I just...it isn't that the cannibal stuff bothered me, it was how deeply into the cannibal stuff the author seemed to be. I'm not trying to kink shame, but, also, what the fuck did I just read?

There is a lot to like here. I expected this to be far more horror-adjacent than it was but I still found it rather chilling. The haunts were excellent with how they are described but I think the writing held back my enjoyment fully. I'd definitly try out another book by this author in the future though for plot alone.
Full review on Youtube.

this was just really, really hard to get into. the writing was really confusing, and I was never really grounded in this story, and honestly felt a bit lost while reading it throughout, without ever connecting with the narrative or any of the characters. gutted I did not like it more!

Star Eater by Kerstin Hall (Solid 4.5 Stars)

Here is my "from-the-hip" review. SPOILER WARNING!

I’m so sad it’s done! I wanted so much more! But in a good way. This is going to be tough to rate. I really enjoyed it. So glad that I stuck with my gut on this one. Even though by the end I really wanted more and the ending, or at least the last five chapters felt a bit rushed, I still loved every minute I was reading this book. I love that the ending conflict was super surreal and chaotic and nightmarish but also peaceful and serene at the same time. The juxtaposition of nature and death and spirituality and mental health and inner strength and heritage of power and femininity, throughout the entire book, was wonderful and intriguing. Just a whole lot of great themes, no doubt, but also characters that actually gave a sh*t about each other and a sacrifice by the main character that didn’t feel like a traditional “loss” for others gain or too tropey or discounting. That moment in the temple... was super unsettling that the spikes went through her wrists. YUCK. I hate it. I love it. It all sent shivers down my spine.

The dialogue, for me, was the weaker aspect of the book but truthfully and for the sake of not giving shallow reasoning, it really helped make the absurdness of the horror elements and the complexities of the matriarchal politics easier to comprehend and digest. I do hate it when it feels like the author rushed the ending, possibly out of fear of staying too long in the slow peaceful aftermath. Like let me see Elfreda hug Millie one more time! Let me hear about where they are going and why and what they hope to find out there during their expedition! But also here I am already SEEING those things and creating my own hopeful narrative. I love when books make you hope like that.

The characters were a little above average but I think the dialogue may have hurt their individuality. I did like the way the bad guys all received cool and satisfying crunchy deaths. Still, I really cared about Millie and El. I loved the seamless inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters and the way the people of this world used body/hand language with their gestures almost like signing while they spoke. Really cool and have never seen it done like that in this genre. Aside from El and a few of the conspiracist nuns on El's side like Saskia, I really was surprised by how much I loved Osan and Millie. Two supporting characters that could have easily been redundant or typical but were completely the opposite.

The world building was so subtle and nuanced and understated but in a way that made me hunger for more without feeling let down by not getting sated with what Hall trickled through the world building. The way information was slowly fed to us through environmental storytelling, subtle details in the worldbuilding, and through El’s “visions” especially when she learned what they really were, which was also a really cool and pleasant surprise and not what I was expecting. I also love that the cannibalism element wasn’t like… for shock value or overstated. It served a really cool and symbolic and weirdly beautiful purpose, albeit gross. After the first time, which I’ll admit shook me a bit, I was like ok, this makes sense. No weirder than Christians when they take communion.

Okay, one gripe that I had about the ending... I hate that we didn’t get to see her be rescued… did she wake up alone in the temple? Weren’t there other bad guys pursuing them? or maybe the others were picked off and that left only Selene? What if she’s pregnant!?!?!?!? If she is pregnant with a half haunt baby that gives her powers while she’s carrying !?!? (Ah, fun speculation. To me, a sign of a great book!)

I will say the pacing towards the end was rushed but that’s what every author I feel like is told to do these days in the final act (and if it's true I hate it! Let me stay a little longer, please!) but at the same time the book never felt like it was over staying it’s welcome. I just really want to know more, to explore more of this world. I hope Hall returns to it sooner than later. I love when a book is compulsively readable. I couldn’t put it down. Despite the seemingly simplistic dialogue and the fact that I really wanted MORE. I really enjoyed this book. The world itself is a new favorite and I want to use this as new compass when navigating the kind of fantasy I consume moving forward!

Unfortunately this wasn't the book for me, I didn't feel a connection to the characters nor the narrative. That's not to say that it's an inherently bad story, it just isn't the story I went into the book expecting (which is on me - and the word of mouth marketing of the book I guess).

