Full review titled, "Anxieties, Alienation, and Vampires: A Review of Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda," has been published in Ancillary Review of Books.

Lydia's conventional vantage point — of having a mixed ancestry as well as having a hybrid identity of half human and half vampire — provides the very interesting premise in Claire Kohda's debut novel. Various issues like ethicality of food habit, racism and xenophobia, workplace sexual harrassment, perils of private art collection, the differential treatment in the aboriginal artifacts and the 'high arts' — all incorporated together in this strange and compelling narrative. Also, the incorporation and re-interpretation of different lores and legends concerning the birth of Vampirism is absolute tour de force. Woman, Eating has been a really interesting read for me this year, I must say!

I had a hard time connecting with this one. I wanted more, even though the prose was beautiful and I enjoyed Lydia as a character.

Lydia is a multiracial half-vampire who moves away from her mother to pursue an art internship.

However, she's led a sheltered life and living on her own is proving more difficult than she imagined. She's starving. She can't get a hold of the pig blood she typically uses to sustain herself, and she can't quite bring herself to drink from humans.

Meanwhile, she watches mukbang videos and fantasizes about eating human food that her body can't process and yearns to connect with her Japanese father's roots.

Wrapped in a vampire novel, Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda is a brilliant allegory about identity, diaspora, and growing up.

However, I’m utterly torn about this book because I was enraptured by the story ... whenever characters weren't talking.

You see, it’s the dialogue that I took issue with. I think the characters' awkward dialogue was supposed to imitate natural speech, but the sheer amount of filler words (i.e. yeah, um, err) drove me up the wall.

There's a weird disconnect between Lydia's vapid spoken dialogue and the cutting sharpness of her first-person narration. It's so frustrating because they are passages of Lydia's internal monologue that are so raw and poignant, and then it's spoiled by the inanest dialogue. It gave me tonal whiplash, and I wish the dialogue had been substantive enough to match the rest of the story.

Fortunately though, Lydia does spend enough time inner monologuing to help wash the bad taste of the conversation scenes out of my mouth.

Qualms aside, Woman, Eating is overall an intimate, melancholic, and contemplative portrait of a vampire that adds fresh blood to the genre.

Oh man.....the vampire fans are going to hate this and the millennial lit crowd might also hate it, but I....LOVED it. I thought it was perfect.

It was the exact kind of sad goth girl that every single 'sad goth girl' on Instagram is trying to be. Lydia has the same problems as every artist 20 something: she's annoyed with her parents, she's uncomfortable with her body, she's not sure about her career, she wants to fall in love, she's struggling with her art, she's hungry.

She's just hungry for something different.

I think this book is brilliant. I love every little thing about it.

Lyd is a young artist struggling with her cultural identity, her strained relationship with her ill mother, and her eating habits. Additionally, she's a half-human/half-demon vampire.

This is an interesting read that explores hunger (in the literal and figurative sense), morality and otherness. While there isn't much to the plot other than eating or starving or making art, the writing is descriptive and indulgent. Lyd isn't your typical unlikable "unhinged" narrator and she's also not your typical vampire.

A somewhat simple premise is made more interesting by the contemporary art world setting and Lyd's longing to find belonging within both her Japanese and Malaysian heritage as well as her human and demon nature.

This would have made a more compelling novella, but I still enjoyed reading!

Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda is a dark window into the life of an art school graduate trying to make it on her own. Lydia puts her mother into a home and rents a studio, selecting it because of its lack of windows. The other artists in the building seek to befriend her, specifically Ben. Lydia has an internship at the local art museum. While she isn't working or socializing, Lydia is on the search for food, specifically blood. She is a vampire and despite her longing for human food, she cannot eat it. Between dealing with her growing feelings for Ben and her relentless hunger for blood, Lydia has to navigate the life of being an adult outside of university.
I loved Lydia's perspective. It's sad and dismal and you really get to know her throughout the novel. She is biracial and living in London, feeling disconnect from both of her parents' cultures. Her father was an artist but he has passed, and her mother was her sole caretaker growing up. She and her mother have a strained relationship, with Lydia slowly processing all the abuse and the twisted love that she found in that relationship as she's learning how to live on her own. She sees herself as part human and part monster.
This novel was not fast paced, but the writing was easy to read and because I enjoyed being inside of Lydia's mind it was a fast read. It is not an edge of the seat or monster filled horror, but it is filled with many dark elements and twisted storylines. The conclusion was where the action really picked up, and I was very satisfied with how it ended. However, I wish there was just a little more exposition on what happened to all of the characters, but overall it was fantastic.

