Name: Francesca Starecheski's review of The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean
Item: The Book Eaters
Rating: 3
Author: Francesca Starecheski

Sunyi Dean

Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book's content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries.

Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairy tales and cautionary stories.

But real life doesn't always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds.

The Book Eaters

Sunyi Dean's The Book Eaters is a contemporary fantasy debut. It's a story of motherhood, sacrifice, and hope; of queer identity and learning to accept who you are; of gilded lies and the danger of believing the narratives others create for you. Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book's content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries. Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairytales and cautionary stories. But real life doesn't always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds.

Jasper

'Yes, of course,' Devon said, fumbling for polite words. Didn't he feel it--the power, the trauma, the awe? Why hadn't the axis of his universe tilted, as hers had?

'Everyone is a monster to somebody.' Devon didn't have to think for this answer; she'd prepared it long ago, in readiness. 'But you are not, and never will be, a monster to me.'

The worst and best lie she'd ever told him.

These days, Devon only bought three things from the shops: books, booze, and Sensitive Care skin cream. The books she ate, the booze kept her sane, and the lotion was for Cai, her son. He suffered occasionally from eczema, especially in winter.

Jodie Reads

Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. -C. S. Lewis, note to his goddaughter

Amanda Autumn Berrey

Even in the happiest fairy tales, princesses did not usually have much choice.

There was a kind of peace in surrender. Though it shamed her, a part of Devon embraced the relief of simply giving up.

Ten years old. The birthday Devon was supposed to be turning up for, according to Luton’s agreement. And she would be absent, having abandoned one child to save another.

without feeding, the madness would set in, whittling away at his fragile psyche.

But no five-year-old Devon had ever met conducted themselves with such certainty, or such adult poise. He was far too intelligent for his age. Of course, most five-year-olds didn’t consume the minds of other human beings for sustenance.

“You’re home again,” he said, and she suppressed a wince. He spoke with the vicar’s inflection, used the same elongated vowels. These little changes threw her every time. Every victim.

These days, Devon only bought three things from the shops: books, booze, and Sensitive Care skin cream.

Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book's content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries.

Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairytales and cautionary stories.

But real life doesn't always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds.

Elizabeth Denny

 "You'd eat the whole world to help me out and I think I'd do that for you. too. Youre my monster and I'm yours, and even though I'm sad you lied to me and l'm sorry that we have to hurt more people, we must go together because we are a monster family."

Lila Harrison

Francesca Starecheski

With no crumbs, only smears of ink, I devoured every word, and am left hungry for more. Let all the powerful princesses of the world gnash their book teeth and shamelessly feast.

Very cool concept, you wait awhile for the conflict. 

Rachel Zmolek

“Love has no cost. It’s just a choice you make.” 

To start—I believe wholeheartedly that Sunyi Dean is a wordsmith without very many equals. The prose found within this book is as stunning as it is imaginative. I even learned a new vocabulary word; which, for me, is saying something. 

Sunyi’s writing made me want to be a book eater. It made me want to be a knight (the good kind). At times, it even made me want to be a dragon if only so that I could breathe fire onto the castle walls caging Devon in. That takes a special kind of penmanship; to make a reader want to become something new at a cellular level. I cannot applaud Sunyi’s writing style enough. 

Moving along to the other positive, the flashbacks in this book were the absolute highlight for me. These snippets we get of a younger, more wounded Devon made me root for her. I felt a sort of kinship with this other odd girl, stuck in a patriarchal society that conned her into believing there was still space for her at their table. A girl who so desperately wanted to believe that men say what they mean and mean what they say. When she realized the truth, as all little girls one day do, I wanted to claw at her glass ceiling with her.

Unfortunately, the chapters set in the present were not even half as emotionally engaging. Present-day Devon, and her mind eater son that she’s struggling so desperately to save, were little more than cardboard cutouts, dragged forward by reasons and motivations I could not follow. Devon’s half-hearted romance with Hester was so insignificant that I almost missed it in its entirety.  