This book is very heavy on the political intrigue and not as much on the horror or religious themes that I would have liked. It mentioned a number of characters of which I found it very difficult to keep up with apart from 4 or so main characters. The world building didn't feel fully fleshed out so I felt kind of lost as to where or what in the world was going on - it's also a VERY long book for something that wasn't fleshed out.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was sold on this story from the second I heard it was about cannibal nuns and rest assured this definitely has that. But it’s also full of rich political drama, death and martyrs and magic and even a hint of some romance.

This about Elfreda who doesn’t want to conform to the Sisterhood’s life. She doesn’t want to get pregnant to continue the line, she doesn’t want anything to do with their goals which would get her killed. So she embarks on secret missions, on being a spy for enemies who align on her terms. It was just so good. I was completely enveloped into the story before I even knew it.

This does have very dark themes so definitely read trigger and content warnings before going in but if you like your fantasy with a hint of cannibalism, badass women and spies? You need to read Star Eater.

4/5⭐️

The premise of star eater immediately grabbed my attention. The idea of a band of bisexual characters paired with the concept of zombies and cannibalistic nuns certainly had my imagination Running Wild. I Appreciated the relatively solid world-building and character development throughout the book. However, at times, the Magic System confused me about almost using the bisexuality of characters as a justification because the priestess insects with males then become zombie-like in their mannerisms. However, once I just let myself go with the story, I enjoyed it. I love the matriarchal society described. The idea that large felines were being ridden, and I will praise the subtle yet poignant position of addressing body autonomy and the romances at sweet and pining and longing.

What a disappointment. I'm very tired of books billing themselves as queer and then not actually exploring any kind of queerness, or just having some side characters who are queer. Also, the character development was abysmal and I could not tell you a single thing about any of them. Again, I was so excited for this because the premise sounded so unique and interesting.

I was on page 27 when I realized I didn’t want this book to end. That’s early even for a particularly great book, and this is truly a particularly great book. From the very first pages to its last, its greatness shines.

Elfreda is a low-ranking sister in the ruling theocracy of Aytrium, a small continent that floats above the world by the work and art of the Sisterhood’s magic. The Sisterhood also handles lawmaking, law enforcement, agriculture, urban planning, family planning, and more—they are the sole and ultimate authority for Aytrium, and Elfreda is mostly content to serve as a cog in their machine.

Mostly. But just because she’s diligent and obedient doesn’t mean she’s willing to admit that her best friends are part of a dissident group. Or that she’s profoundly reluctant to embrace some of the more extreme elements of her faith, the ceremonies that produce lace and girl children for the Sisterhood. Or that she has hallucinations that impact her work—but not as much as a Martyrdom would.

Elfreda’s visions are inspired sparks of horror, dark poetry that blurs the line between the fast-paced narrative and Elfreda’s emotional core. They’re also a great element of disorientation, which Hall boldly embraces as another complicating layer of her story. Most authors would hesitate to introduce a new world, new magic system, and also narrator instability, but Hall pulls off the balancing act magnificently.

Lace in particular is a completely intuitive and brilliantly understated magic system. It requires no explanation, which is good, because we aren’t given one. No infodumps here! Which is largely great, but occasionally left me wanting. I could have done with a bit more of the foundational mythology in the beginning to set the stage for the ending, but overall the intuitive approach works very well to create an atmosphere of daunting rules and overwhelming information, much as Elfreda herself experiences as she falls headlong into conspiracy, murder, and worse.

Star Eater is a grown-up iteration on Sabriel, a book I loved as a child for its unflinching willingness to deal with death and darkness. And it’s close cousin to The Locked Tomb Trilogy (aka Gideon and Harrow the Ninth), a necromantic tour-de-force. I’m thrilled to see that there are more and more books that are dark but not grimdark entering the market—books that don’t want to beat you about the head with the idea that realism is synonymous with cynicism, but are nonetheless willing to delve into sorrow and horror. It’s particularly well-timed, too, because I finally feel like I can read about bad things again.

There’s a famous quote by Neil Gaiman that goes “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” I’ll paraphrase a bit and say that fantasy dealing with death—whether necromancy or the stranger forms of un-death in Star Eater like Haunts and martyrs—is more than true because it tells us death can be understood. It can’t be beaten, but it can be reckoned with, embraced or sometimes held at bay.

That’s a powerful thing in these not-really-post-plague days, when the death toll defies comprehension and we’ve had no true reckoning with the reality of our sadness or the tragedy of our many failures. “Back to normal!” comes the cry from our deeply problematic institutions, ignoring the reality that no one—or, at least not one single person I know—understands what “normal” is or ought to be anymore.

