The Book Eaters Published by HarperCollins Publishers Limited on August 18, 2022 Source: Review copy
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Contemporary
Pages: 304
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Format: ARC
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A gorgeous fantasy horror - a book about stories and fairytales with family and love at its dark heart...
Perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman (Stardust, Coraline), Susanna Clarke (Piranesi) and Let the Right One In.
Review:
The Book Eaters, if asked when I requested it, I thought, oh, this will be a unique fantasy, but in truth, it is more like a dark gothic horror fairy tale. Devon, our main character, has grown up feasting on fairy tales where princesses live and fall in love, which in no way prepares her for what is genuinely planned out for her life as a female book eater. Female book eaters are forced to marry at least twice, bear a child, preferably a girl, and then leave the children rather quickly and forget about them. Devon in no way wants to be the princess her family is expecting her to be and is desperate to save her children, one a girl who is left behind, and one a boy who is doomed to be killed due to him being a mind eater.
Overall this is the tale of a mother who is desperate to do anything to save her child, who is doomed to eat minds; being a book eater, devon has a very twisted view of the human world and doesn’t understand much about humans. All she knows is her son needs a drug that will make it so he can eat books and not feast on the human mind, which can be traumatic and leaves a trail of bodies behind.
I was not expecting this to be an extreme horror story, but once I started, I could not stop till the end; I had to know how devon was going to achieve her goals. I had to learn more about this bizarre world of book eaters, dragons, knights, and mind eaters and how it worked. I was not disappointed. It was an entertaining world and one I am glad I read.
About Sunyi Dean
Sunyi Dean is an autistic SFF writer, and mother of two. Originally born in the States and raised in Hong Kong, she now lives in Yorkshire. When not reading, running, falling over in yoga, or rolling d20s, she sometimes escapes the city to wildswim in lonely dales.