Another negative was Devon’s complicated feelings towards her son—who feeds off of human minds rather than books like the rest of the Family. She spends half of her time contemplating exactly how much of a monster her son is; and the other half wondering if he is still her son at all when he has all of his victims personalities rolling over each other. On a constant loop. One moment he’s an aging drunk, another he’s an electrician, then a vicar…it goes on and on and on. 

When confronted about why she won’t abandon her son (who, as discussed, maybe isn’t her son anymore at all), Devon says this: “Love doesn’t have a cost. It’s just a choice you make, the way you choose to keep breathing or keep living. It’s not about worth and it’s not about price. Those concepts don’t apply.”

But I disagree. Especially within the confines of the context of this book where, for Devon, love costs her everything. Her home, her family, her brother Ramsey….even her daughter, the first child she was unable to save. 

By the close of the novel, I found myself disquieted with the sloppy ending. Which wasn’t even really an ending—more of a pause between one conflict and another, larger looming one. I wanted to go back to the past and spend time with the Devon who ran barefoot from knights and dragons through the woods, and tried to spit in their faces even with taser prongs in her chest. The Devon who knew the difference between love and inevitability. 

The premise of this book was otherworldly. It took a true intellect to dream up the world of book eaters and the Six Families. No one can deny that. But the paper-thin plot and flat characters took all of Sunyi’s spun gold and turned it back into straw in the end. Which, for me, was true tragedy. 

Catherine

“Love has no cost. It’s just a choice you make.” 

To start—I believe wholeheartedly that Sunyi Dean is a wordsmith without very many equals. The prose found within this book is as stunning as it is imaginative. I even learned a new vocabulary word; which, for me, is saying something. 

Sunyi’s writing made me want to be a book eater. It made me want to be a knight (the good kind). At times, it even made me want to be a dragon if only so that I could breathe fire onto the castle walls caging Devon in. That takes a special kind of penmanship; to make a reader want to become something new at a cellular level. I cannot applaud Sunyi’s writing style enough. 

Moving along to the other positive, the flashbacks in this book were the absolute highlight for me. These snippets we get of a younger, more wounded Devon made me root for her. I felt a sort of kinship with this other odd girl, stuck in a patriarchal society that conned her into believing there was still space for her at their table. A girl who so desperately wanted to believe that men say what they mean and mean what they say. When she realized the truth, as all little girls one day do, I wanted to claw at her glass ceiling with her.

Unfortunately, the chapters set in the present were not even half as emotionally engaging. Present-day Devon, and her mind eater son that she’s struggling so desperately to save, were little more than cardboard cutouts, dragged forward by reasons and motivations I could not follow. Devon’s half-hearted romance with Hester was so insignificant that I almost missed it in its entirety.  

Another negative was Devon’s complicated feelings towards her son—who feeds off of human minds rather than books like the rest of the Family. She spends half of her time contemplating exactly how much of a monster her son is; and the other half wondering if he is still her son at all when he has all of his victims personalities rolling over each other. On a constant loop. One moment he’s an aging drunk, another he’s an electrician, then a vicar…it goes on and on and on. 

When confronted about why she won’t abandon her son (who, as discussed, maybe isn’t her son anymore at all), Devon says this: “Love doesn’t have a cost. It’s just a choice you make, the way you choose to keep breathing or keep living. It’s not about worth and it’s not about price. Those concepts don’t apply.”

But I disagree. Especially within the confines of the context of this book where, for Devon, love costs her everything. Her home, her family, her brother Ramsey….even her daughter, the first child she was unable to save. 

By the close of the novel, I found myself disquieted with the sloppy ending. Which wasn’t even really an ending—more of a pause between one conflict and another, larger looming one. I wanted to go back to the past and spend time with the Devon who ran barefoot from knights and dragons through the woods, and tried to spit in their faces even with taser prongs in her chest. The Devon who knew the difference between love and inevitability. 

The premise of this book was otherworldly. It took a true intellect to dream up the world of book eaters and the Six Families. No one can deny that. But the paper-thin plot and flat characters took all of Sunyi’s spun gold and turned it back into straw in the end. Which, for me, was true tragedy. 



