A haunting yet romantic dark tale, What We Devour challenges the dichotomy between god and follower, between eater and thing to be eaten.

I forgot to leave a review for this, but I really enjoyed it! It's been out for ages, so I won't say much more than I need to for my star rating. <3

I wanted to love this book because I love Miller's writing usually but something about this just fell short. The prose still felt beautiful, I still liked the characters, the plot was a good idea but just the pieces were an odd fit or something and something vital was missing that I just couldn't pinpoint.

rep: asexual protagonist

content warnings: depictions & discussion of self-harm, murder, mass murder, depictions of sacrifices & executions, child abuse & death, blood & gore.

'if you can't tame your demons, set them free.'

What We Devour is about ancient gods, magic, rebellion, and sacrifice. It is about doors and monsters that demand blood sacrifices and unknown monsters. Lorena needs to repair this weakening magic door that is holding back the evil monsters. It's a very interesting and complex sacrificial magic system. It's about a fight for power and for freedom and while our protagonist made some bold and questionable decisions, she is also kind. A must read for magical fantasy readers.
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I was really hoping to enjoy this book more than I did. That being said, I did like it. It just wasn't what I had hoped it would be.

What in the fudge just happened!?!

🤯

I seriously must’ve missed some important context because that ending…made no sense to me, in terms of the MC’s motivation, let alone chain of events.

I actually really enjoyed this book for more than 75% of it! I love the world—the vile rot and all the other different kinds of magic-users—and the way they can sacrifice just about anything (memories, voices, etc) to make deals with their monsters!

I didn’t much care for either of the love interests…or really the MC either now that I think about it 😅

But that ending, or at least my interpretation of it is unforgivable! 😅 I legitimately feel like I’m missing the last few chapters or something… Ahhhh!

DNF at 18%. Unfortunately, I just couldn't bear to spend my time finishing this book. It's really not the vibe I thought it was going to be at all. Everything feels very flat and like I've read it before a thousand times. This one just wasn't for me and I can't think of many people I'd recommend it to.

A wonderfully dark and wild ride. What We Devour totally encompasses the "eat the rich" mentality. The worldbuilding and magic system was a wee bit hard to follow at times but I did still enjoy it and do recommend it.

Great concept ruined by mediocre writing at best and absolute blend character and obnoxiously weird attempt at a charismatic brooding mysterious love interest who just came off as...weird

By now it doesn’t come as a surprise that I live Linsey Miller's writing. Her fantasy worlds are always very engaging, and most of all I love the always-present queer representation.

This was such an interesting concept, it took me a while to get into it but I ended up really enjoying it!

This book is interesting and dark and intense but also quite confusing. The magic is unique as the bearers must offer sacrifices to these magical entities in order to get them to act. This is sometimes memories and feelings but other times blood and flesh. It's unique and interesting but very dark. Basically every transaction is weighing your wellbeing and memories in order to achieve some other goal. Probably a hit or miss for readers.
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A twisting tale of a normal bad-king fairy tale. But then it twists, and twists agian, until it is hard to know what is good or bad. And really, what is best for the country's survival?

I so wanted to love this one, but it moved slower than Christmas! The concept was so neat, but I really had to trudge through it due to it moving so slowly.

A dark fantasy set in an isolated world where blood and sacrifice are bound to one another.

Lore is one of the wrought, people who carry a piece of long-departed gods within them, though she has kept the extent of her abilities hidden to secure her freedom. When the Heir to the crown shows up and nearly hauls off her father figure as a sacrifice, she makes a deal to come work for him in exchange.

What We Devour is a book with a LOT going on. We’ve got the wrought who can sacrifice blood, bone, the deaths of others, and even memories in order to achieve all sorts of magical effects. They are bound by the crown in a myriad of terrible byzantine contracts that spell out the only ways their magic may be used, and if you think that’s terrible, congrats! You’re right.

The world Lore lives in also kinda…sucks. At least if you aren’t a councillor or of the peerage anyway. They can bribe their way out, or find healers to ensure they are never maimed. But normal folks are routinely killed in accidents at work, or by being sacrificed to the door.

Yeah about that.

There’s a door in the basement that holds back all the Vile (capital B baddies) from escaping back into the world at large. The catch being it requires sacrifices in order to hold the line. And it’s appetite has been increasing exponentially until we’re looking at the en of the line.