Art has always been our most potent coping mechanism. During the pandemic it was a struggle for me to read dark fiction; I needed art to give me light. Now, in the ascendency of “back to normal,” it’s too real in a way I’m hungry for. It says what no one else is able to say, not even those of us living it, because it’s just really hard to articulate the scope.

Elfreda is dealing with an all-encompassing catastrophe of her own, not just the inexplicable proliferation of infected Haunts, but also with a food crisis and a rising tide of inequality. The nonmagical citizens resent the Sisterhood for its power, and Elfreda isn’t unsympathetic. High-ranking sisters live in mansions and host lavish parties catered with delicacies while the general population has to get its protein from insect paste. She has significant criticisms of the current system, but also knows that the rebels who want to destroy the system aren’t equipped to replace it—the status quo and revolution both promise more destruction than solutions. El wants to find a third way, and she also wants to find a way forward for herself specifically. I was glad to watch her try to balance her own individual needs and desires with her desire to aid the collective good, because it’s too easy for fantasy to elide a purpose with a personality. Elfreda is far more complex than even the complicated plots she becomes embroiled in, and I loved to see how she acted as much as I loved to learn what she learned.

Even the smallest acts are thoughtful in Star Eater. In the ruin of all she’d known, El still cursed by exclaiming “Eater!” It’s a small thing but a very insightful one. The “everything you knew is a lie” trope is common these days, but it’s so smart for Hall to realize that dismantling an intellectual framework doesn’t mean dismantling an emotional one. Elfreda and the entire Sisterhood struggle to the last to reconcile the various truths they know and feel, and come to vastly different—but broadly comprehensible—conclusions. This is not a book about good and evil as absolutes; it’s about good and evil choices, and equally about good and better choices. Or perhaps more accurately bad and worse choices. Elfreda certainly spends a lot of time contemplating the lesser evils when trying to work within imperfect and biased systems.

Elfreda literally tears it all down at one point, a triumph overshadowed by the chaos and destruction that ensues. There is no easy way to reckon with history, Hall is saying, and yet we must. To do otherwise is a slow starvation and an increasingly empty faith.

I’ve shelved Star Eater beside Gideon the Ninth on my bookcase. I’m overjoyed that there are now several books about Death Nuns (and even, if you’ve read that one scene in Harrow the Ninth, cannibal death nuns) that are so wildly, darkly creative. It’s a weird topical area to proliferate, sure. It’s also one I can’t wait to see expand even further, and one I hope Hall especially makes further entries to.

This story was so unique! The whole time I was reading, I had this idea that the sisters of the society built in Star Eater were kind of like the nuns from Gideon the Ninth, and I loved that cloistered aspect of character. This book tackles some really difficult and horrifying themes (such as forced pregnancy and cannibalism) but does it in such a vividly different way that they almost become commonplace as you're reading. I really enjoyed this and the bisexual rep it presented, and I'll definitely be reading from Kerstin Hall again in the future.

This was a conceptually fascinating book, but for me, I found the execution a bit lacklustre. Telling the story of a sisterhood of cannibal nuns, I wanted the narrative to have a more horrific feel. Instead, there were times when it read more like a YA fantasy, with too much focus on romance for my taste. With that being said, I did think that the characters were well drawn and felt that their motivations and actions felt authentic. There were times however when it became a bit difficult to keep all of the characters straight. My main criticism is the world building, which I felt was fairly surface level and needed much more depth to truly understand the nuances of the political machinations. Overall, I think my expectations probably influenced my feelings about this book, as I was hoping for a really scary and thought provoking read, but it was definitely an enjoyable time.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A really interesting idea, magic system, and world, but it was only executed "okay". The character building was... skeletal. I didn't find myself caring about the characters at all. Some of the characters had so little screen time that I couldn't remember who they were, but then they had an important part in the story. Many parts of this felt rushed and unexplained. The main character felt like a ghost, she had no real personality or background. The mystery of how this world works was what kept me reading. I wonder if there was too much action, too much packed in close together, and not enough filling in the city, the people, or the world.

I put this down 5 chapters in. There’s a darkness here that I thought I would be able to handle. The synopsis warned me, after all. I knew what I was getting into, at least to some extent. But the whole concept of martyrdom in this world disturbed me so deeply that I didn’t even finish that chapter. And I was already feeling more than a little lost, as the author just dropped us into a vastly different world with no explanations. While I love the new and unique, I enjoy it far more when little tidbits of information and world-building are included here and there in the plot. There was little of that here. What little I read was brilliant, but it just isn’t for me. I think this book will attract a very loyal fanbase, though.

