Noblewrought who creates, vilewrought who destroy. This is the magic that lives in the Lorena's world. But she is a special one, she is a dualwrought: she can destroy and she can create. Plus, she's unbound. She doesn't serve to anyone, she doesn't serve to the Crown, her magic and her will are free. Lore's life was a happy one: she finally got a home, friends and a boy she loves. But all this will change when the Heir of the Crown come to her town amd made with her a deal.
Now Lore must to help to the Heir with the Door, the great evil of the all Cynlira, that takes human sacrifices to remain closed.
I loved this book so much, but I can tell you the exact reason why. At first it was so confusing, and I didn't understand nothing. The magic system is pretty interesting. It reminds me about the one that appeared on Serpent and Dove: you need to sacrifice something if you want to destroy or build something else.
It's a dark story. I didn't see a real love here, maybe because Lore had such a sad past. The pacing is perfect, not slow, not fast. I've connected only with one character : Alistair, the Heir of Crown. And I definetly loved the Cruel Queen, she scared me with the only mention of her in the book. The end was a bit weird. I expected a happy end to the Lore's love story, but it didn't happen. But I can understand why.
It's a great dark fantasy and it hooks you very fast. The story is pretty interesting and intriguing, and the characters are well builded.
Thanks to Netgalley and to Sourcebooks Fire for providing me a copy of this book.

Linsey Miller is one of my favorite authors, so I've been looking forward to this book for a while. Miller is great at unique worldbuilding, well-developed characters, and thought-provoking prose that always blows my mind, and all of this is present in What We Devour. Lorena is a character that finds herself in a terrible situation, who still manages to maintain her own agency and act according to her own morals and watching her struggle with her own actions while at times crossing the line to achieve what she wants adds a lot to the story for me. She's an interesting sort of character, the kind that makes you want to read more to figure out what she's doing, as she's almost always playing the long game. While I did have some trouble understanding the wrights and that wrights and wroughts were two different things at first, this is a solid book with an engaging plot and fantastic characters.

3.75 ⭐️

Thanks to Sourcebooks Fire for the ARC

I really liked this book overall. The magic system, though a little on the confusing side, was unique. The ending set up quite nicely for a sequel.

A girl with hidden abilities in a world where pain is power and a door that is calling to be unlocked. The story follows a girl named Lorena Adler who has secret powers from banished gods (known as Noble and Vile). The world is set in a place where there are normal humans, and people gifted with either Vile powers or Noble powers and the very rare and select who have both, that being Lorena and the current Queen. After her abilities are secretly revealed when she tries to save the family that had taken her in, she is contracted into a deal with the prince. She is now part of his research group as he seeks to close the Door which holds back the Vile (basically evil). Every time she uses her powers she must sacrifice something or someone, a body part, blood, memories, in exchange for something else. Her abilities allow her to create and destroy. Soon she finds herself uncovering evil plans, secrets that break her heart, and a evil crown prince who isn’t as evil as his reputation.

I wouldn’t be lying when I say reading this story was confusing. It had a complicated story arc and the world and magic system were odd. The ending was.... off for me. I just couldn’t like the story as much as I had wanted. I enjoyed Lorena and Aliastar but the ending and overall arch of the story just didn’t work for me. But give it a try anyways, maybe it’ll be for you!

*Thanks Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for sending me an arc in exchange dor an honest review*

Filled with raw moments, bloody moments and rare and forbidden powers, WHAT WE DEVOUR by Linsey Miller is a dark young adult fantasy that is both spellbinding and cringe-worthy, but most definitely a powerful read.

Lorena must decide to ally herself with a dark prince in order to save the people she loves and the only world she has ever known. Dark, raw and often heavy with atmosphere, this tale has strong characters who will see themselves betrayed, vilified and often misunderstood. Intense from start to finish, high with an emotional charge and graphically told, this is one of those keepers for most age groups.

I received a complimentary ARC edition from Sourcebooks Fire! This is my honest and voluntary review.

I really enjoyed this book! I connect with books that have heavy character dialogue and if I am enjoying the characters then I will most likely love the book no matter what...and I loved these characters. I loved that everyone was slightly morally grey and that the term villain took on a different meaning. I loved that the main character was equally cunning and kind and I loved Alistair!!!! (The heir and villain(??) of the story).

I read through a few reviews that mentioned that the book was confusing and hard to get through and I can understand where they are coming from, but this is another thing that I loved. You are thrown right into the middle of this intricate fantasy world without a lot of explanation, you have to figure out what's happening as you read. Personally, I connected with this way of story telling. I'm not a huge fan of overly descriptive world building, and although it took me a couple of chapters to understand the terminology and magic system I really enjoyed how it was developed and written.

