Highly imaginative and thought provoking! This is a different spin vampirism and/or zombies that also touches on topics of patriarchy, feminism, and motherhood. It wasn’t what I was expecting going into this book, but I liked it. I enjoyed the characters of Devin, Hester, and Kai a lot

This one was absolutely a book I had no idea I needed in my life. Absolutely unique characters and premise. I’ve already recommended a friend check this one out. I really loved the world building in this one and would love to know more about how the family’s originated and unfolded, settling in the different houses and how their society was established. I was always very keen to pick it up again after putting it down, wanting to know more of what was happening to the characters and if they would succeed on their journeys. You absolutely routed for the underdogs in this one. While it’s quite dark and maybe not the cup of tea for everyone, this was a perfect spooky season read that I would recommend to folks who don’t mind quirk and are looking for something they’ve never read before plot wise. Looking forward to reading more from this author!!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an honest review in exchange for this ARC!

Feeling like a dark fairy tale just blew through town on a blustery day, The Book Eaters has a twisted spin on the story that will hurt your brain - literally. Between princesses and dragons, brain eaters and book eaters, this story brings to life fairy tales in a Grimm way (I feel terribly puny today)…

This was quite an interesting story that shows the devotion a mother can have to her children, but also explores life's tough choices. The idea that women having a lack of choice due to race survival is also a very complex and fascinating outlook.

This was a spooky, dark thriller that was definitely a great addition to Spooktober!

Thank you to @NetGalley and @Macmillan.Audio for this audiobook!

Loved it! More horror than I expected but overall really great. The writing was wonderful and the concept was so cool

I really enjoyed this book and loved the unique magic system. That is what initially drew me to the premise and I was not let down! The audiobook was particularly good.

This was a unique urban fantasy novel that was kooky and a little cozy. I've seen people classify this book as horror, but as a horror I actually thought this book was quite cozy. Something about it reminded me of the children's books, The Burrowers. Yet there is a lot of depth and complexity to the characters and the world in which they live. Like most readers, I loved how the book eating was incorporated in the book and how different story affected the people who consumed them. It was a rather clever commentary on the experience of reading.

I would recommend this one to readers looking for something different than the average urban fantasy.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher

After finishing this, I think I respect it more than I liked it. It's a book I could see recommending to people, but it didn't really do the things I was hoping or expecting, and didn't make the thing it actually was compelling enough for me to overcome that. Also there were just little things that bothered me. Like, the book eaters only eat books. I couldn't get past this. I know it's the premise. But otherwise they are entirely human! I think it's because the book was so clinical about facts otherwise. There's a scene where a woman sticks it to an angry husband for having a daughter that "the sperm dictates the sex of the baby" and I'm like okay so biologically you are human then BUT HOW ARE YOU GETTING NUTRIENTS. It just kept taking me out of it. And there's a video game sub plot and I don't know for sure but I think Sunyi Dean doesn't play video games, or doesn't often, it just felt inauthentic. A line like "I guess I'll never know how Final Fantasy ends" which I can never imagine a gamer thinking. BUT the prose was great, the concept was great, the book felt very fresh and I felt the themes were expertly done, especially for a debut. There was a lot of really poignant or thought provoking stuff about love, family, motherhood, knowledge, culture, feminism...I'm not sad I read the book, but it also never really made me want to keep reading it, either.

Since finishing, I have thought about it a fair amount, but a lot of my thoughts revolve around missed opportunities. I don't feel like the book gave us enough of (or, perhaps, just not what I wanted to see) of the "Book Eater" culture. In general, you could basically take the book eater element out of the story and have the story not really change, which I didn't really like.

7/10

The Book Eaters had an interesting premise but I had trouble getting into the story with the jumps in time. Unfortunately, it was a DNF for me around 20%. I think others would love it or perhaps it would be better in physical format for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was very excited to read this book, particularly when I found out that it was going to be a book club selection for my favorite bookstore. The themes of the family you are born into and the family that you choose are beautifully depicted in this book. The story follows a mother who is forced into a relationship because she can bare children. Within her culture there are very few women, so she is matched with a male so that she can produce offspring. This cycle continues until she bares a child that has some less than desirable traits. Determined to find a solution for her child's unusual eating requirements, she leaves her latest relationship and goes out into the world attempting to find a cure.
The story is at once heartwarming and gruesome, with unexpected twists and turns. If you are looking for a book for "Spooky Season" I would highly recommend this one.

