A deliciously dark tale of supernatural creatures and the twisted patriarchies they build to hide their secrets from the human world. I was rooting for Devon every step of the way as she fought for survival for her and her son. Wonderfully imaginative world building.

This was a super creative high concept title that was pretty well executed. Would reccomend for fans of The Cartographers or The Starless Sea

Unusual combination of fantasy, thriller, fairy tale, and vampire genres. Devon's quest to free herself from the patriarchal world of the book eaters and save her mind-eating son is sometimes disturbing but always fascinating, thanks to the great world-building.

The Book Eaters is quite possibly one of the best books that's coming out this summer, in my humble opinion. There's something about Sunyi's writing style that draws me in like no other—the simple lyricism of it all made the story absolutely captivating. The concept of the book itself is amazing—who hasn't wished they could just absorb the contents of all the books they've wanted to read?

More than all that, though, I adored the exploration of family and motherhood in this novel. Devon's unconditional love for her son makes you ache in ways you can just FEEL, you know? I wanted to reach through the pages and give Devon a hug because she's trying, she really is, and at the end of the day, she just wants the people she loves to be safe and happy. Absolutely love this book; will be recommending it to everybody I know.

So many great debuts this year, but this one STANDS OUT!

This is one the librarians will struggle to genrify - is it fantasy? Horror? Dystopian? Women’s Lit? This spectacular, original story is all that and more. Dean’s writing is some of the best I’ve read this year - tight and descriptive then flowing and expansive - all coming together in a whopper of a story.

Highly recommended.

If I could eat books I would devour this one! Such a thrilling story that kept me on the edge of my seat. I was torn between wanting to read as fast as I could to see what happens next or read as slowly as I could to savor every word! Exquisite. PLEASE give me a sequel I need more of Devon asap.

Book eaters is an unique and wonderful book about what happens ( once again ) to women in a mans world, among other heavy topics. Devon is raised a princess in a world where women are scarce and their main function is to have children for one of the five families in a society that’s slowly dying out. They’re book eaters who feed on only books as food. Filled with knowledge but not able to read and write women are chattel who are married to produce an heir, raise the child for three years, and then never see the child again. They’re surrounded by knights, who are the muscle, and dragons whom the knights have to control because they feast on not books but humans to survive. Having to procure humans for her son Cai to survive Devon first asks his victims, are you good? Which is another main theme in the book because In this world no one escapes having to do evil things in order to survive.
Highly complex, beautifully written with a very unique plot this book is a winner.

On the face of it, "The Book Eaters" might seem to be a horror novel with a fresh twist on vampirism. Instead of blood, this alien race eats books to survive and they gain knowledge from the books they consume. Want to learn a new language? Snack on a phrasebook. Kids won't behave? Feed them a few pages of a Merriam-Webster dictionary.
It's evident that author Sunyi Dean has devoured works by Margaret Atwood, maybe some Jeanette Winterson and VE Schwab, certainly some thrillers… and unlike the book eaters, she is able to write and we benefit. Inventive, well-paced, frustrating, maddening (seriously, I forgot I needed to write a review, got lost in the story, and just wanted Devon to kill practically everyone) --The Book Eaters appeals on so many levels.

The Book Eaters is an action packed emotional tour de force. Beginning as a story about motherhood and sacrifice. About what we would do to take care of the ones we love. It quickly morphs into a book about socialization, sexism, and agency. The magic world building idea is unique and thoughtful from the very first moments. How books serve as a symbol for the stories we are told, forced to learn as truths. All the ways we can control our society, lives, and families via books.

On the reverse side, The Book Eaters is a testament to the importance of imagination, possibilities, and stories. To illustrate that we can be limited by what we think of the world. The options that are present to us. But that once we can foresee a new opportunity, a new ending, our lives transform. My heart broke for Devon throughout the entire book. To the ways her decisions, her bodily control, her love is held against her. As a methods of control.

Dean creates a new kind of supernatural being with this debut novel. She includes a rich culture for her book eaters, whose traditions and rituals include arranged marriages and the complete subjugation and control of their women. Devon defies her people's ironclad rules to try to save her five-year-old son from being imprisoned or killed because he was born different.

I liked the depth of the world-building. It was refreshing to have a totally new supernatural species to read about. Her characters were well-drawn and the author saved her villains and her heroes from being two-dimensional by giving them realistic flaws and redeeming qualities. In fact, I would say that there are neither villains nor heroes, just people constrained by a culture that puts the privileges of the few above the needs of the many..

I would recommend this for any fantasy reader who wants something original that delivers both good character development and suspenseful action.

Book Eaters is a deliciously unique take on the cruel realities of trauma, motherhood, patriarchy, and tradition. Devoured every page and am still hungry for more.

It's always exciting to discover a book with a premise you've never seen before and one you never even could have imagined. The Book Eaters throws you into a world where there's a hidden race of being who eat books instead of food. Within that race, though, some are born with the need to eat brains, instead. Oh yeah, and they might have been put on this planet to gather information for aliens. This all sounds outlandish and out there, but in actuality, The Book Eaters is a grounded adventure about a mother going to any length to protect and care for her son, break away from a sexist, repressive society, and define who she is outside of the narratives other have imposed upon her. Dean fills the book with atmosphere and mystery, and it becomes a real page-turner at times. The result is, without a doubt, on of the most unique fantasy novels of the year, and shouldn't be missed out on.