The magic system was also so unique and creative which I loved too! If you love dark fantasy books with a lot of character dialogue, with characters who are deliciously morally grey than you will love this. Also, if you are looking for a book with ACE rep than look no further.
**I will be posting a more in depth review on my blog soon! At www.justlikegilmoregirls.com
CW: self harm, violence and murder

The perfect read for Grisha fans!

Intricate world building, unique magic (contracts), political intrigue, and excellent asexual representation. It’s a story that will draw you in and keep you spellbound with or without a blood contract.

Lorena is a dualwrought gifted with power from both the Noble and Vile gods. She signs a contract with the prince to save her friend’s father. Nothing is as it seems and the prince is trying to close the door that leads to the gods who demand human sacrifice. But the Crown doesn’t want to close the door and the peers care nothing for the people.

CW: Death

The Characters
So we all know that one of the things that can make or break a book are the characters. I have a few thoughts on some of the characters for you.

Lorena
I very much enjoyed Lorena’s character. The book is told from her point of view. She’s a great character. She’s unique in that she is only one of two people in Cynlira who have the pleasure of being “dualwrought”. She’s sassy, sarcastic, and quite frankly, she’s just my kind of character. She’s also loyal to a fault, unless, of course, you screw her over and she finds out about.

Alistair (The Heir)
He’s supposedly the villain in this story, but I’ll be perfectly honest, I actually loved him. I shipped Alistair and Lorena so much it’s not even funny. They were just so good together. In my opinion, he wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone else made him out to be. He was much more caring than one would think – he’s the classic misunderstood villain.

Carlow
Carlow was abrasive, crabby, and could be downright rude. But she was still a lovable character all the same. She cares too much and it shows in how she tries to keep people away from her and keep them safe.

Creek
Creek is a super interesting character and I enjoyed him. Lorena’s first encounter with him is quite funny – especially one of the things Carlow says in regards to it. The twist to Creek’s character made me pause.

Basil
Basil is a character that while we didn’t seem much of them, they were a favorite of mine. They seem to be a bit on the mischievous side and I love it!

Will and Julian
This father and son duo made me want to scream. Remember when I said Lorena is loyal to a fault? Yeah… you’ll see what I mean with these two. But don’t worry, she gets over it.

The World
There isn’t much world-building done here, just enough to get by. There is, however, a map, which is nice because it at least gives a picture of what we are dealing with. The world-building that is done is usually done when it is important to the plot or what is currently happening in the book. The majority of the story takes place in one location, which is probably why there wasn’t a lot of world-building — we didn’t really utilize a lot of the world in the story.

My Overall Thoughts
I really enjoyed this book. It’s a dark fantasy with a unique magic system in which “wrights” are used – not everyone has a wright, so not everyone has magic. However, the magic they use requires them to make contracts with their wrights and it is the wrights that actually do the magic. It’s very interesting and very unique.

The book has creepy elements, a touch of romance, and some mystery as well. What I’d love to have is a prequel – to tell about the Gods abandoning them/being consumed by the people of Cynlira. I’d also love a sequel that details what happens after the end of What We Devour. I think it would very interesting to see what happens in the aftermath.

I rated this book four stars and would highly recommend it to anyone who likes dark fantasy and unique magic systems.

Linsey Miller has really hit a stride with this book. Themes and feelings explored in Miller’s earlier books feel matured here, and you can feel the ease with which things slide into place. The world-building feels more grounded and developed than in the MASK OF SHADOWS duology, but Miller has kept the casual and natural presence of non-binary genders in the background and the fascination with magic that leans just a bit toward the macabre, except the darkness feels more fully realized now, the shadows a bit deeper.

I absolutely loved Belle Révolte by Linsey Miller so I was super excited to read more from her. Unfortunately though, I just couldn’t get into What We Devour. I decided to DNF at 25%. I was confused from the very beginning. It felt like I should have known all about this world and characters before I ever started the book. Maybe I missed something along the way, I’m not really sure. I’m disappointed that I didn’t enjoy this one. I will definitely try reading more from this author in the future. Thank you so much for the opportunity to review an early copy.

Rating: 2.5 stars.

This was difficult. I really liked the concept of this after reading the blurb, but I feel like it didn't really translate on-page that well. I spent the majority of time reading this confused about what was happening, mostly due to the really confusing writing style, and even in the end, I wasn't really sure where the story was leading.
The worldbuilding was really cool in theory, but so many things were never explained and especially in the beginning I had no idea what was going on. I realize that it was supposed to jump right into the story in the beginning, which was why things were explained later, but at that point I was already pretty lost and not that interested anymore. I also found that the plot didn't really engage me, there wasn't a lot of suspense for me, mostly because I failed to connect to the characters because I was so busy trying to understand the worldbuilding. Otherwise, I would say the characters were likable though, especially the protagonist and I enjoyed her dynamics with the other characters, especially Alistair.
Overall I think this just wasn't for me, I can definitely see how other people would really like this but for me it just wasn't that enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an arc in exchange for an honest review!
Ace rep! Morality gray mc! Completely platonic friendships! Short scary girl!

