Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley of an ARC of this book.
This is ultimately a book about hunger and acceptance. We meet Lydia, a vampire, striking out on her own after living with her Mum her whole life and exploring what it means to be to be independent. She is caught between worlds and feels that she doesn't know how to fit in, despite being a vampire there is something very relatable about her. Lydia struggles with her identity as a half vampire, half human, half Japanese, half British, female contending with imposter syndrome as she tries to establish herself in the art world, following in the footsteps of her famous, deceased father. She also has to contend with her Mother's 'illness' and beliefs which essentially have resulted in self harm and abuse of Lydia her whole life. As Lydia grapples with these conflicting ideas of who she should be and who she is, she starves herself as she tries to force herself into a certain mould, only when she truly accepts who she is can she start to feel fulfilled.
I really enjoyed this different take on a vampire novel. The image of a vampire sitting there watching videos of people eating, the idea that drinking the blood of an animal or person enables you to experience their life, and the various Buffy references.

A kind of coming of age story for a young artist... with a side of her being a vampire, which was both a really unique take, and made almost no sense (her mother, a self-loathing vampire, gave birth and she grew up?)
Certainly a new take on vampires; thankfully not shiny, but not sure it’ll catch on.

I'm not entirely sure what I just read,but I liked it.
It certainly doesn't fit into the usual vampire story.

A little bit amusing,a little bit self searching,a little bit angsty (in a good way).

Different,and that's always great.

Woman, Eating is a novel about hunger and trying to live on your own, as a vampire adjusts to living without her mother and looks for artistic direction. Lydia has been a vampire since she was a baby, living with her mother in a reasonably regular life. But now her mother is in a care home and Lydia has an internship at a London gallery. The trouble is, she’s hungry, and what she needs isn’t what she wants.

This is a different take on the vampire novel, a literary vampire story that focuses on food and hunger, and being caught between worlds and cultures. Lydia’s vampire side keeps her away from her dead father by stopping her from trying Japanese food, and a lot of the focus of the novel is on the importance of eating, identity, and the in between. She is directionless, like a lot of young protagonists trying to find themselves, but partly because she cannot form connections, cannot envision her eternity.

The concept of a vampire enjoying what I eat in a day videos is an amazing one, and in general I really enjoyed the way this book explores vampires as being caught between worlds and also having difficulties, both relatable and not, forging a place in the modern world. The narrative doesn’t really go anywhere so it’s not one for someone expecting a plot, but instead it takes the directionless artsy millennial trope and gives it a different angle.

An interesting take on the vampire novel, I’ll be thinking about this for a long time to come - certainly every time I check the nutritional info on the back of packaged food! I found the matter-of-factness refreshing, as well as the daily frustrations - how to get decent black pudding, for example. Less supernatural, more surprisingly thought-provoking, and all the better for it.