Aloe Han

4.5

Oh to literally consume books and truly experience what can only be imagined

Lot of things I loved and a lot of things that I didn’t really love. If found this book some years ago I definitely would have found a way to make it my personality, and bc of that I think it’s worth a read

Jacque

I received an ARC copy of this book from Edelweiss.

This book is delicious dark fantasy/gothic horror. We start the story in the present day with our main character, Devon, bouncing between her present and past to fill in the narrative gaps. Devon is a book eater, meaning she lives off books and absorbs the knowledge in the process - you are what you eat. She was raised on a carefully curated diet of fairytales, and slowly comes to discover what the world is truly like and what she will have to do to keep her mind eater child safe (mmmm, brains). Something I absolutely love about this book is how it touches on complex/problematic family dynamics while seeking agency and identity for all the characters throughout. Definitely not a light read, but a great one if you like dark atmospheric books!

Emma Daniels

I wish I had liked this more. It was very expertly written, full of interesting and creative ideas, and a good character cast. It worked off both an interpretation of vampirism and the themes of motherhood and how the patriarchy harms everyone. It had a complex, layered female lead, a young single mother, whose own relationship with motherhood was equally multifaceted. And in a way, I guess, it was not too dissimilar to Rivers Solomon's "Sorrowland". It also played well with a non-linear narrative.

However, for me the book could not quite find a voice and atmosphere that I could connect to which ultimately often lead me into feeling bored while reading (as we know, the greatest sin a book could commit). I still think it was worth a shot and definitely helped me get through my tasks for the day but it just was not my book.

I wish I had liked this more. It was very expertly written, full of interesting and creative ideas, and a good character cast. It worked off both an interpretation of vampirism and the themes of motherhood and how the patriarchy harms everyone. It had a complex, layered female lead, a young single mother, whose own relationship with motherhood was equally multifaceted. And in a way, I guess, it was not too dissimilar to Rivers Solomon's "Sorrowland". It also played well with a non-linear narrative.

However, for me the book could not quite find a voice and atmosphere that I could connect to which ultimately often lead me into feeling bored while reading (as we know, the greatest sin a book could commit). I still think it was worth a shot and definitely helped me get through my tasks for the day but it just was not my book.

Lara Engle

The Book Eaters is thematically and emotionally complex, but it's also a rousing adventure. If you like literary stuff and good stories, you should read it.

altlovesbooks

"For Chrissakes, I'm a grown-up. Swearing is my privilege!"

I don't generally read urban fantasy (too "real" in a way I can't really describe, and it tends to bore me), and I definitely don't read vampire/gothic horror stuff (too romance-riddled). But I guess when you throw those genres in a blender with a unique magic system and some found-family LGBT elements, it made the whole thing a whole lot more interesting.

Devon is a book eater, a small, secretive clan of people who, rather than reading books and eating food, eat their books. Like, literally, page by page, cover to cover, omnomnom down the hatch, eat books for sustenance and knowledge. They're a very small clan and predisposed to giving birth to more males than females, so the rare females of the clan live a pampered life of a princess--doomed to arranged marriages and being treated more like property than as people. Not content with this life, Devon escapes with her second child Cai, who himself is a mind eater. Mind eaters are genetically different book eaters, and instead of eating books, eat minds instead. Like, brain matter. Memories. Personalities. That sort of thing. The clans of book eaters generally deal with these aberrations harshly, either training them as weapons or killing them outright. Devon is determined to escape the life she was born to, but still needs to procure 'Redemption', the medicine manufactured by one of the book eater clans that keeps mind eater hunger at bay. 

I'm a sucker for a unique magic system. The author fully fleshed out the lore of these book eaters, with the different genres having different tastes, incorporating the knowledge aspect into the story, and having numerous epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter adding to the book eater/mind eater lore. It was really well done. I liked Devon as a main character, and loved the found family/attraction aspect between her and Hester. The book eater clans also had different stories behind each one, though I wish there had been a bit more of that lore fleshed out as well. I thought the story was compelling and interesting, and I appreciated how the current day story was weaved into Devon's story from ten years ago. The side-by-side telling was well done.