Dear The Book Eaters,
I wasn't really sure what kind of world I was expecting after reading your synopsis, but I knew I was at least intrigued. You painted such a different parallel world to the one that we live in. I loved that the quotes at the beginning of each chapter really helped set the tone for what to expect; they felt very purposeful. And the fact that you created quotes from a book one of the characters wrote was extremely meta. As for your story, I was so pulled into your world. The idea that there are creatures that can survive by consuming books was fascinating, and the limits you placed on their abilities and experiences was so well balanced. I loved the depth that Devon and Kai both had, and Devon's struggle between the world she grew up in and her desire for more kept her interesting. I don't know if there are more stories planned for this world, but I am down to read them all!

On the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people, who eat books and retain the information found within them. Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Like all female book eaters, Devon is raised on a curated diet of fairy tales and cautionary tales, and is expected to produce more book eaters. However, Devon gives birth to son, who’s hunger isn’t for books, but for human minds.

What a delectable read! (I debated if I should make a food related comment for this review for more than I’ll admit 🤣)

Truly, this one is such an original idea and I was hooked on the story right from the first bite…I mean, page. The book follows Devon in present day, while also jumping back to different parts of her past to see how she got to where she is today.

I really appreciated the scenes in the past because they built up the lore of the book eaters and mind eaters, as well as their societal structure well. I truly felt immersed in this world. A lot of fantasy I’ve read lately lives in patriarchal, heteronormative societies and focuses on MCs breaking out of these systems of oppression. Here for it!

This also had the perfect amount of action and suspense. Anyone looking for more reads for spooky season, pick this one up!

Here for the horror not too gore vibes, but didn’t find myself compelled by the characters or their issues.

Devon is part of The Family, a reclusive clan who literally eat books rather than food. The boys grow up on adventure stories, and the girls are fed a steady diet of fairy tales. When they misbehave, children are given pages of a dictionary to eat. As a mother, however, Devon quickly realizes that real life doesn’t always come with a happy ending like the fairy tales she was raised on. When her son is born with a taste for human minds rather than books, Devon has to decide how far she will go to keep him safe.

This was such an intriguing concept, and I love the way the story unfurled more and more about the Book Eaters and their society as it went along. The plot had me hooked from start to finish. Katie Erich did a fantastic job narrating the audiobook, and I loved that at the end of the audiobook, Katie and author Sunyi Dean did an interview talking about their experiences writing and narrating the book.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

The Book Eaters took me a few times to start, but overall the narration was excellent. The story is a bit slow at points, but the memories of the dynamics of the six families are detailed, and interesting world-building makes up for the slow pace. I feel for Devon throughout this new chapter in her life. A young girl was treated as a cherished princess and became a mother with bloody footprints, a determined soul, and haunted eyes.

"She hadn't tried anything, having lived in a prison of edible fairy tales her whole life."

THE BOOK EATERS by @sunyidean was an absolute surprise for me! I grabbed this audiobook ARC thinking I would be going on a light fantastic adventure, but this shit got DARK! I freaking loved it and would say this is one of my favorite fantasies I have read all year

Thanks to the author, @netgalley, and @macmillanaudio for the audio ARC.

Six ancient families of Bookeaters live among humans. Bookeaters eat books, as expected, and they retain the stories and knowledge of the books they eat.

Bookeater men are raised in adventure stories and heroic tales.

Bookeater women are rare and therefore their childhoods are carefully curated keeping them from eating any books except fairy tales (and dictionaries when in trouble).

Bookeater women are contracted twice to two different families to whom they are obligated to bear a child and are told they will be able to "do what they want" after their duties are done. The catch is that they will likely never see their children again...

"That is what fairy tales do to us. If we grow up thinking that we're princesses and someone else will rescue us, then we spend our lives waiting for that rescue and never trying to escape ourselves."

If you like fantasy, books, the idea of eating books and retaining all the info from them, an escape plan, finding your own autonomy, or if you just plain love a good, captivating story, READ THIS BOOK!!

I absolutely love a surprise read that I didn't know I would enjoy so much.

Y'all, this book is a WILD. Personally, it took me a long time to read because I could only take bite-sized pieces as this book is heavy and very uncomfortable at times. It’s brimming with things to unpack and it’s brilliant! The concept of individuals who eat books or in some cases, minds, felt incredibly unique in how the world, characters, and circumstances were crafted; It was a version of modern vampirism. The characters, especially Devon, felt real and you could empathize with her plight. Although, as the reader, you see how her life had horrific aspects and experiences, she is fighting for a better life for her son, and for that, you can’t help rooting for her.