Going into this book, I found the concept really intriguing. A literary vampire novel with a new adult protagonist trying to overcome their true nature? Sign me up! However, ultimately I was let down by Woman, Eating. While I did like Lyd, the rest of the book bored me. I really wish that Kohda had followed up on the threads of colonialism and identity instead of dropping them in favor of a (lame) romance. There were so many secondary characters I wanted to know more about! Especially Lyd's parents. There were also many moments where something seemed about to happen and then... Pretty much nothing happened. And while I usually love plotless books, this book just didn't work for me.

This book is almost impossible to tear yourself away from. Lush prose pulls you under, as you experience the world from the protagonist’s perspective. An examination of the human condition, a celebration of food (particularly Japanese cuisine), mortality, and art, while also maintaining a unique take on vampirism, it’s simply astonishing.
I was pleasantly surprised that it was nothing like I’d expected, and will happily read anything Claire Kohda publishes going forward.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5. A modern and ambitious debut that is much more extended metaphor than millennial vampire tale (although it’s a little bit that, too).

A huge thank you to @netgalley, @harperviabooks and @clairekohda for a complimentary advance review copy. All thoughts are my own.

Lydia is hungry… To make it in the London contemporary art world. To achieve balance between the two halves of herself that are in constant struggle. To belong. And, quite literally, for blood. Written at the beginning of Covid when violence against Asians was becoming distressingly common (metaphor hint: people were treating them like monsters), Kohda gives us a superbly written, sharp yet delicate debut novel that I can’t stop thinking about.

To be clear, this book is NOT:

A thriller
Horror
Twilight
Buffy

This book IS:

Literary fiction
Extended metaphor
A intersectional examination of what it means to be Asian, mixed-heritage, and female
A rumination on loneliness, power, and what truly satiates us

If this sounds a little weird, well it is! But in the best possible way! I loved it. I’ll leave it to you to discover the rest…

PS – when was the last time you chose a book primarily based on its cover (a foolproof plan if there ever was one) and discovered a five star book inside?!!

Now that was a unique vampire story if ever I read one! 🧛‍♀️

Lydia is a 23 year old art school graduate whose mother has recently been put in a nursing home. This is really her first time venturing out into the world without her mother by her side guiding her way. You see, Lydia isn't like you or I, she is a vampire. Her father was Japanese and what she considers to be her human side but her mother is a vampire that turned her when she was just a baby. Her mother was full of self loathing and refers to them as demons that deserve nothing more than pigs blood, the filthiest of all animals. They were always able to procure pigs blood by the barrel from a local butcher that asked no questions but now that Lydia is on her own she is finding it more and more difficult to satisfy her hunger and with no pigs blood in sight she will need to get creative.

(If you're like me you'll be thinking a vampire in a nursing home? What in the heck?!?! I assure you an answer is provided.)

Lydia rents a studio space with other artists and she dreams of living amongst them, fully human. After attending a dinner party where people laugh and joke and revel in each others company she can't believe all she has missed out on and she is wondering if she can starve the demon out. She is desperate to be like them until she can no longer deny who and what she actually is.

I truly loved Lydia as a character, vampire teeth and all. While her situation is unique her problems are those of any young woman trying to figure out her path in life. She mostly wants to be liked and loved by those around her. There is a constant nagging feeling of being different and less worthy of her peers and having obstacles that you can't really open up to friends about puts her in a precarious position. Speaking of friends, it's nearly impossible to have them when you have eternal life. When you stay the same and those around you fall in love, have children, and grow old and you are you, always and forever, for good or for bad. Not to mention her insatiable appetite and how she desperately wants to eat all of the food those around her are eating, especially that of Japanese food, which she feels would connect her with her human father.

If your looking for thrills, chills, suspense, horror, blood, guts and gore then move along as you will not find any of that here. This is a character study of an interesting and intriguing young woman, a coming of age, or at least, coming of womanhood, narrated by a fascinating voice I will not soon forget. 4 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperVia for my complimentary copy.

Lydia or Lyd has been keeping the lid on emotions her entire life: on her condition, her relationship with her mother, her loneliness, and her hunger.
Having just graduated from art school, Lyd has an internship at a prestigious art gallery and has just placed her mother in a home for dementia patients. She feels as if her life is finally beginning, but she is not prepared for the hunger as her normal food source is much harder to acquire.

She rents a studio, meets other young people, and Ben, the friendly manager of the studio spaces, and struggles with her desire to fit in and overcome the sense of shame instilled in her by her mother. The internship is not at all what she expected--more an unpaid assistant than a learning experience.

She distracts herself with videos of women eating, cooking, and discussing food or with Buffy, the Vampire episodes.

