In the beginning we meet Devon who has locked her son in his room as he could attack her until he feeds.
Then we flashback to her childhood and a little background of her family and what she is.
The 'bookeaters' remind me of a cult where the women are controlled by the men told who to marry and only do 'womens chores' although of course it make sense for people stuck in old ways. My first thoughts reading this book were that it's not the horror I'd expected but an urban fantasy and I didn't like the way women were treated as too many books I've read follow this old idea (just reminded me of The Handmaid's Tale) and when there was a mention of dragons I saw a celtic dragon in my head and couldn't connect it with the dragon of this world. Also the bookeaters made me think of vampires.

The story was chilling at times but not really a horror. When I did get into the story and appreciate the unique idea the viewpoint changed nearly half way through something I dislike in novels. I wasn't sure what to think about this story, I did enjoy it so perhaps I shouldn't overthink but there were things that stood out and put me off, Devon's way of talking seemed to change suddenly and some parts of the ending seemed pointless just a bit a drawn out end scene. I wondered if it was over too soon.
I enjoyed the interesting world but as one person said it's like a handmaid's tale with vampires. I wonder whether it's the start of a series because there's a hint of the origins of the bookeaters. It's an interesting world but I still have mixed opinions of this book. I liked the flashbacks and a few of the characters. A sometimes chilling, sometimes compelling and sad story but I think I expected something different than what it is.

A mothers love for her son can lead to all sorts of adventures and twists. This was an intriguing premise to a story and one which did not disappoint!! This is the perfect book to cosy up with at this time of year

One of the most brilliantly bonkers and truly unique concepts I have ever come across. Dark, magical, action packed that all comes down to a mother's love for her son. Amazing!!

I don't normally read this genre but I couldn’t help myself. An amazing premise. For iZombie fans and fans of good meaty fiction. Full review in my newspaper column.

I enjoyed the prospect of reading a book about beings who snacked on books to become their own walking libraries – though the premise that Dean presents is less cosy than the one I envisaged. Essentially, these are vampiric creatures whose superior strength and speed make them formidable opponents. And while they do absorb the knowledge of the books they read, there isn’t a sense that they put it to particularly good use. Indeed, they are portrayed as a dying breed desperately trying to avoid extinction as the handful of surviving Families farm out their rare daughters in arranged marriages to try to ensure the next generation. As for the girls, they are force-fed a diet of fairy tales featuring princesses waiting for their princes in an attempt to make them compliant about their fate.

However, Devon has never been the compliant sort – and when she produces a son with undesirable traits, she refuses to allow the patriarch to tidy him away according to the custom. She is an engaging protagonist – headstrong, courageous and passionate in her loyalty and love. It was refreshing to come across a book where the love story is all about the maternal bond – even if that takes Devon into some very dark places. I am always fascinated by the dynamic of power – who has it, the lengths they go to in order to keep hold of it, and who also craves it. So it was a huge treat for me that one of the major themes of this book is an exploration of power.

This dystopian fantasy proved to be a gripping read, full of tension and drama. But do be warned – it does tip into horror and there is an upsetting scene where a baby is harmed. While it was difficult to read in places, I liked Dean’s unflinching refusal to ever tip into sentimentality regarding the relationship between Devon and her young son, Cai. Highly recommended. While I obtained an arc of The Book Eaters from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10

Amazing. The plot was well paced and the character were developed well. I couldn't focus on any other thing other than this book and so I completed it with 3 days.

FANTASTIC.

Recently I read When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill and I can't help but make comparisons. Is this a trend we are seeing for some truly brilliant urban fantasy/magical realism?

This genre of book is one of my favourites because I adore explorations of society/politics/philosophy/etc... through the use of fantasy.

This has been so well reviewed by others so I feel hard pressed to add anything new to the conversation. What I will say though is that this is the type of book that I need to own and read over and over again through the years.

Woah, I don't know what I was expecting from this one, but definitely here for the weird and intriguing world that our not quite human characters live in.

Devon is a princess, of sorts, in need of rescuing, but when no one comes it's up to her to save herself and her son.