Ok the magic system-wow-in a good way I promise. I can’t even explain it other than I can practically feel it and I love it.

I was terrified this would have a love triangle but it Didn’t and I’m rejoicing. The romance was so cute and I loved it.

That ending killed me. I’m dead. I will never recover. Linsey Miller you’re legally obligated to come to my funeral.

The characters were so fleshed out and the main character isn’t perfect. She makes mistakes and makes the hard decisions no one else wants to make. Her trauma changed her. It made her hesitant to trust and a little cruel and meeting a boy didn’t change that. I wish we could’ve learned more of the background of the side characters but I understand why. The main character wasn’t exactly painting their toenails and talking about her childhood either.

I have so much love for misunderstood villains and the prince was such an amazing version of this. He deserved so much better and I would die for him. He’s just so sweet and everyone thinks he’s evil and i almost cried.

I’m honestly having trouble coming up with words but I just loved this and I’m literally begging you to read it.
tl:dr please just read it

This one was....odd and not for me.

One of the more specific things i struggled with was the "throwing right into the action" + weird exposition dialogue in the beginning. It was chaotic and made it a bit of a struggle to get used to where the story was going. This feels like a debut, but more specifically, it comes off like a very new/young author and I personally had a lot of trouble connecting with the text and forming relationships with the characters,

The positives being that the idea behind the story is VERY unique and I love a good dark YA. I look forward to seeing what the author does from here.

What We Devour was practically a perfect book for me. Initially requesting this book for the asexual representation outside of contemporary fiction, it wasn’t long before I was glad to have requested it for a vast number of reasons. I even managed to tolerate mentions of self-harm, one of my biggest triggers, and move on to be able to keep reading this book and keep seeing the events unfold. And by god, did they unfold at a pace I was not expecting despite the final resolution not occurring until the very last pages.

This is a hard one to review because I did love it so much, and I did get largely invested to the point of me spamming my friend with out-of-context spoilers to get them invested in a book they weren’t even reading. There were moments where I cried, where I got mad, where I had no choice but to rant to myself out loud earning glares from my cat. I was so drawn into this book from the very beginning, finding characters I loved and characters I hated and barely having my stance change throughout the pages. While I’m trying to keep this review as spoiler-free as I can, I have this overwhelming urge to pour every thought and feeling about every scene into this very paragraph.

I say this often, but I am a very character driven reader. I believe that even the most basic of plots and worlds can draw me in with a well-developed character, but that wasn’t the case here. From the first moment I saw the map I was excited to dive in and learn about this world that had been created. It was easy to just fall into this world, discovering more about it as I read just felt natural to me. The plot was also just so easy for me to fall into, getting more and more curious as I read just aching for the solution and the happy ending that I truly believed the main characters deserved, specifically Lorena, Basil, and Mack. And while the ending was so far from what I had hoped for and expected, it still left me with this feeling and fulfillment. They’d gotten to the end, I’d gotten to the end with them.

I can’t start that last section by mentioning that I’m character driven and not dive into the characters, so here it goes. From the start, I adored Lorena. I loved that she’d set up a life for herself despite drawing the short straw and that it gave me aspects of found family, a trope I adore. Each character I met after that was an experience, and a lot of them gave me the “you hate them or love them, no in between” energy. I had definitely favourites throughout the book, and I can’t say I was surprised when I started feeling hatred for two characters I will not name, but will hint to when I say their endings were exactly what they deserved. Lorena’s asexuality was so personal to me, I rarely read about ace experiences that so closely mirror my own and I was so impressed to see that I was getting exactly what I’d hoped for when I first decided to read this. I was also pleasantly surprised to see a character hinted at being nonbinary, using the same set of pronouns that I do and having them respected entirely. I felt safe reading these characters, which is surprising in a story so dark.

The magic system in this book took a lot of darker turns, and I shocked myself being able to stomach some of the more intense scenes, as mentioned in the first part of this review. Magic that has aspects of blood magic is always a slippery slope and I was so scared in the first chapters of this book, unsure if I’d be able to handle it despite knowing that it was a content warning to begin with. I’m so pleased to discover that with proper content warnings and a book that I love so intensely that I can push through and still adore the book.

