The Book Eaters

eBook, 355 pages

English language

Published Aug. 2, 2022 by Tor Books.

ISBN:
978-1-250-81019-9
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4 stars (6 reviews)

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.

5 editions

A gothic family horror

3 stars

The Book Eaters is an original idea. At least, I've never come across another book in which a vampiric race sustains itself by ingesting books. It's a gothic family horror in which the main character, Dev, must save her child, a rare type of vampire who doesn't live on books but rather by feeding on human minds. The novel's plot takes many twists and turns with it's associated double and triple crosses.

I kept flipping between 3 and 4 stars on this rating, so it's a solid 3.5 stars. While the mother's plight is relatable, the book vampires are so alien a concept I had difficulty empathizing with them. She certainly commits some reprehensible acts to ensure her son's survival.

First favorite book of 2023

5 stars

It's hard to find books with unique approaches to fantasy, so I'm always excited to find a story that's truly original. This is one of them. The story is about a subspecies of humans (maybe?) who eat books instead of food, and they absorb the information in books they eat. Their society reminded me of an extreme evangelical religious cult run by the men. The story is about a young woman who tries to escape the crushing patriarchal society to save her son. I found the characters well developed and the story compelling. There are elements of suspense and mystery, trying to figure out what will happen next and who the main character can really trust. I blew through the book in a couple days. Thoroughly enjoyed this book.

reviewed The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

The Book Eaters

3 stars

Content warning ** spoiler alert **

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