"Woman, Eating" by Claire Kohda is a fresh, introspective take on the vampire tale, blending hunger—literal and existential—with a quiet, haunting resonance. The story follows Lydia, a young, mixed-race vampire artist struggling to reconcile her bloodlust with her human desires after her mother’s institutionalization leaves her adrift. Living in London, she grapples with isolation, identity, and an internship at a gallery, all while craving pig’s blood as a substitute for the real thing. Kohda’s prose is delicate yet visceral, painting Lydia’s alienation with sensitivity and subtle dread. The pacing can feel slow, and the plot leans more toward mood than momentum, but its exploration of appetite, art, and belonging is compellingly original.

oh i loved this. Sad woman trying to find her way in the world, except she is a vampire, and she's sad she's away from her mother (also a vampire) and she cant find blood easily (cause vamp) or eat delicious looking food (vamp) and she fancies a boy but he is meant to be food not love (v a m p). 10/10 absolutely delicious vibes.

Thanks forever to NetGalley and Virago for the arc - loved it.

The tone and atmosphere of Woman, Eating was so fantastic - I really felt for poor Lydia, who just wanted to live a normal life. There was little to the plot, but everything else made up for it.

Vampires are back, baby. There's something thrilling about literary novels who can take them and do something interesting with it. Addictive and then some.

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.