I can appreciate how this tried to combine the vampire trope with this recent spate of weird girls and their internal monologues, but it just didn’t grip me as much as I would’ve liked.

I honestly had no idea what to expect from this . I'm not a fan of anything related to vampires but thought that this sounded so unique that i had to read it and what fun it was !
Essentially it's a literary vampire story with our protagonist Lydia being torn between two worlds, life as a vampire and life as a human. It's also a simple coming of age story , Lydia faces the same struggles as other young people do when she moves out of home for the first time .
There are a lot of heavy themes in the book with a big focus on disordered eating , denial and control so if you have been affected by such issues in the past then be careful . This would be a great TV series as i liked the idea of watching a vampire watch 'what I eat in a day ' videos! I can see it as sort of a modern day type of Buffy show ., such fun !

"Woman, Eating" by Claire Kohda is a poignant and beautifully crafted exploration of identity, otherness, and the complexities of existence. Through the eyes of Lydia, a young vampire with a rich heritage and an insatiable hunger, Kohda delves into the struggles of belonging and acceptance. The novel's unique premise, where food takes center stage in Lydia's journey of self-discovery, offers a fresh and thought-provoking perspective on the human experience. Kohda's lyrical prose and skillful character development make this a compelling read that immerses readers in Lydia's world, where the line between demon and human blurs, ultimately challenging our understanding of what it means to be truly nourished, both physically and emotionally.

Really enjoyed this - will definitely be recommending and looking forward to the next one by this author!

After a bit of a slow start, I became totally immersed in this book and the desperate, angsty life of the protagonist. While touching on the ever-popular genre of vampirism, it was also a clever commentary on body image and the obsession our culture has worn women’s bodies and appetite.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley UK for a free ecopy of Woman Eating in exchange for an honest review. I loved the idea of thos book and liked some of the messages about women's role and place in society. However, at times there was a little too much internal introspection at the expense of the plot moving forward which meant the book was a little slow in places. On the whole I did enjoy this read though!

I wanted to love this one, like many others I enjoy a vampire tale but this was a different take. I enjoyed parts of it but found our protagonist a bit annoying if I'm honest. Would be keen to see how this author develops.

This was an interesting read, i thought the premise and idea were cool but something about this didn't sell it 100% for me. I liked Lydia as a character and thought she was interesting as she wasn't fully good or bad. The world building was done well by Kohda and this helped sell the idea of the story more. would read more by Claire Kohda again as i did like this and feel like if she was able to develop more as a writer they'd be even better.

Woman, Eating was a book I had my eye on for a while and I was delighted to be able to read it early! Lydia is a vampire who is hungry. I love vampires ever since Twilight days and really enjoyed this. It was different to any other vampire novel I'd ever read and that was definitely an experience. I can see why there were mixed reviews about this book but to me it was an interesting read.

‘It’s as though, because they are pushing their bodies to their outmost limits, they can feel mortality. Like, they go right up to the edge of what it means to be alive, and look over it and down at the huge immeasurable void below, and feel joy because they’re not in the void but above it. That’s what being alive is. But, normally, people don’t see over the edge and witness the contrast between the everythingness of life and the nothingness of death, so they don’t feel or understand that life is exhilarating like those runners do.’

‘People - ageing and mortal - are like flowers, seasonal, wilting and finite, while I’m like a tree’.

‘The darkness is comforting. It feels like something that is in the atmosphere, unconnected to me. It hangs down my shoulders like a cape and makes me feel peaceful in a way I can’t feel in light’.

This is not your typical vampire novel as many reviewers before me have pointed out. And for good reason. How do you write about a millennial vampire with millennial problems that does not want to kill for her next meal? Well, Claire Kohda does it.

You could immediately tell that the author being of mixed race heritage and a violinist herself, projected some of herself into the main character we are following called Lydia. Lydia is a 23 year old aspiring to be artist but she cannot swallow nor food nor water. Pig blood is what sustains her. We meet her at a former biscuit factory where she meets Ben, the one who is charge of the building and gives her keys. We quickly learn that Lydia has a mom, also a vampire, who took the decision to go to an elderly home.