Words actually can’t describe how much I loved this book and how much I’m going to refuse to shut up about it when it finally gets released and I don’t feel like I need to hold back on my spoiler-filled opinions.

I think this book is a hit or miss among people who enjoy books with gothic vibes. Unfortunately, this was a miss for me. There's a lot of pros in this: 1) the characters are very distinct. 2) The premise set in the story is believable and consistent. 3) The plot itself is good and keeps you going. But sadly it was the writing style that overshadows all of these positive traits. It was really hard to get into the book. I get that fantasy books are confusing within the first 100 pages or so but halfway in already and I still could not catch up to the main point of the story.

This is all subjective, hence, if ever you're planning to pick it up, I'm sure there is a chance you will find my opinion contrasting to yours.

There is a joke on booktok that the first 50-100 pgs of a fantasy novel are always confusing as heck... well this definitely plays into that trope.

I overall really appreciate how open the author has been on GoodReads about content warnings and love that the main character is ace. Overall I really like the characters.

My main complaint is that this book is confusing and hard to follow, which really just left me wanting more.

Thanks to the publisher for allowing early access to this title through NetGalley for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this books so much, I love when books are dark, bloody, include demons, magic, dark deals, and all the like. But I would be lying if I knew what was happening from the very beginning. The author kind of jumped right into things without explaining much about the world. The new terms for “noblewrought” and “vilewrought” were given one sentence explanations, which didn’t do this justice as those terms make up the whole magic system. The character was introduced and immediately set into the plot without giving me time to become attached. I was just becoming more confused as time went on, and I wasn’t emotionally attached or invested in any of the characters at all. 2.5/5 stars.

DNF at 30%

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This was tentatively on my most anticipated new releases list. I say tentatively because I reviewed Linsey Miller's debut novel a few years ago and wasn't particularly impressed, but I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Authors improve the more they write, after all. Or... so I like to think. But oh boy. This was somehow worse! This was utterly incomprehensible. Every single time I sat down to read this book, I had to shake my head and reread passages, thinking I was just too tired to understand what trying to be expressed, or I'd missed something completely. But no, this is just written like a first draft, where the author hasn't quite got all the pieces figured out yet, but they just have to keep going just to get the story down, except instead of taking the time to rewrite, edit, and fill in the gaps, it was just... handed over to the publisher as is...? And they just... published it? That's the vibe I got from it, because none of it makes sense. Characters show up for no reason, all pretty indistinguishable from one another, and the apparent villain of this piece just strikes up casual conversations with the protagonist as if he's not busy openly oppressing her clan... Nothing is written like real human people would behave and there was absolutely no tone, atmosphere, or tension to speak of, so there was no incentive to engage in what was happening whatsoever. In a word, it was FLAT.

This was a really interesting book and it had soo much potential but it was just so confusing!
I am just gonna go with what I liked then what I didn't like.
Likes:
-I loved the idea of this, just the whole plot sounded really interesting.
-I liked the characters, at least the characters that I could keep up with.
-AND the potential, there could've been a really cool second book with the way one of the characters was revealed towards the end.
-I did like some of the parts where it touches on the main character's asexuality ONLY SOME lol
-I liked the way the author wrote the characters, like their dialogue.
Dislike:
-SO this whole book was just so confusing. I was constantly turning pages back to figure out just what exactly is happening. And then I thought I got all the characters down but then some of them kept dying and not that one character that always does, but just in general and I couldn't keep up with who was still alive or not. it seemed like a lot of stuff just wasn't really explained
-I also did not really like how the main character was portrayed as asexual, yes I liked that she was, but the way she was portrayed I didn't really like. she was written very robot-like in some places and while there were some nice scenes that were really nice especially towards the end of the book, it kind of got on my nerves how she kept,, like explaining why she was the way she was it just didn't seem necessary because as the reader you can already tell by her actions.
-Also the whole vilewright and noblewright stuff wasn't really explained enough I was very confused and it was only touched briefly on in the beginning then just started like you already know everything about it.
-And then finally, just the world in general seemed kind of confusing. Like yes, there is a map, but is this kingdom the only place in this world? Why couldn't they just leave the kingdom? idk just kind of confusing
-Also the prince/heir in the synopsis was noted as a very "bloodthirsty" prince, but when we actually see his character, even in the beginning he doesn't really seem like that at all like.. even in the beginning his character just doesn't really match up to what he is explained as.
Overall this book had a lot of potential but it was just way too confusing

I loved how monstrous every character was in this book - the character development of Lorena was perfect in my opinion. I so happy I got to read this book and can't wait until I can buy it myself. This world has such an interesting magic-system that I felt fit the story so well. I can wait for the next book!