Think of the traditional gothic vampire story, with old families hiding terrible secrets while they move through the mortal world, filled with hidden rivalries and deadly habits; then have the vampires eat books rather than humans, and you have The Book Eaters. Devon is the daughter of a Book Eater family, on the run from the restrictive, misogynist life expected of her with her son in tow. Together, they are sucked back into Family (always capitalized in the text) politics in an intense game of cat and mouse where the sides are difficult to determine and there are no heroes. A cool take on the vampire story, though less groundbreaking than one would hope.

I struggled with this one. On paper, it looked like everything I’d love with its strange race of monsters who survive by eating books, and themes of motherhood and sexuality. But this novel just felt very underbaked. I think I’ve finally come to the conclusion that I just couldn’t jive with the central figures: Dean essentially created a new cryptid governed by new rules, and just hoped we’d roll with it. People who are better at hand waving weird and complicated premises than me might enjoy this one a lot, but every time a new little quirk of the book eating race was mentioned, I just wondered… why? Why were girls so much rarer than boys? Why were some born with the ability to eat minds rather than books? Why were book eaters unable to read or write? Frequently, the answer to these questions were “IDK because I needed plot to happen”.

Why not just… use vampires? This 100% feels like a vampire tale in which the author just switched some things out to be more original. Instead there are hints that this is an alien thing, which… okay, but again, was never really explained. The ending was set up for a sequel, so maybe there is more to come.

Anyhow. This wasn’t bad; this was frustrating. Without enjoying the central conceit, I just couldn’t get into this one.

A really solid first novel that delivers a fun twist on the old vampire trope. I really appreciate the author's world building and character development; they also manage explore some themes of feminism, sexuality and autism without being too heavy handed. I would personally put this under dark fantasy, although I can see why some readers might call it horror---there are some scenes that are a little graphic.

I feel like there was some pacing issues about 2/3 of the way through; another twist or minor conflict could have solved this, but this is a minor quibble. I also feel like there were missed opportunities to play with text given the main character literally eats books. Overall, though, an impressive debut and I look forward to more books from Dean.

The Book Eaters, the debut novel by Sunyi Dean, will be released on August 2, 2022. Tor Books provided me an early galley of this urban sci-fi novel in exchange for an honest review.

The concept of this novel grabbed me right out of the gate. By switching back and forth between Devon's present and past, Dean brings out the concepts that are key to the worldbuilding in this book in an enticing manner. It is like consuming a rich meal by going through a variety of interesting courses. Each chapter kept me wanting to read more.

Not surprisingly, this story makes statements about the patriarchy and women's rights by using the fantasy concepts as stand-ins for real-world equivalents. She also takes the classic concept of "predators living among us" and turned it on its ear. Vampires have been done to death, so thankfully Dean has taken a different approach. As a librarian, the idea of a group who survive by consuming books, literally, was very attractive.

One thing that felt "off" to me was how easily characters spill secrets, secrets they've been holding on to for a long time or those they have been made privy to due to their situations. I would expect that those who have to live so cautiously would be more careful with how they hold their cards. There were also other instances of characters making questionable actions and statements at times just to keep the story progressing. Finally, overall, the book turned out to be a lot more violent than I had expected.

Unfortunately, I was unable to connect with this book and it ended up being a DNF for me. Conceptually, this was really interesting and I enjoyed the author's writing style, but it just lost me a little bit along the way.

The Book Eaters is a feast of a story, with an aperitif of supernatural mystery, an amuse-bouche of family politics, three courses of contemporary Gothic horror, a vintage bottle of vengeance and a well-earned finale where diners get their just desserts.

Devon is a book eater, part of a race of supernatural entities that consumes tomes while absorbing the knowledge they contain. Devon is raising her five-year-old son Cai, who is not a book eater, but a mind-eater: he must sustain himself by feeding on the brains of others. This process is more vampiric than zombie: the feedings imprint the victims’ personalities upon Cai, so this five-year-old must contend with multiple identities constantly fighting for control of his mind.

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.

The narrative structure of the book divides its time between Devon’s past, alternating chapters with present day Devon and Cai on the run. Dean is a brilliant world-builder, farming out just enough bits of information along the way to help fill in the gaps of Devon’s early years while helping the reader understand her motivation and goals in the present timeline. Not all is as it seems.

Everyone is a monster in this book, and they are all terrifying. Flashes of Atwood’s The Handmaiden’s Tale rears its ugly head as Devon’s desperation becomes agonizing and palpable. One of my favorite themes of the story is how painful love can be, and this is a driver of so many of Devon’s major life choices, which sometimes lead to ruin. But throughout it all, there is a sliver of hope for a way out. All the years of terror and loneliness and desperation might lead to freedom and companionship with a side order of vengeance if her wild plans could somehow fall into place…

The Book Eaters is one of my top reads of the year. It is atmospheric, it is brutal, it is exciting and emotional, and I planned my evenings around it. It tackles themes of identity, parenthood, the dark side of love, the importance of hope and sacrifice, and what it means to grow up different. It resonated hard with me. Highly recommended.

This was EXCELLENT. I was sold with the rural UK setting and the concept of people eating books, but this felt like a fairytale in the best way. The world building was simplistic and yet fascinating. The book is also casually queer and has some amazing feminist moments which I adored.

The book is dark and gruesome, but in the best way - I was hooked and couldn't put it down. The ending was definitely left open for a sequel, and I would certainly like one!

Consumed it in one sitting. Still want dessert though.

Loved the adventure and the familial basis, and also that it’s sapphic without being romance heavy!