To Be Devoured

Sara Tantlinger — 2019

What does carrion taste like? Andi has to know. The vultures circling outside her home taunt and invite her to come understand the secrets hiding in their banquet of decay. Fascination morphs into an obsessive need to know what the vultures know. Andi turns to Dr. Fawning, but even the therapist cannot help her comprehend the secrets she's buried beneath anger-induced blackouts.Her girlfriend, Luna, tries to help Andi battle her inner darkness and infatuation with the vultures. However, the desire to taste dead flesh, to stitch together wings of her own and become one with the flock sends Andi down a twisted, unforgivable path. Once she understands the secrets the vultures conceal, she must decide between abandoning the birds of prey or risk turning her loved ones into nothing more than meals to be devoured."Sara Tantlinger's To Be Devoured capitalizes on our macabre preoccupation with the uglier side of nature, with love that topples into obsession, and with madness that is strangely beautiful in its barbarity. Her writing is equivalent to those unremitting avian beings her protagonist is so enamored of: It will hook its talons through your flesh, sink its neck into the ribboned edges of your wounds, and only relinquish your blighted body when it has swallowed your very soul." -Christa Carmen, author of Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked, winner of the Indie Horror Book Awards for Best Debut Collection"Vultures, obsession, and an unnatural hunger: What more can you want in a horror story? With To Be Devoured, Sara Tantlinger has done it again as she ratchets up the terror in wonderfully surprising ways while crafting prose that's always a heady blend of the vicious and the vibrant. A book that's absolutely not to be missed!" -Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens

Reviews

Taous Merakchi@jackxparker

Sep 18, 2023

À ne surtout pas lire en mangeant ou après manger ou avant de manger, bref, au milieu de la nuit c’est mieux.

illa@fictionalfawn

May 6, 2022

SO fucked up.

petit-chocobo@petit-chocobo

Dec 8, 2021

I've always suffered from reading thriller/horror books that weren't horror enough for me, but damn this book is actually too much horror for me. My stomach didn't appreciate this. I don't know how I should really rate this. I was horrified from the begining and it kept getting worse and worse to the point that I had my hand shielding my mouth through many of the scenes and gagged a few times. This book is truly horror to me but I didn't enjoy one bit of it. Or maybe I did? I don't really know what kept me reading, some morbid curiosity I guess but I couldn't put this down. So how do I rate this? 5/5 for writing, another 5/5 for plot but 1/5 for personnal enjoyment? I guess I'll rate this 3.5 and round it up at 4 because let's be real this was some good damn horror, just too much of it for my personal taste.

Juliana Callahan@jujutriestoread

Oct 21, 2021

This was as fucked up as I wanted It by Stephen King to be and I loved every gruesome moment

Becca Futrell@astoldbybex

Oct 5, 2021

As I was already a fan of Sara Tantlinger’s poetry, I pre-ordered To Be Devoured, because I couldn’t wait to see her narrative work. & reader, I was definitely not disappointed. To Be Devoured is a shining example of psychological horror. While reading, I felt like I was the one going mad. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there’s LGBTQIA+ rep in this book! I don’t believe it’s bluntly mentioned, but I believe both characters are lesbians; although the significant other of the main character may be bisexual. She was in a previous marriage with a man, but at some point learned that she wasn’t interested in him? If your stomach is weak, I would not recommend To Be Devoured. It’s very disturbing & there are very graphic and grotesque scenes. Including a few animal carcasses & a scene when the main character slaughters & eats a piglet. So, yes major trigger warning on that. I found this read to be extremely repulsive, but I’m saying this with high praise. Although it disturbed me, I loved the development & how perfectly well Sara Tantlinger wrote the disintegration of our main character, Andi.