I loved the narrator and thought the audiobook was wonderful. Also, I adored that they had a bonus interview between the narrator and the author. It was really cool to hear them talk about their experience with the book and their processes reflected in the work.

If you are looking for a gothic atmospheric read for the Autumn season, this would be perfect! I’m sure I will think about this story constantly in the future while I try to process what I just read.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for giving me a copy in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you Net Galley for an audio ARC of The Book Eaters by Suryi Dean. This book was actually picked for our book club. This book was not for me, I was bored for most of the book. I thought that the premise was good. I just think it was dragged out too long.

I DNF-ed this book. It was a very unusual topic with a fantastical background to these characters living in our modern world. I think it would be a good Halloween book as the topic seems fairly gory and scary.

What I struggled with on the audio is the accent. I could not understand what she is saying. I hope to give this a try as a physical book, but we will see!

The low ranking is not a reflection of the work itself, but rather speaks to the fact that I did not finish and moved on to other novels.

Horror novels are slightly outside my usual comfort zone for reading, but I’m so glad I decided to push my boundaries and give The Book Eaters a read! Though I was very creeped out at times during the book, I accepted this discomfort as part of the reading experience with a novel this dark, and was able to embrace it! My favorite part of this book was the driving relationship between Devon and Kai, and the intense love between them. Devon is so well written, in that each of her actions is perfectly justifiable from her point of view. She is willing to do whatever it takes to protect her son, whether or not it is the “good” or “morally right” thing to do, which drives the story forward. To me, The Book Eaters feels like the most original fairytale I’ve ever read, earning it a full five stars as my rating!

One thing that I especially loved which was unique to the audiobook was the short interview at the end with the author and the narrator, Katie Erich! It made the book extra meaningful to me when I got to listen to the narrator speak about her experiences as a neurodivergent and hard-of-hearing person (both of which are identities I share). I was delighted to hear a bit about someone like me working in the audiobook industry, especially after listening to and loving the entire story and the narration! As of August, this is my favorite audiobook of 2022, and I sincerely hope that Katie Erich will continue her work in the industry!

My Recommendation-
If you enjoy dark novels with rich and original magic in them, you should grab a copy of The Book Eaters! I would caution more sensitive readers to take a look at the content warnings, as this book does go to some graphic and potentially triggering places.
Content Warning (taken from the author’s website): Body horror, gore, explicit violence, domestic abuse, violence against children, cult-like environment

This is a weird little book, in mostly a good way. But its sense of otherness also makes it impossible to compare this against other books in the same genre, to the author’s credit. It reads like one giant metaphor told through the context of a bizarre, winding storyline with a speculative twist. I was so fixated on the main character Devon being a “Book Eater”, a species of being that sustains on physically consuming literary works that I failed to draw the comparisons to vampires.

Sunyi Dean mentioned in an interview that she wanted to do something new with the concept of vampires and she absolutely accomplished that not with the Book Eaters themselves, but the species of Mind Eaters that rely on human minds to survive. Devon’s son is one such being, leaving her in a difficult place to want to protect him while knowing to do so is to kill another living being.There’s a reason we remain fixated on vampires in pop culture, and I think the idea of having to harm to survive will always create such a complex dynamic in story even when we try to dumb it down to “another vampire book.”

There’s so many amazing places the author could go with a premise like this, and in fact she does some fascinating things with the lore here. Like Devon being able to consume map brochures to visualize a route around a city, or a first aid handbook to learn how to treat an injury. But perhaps because there were so many places to go here, the choice of a dual timeline and very little delineation between changing timelines between chapters - and that left me as the reader a bit lost in the world. Maybe because I read this on audio this was a greater issue but I found myself feeling disconnected from the story when it took a solid few minutes into each chapter just trying to set myself back into whatever timeline we were in.

I can acknowledge a new and innovative storyline and respect everything that brings to an oversaturated market of speculative fiction and still recognize what elements of this book just fundamentally didn’t work for me. It’s the lack of structure and jumping timelines that on a technical level made this hard to follow. And relating to the themes expressed here, I still don’t know if I’m comfortable with the ending here and the driving conflict of the novel being Devon’s journey to “fix” her neurodivergent son.

Thank you to the publisher MacMillan Audio for providing an audiobook ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.