is very cult-like and Devon journey and emotions in escaping them definitely has parallels with people in real life who have escaped cults. The Book Eaters is my first Dark Fantasy read and I didn't even realize it. I went in thinking this was Dystopian Fiction and boy was I way off. This is called Dark Fantasy for a reason. It's atmospheric and bleak, with equal parts disturbing and horrific. And, by the way, books aren't the only thing some of these characters eat. The Book Eaters is told in two timelines, as Dean spins the tale of Devon’s childhood and marriages, weaving this horror story into her fraught, exhausting present. When we meet Devon, she’s escaped Family life with Cai and is trying her best to take care of him, with all that entails—and sometimes it entails bodies. She’s also trying to find a connection to hook her up with Redemption, and trying to stay one step ahead of her dragon brother.

I think every single person who ever read a boo thought “Why can’t we just eat books and retain their contents?” and that is the premise of The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean. As soon as I saw the synopsis I knew it was a book that I was gonna read and I did that as soon as it was released. it would be so easy to write devon off as a vicious, villainous, violent (alliteration!) woman, and perhaps she is. or perhaps she is just a woman, and perhaps the villains are the systems in place, archaic but adapting, that force devon to make certain choices. perhaps she is a morally reprehensible person. perhaps her entire worldview is wrong. but love is not "inherently good", as she notes, and that is her framework, for better or for worse.Dean’s unputdownable debut gives the phrase “voracious reader” a new, very literal meaning ... The fascinating magic system, impeccable and unusual worldbuilding, and well-shaded characters will keep readers riveted through every twist of this wild ride."— Publishers Weekly, starred review Devon Fairweather is a book eater, a human-like creature who feeds on books and knowledge to survive. Devon Fairweather is a princess, one of the very rare women among The Families, the book-eater clans. But, above all, Devon Fairweather is a mother who will do everything and anything to keep her son, Cai, safe from the Families as Cai is a mind eater, someone who feeds on brains to survive. The men in power want to chain him like a monster for their own benefit and there is no way Devon will allow that. She herself has been restrained by the doctrinaire rules of The Families her entire life—her son will be free, or she will die trying.

This is a dark read with twisted creatures, such an interesting plot, morally grey characters I loved and lesbian and ace rep. I couldn’t have devoured this faster or recommend it more! Sunyi Dean is a sly, sharp, and deeply compassionate writer. If you, like me, are a reader who grew up on fairy tales and loved them to bits, you may bristle a little at the role they initially seem to play in keeping book eater women under patriarchal control. But there’s so much more to what Dean has to say about stories. Quotes open each chapter—some from a fictional history of book eaters, and some from books you may recognize, including The Princess Bride and assorted fairy tales. These old stories, with their princesses and stepmothers and witches, have a role to play. They just can’t be the only model a person has to play with, and they can’t always be taken at face value. This book is SEVERELY deceptive in its marketing. If I were to describe it, it would be a mix of Midsommar (a red flag right there, as far as I'm concerned) and The Handmaid's Tale with a bit of Sophie's Choice thrown in the mix. The book-eating element is completely irrelevant to the story, which is a shame because the premise itself is very interesting and, quite frankly, the main selling point (just read the summary). The overall impression I got is that Book Eaters is a very heavy-handed metaphor of literally any weird secluded oppressive cult you can find anywhere in the world, because the MO is usually the same as the one described in this story.Devon Fairweather is a member of one of these families. She grew up on a seclude manor never knowing any women, raised on a diet primarily of fairytales and cautionary tales while her brothers devoured tales of bravery and adventures. Female book eaters are rare, so Devon’s Family—and the other Families of book eaters across modern day United Kingdom—arrange temporary marriages between Houses for procreative purposes. Eater women are used as little more than birthing cows before being forcibly separated from their children and moved onto the next marriage. It’s a patriarchal society full of empty promises and it’s horrifying. There were no books in this convenience store, only rows of garish magazines. Not to her taste, and anyway she had enough books to eat at home. Her gaze skipped across the soft porn, power tools, and home living publications down to the lowest strata, where children’s magazines glowed pink and yellow. It’s complicated.” Devon turned the key and paused, aware her heart was racing. “I need to ask you something.” Al pasar a la edad adulta, debe enfrentarse a la vida de opulencia, matrimonios concertados y una maternidad forzada para la que ha sido preparada.

A minor gripe, pertaining solely to the audiobook. The narrator reads with Northern accent which makes sense because Devon is from the North of England, but she never switches it to anything else, even when reading the parts of other characters who are from different parts of the UK. This sometimes made the book really confusing as it wasn't immediately apparent who was speaking. The writing is striking, mesmerizing and carries you through the story with the pull of the author's creativity and originality. Despite the cringe worthy parts, the world building is imaginative, detailed, and fairy-tale like in many aspects. There are magical books about stories, and there are magical stories about books, and Sunyi Dean’s engrossing The Book Eaters is both and neither of those things. The extended Family to which Devon Fairweather belongs subsist on books, crunching through tomes for the sustenance. Eating a book is a physical and a mental activity. Book eaters retain the words in the books they eat; the objects themselves have fascinating textures and flavors (added ketchup “tasted like an absurdist comedy”). When Devon has to move to a new area, as she does often, she eats the bus and train schedules. But she was raised almost exclusively on fairy tales, which will do something to a kid’s mind. A gloriously Gothic contemporary horror fantasy, perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman and Tanith Lee."—Peter McLean, author of Priest of Bones Book Eater marriages are arranged between the families for the sole purpose of reproduction. Daughters are rare and valued for their ability to reproduce. Sons are plentiful and often tossed aside. The reproduction process is vital to the dwindling Book Eater population.

I hate that I'm leaving a bad review on this book. I'd been excited for it since I heard it existed! The premise sounds absolutely fascinating, almost immediately mythical. It's the sort of plot that you can't believe hasn't been done a million times before. Book eaters gaining knowledge through eating books! It's a good hook, for sure.

This was a unique and interesting modern take on vampirism, weaving in elements of gothic-horror to create an immersive atmospheric experience. I enjoyed the setting descriptions and worldbuilding, both of which were descriptive and well written. The author excelled at creating the book eater culture and their politics and infighting. Theodore Miller is the son of Baron Dennis Miller who is the lord of the humble Miller Barony. As a child, Theo never had a luxurious upbringing due to the barony's main source of income being a small piece of farmland. Even from the small amount of crops harvested yearly, most of the crops were provided to the citizens of the barony who were similarly struggling to stay alive due to the meager amount of harvest.Don't worry, I'm not going to star my own book. That would feel very strange! I'm just filling out this review form because YIKES, I have a novel on Goodreads! Love doesn’t have a cost. It is just a choice you make, the way you choose to keep breathing or keep living. It is not about worth and it’s not about price. Those concepts don’t apply.