Devon is a bookeater, her and her family feed off books, she is treated as a princess because girls are rare in the bookeater world and are needed to keep them from dying out.

As she becomes of "marrying" age she realises that being a "princess" is not exactly what she was made to think it was.

An interesting insight to what lengths someone will do to save and protect the ones they love.

I really enjoyed it and feels like there is a lead up to a sequel... Would definitely pick it up.

This was SUCH an interesting read! The concept was really fun, but I will admit I was a bit hesitant going into it since I heard it was horror and a bit more graphic, but I thought it was totally fine. It has a few horror elements to it, but the actual story really isn’t very horror-ish, it just has the perfect mixture of mystery and creepy for spooky season!

The story follows a book eater, Devan, who was raised to be a princess of her Family, who was only given fairytales to eat and to absorb their knowledge. The book eaters are dwindling in numbers, and the women are raised with the knowledge and expectation that they will be married off to bear children once or twice. Devan had always known this would be expected of her and was prepared for it; however, nothing could prepare her for the pain of separating from her first child. When the time comes for her to separate from her second child, she can’t do it and flees.

The writing style was quite interesting, it went back and forth from two different time periods from Devan’s point of view. However, at times it was a little hard to continue because I could feel my attention beginning to slop and I’d have to put the book down for a while and come back to it. The story was interesting, but I don’t think it was one where I could sit down and fully absorb it all in one sitting if you get me. I thought the concept was really fascinating, and I loved how Sunyi was also able to critique the patriarchy and women’s rights whilst providing an interesting backdrop for it, but I just wished the pacing was a little bit quicker at times – sometimes it would be a bit frustrating when the story would be really picking up in one era and then the chapter would end and I’m forced to switch back to present day or vice-versa.

The characters were quite interesting, they gave the perfect amounts of creepy and interesting to keep you reading! However, I couldn’t really get emotionally attached to any of the characters, I felt for Devan throughout the story but I wasn’t really rooting for her – it’s kind of hard to explain, but rather I think I just wanted to see what happened. I totally get what Cai was meant to be as a character, but at times I got a bit lost, I kept forgetting he was a child (which is kind of the point I suppose) and I thought his character was relatively inconsistent considering the larger personality shifts.

I thought everything worked out relatively well in the end, although I do wish we had a bit of closure. I believe it’s a standalone, but the ending left things quite open if Sunyi wished to return to the world at some point in the future – there were a lot of loose ends, and circumstances where I wasn’t really satisfied with how it ended, but I didn't mind it overall. Overall I thought this was a good debut, the concept was unique and intriguing and the release is perfectly timed to make the most of the spooky season! I’m excited to receive my finished copy of the book to pop on my bookshelf.

I received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley, this does not change nor affect my opinion in anyway.

What an interesting concept. I devoured this book and was captivated by page 1. The story felt really original and was full of family, something I love reading about. I think this book was paced well and had a lot of very interesting characters, some were likeable, others not so much.

This was sadly a disappointing read for me. I had massively high hopes and loved the concept for the book, however for me personally it just completely missed the mark!

I struggled to find myself invested in the success or failures of any character in the book, none of them came across as particularly likeable or even love to hateable! I was particularly unimpressed by the characterisation of Cai. I understand what the author was going for with him but I just felt it really didn't work. He just came across as annoying and having him communicate like an adult detracted from the relationship between mother and son. The relationship between Cai and Devon ended up feeling really flat and I couldn't warm to them, even with the horrible predicament they found themselves in.

I also didn't find the dialogue in the story particularly engaging, it felt quite wooden and formulaic and felt like a bit of a chore to read at times.

I was hugely excited for this book and I still feel the concept is brilliant and something that could and should have produced an outstanding book. I do feel these high expectations definitely contributed to my negative feelings towards the book due to the disappointment aspect though.

Full review to be posted soonish.