I really only wish there had been some inclusion or closure on the Salem aspect. The author has said here that this was intended as a stand-alone and is not supposed to have a sequel which is a little disappointing, but entirely understandable.

I had a lot of fun with this book, and I'm glad I gave it a chance.

Think Outlast, but with vampiric immortals.

The concept of the story is a unique take on the vampire storyline—immortal-like beings with fangs and superior abilities (strength, stamina, memory). Instead of lusting for blood, these lust for books and knowledge. Well, most of them do. The more vampiric beings are the Mind Eaters.

The Book Eaters snuggles quite nicely into the Gothic Horror Fantasy genre. There was a dabble of horror and fantasy with enough suspense and drama for me to devour the story.

The characters themselves were very well written. Devon was brilliant. She felt real. Her choices and actions were both good and evil while also being understandable at specific points. Only sometimes.

The plot was intriguing and kept me wishing I could devour the book. The story’s dynamic was different, so the desire to see where it would lead is what held my attention, to begin with, but I was soon swept off my feet and pulled deeper into the world. 

I 100% recommend this book if you enjoy gothic fantasy and time hopping. The Book Eaters is a fantastic book with a new take I’ve never heard of before. Even describing the book to people has them interested. People who eat books and some eat minds? What? Exactly! It’s such an interesting concept that doesn’t even cover the crazy story that wraps you in while you battle between morals and the patriarchy of The Family.

https://rynjohnstone.com/introducing-outlast-with-vampiric-immortals-the-book-eaters-review/

Ryn Johnstone

Think Outlast, but with vampiric immortals.

The concept of the story is a unique take on the vampire storyline—immortal-like beings with fangs and superior abilities (strength, stamina, memory). Instead of lusting for blood, these lust for books and knowledge. Well, most of them do. The more vampiric beings are the Mind Eaters.

The Book Eaters snuggles quite nicely into the Gothic Horror Fantasy genre. There was a dabble of horror and fantasy with enough suspense and drama for me to devour the story.

The characters themselves were very well written. Devon was brilliant. She felt real. Her choices and actions were both good and evil while also being understandable at specific points. Only sometimes.

The plot was intriguing and kept me wishing I could devour the book. The story’s dynamic was different, so the desire to see where it would lead is what held my attention, to begin with, but I was soon swept off my feet and pulled deeper into the world. 

I 100% recommend this book if you enjoy gothic fantasy and time hopping. The Book Eaters is a fantastic book with a new take I’ve never heard of before. Even describing the book to people has them interested. People who eat books and some eat minds? What? Exactly! It’s such an interesting concept that doesn’t even cover the crazy story that wraps you in while you battle between morals and the patriarchy of The Family.

Read more on my blog: https://rynjohnstone.com/introducing-outlast-with-vampiric-immortals-the-book-eaters-review/

Link In Profile

Very strange. But unique in its own way, I haven’t read a book like it. 

Karis Ryu

the world dean builds is sharp and double-edged. writing felt a bit talky/explanatory versus descriptive at times, but the buildup of the conflict, and each layer of complication, was excellently meted out and made for a really smart plot. a captivating and engrossing book that explores the pernicious and corrosive nature of hubris in "revolutions" that recreate the same systems they purport to be rebelling against, the capabilities and culpabilities of love, and the need for imagination to believe in the unseen when everything we have seen fails: our livelihoods depend on it.

Jeremy Wang

4.5 rounded up. a really ambitious book that mostly succeeds! i’m a huge fan of the premise, and it worked well as a setting for a story about motherhood and love, about the inherent flaws of staid patriarchies, and about Redemption.

charisa

this was such an intense ride. had to sneak my reading in between meetings, but was entirely worth it! the premise was so original, and i very much enjoyed the unexpected english backdrop. also, i could not stop thinking of kirby's inhale power in smash, oops. 

going to spoiler tag this for now: (view spoiler)[

i had a few qualms with the character direction and (what i perceived as) blanket justifications, but i thought dean overall dealt thoughtfully with the nuances behind intrinsically defective systems. when reading about the dragons/mind-eaters, i was reminded a little of the orogenes' treatment in the broken earth trilogy, but felt like jemisin hit a lot harder in terms of social commentary and weighing the humanity and mistreatment of beings who wield a power they did not choose. i thought dean had ample opportunity to do similarly, but only scraped the surface at some points. 

