To clarify, I just wanted to say I did not love the audiobook and if I were to read this again I would read it through ebook and physical copy.
This was one of my most anticipated reads and it really fell flat for me. I could not connect to the story very well and this made the reading experience feel very forceful. I thought the story was very interesting and original but as a I went back and forth in the timelines, I found myself not wanting to continue reading when I got to the timeline I enjoyed less. The pace was something that was a struggle to get through, along with the romance. The romance felt very underdeveloped and not really there, then again this more of a horror novel than romance so the authors intentions for the romance were not at the forefront of their mind.
The depictions of violence in the book were darker than I anticipated so definitely more of a horror feel than fantasy. I believe other people may enjoy this book much more than me which is why I bumped it up a rating because I find that the concept truly is unique, the struggles of being a mother was well done, and the LGBTQ+ representation.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an audio ARC of this book

I thought the premise of this one was really strong. I mean wouldn't you want to actually be able to eat a book and gather all the knowledge from it? I really wanted to love this one, but I just found myself quite bored throughout. One would think with exciting things happening like children who can eat peoples minds you would be enthralled, but I couldn't connect with the characters and the pace of the book was so slow I kept wanting it to be over. Aspects of the world building were really interesting but it wasn't enough to save this one in my opinion.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of The Book Eaters in exchange for an honest review.
Firstly, I would like to say that I think the premise of this book is very unique and I quite enjoyed it!
The story is about Dev, a "Book eater" quite in the literal sense of the word. Her nourishment comes from books that she eats and absorb its content. She was born in a society that is getting smaller and they view women as the key "resource" to maintain the population. Insert here a parallel with Handsmaid Tale and the oppression of women in a patriarchal society. The fertile women have children with the men in the society for as long as they can btu cannot keep the babies. Of course, to keep these women at bay and agreeing with this system, they are fed only fairy tales.
However, Dev has a son.. and he is quite different than her and others from her society and to save him, she must flee.

This book is a low fantasy in the sense that these people lives among humans and a very "normal" England. I knew when I started that it was going to be horror, but rest assured there is no much gore involved in this book. The horror aspects is more about the environment, this sense of being followed and the societies that Dev is trying to run away from.
I thought it was fascinating the way that the society control women through fairy tale and cautionary tales, and how the other cult leaders twists truths and become more radicalized by what they consume. There were so many interesting points to drive a conversation about our society in general that I could be writing this review for pages.
The condition of Dev's son was also fascinating. Although his condition is terrible, I liked how the author explored his predicament and I wanted to have seen more of it.

The only thing that threw me off the book was the narrator. I listened to the audiobook and although I appreciate the pick of a narrator that are from northern England (her accent was quite lovely), the intonation of her reading did not make me loose myself in the world. There were fighting scenes, for example, that it felt as a conversation rather than a dramatic moment.
Overall I enjoyed the story and I would probably re-read in paper format

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Really cool book! i would love this to be a series, would love to buy and will be rereading!

Overall I really liked the idea of this book. However, it was hard for me to follow on audio. I would recommend reading this book instead of listening..

I was looking forward to this much anticipated book and perhaps I expected something different. I loved the cover and the title and I thought it would be a cute little fantasy and it was far from that. It ended up being a dark fantasy about evil, control and desires and seeking redemption (quite literally it's a drug in this book) from your dark desires. Is this another take on vampires? Perhaps, maybe. This book is complex and dark and in a way suffocating for me as the reader because I wanted light and fluffy and I got intense. The book is about a mother's love and acceptance. And of course, what's the definition of a princess? I think I may need to give this book another try at a different time, but for now if you like dark dystopian fantasy, then this is the book for you.

I really got into this one for the first half. I really liked the story and explanation of how bookeaters retained stories and information after eating them. And the same with the people eaters. But the story started to lose me after they got on the train. I think it got too complicated as to what was happening and i kept picking it up but couldnt listen more than a percent or two at a time and I finally dropped it.

A dark fairytale about people who may have a different strict diet but entertain the same misogynistic system as the rest of the world. On top of that, they seem stuck in the feudal age while living in the 21st century. So, a bit worse.

I love how the author showcased how this misogynistic system is terrible for both women and the men. She showed how these two siblings, together as children getting into adventures and being there for each other, turn agaisnt each other as time passed, thanks in large part to how they were raised and by whom. Their rules, their punishments, only work agaisnt their society in the end. The Book Eaters is dark, and gritty, none of the characters are good, but they are also not entirely evil. There are so many layers to the story, the disintegrating bond between a sister and a brother, a woman held captive by her society, a boy turned into a monster by his mentors, and a boy born a monster by nature and the lengths his mother will go to in order to save him. It is pretty good.

I read this story via audiobook, and while at first it took a bit to get used to (my main language is Spanish though I am fluent in English) I felt like the narrator's voice added authenticity to the tale. I stuck around for the Q&A after the book ends, and got to hear about how people with that type of accent aren't as well represented, and I say that's a damn shame! As long as the narrator knows what they are doing, and it fits the character, I am all for it.

Nothing comes easy to our MC, Devon. Her entire childhood she was treated like a princess. She was born and raised in comfort. She thought her life was golden, until the bill came. Soon enough she learns why princess' are kept in cages, and in this particular tale there will be no one coming to rescue her. She fights tooth and nail for what she wants, and for her child, the monster. Her brother on the other hand, taken away from her at a young age as punishment for something she instigated (and even this young you already can tell the seeds of misogamy by the way the brother thinks everything he does he HAS TO do it to protect her, and therefore consequences of protecting his sister are her fault) grows up to be a knight, sworn to protect their society by keeping the status quo intact, and therefore protecting his power or the illusion of it.

It is a dark twisted tale, and I really enjoyed it. I felt the ending was a bit abrupt and open ended, which is fine, but personally I would have loved an epilogue (which only certain special edition copies get... I hate this as I don't like to buy more than one edition... Overall, definitely recommend, and will be on the lookout for the author's next book.

Throughout the whole book all I could think was book eating vampires!

The Book Eaters is a dark and semi graphic read filled with morally grey characters and so many twists and turns. To add, LGTBQIA2S+ representation!!

So, the story starts off with us getting to know Devon, one of the few book eater women who has brought up to be a princess. You see women are found in short supply, so when a girl is born, she is raised on a diet of fairy tales and is treated like royalty. That is until she gets married and realized that she is a princess, a princess trapped in a world where women do have as many privileges as she once thought they did.

Devon ends up having two children, a daughter that she was torn away from and a 'mind eater' son, Cai. Devon makes it her mission to save her son all the while trying to find the Ravenscar, a group who have created a drug that allows mind eater to survive without eating brains. It isn’t an easy task, but one should never disregard a mother’s determination.

This was so well written and had me engaged throughout the whole book. I highly recommend everyone pick this book up!


Thank You to Sunyi Dean and Macmillan Audio, for the audio-digital ARC provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing an advance listening copy in exchange for my honest review. Even though I'm not a fan of horror, I really got into the book. I loved the narrator, Katie Erich. Her northern English accent was perfect for story set on the moors of northern England.

Living on the margins of society, the book eaters survive by eating books instead of food. They are a secretive race who pass for human but are increasingly isolated from society because they do not read and cannot write or even type. They learn by eating books & anything else written or printed on paper: handwritten notes, glossy pamphlets, books, magazines, dictionaries, encyclopedias, user manuals, etc. For them, a thriller is spicy, and a romance novel is sweet. Boys are raised on a diet of heroic adventure stories while girls are fed a much more limited diet of cautionary fairytales and educational titles.

This book starts with Devon struggling to care for her young son, Cai. Why she and her son are on their own isn't clear at first. But as the story unfolds using alternating timelines, you gradually learn more about her, her son and the secretive society they come from.

Normally, I'm not a fan of stories told using alternating timelines, but Sunyi Dean used the technique very effectively to build the tension as Devon's story unfolds in both the past & the present.

The Book Eaters is a modern gothic horror complete with bleak landscapes, dark family secrets, luxurious manor houses, a creepy castle and even an elaborate garden with a hedge maze. It's a stunning debut and fans of gothic horror will love the atmospheric and haunting story. It's as disturbing and unsettling as it is beautifully written.