With so much going on it sometimes felt more like the opening to a trilogy or duology than a stand alone novel. It introduced a vivid world but I wish it’d had a bit more depth, or a clearer through line.

That being said, I still REALLY enjoyed this read. It was dark and bloody and had tons of great snarky scenes. Lore was a super relatable character, and the discussions about power, corruption, and sacrifice were well done.

It's no surprise to anyone that I loved What We Devour. I'm a huge fan of Linsey Miller's and have told her for years I would read her grocery lists if that's all she released (to which she sent me a photo of her grocery list to be funny). What We Devour was hauntingly beautiful and I loved it so much.

Could not get into this one. While I typically adore gothic tales, this book seemed to miss the mark. Unfortunately, another DNF. :(

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A dark and intriguing book. This was a lot to unpack in one book. I really wish that the author would have made this a series instead of one book. The magic system in this book was one of the most unique I think I have ever read.

I didn’t quite vibe with this book, and I can’t really put my finger on why. The whole time as I was reading it felt a bit like there was a barrier between me as the reader and the events being depicted on the page and I just couldn't fully get into it. Things would happen and I would be confused as to what was going on, a bit like I was trying to listen to a muffled television that’s playing in the next room, or I like I was out of sync somehow. Maybe it was the writing style? I truly don't know, and it’s a shame because there’s a lot about this book that I really liked, and I wish that I could’ve gotten into it more so I could’ve actually enjoyed those things properly.

I liked Lorena as a character. She’s fiercely loyal to the people she loves, but that love isn’t unconditional. There are some things that simply can’t be looked past no matter how much you like someone or how long you’ve known them, and this was a really interesting approach and not one that I’ve seen all that often. Lorena is clever, able to make intricate plans on the fly and even more intricate plans when given some prep time, and she’s not afraid to be ruthless if that’s what it takes to get the outcome she wants. I also really liked the depiction of her asexuality and how social norms have led to her purposefully altering her behaviour in order to discourage people from being interested in her. She doesn’t dislike being an undertaker, but her main motivation in becoming one was the hope that people wouldn’t want to have sex with someone who spends a lot of their time among corpses. This is the biggest example of her doing something like this, she does mention that there are other, smaller things she does too. As an ace person, I can confirm that we do sometimes deliberately try to make ourselves unappealing to others, just to avoid the hassle. It’s a detail that many non-aspec people would overlook, but that I appreciated seeing.

The magic system was also interesting! It took me a really long time to get a handle on how it works, and even now I’m not entirely clear on how it began in the backstory, so I think it probably could’ve been explained a bit better near the start of the book, but once I finally got the hang of it things were okay. Those who can use this magic, either to create things - the noblewrought - or to destroy things - the vilewrought - have to sacrifice something of a greater value in order to do so. It’s mentioned many times that this isn’t an equivalent exchange, the sacrifice has to be greater than what the wrought wants to achieve, and often has to be Much greater. The things that devour these sacrifices and create/destroy in exchange, wrights, are technically possessing these people, and the vast majority of people have to word their ‘contracts’ with their wrights very carefully so the wright can’t take liberties and screw them over for funsies. Lorena has a good relationship with her wrights, so she doesn’t have to do that because they have no desire to screw her over, and I would’ve enjoyed it if her relationship with her wrights could’ve been delved into a little more. There’s one scene about this that I really enjoyed and I wish there’d been more of it! I think benevolent possession might be one of my favourite tropes.

I think my favourite characters were the wrought trio that Lorena works with. Basil, Carlow, and Creek were a lot of fun and bounce off each other well, and there’s something about unhappily immortal characters abusing their inability to stay dead in order to do stupid/reckless things in the name of either helping others or for science that’s vastly entertaining to me.

This is ultimately a book about capitalism and class, and how the rich upper classes intentionally exploit those they deem as being beneath them. Billionaires will not save you, and you should not give them your loyalty. If you’re looking for a book that’s a rallying cry for eating the rich then this could be the book for you.

There’s a lot about this book that I really liked! When it all came together it didn’t quite click for me, which is a shame, but I would still recommend it to others because maybe it would work for you.

Great book, love this author and how they can keep my attention to the end! The plot is well developed, characters are believable and they obviously paid attention to detail to make the story worth your time to read.