(hmm actually, now that i write this, i can draw a lot of parallels between devon and essun lol) anyway, it was a lot of fun! much, much room for discussion which is most always a positive sign. 

 (hide spoiler)]

I enjoyed this, but was disappointed that it ended with loose ends 

Jenn

Megan BV

This was such a good book. 

Amazing concept and world. 

The concept for this book and the beginning had me intrigued but it felt just ok by the end. 

Kerry McHugh West

angie

this is one of the best books i've ever read.

Midori Kobayashi

you know a book is freaking amazing when you stay up till 5AM reading it. i was gripped from page one and honestly reading this book wasn't enough i need to eat it page by page with ketchup ;P

amazing urban fantasy with both sapphic and ace rep, what's not to love? heck i'd even eat up (ykwim) a part two about her journey to rescue Salem etc!

Living on the edges of English society, there are "the families" of Book Eaters. They look human, but they eat books and sustain themselves on stories. Their minds are filled with the information that they learn from every page. But some of them are born with a different hunger. Hunger to consume the brains of humans. They cannot eat paper and ink. The families are organized into a strictly controlled partriarchal society.  Book Eater girls are rare and raised on a limited diet of fairytales. Devon was raised as a princess in a remote countryside manor.  As an adult, Devon's son is a mind eater and she is on the run with him, doing anything she can to save him from being killed for what he is. Seeking the drug that can take away his need to detroy people. 

A fresh take on vampires. Interesting world building and a flawed but compellingly real and understandable main character. The heart of this is the mother-child relationship and it is complex. Is there a cost that is too much to pay to save your child? Does love always lead us to be better or to do good? Do fairytale princesses ever get a happy ending? What would that even be?

Cheryl Hedlund

Living on the edges of English society, there are "the families" of Book Eaters. They look human, but they eat books and sustain themselves on stories. Their minds are filled with the information that they learn from every page. But some of them are born with a different hunger. Hunger to consume the brains of humans. They cannot eat paper and ink. The families are organized into a strictly controlled partriarchal society.  Book Eater girls are rare and raised on a limited diet of fairytales. Devon was raised as a princess in a remote countryside manor.  As an adult, Devon's son is a mind eater and she is on the run with him, doing anything she can to save him from being killed for what he is. Seeking the drug that can take away his need to detroy people. 

A fresh take on vampires. Interesting world building and a flawed but compellingly real and understandable main character. The heart of this is the mother-child relationship and it is complex. Is there a cost that is too much to pay to save your child? Does love always lead us to be better or to do good? Do fairytale princesses ever get a happy ending? What would that even be?

Nicole

Amanda

Got off to a bit of a slow and rocky start for me. The back and forth through time storytelling does not serve the first half of the book well, making it a choppy read with little forward momentum.

But, around the halfway point, the various stories all begin to come together in a satisfying way that works well. I very much enjoyed the concept of people who feed off the creativity of humanity but are unable to create new things themselves. The idea of a culture completely built on nothing but the written word, when for so many centuries the written words only came from men, is told in an interesting and fresh way.

As for body horror and gore, it is definitely there, but those aren't things I generally enjoy and yet was able to get through quite easily for the most part here. The scariest parts of this book weren't the deaths, it was the Patriarchy.

The audio has an excellent interview at the end between the author and the narrator which I found very interesting and informative. I wish I'd known it was there when I was at the 90% mark and sweating about how things must be about to go horribly wrong if there were that much story left to tell 😅

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this excellent ARC

Taylor

An interesting concept, but rather too neat and tidy to be engaging.

marilynn

this book could be analyzed in a hundred different ways but my mind stopped working ages ago to do that

anyways i <3 lesbians

Lila Harrison &
The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

Reviews

Highlights

Join the club

Lila Harrison &The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

Reviews

Highlights

Join the club

Lila Harrison &
The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean