Name: The Devourers
ISBN: 9788184750829

Indra Das

In a dusty caravanserai in seventeenth-century Mumtazabad, Cyrah, a young wanderer, meets a man who says he is a monster. Their encounter fills her with revulsion and dread, yet changes her forever. In present-day Kolkata, college professor Alok Mukherjee meets a man who claims to be a werewolf. Alone and estranged after a divorce, Alok is drawn to the stranger’s hypnotic allure, unable to tell delusion from truth, trickery from magic.// Beginning in Mughal India by the foot of the Taj Mahal and ulminating in the lush, dangerous forests of the Sunderbans in twenty-first century India, The Devourers is a story about shape-shifters, hunters with second selves who prey on humans and live in the shadows of civilization. But it is also about what it means to be human, and the transformative powers of love. Utterly gripping and wholly original, it reinvents the literary fantasy novel for India, imbuing it with depth, emotion and richness.

The Devourers

"A dreamlike novel about a young historian and a persuasive and beguiling stranger coming together in modern-day Kolkata, India to transcribe an ancient journal. A collection of paper, parchment, and skins, the journal tells of bloodshed, kidnapping, magic and shapeshifting, set against the harsh landscapes of the 17th-Century Mughal Empire. It reveals the story of hunters and prey, lovers and the beloved, and, in the end, the choice to be transformed, or be quarry"--

Initially, I thought this was written by a woman and was confused at the gratuitous violence against the sole female character. Come to find out, the author is a man, and that makes more sense to me in the worst way possible.

In addition to the horrors against the fmc, the prose and pacing of this fell very flat for me. To be honest, the story at its core was very interesting, but the execution was bad. There was a lot of showing instead of telling, which made the book feel very choppy. I was fighting to get through. Also, the chapters were WAY too long. Comically long. I don’t know, I was excited to finally read this because it’s been on my tbr for a while, but it was definitely disappointing. The silver lining was the exploration of werewolves and the lore that was given to them.

Nik ✨

Initially, I thought this was written by a woman and was confused at the gratuitous violence against the sole female character. Come to find out, the author is a man, and that makes more sense to me in the worst way possible.

In addition to the horrors against the fmc, the prose and pacing of this fell very flat for me. To be honest, the story at its core was very interesting, but the execution was bad. There was a lot of showing instead of telling, which made the book feel very choppy. I was fighting to get through. Also, the chapters were WAY too long. Comically long. I don’t know, I was excited to finally read this because it’s been on my tbr for a while, but it was definitely disappointing. The silver lining was the exploration of werewolves and the lore that was given to them.

Beautifully brutal and fantastical. I love this book. The characters are believable and their connections are at times without explanation. This is my favourite book, guaranteed. 

Kiersten

Kelsey Lynn

4/5-5/5 for the scrolls 2-3/5 for the modern day parts.
Beautifully written, reads like a legend. Telling the story of how a child between a human and a shapeshifter came to be. Told from three perspectives, we get to experience this visually and emotionally multiple times. The writing was impressive and the story engaging.

 Unfortunately I cared little for the two modern time characters and found their parts forced, uninspired and unnecessary. It took a lot not to skim it to get to the real story, the beautiful story. At times I found myself highlighting almost full pages it's so beautiful. 

 The cover, while gorgeous, does not express the feeling and character of this book. This is a dark book, at time explicit both in violence and sex, but it's also ridiculously lyrical (in a good way). This felt like I experienced a dream.

 It's just really unfortunate how much the modern parts distracted from the book. I'm no prude, I believe there is a way to do sex in books well, and a way that would've worked for this book. Neil Gaiman can interweave sex as if it was just part of the magic he is weaving, this author didn't. The interaction between the two main characters made me question what I got from the book, I thought I understood what it was saying, what it was telling me, until the modern relationship between the characters that just made me confused. I felt the feelings in the past, they were palpable, but the modern characters, I didn't feel it, I didn't believe it, and was ultimately disappointed by it. 
 
 It also changed this book from one I wanted to tell everyone to read to a book I probably won't be able to suggest to a lot of people because of the random explicit sex scenes that didn't add at all to the story.

If this book was just the scrolls, and the finale of Cyrah's and Fenrir's story it would've been 5 star perfection. Unfortunately the book ending on such an unbelievable, uninspired and unneeded relationship between the Stranger and Alok that is the taste that is left in my mouth, I wish it had ended on some of the beauty and magic of the rest of the book.

Toni Turner

This is so weird and ridiculous and honestly? Gross. But I really loved it?? The writing and narration are beautiful and I was shocked and I cried and it was a ride!! 

Werewolves/shifters are not my favorite thing and I didn’t know that’s what I was getting myself into but it happened haha

Florence

pavithra

John Holton

For readers of Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, China Mi�ville, and David Mitchell comes a striking debut novel by a storyteller of keen insight and captivating imagination. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST On a cool evening in Kolkata, India, beneath a full moon, as the whirling rhythms of traveling musicians fill the night, college professor Alok encounters a mysterious stranger with a bizarre confession and an extraordinary story. Tantalized by the man's unfinished tale, Alok will do anything to hear its completion. So Alok agrees, at the stranger's behest, to transcribe a collection of battered notebooks, weathered parchments, and once-living skins. From these documents spills the chronicle of a race of people at once more than human yet kin to beasts, ruled by instincts and desires blood-deep and ages-old. The tale features a rough wanderer in seventeenth-century Mughal India who finds himself irrevocably drawn to a defiant woman--and destined to be torn asunder by two clashing worlds. With every passing chapter of beauty and brutality, Alok's interest in the stranger grows and evolves into something darker and more urgent. Shifting dreamlike between present and past with intoxicating language, visceral action, compelling characters, and stark emotion, The Devourers offers a reading experience quite unlike any other novel. Praise for The Devourers "A chilling, gorgeous saga that spans several centuries and many lands . . . The all-too-human characters--including the nonhuman ones--and the dreamlike, recursive plot serve to entrance the reader. . . . There's no escaping The Devourers. Readers will savor every bite."--N. K. Jemisin, The New York Times Book Review "The Devourers is beautiful. It is brutal. It is violent and vicious. . . . [It] also showcases Das's incredible prowess with language and rhythm, and his ability to weave folklore and ancient legend with modern day loneliness."--Tor.com "A wholly original, primal tale of love, violence, and transformation."--Pierce Brown, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Red Rising Trilogy "Astonishing . . . a narrative that takes possession of you and pulls you along in its wake."--M. R. Carey, author of The Girl with All the Gifts "Every sentence of this ferocious and extraordinary book pulses with life. An absolute masterpiece."--Daniel Jos� Older, author of Half-Resurrection Blues "Profoundly moving and endlessly inventive."--Ken Liu, World Fantasy Award-winning author of The Grace of Kings "Das's brutal, intoxicating, and gorgeously visceral debut merges an often mythic sensibility with an appreciation for the coarse beauty of the everyday."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A sensual tale of violence and desire . . . for fans of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire but with a fascinating setting beautifully described."--Library Journal (starred review) "Das's narrative is lush, imaginative, and hypnotic, bringing to life scenes of savagery and moments of wonder. . . . Das's debut is an ambitious, unsettling trip into our own capacity for violence."--Kirkus Reviews "[An] extraordinary piece of meta-fiction: stories within stories . . . trans-genre, transgender and transgressive . . . Who gets what he or she wants and, above all, who has the moral right to their desires, is the heart of this remarkable, multi-layered novel."--Maclean's

The Devourers

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