Devon is a fighter with a bunch of brothers who were raised on books about knights and dragons. They are ferociously dedicated to the tenets of the group. There is a downside other than the obvious, some book eaters can be born desiring to consume the brains of humans. This is revolting, but there is a drug, Revolution, that can be fed to these unfortunates, although the drug is used for the pleasure of the group. Horror occurs when Devon gives birth to one of these creatures. Having had to give up her daughter years ago, whom she never saw, Devon was determined to keep her son, Cai, and escapes the compound and starts a journey of danger, escaping from the group members assigned to find her and Cai, and of course finding suitable food for Cai. i hadn't searched anything about this book beforehand, so what a nice surprise it was to discover there was a bit of sapphic romance sprinkled in there too! it's less than a subplot, but still—Hester and Devon's relationship, though it takes quite a long while for anything to happen between them, was the perfect way to uplift an otherwise bleak- ish story!

A pesar de esto, Devon Fairweather, la única hija de un antiguo clan, ha crecido curiosa, pero con el nacimiento y posterior secuestro de su hija primogénita, Devon se da cuenta de la verdad de su circunstancia. A las afueras de Inglaterra se encuentra una sociedad secreta, son unos seres sobrenaturales conocidos como los devoradores de libros que consumen libros como alimento, reteniendo todo su contenido y conocimiento. Mothers front and center. We don't see many moms in fantasy from the mom's perspective. This has one! She loves her kids! Atmospheric, gripping and profoundly moving, The Book Eaters is a 2022 new release to watch out for!! Told with gorgeous, effortless prose and exploring themes of motherhood, identity and sacrifice. It can be at times brutal and heart-breaking but ultimately leaves you with a feeling of hope and an emphasis on the importance of chosen family and love.

Book Eater

Female book eaters are rare, so Devon’s Family—and the other Families of book eaters across modern day United Kingdom—arrange temporary marriages between Houses for procreative purposes. Eater women are used as little more than birthing cows before being forcibly separated from their children and moved onto the next marriage. It’s a patriarchal society full of empty promises and it’s horrifying. Really, it was pointless to apologize. Victims didn’t want your sorry-so-sorrys when you were hurting them, they wanted you to stop. Devon couldn’t oblige, though, and apologies were all she had these days. Apologies, and booze.

No, wait. She still had a half bottle of whiskey, left behind by the previous person she’d brought to her home. Devon didn’t like whiskey, but right now she liked being sober even less. A couple minutes of rifling through the cabinets turned up the errant alcohol. 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. I have given it one star because there is nothing whatsoever wrong with the the writing style in my opinion. For a debut, the writing is pretty decent and the way the story is structured and various plot points are revealed is solid and logical. I would be inclined to read another book from the author if the topic was more to my reading taste.

New in Series

Book eater rules. Going into real spoilers here. Okay, so let's pretend that someone who is effectively a human actually has the digestive tract of a caterpillar, but can also eat human food and get drunk. They can't write, but they can share information verbally, via tap/Morse, they can program phones with numbers, they can call those numbers...it doesn't make sense. Plus they have marriage contracts, enforced not by mind eaters but the book eaters. Then, the phyisiology of the very inbred bookeaters has all the women go through early menopause, they all have exactly 2 kids, and men are never impotent. If their reproduction is similar to humans, this again, illogical. Going to Ireland to escape them, illogical. They have cars!. The medicine, also weird. I don't understand. So some book eaters actually eat memories, but can get sustenance from physical books instead? How does that work? I get it's magic, but it tries to make it line up enough that I can't overlook the plot holes. It’s complicated.” Devon turned the key and paused, aware her heart was racing. “I need to ask you something.” Devon caught his wrist, wrenched the door open, and shoved him in. The vicar wasn’t frail but Devon was far stronger than she looked and had the element of surprise. He stumbled forward, startled and gasping, into the darkness of Cai’s room. Devon yanked the door shut and held it hard. Amenazadas por su número cada vez menor, las mujeres son criadas en una vida de contratos matrimoniales y maternidad.

The Book Eaters was my most anticipated fantasy of the year as somebody who rarely reads from the genre, and I'm sad to say I found it aggressively average despite the intriguing title. She slunk past a row of decrepit terraces. Passersby drifted up and down the pavement. A tight knot of people huddled outside one of the houses, drinking and smoking. Music leaked through curtainless windows. Devon took a left off the main street to avoid the crowds. the book eaters goes beyond science fiction and dives into an entirely new realm, exploring a world in which monsters are not the green people from outer space or the giant creatures, but the people who operate in the systems around us. what shapes a monster? what identifies a monster? and in the end, who holds the power to decide who is a monster and who is not? No one here is exactly a princess or a knight or a dragon, but this is the mythos of the Families. The rare girls are prized, but kept in the dark about so many things. Their purpose is to grow up, marry twice, bearing one child in each marriage, and then become one of the aunts who lurk around the old houses. Knights help all of this along. Dragons, though, have no say in anything. This was a unique and interesting modern take on vampirism, weaving in elements of gothic-horror to create an immersive atmospheric experience. I enjoyed the setting descriptions and worldbuilding, both of which were descriptive and well written. The author excelled at creating the book eater culture and their politics and infighting.In The Book Eaters, we follow the past and present of Devon Fairweather and the perilous journey she had to embark in first to survive as a woman in a man-dominated tyranny and then to snatch her son from the claws of the cult-like society of the book eaters. Sunyi Dean’s debut novel is nothing but outstanding.