Because I didn't come anywhere close to finishing the novel, I won't be reviewing Star Eater on other platforms.

That premise is what drew me into reading this dark fantasy filled with magic, mayhem and cannibalism happening in a flawed world. But I honestly was confused for most parts of this book. The story is certified fresh for fantasy, but the world building felt incoherent with the story and drew my attention away. Other than that, with little more work this could have been a hit dark fantasy of morally grey LGBTQ+ characters and their interesting lives. I tried my best to enjoy this book!

Thank you Tor via Netgalley for the arc.

I was SO excited to read this book; the premise sounded amazing and like nothing I'd ever read about before, But for me, the execution fell short. More than anything, I think my biggest impression of this book is that it was confusing. So confusing that I just couldn't parse through anything else. I can suspend my confusion so long as we get some explanation or clarity later on the in the book, but that just never came in this book. Unfortunately, I found this book to be really opaque. I'd definitely be interested in reading other novels from this author though!

"Elfreda Raughn will avoid pregnancy if it kills her, and one way or another, it will kill her. Though she’s able to stomach her gruesome day-to-day duties, the reality of preserving the Sisterhood of Aytrium’s magical bloodline horrifies her. She wants out, whatever the cost."

I was so excited for this book. It sounded like a unique and dark sci-fi story. Unfortunately, I found this very lacking. The world building left a lot to be desired, I never felt like I got a full picture of the world. None of the characters stood out to me. There were some cool parts like the magic and the way the sisters "fed" their magic (the cannibalism ) but there wasn't enough. I wanted to dark and this wasn't dark enough. The main character, Elfreda felt very flat to me. I didn't love the "love interests". I thought the pacing was too slow and important information we needed, we didn't get until towards the end. I definitely was disappointed in this story.

The writing was flat for me, and this book felt like it was following a trend rather than establishing one. But the concept is great and readers may like this one a lot.

This month, I somehow ended up reading two very different books that were both very concerned with the infrastructure of society. The other was Slow River, which had a lot of Water and Sewage Treatment action. In this one, our narrator works for the Food Management Dept (a lovely touch, tbh, given her nature). I've only read one other SFF book where the main characters do so much paperwork and that was a high fantasy about lawyers*.

This book is interesting for a number of reasons, and not the ones you'd think. Aside from being a civil servant, the narrator is a cannibal nun. Prolonged exposure to her and her order causes men to become Haunts**. It's New Adult - our main character is 22 - the themes are dark. It veers into so-gory-it's-kinda-cheesy horror quite often. I liked all of that. However.

HOWEVER.

The epilogue makes the book feel like it's a film that American test audiences hated the ending of and I was so disappointed. Up until that point I loved it, and I think I'd still recommend it - I mean we're talking a setting that is a floating island over a continent teeming with monsters, with a basically successful society run by bisexual cannibal nuns, here - and you might feel differently about that ending. But it knocked at least one star off, for me.

• Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead - it is a bit dry but it's really good, I highly recommend it.
** MILD SPOILER: Haunts are not, as reviews keep saying, zombies - they are wendigos. Very refreshing.

Elfreda is part of the sisterhood that rules Aytrium and protects its citizens. She would do almost anything to avoid duties and in particular pregnancy. When offered a chance to avoid this by spying on high ranking members for another faction of the sisterhood, she begrudgingly starts to give information. Through her involvement in the politics of the sisterhood she learns secrets and history that could entirely change the entire worldview of everyone who lives on Aytrium. This book was a wild ride. The most endearing factor was Elfreda herself. She was a well established character from the start and felt so real with her actions and feelings that I just needed to know how her story ended. The world building was also done so well. With El’s existing knowledge of Aytrium and the information she learns we get a lush comprehensive worldview of the magic and history in the world. Which is integral to the quality of the story and to the plot. However, the world that Hall created was so wild and weird that it took me a little longer to get into the story than I would have liked. This story investigates the relationships between women as friends, mothers, sisters, lovers and mentors, but these questions are explored in sometimes violent and brutal ways. Honestly the extremes in the world created was my biggest turn off but it was definitely necessary and made the amazing characters stand out. All in all an awesome work of fantasy that takes a common plot and turns it all on its head.

I was kind of hoping this would be weirder, given the stomach-turning premise. But the prose and dull point of view character don't quite deliver on the description of cannibal nuns and zombie STIs. Which...does that make me the weird one?