I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Devon grew up in an isolated old mansion on the Yorkshire Moors belonging to the Fairweather family. They are book eaters— supernatural beings that eat books for sustenance and retain the knowledge they contain. Raised on a diet of fairytales, Devon is not ready for her arranged marriage and the pain of separation from her daughter Salem. When her second child Cai is born with a rare and terrifying disease that makes him crave human minds, she flees to protect him at all costs...⁠

This was a surprising and imaginative read. The idea of a secretive supernatural being that is fast and strong like a vampire but is satisfied with eating books instead of drinking blood is unique and fascinating. I wish we could devour books in a literal sense to learn their contents. Wouldn’t that be great? Especially when we have to study for exams.
⁠⁠
The Book Eaters is a rather dark fantasy novel with elements of gothic horror. Cai’s illness is a source of some horrifying scenes and disturbing moral dilemmas. How far can you go to protect those you love? Devon’s situation seems to have no easy way out. As we progress through the book and learn more about her past, we start to understand her choices and the motivation behind them. We also learn more about the secretive society of book eaters and especially the role women are forced to endure.They are raised in a comfortable, sheltered, strictly controlled environment without knowledge of the outside world. They are called Princesses and fed old fairytales to remain innocent and meek. Little do they know that the book eater race is on the edge of extinction, and women are now a commodity. Given away in arranged marriage contracts, their only purpose is to bear children, whom they must abandon before moving to another family. Separation from Salem profoundly influences Devon, her thoughts and decisions. Her constant longing for her child is heartbreaking. Through this original novel, Sunyi Dean found a fascinating way to criticise patriarchy and discuss women’s rights.

The Book Eaters is one of those books that is hard to describe and talk about without spending hours and hours dissecting and analysing it. This was such a fascinating, gruesome, introspective read. Really gives another meaning to the phrase “food for thought”.

I enjoyed the writing and pacing of this novel. At some points I wished it would speed up a bit because I was impatient and wanted answers, but I enjoyed how Dean decided to tell this story in a non-linear form. The mixture of present scenes mixed with flashbacks worked to flesh (not a pun) out the story carefully and cleverly. No scene felt unnecessary, they all fed (also not a pun) in to exploring the characters and their backstories.

I found the world building super interesting, as well as all the different families and all the politics that went with them, and how they changed from place to place and person to person.

My only complaint about this would be that the ending felt a little too open for me! And that’s more so a personal preference than a reflection on the story itself. I think it ended well for the story, and made sense for the character — but I need that sequel! I can’t get on board with that ending without imagining all the possibilities for what comes next.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Book Eaters. It was a book that made me feel all the emotions vividly. It was gruesome, shocking, frightful. It was thought-provoking, emotional, angering. The relationships between the characters were all so interesting. Familiar relationships, those between parent and child, sibling relationships, marriage, romantic and platonic relationships…

I liked the exploration of a woman’s place in society and and motherhood. It was often brutal, and while some of the things aren’t what exists in the non-fictional word (aka eating books…although some people might do that) the themes of trauma, love, sexism are all relatable to the real world social and political climate.

Thank you to Harper Voyager/Harper Collins for this e-Arc in exchange for an honest review

It's a story of Devon, one of the last woman book eaters, who's been raised to obey and serve her family. She's contracted out to men book eaters to bear them a child that will be taken from her when it turns 3. But Devon will be tested even more when her son is born with a taste for human minds instead of books.

I dislike stories with misogyny, where women are used as tools, expected to serve their purpose for the sake of a 'greater good'. Despite this book having an interesting and original fantasy setting, underneath it was another book showing how women are mistreated, even if eventually they rebel. I liked Devon as a character, she was headstrong, daring, smart and devoted to her son. I liked the book eaters as na idea, but using their society to depict yet another patriarchal family structure was rather unoriginal and quite frankly, annoying.

The Book Eaters - a magical species who live in plain sight alongside humans. As the title suggests, they live on books, learning all their content as they eat. Their numbers are growing ever smaller, and main character Devon, is one of few women. Women are severely restricted in their freedoms, and are contracted to different families to produce children, which they are removed from in toddlerhood, as happens with Devon’s first child, Salem. As she’s married out to a different family and falls pregnant with her second child, she vows to keep him no matter what. However, he’s born with a hunger which could only spell danger for himself, his family, perhaps the entire species. Devon would do anything to protect her son from being stopped by those who should love him most.

