The Book Eaters
Horror
Tor Books (August 2, 2022)
304 pages
Truth is found between the stories we're fed and the stories we hunger for. 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. "A darkly sweet pastry of a book about family, betrayal, and the lengths we go to for the ones we love. A delicious modern fairy tale.”— Christopher Buehlman, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author
When we meet Devon, she’s portrayed as a down on her luck single-mom. We know that she’s not human, and that she feeds on books. That itself is a wild element of this story, but her son can’t eat books like her. It doesn’t immediately make sense why, but what he does need to eat is very sinister and my jaw dropped to the floor.
I admit, the story immediately shocks you, then simmers for a while.
I actually stopped reading for a moment and checked the reviews. The majority of readers said that it was hard to get into, but that it was worth it. With that in mind, I didn’t give up and I am soooo glad I didn’t.
This story slows down a little after she feeds her son. It’s important because this is when we learn why/how book eaters exist. The back and forth between past and present shows us the dynamics of her patriarchal family. The barbaric methods they employ to keep their species alive. It’s dark and very oppressive. Devon is the first woman of their kind to imagine something better. Thus, she sets in motion a diabolical plan of double crossing betrayals with many hard choices. All of her choices made with one goal in mind, protect her son, get to freedom.
This gothic tale of a book eater tearing down her oppressors is truly bad ass!
Devon is fierce. Nothing matters more than her child. She goes to some very deep lengths for him and all the while I kept thinking, “same girl”. The element of books being food was very imaginative and added a fiction fantasy to an otherwise dark horror of a story. It’s a little confusing at first, but as Devon grows and shares her opinions of fairytales vs. instruction manuals as food, it all makes sense.
Anyone who wants to feel empowered by strength of smart women should read this book. There are so many gems dropped in this story about love, the meaning of life, and friendship. I have so many meaningful quotes to share from this book. I did NOT expect any of that from a “gothic horror” book.
Congratulations on a successful debut book! I hope we get a sequel of Devon’s next fight.
Get your copy of The Book Eaters by Suni Dean here! *this is an affiliate link.
Kristin lives in the PNW with her husband, and three kids. She loves to read YA fiction, fantasy, and romance. She enjoys a few side-hustles, including creating bookreels/booktoks for authors. The only shows she watches are re-runs, and if she’s not reading a book, she’s listening to one.