We encounter dysfunctional family dynamics with the added difficulty of them being essentially dead and have certain aspects of that being a hindrance to interact with other people. There is a lot of discussion on life, death, family, eating disorders, art (which I am happy to say I googles a lot for and found incredible paintings and displays so than you for that Claire) and so much more weaved in this story.

However, I thought that at times the tropes could be even more deeply explored. Since it is a debut novel though, I understand that it could be a bit demanding to tick all the boxes which is why I gave this one a four star rating. I was disappointed it did not make it to the women’s prize for fiction longlist this year as I believe Claire Kohda with her book ‘Woman, Eating’ would have been an excellent contender.

Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for offering me a a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4.0

I really enjoyed this slow, mysterious take on the vampire trope. A coming of age where the naive young girl moving to the big city possesses a darker dimension of shame. Another otherness besides their an isolated upbringing, poverty and race.

Our protagonist has been raised as a vampire, but apart from drinking pig’s blood around the kitchen table, she only possesses what her self-loathing mother tells her and what she can glean from popular culture.

As the title suggests, food and the lack thereof dominates the very reflective narrative. From shame, she denies herself any food got by harmful means. Meanwhile, she seeks a connection to her human father, moving to London to pursue art and observing the humans around her connecting over meals, food culture and consumption.

But as she grapples with her half-human and half-vampire nature, she finds a kind of quietly ferocious peace that I found to be a very satisfying ending.

This is a very absorbing first novel about the problems, many satisfyingly mundane , of being a young female mixed-vampire (product of vampire-human pairing).

Lydia’s only nourishment is blood, though her mother has conditioned her to stick to n0n-human blood. Through this lens, there are threads dealing with sexual desire and harassment, eating disorders, relationships and artistic expression.

Despite all this, though, the novel is a little tooskeletal.

This book is not my usual genre but I could appreciate the well written narrative that was easy to read.

Well that really didn’t float my boat. A self-absorbed young woman wrestles with identity as she tries to shape a future. I came for the literary vampirism but Lydia’s struggles are entirely too human: a toxic relationship with her mom, a love triangle, a predatory boss (being a vampire doesn’t keep you safe from lecherous men), and what is effectively an eating disorder. Rather too much aimless baggage, far too
little to sink my teeth into

This was brilliant, original and very fresh. I found it extremely funny and will be buying it for many of my friends (men and women).

ollowing Lydia, a young gallery intern in London who can only digest human blood, Woman, Eating puts a deliciously fresh spin on a vampire narrative, while mining serious themes of race, misogyny and body image with pitch-perfect subtlety.
Absolutely brilliant - tragic, funny, eccentric and so perfectly suited to this particularly weird time.

I feel this is a story that you either will love or hate. Fortunately, I really enjoyed reading this. Kohda’s writing reminds me of Sayaka Murata’s work, which I absolutely love.

This story follows Lydia, an art graduate student who is venturing on her own for the first time since she had to put her mom in a nursing home. Without her mom guiding her, she is forced to live and make decisions for herself. That is already a very tough thing to do but what makes it tougher is, Lydia is no ordinary girl, she is a vampire who is struggling to fit in our world especially when it comes to her diet. Her mother had taught her things that made her question her ideas and decisions and most of all, she is struggling to satisfy her hunger. How will she manage in the end?

I would say this is a very character driven story as there isn’t much plot to follow but what I really love about this is being in Lydia’s mind. Here is a girl who is trying to live on her own for the first time and also trying to find where she fits in society but will her circumstances allow her to do so? I feel so sad for her because she tries hard to be normal. Like all of us, she dreams of having friends, having a companion and not having to hide her identity. She became desperate to be normal until she can no longer deny who she truly is.

This is not a vampire story that we all imagined to be and I really love Kohda for showing me a different side to a vampire character. While Lydia’s situation is unique, she reminds me of any young person who is trying to figure out what they want in life. She longs to be loved and accepted but she finds it hard to open up other people. There are underlying themes of coming of age, finding your identity and loving yourself.