Reminiscent of The Handmaids Tale and Dr Who, this is a dark tale indeed! I liked Devon as a person and as a mother, oddly (considering she would go out and find victims for Cai to feed on!). I loved that excerpts from fairytales were used throughout, and that children were brought up feeding on them. I also loved that the book was set around the area I live in. As an aside, on the authors post on Goodreads, there’s a link to her own trip to Traquair and Innerleithen with photos of the places that the last parts of the story are set in - brilliant!

The Book Eaters is a distinctive new urban fantasy story.

I love the imagination of this story. It's unique, unusual, and instantly sucks you in. It's also hard to pigeonhole into a single genre. Of course, it is a fantasy by nature, but there are also elements of horror, mystery, sci-fi, detective, and even romance. This wide-reaching appeal means it should suit readers of every taste!

I went into this book expecting it to be a lot tamer than it actually was. Be warned, it does get very dark at times! That being said, the horror aspect is handled expertly and it balances the plot versus the shock factor very well.

Devon is a wonderful main character and a devoted mother. She is flawed yet uncertain, left facing a real moral dilemma on her own. She's also got great dry humour which adds an acerbic spark to the page.

The other characters are also great - the characterisation is definitely a strong point of this book. The author vividly paints a picture of each character and each location, without the need to go overboard on the description. It's very well done and makes it easy to effortlessly picture the events unfolding.

Despite all this, though, I was left feeling like I wanted more from this book. I did enjoy it, but upon finishing the last page, I still felt as though something was missing. It actually ended up being a bit of an anticlimax, but it's hard to pinpoint why exactly. Maybe I hyped it up too much in my head after reading the premise?

It's not all bad, however. I really hope there is a sequel because I'm invested in the characters and I want to find out how the story ends!

This is a gothic low fantasy horror. Hidden around England are six families of book eaters, who literally live off of eating stories. But occasionally one of their children will instead be a mind eater.

When our female main character's son is born a mind eater, she is determined that he is not going to have the kind of life that he would otherwise be destined for.

This was not quite what I expected! Although the alternative species of the book/mind eater is what drives the action in this story it's not really what the story is about. It's much more about our main character and her position as a woman and a mother in this society where females are rare so she is treated like a princess growing up, but that slowly comes with some severe restrictions in all aspects of her life.

The story flips between present day when she is on the run with her son and then going back to ger childhood and working forwards as she slowly comes to the realisation that it doesn't matter if she follows all of the rules and does what she's told, she's never going to be allowed the life she wants. And having lost one child because of this, she will go to any extreme to protect her son, whatever the cost.

It feels really odd to say that I expected this to be more horror fantasy when it's essentially about a type of vampire, but it just now what the story made me feel. I instead was stressed about the lack of control she had.

As a side note, the treatment of one character for beig asexual seemed slightly odd given they live in closed family units are not permitted contact with humans. Asexuality seems ideal in that situation!

Devon is part of a Family of Book Eaters, a race that survives by eating books, retaining all the book's contents after they've been digested. When her son is born, not as a Book Eater, but as a Mind Eater, Devon is forced to leave behind everything and try to keep him alive, and she'll do anything, even sacrifice her own morals and wellbeing, to keep him safe...

Wow, this was such a unique premise! The story shifts between the present, where Devon is living in secret with her son, and the past, where she grows from a child to a woman who is passed around the other Families as little more than a brood mare.

Devon was such an intriguing character. The things she goes through as a young woman were harrowing and as a mother myself some of the stuff that happens was awful. Definitely look up trigger warnings before reading this one!

One of my favourite aspects was how morally grey everything was. Even Devon herself with the decisions she makes, just trying to survive in the misogynistic world of the Book Eaters.

If you're looking for a fresh, interesting Urban Fantasy, The Book Eaters is a perfect choice, especially going into the darker, spooky season 👻

Many thanks to HarperVoyager and Netgalley for an ARC.

I did enjoy this book, the premise was very interesting but there are some very uncomfortable issues raised throughout the book. It was set in a strange universe which was possibly the best part of the story.