I found a few scenes very disturbing (harm to children), so it's not something I would recommend to the squeamish, but I think fans of gothic horror will enjoy it.

I wanted to like this book because the premise was promising. Instead, I left it feeling so underwhelmed. For a book that jumped around A LOT, it felt surprisingly slow. The lore of the Book Eaters wasn't fully fledged out and while I was initially intrigued by this old-world family dynamic vs. modern world aesthetic, the mention of specific video games and other tech was just distracting. The ending fell completely flat and I felt that there was SO MUCH to play with within the story that didn't get expanded upon. For example, the marriages between families and children issue. I would have loved to have read more or seen more development there. There are so many things left open and I left with more questions than answers. The prose were strong, but that's the only part I truly enjoyed.

While I loved the story, I found the narrator hard to follow at many points. I believe I am pretty good at discerning content through accents, but the narrator's was very thick. I decided to listen to this on a 24 hour car journey with a friend and she really struggled with the accent. Thank you allowing me the preview and best wishes on this title.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.
I liked the narrator a lot!
A gothic fantasy story about people who literally survive on books! Awesome!
I enjoyed this one, in all of its creepy glory. It was almost a bit too far on the slow burn side but still good. I will read more from this author!

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

A story about people who survive on books... literally? Hell yeah! I definitely enjoyed this one, in all of its creepy gothic glory. It was almost a little too far on the slow burn side but still excellent. The narrator was good as well.

This is a story worth devouring.

What a strange, dark, lovely fairy tale. The world building here was A+, I’m so incredibly impressed by all of the small details the author included to create a world so different from our world, but still within it. I also enjoyed the protagonist, and her journey. Where it lost me a bit was around the non linear elements *but* I was also sick while reading and may reread later.

Thank you so much @netgalley @macmillanusa @torbooks & @macmillan.audio for the e & audio copies!

I ended up DNF this book. I really love horror and add in a mother's love, weird way to consume knowledge and a quest for a potion and I am jumping head first. Unfortunately I just couldn't get into it. I tried coming back to it twice. It was just not doing it for me

An excellent story with wonderful narration. A highly recommended purchase for adult fiction collections.

The Yorkshire Moors hide a secret. Hundreds of years ago an alien race left information collectors in the form of Book Eaters, human looking creatures who are able to eat books and gain the knowledge within them. But among them, the occasional horror is born- Mind Eaters able to ingest what makes a person themselves, destroying their mind in the process.
A slow-burn horror about the depths of a mother's love, and the far reaching power of family trauma and abuse. I loved everything about this book from the subtle sci-fi element, to the horror of a child with an adult personality, and everything in between. At times, it was hard to read. Especially the extreme misogyny within the families and their societal order. At no point does Dean shy away from how awful and dark this story could go, and every time I thought it couldn't get worse, it did. It was an enthralling read that I couldn't put down.
The writing was as lyrical as can be expected when written from the point of view of a character who regularly consumes fairy tails and romances. Even the horrific scenes were beautiful and gut wrenching. "Are you a good person?" is a question that now invokes so much sadness and fear when before it seemed so innocuous. Even the first time Devon asks it, the full weight of it isn't explicit until it's too late.
A solid 4.5 from me. I would have appreciated more character building in general, especially for some of the important side characters who just kind of hovered a bit never fully forming into solid characters like Devon. Even Cai is not fully formed, though more justifiably considering the fact he has the traits of 20+ minds after eating them since he was 2 years old.
Outside of that, a perfect book for the fall season, with a bit of dark academia flair.

Thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC!

I'm not a fan of vampire books. So the fact that I didn't even think of this as a vampire book until listening to the author interview at the end is a good thing, in my opinion. I found the premise of The Book Eaters to be really fascinating, as was the setting. The characters were very well developed and interesting. I found the plot to be very intricately planned out and well-executed. I was shocked to find out (again, in the interview at the end) that it was the narrator's first full novel. She sounded like a seasoned veteran! Overall, I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you are a person that enjoys supernatural thrillers.

I really enjoyed the story telling of this book. Though the pacing was a little slow and I had a hard time following the changes in chapters sometimes, I really enjoyed the atmosphere Dean created. I look forward to other books from this author!