If you love Murata’s work like me, do give this one a go. Thank you Netgalley and Little Brown Book for the arc.

We've all seen the trend of sad girl books gracing the shelves of our favourite bookshops in the last few years. However, how many of those were sad girl vampires?

Claire Kohda brings a new spin on a well-worn topic with some fantastical realism as she explores the life of a 20-something woman dealing with a typical quarter life crisis, alongside the need to find fresh blood to feed on. Lydia begins her internship at a prestigious gallery where she expected to know exactly what to do without ever being told. She's an artist but are you still actually an artist when you've not been making any art? Her mother seems to be suffering from dementia, forgetting that she is in fact a vampire. And most of all, Lydia is very, very hungry.

Kohda cleverly taps into what it feels like to have grown into adulthood and not quite know where to go or what to do next. Lydia is looking for a sense of belonging, somewhere to fit in, and her hunger stands for the ambition and want that everyone has at this age, for new experiences, for sex, love, money, success, passion. Her mixed heritage adds another layer into this complexity - she is caught between human and demon, between her Malaysian-British and Japanese heritages and where they intersect. She also has to deal with all the things that human women have to deal with too - despite her own power she must deal with predatory men. The story meanders as Lydia is pulled from place to place and task to task, fulfilling obligations and never quite sating her own needs. The narrative is wandering and morose, and incredibly relatable for any millennial or Gen-Z adult who has felt like they don't quite know what they are doing.

For those looking for a vampire fantasy, this book isn't the right choice for you. This book is far less Dracula and far more a modern Villette, similar to other books in this emerging literary sub-genre. Yet unlike other books following this trope Woman Eating is punchy, with a dash of originality and far more bite.

I requested 'Woman, Eating' on Netgalley after reading two words: Literary Vampire.

Being a fan of all things vamp, I loved the idea of a contemporary novel featuring a young vampire in London. Lydia is 23, she's a mixed-race artist who has recently moved to London to work at a gallery. Her mother (also a vampire) has recently moved into a care home, and Lydia has never lived alone.

Lydia faces several new challenges in London - friendships, career, inspiration, and hunger. Overwhelming hunger. Finding it harder to source food in London than she had expected, Lydia dreams about eating the things she has never been able to enjoy - sumptuous dishes, stuffed with fresh, delicious ingredients. Her hunger overwhelms her, not least because she can't enjoy the fresh food the other young creatives prepare - but because she finds herself, for the first time, drawn to something she knows she absolutely must not have. She desperately wants to fit in with the new people she meets - but how can she, when she's so hungry?

I liked this a lot, although it was very dark. Lydia has a ton of issues, and she leads quite a solitary, sad life so it was tough being inside her head at times. She's like any other young woman trying to make her way in the world - she just happens to be a vampire doing it. Biting social commentary (sorry, sorry) and the odd Buffy reference make for a pleasant, if uncomfortable read. I'm not entirely sure if we should have been hoping that Lydia would absolutely reef the neck out of every awful man she encountered, but that's the position I found myself in. There are similarities between Lydia's experiences and ED, so if that's a trigger for you maybe avoid this one. There's also a dead duck and a very creepy man.

An intriguing novel, I think if you liked Boy Parts by Eliza Clark, you might like this.

⭐⭐

October isn't doing many reading favours. I'm far to distracted but that's another story. This story though, #WomanEating by Claire Kodha isn't what I expected based on the blurb.

Firstly, it had me at female #vampire, and second, it's set in areas of #London I know well. Unfortunately, the main character, Lydia, didn't work for me. Every time I opened the book she was in the middle of a crisis or whinging about something. And considering this is the entire book, finishing this should win me a prize. As for the London setting, I'm not convinced but that's minor.

The writing style is solid and there are some really lovely moments of prose. Overall, this is an overlong character study that doesn't add to the vampire canon. I don't think I can recommend this to anyone unless you like your stories with large amounts of misery. I read to escape and this book felt like another trap. So much potential wasted.