Lydia is hungry. Always. But if you are looking for a "vampire" book, you will be disappointed. Woman Eating is psychological and allegorical, an intriguing anomaly with multiple themes.

Read in Oct. 2021. Review scheduled for April 5, 2022.

NetGalley. April 15, 2022. Print length: 240 pages.

I am sorry that this is a did not finish for me -- I was lured by the cover and looking forward to something a little more plot-intensive (read: action-packed). This is not that, although I'm sure it is other good things; I just was not drawn in enough to see it through. Too many books, too little time.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a deeply original take on vampire fiction. I sometimes mind when authors play fast and loose with "vampire rules for living" (i.e. being explicitly invited in, not being able to walk in sunlight), but here the ideas were strong, some of which drew on East Asian vampire stories wherein a vampire's creation stems from a stillbirth or a penance ritual.

I like this vampire, Lyd, being truly of her time; while she will no longer change, she has only just grown up and part of her naïveté and insecurity is due to her youth. She also has her generation's natural apprehension about the future (the whale, everything natural that people destroy, which is perhaps a reason why she likes Ben's flower clock so much). But the reconciliation of her two sides (human/demon) is too lengthy and too explained to the reader, especially in Part One, where I fear the author will lose readers. A generous author assumes the reader will pick up on hints and won't need things spelled out. Yes, Ben is very pink and would be a great restorative, but the point is belabored. The middle and end of Part One would benefit from another editing pass for this reason in my view.

In equal measure, Lyd's coming to terms with her mother (all the bullshit she downloaded onto Lyd in her youth) and her two halves feels too sudden and explained toward the end. That idea's seam into the narrative might benefit from reworking in order to be more shown instead of told. Perhaps the narrative needs to extend over a longer time period (but not so long that she knows Ben too well!)

It's a persnickety point, but the dialogue could be better "individualized" to characters; for example, I found myself growing impatient with the universal greeting "Hey."

I love the idea of a vampire drinking the memories of her victims and that Lyd gets to "taste food" in this way. The author also introduced me to some interesting contemporary artists (Beuys, Sher-Gil). Additionally, I felt a great reverence for other cultures running through this book (Baba Yaga, Malaysian vampire myth). Creeper Gideon emerges as all the more ridiculous as he dresses like people would assume a dandy or Victorian-era vampire in the Western tradition would.

William Faulkner, who knew something about writing, said that the only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself. Lyd, in Woman Eating, has a big conflict in her heart since she is half human and half demon. Do you ever feel like you're not one of the crowd? Lyd always feels that way and it's worse when the crowds' arteries are pumping all around her, she's starving, and she's refraining from eating humans. It's a coming of age story...with teeth.

The book's subtitle declares itself '" a literary vampire novel." That's a clue that it's not all blood, guts, and action. In fact, there's very little action that goes on outside her mind. Yes, there's a lot of thinking and that's okay. There's plenty of room for books where the protagonist has to figure out, all by herself, what she wants out of life. Thinking is a form of action, too.

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for allowing me to read and review an eARC of Woman, Eating.

Starting a new internship at an art gallery in London, Lydia is hungry. Not just for a life of her own, but for human blood. Lydia is half Japanese, Malaysian, and English, and she’s also a vampire. Living with her mother after the death of her human father, who was a successful artist, Lydia feels stifled. Her mother is suffering from what appears to be dementia, so Lydia makes plans to put her in a care home. On her own now in London after a lifetime of seclusion and living under her mother’s strict vampiric rule, she is trying to starve out her “demonic” need for blood. She wants to make friends but she’s not sure how to do so when she’ll never get older and must always hide who and what she is. We follow her while she navigates a difficult situation at the gallery, her longing for connections, and a growing hunger that is getting harder and harder to contain.

Hmm. After reading Woman, Eating, I have mixed feelings. But the thing is, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing in this case. I think that the slow, detached, and meandering way that this was written was very intentional, despite making for a drawn-out reading experience. In a way it mirrors Lydia’s life at the point that we encounter her; as a reader, we feel as suffocated and lost as she does, like we’re just languishing. It’s an interesting experience that is present in a lot of literary fiction, and while it does not always work, in this case, it does. Things tend to happen to Lydia, whether from her hesitation or inability to take control of her life at this time, and it is annoying but it’s real. I really liked the exploration of Lydia’s relationship with her mother, and I wished that we got even more of it. Her mother played a big role in her life, not always for the best, and she also held a lot back from Lydia about their vampirism. But I think Kohda left those stones fully unturned for a reason: we don’t always get the answers we desire from our parents, no matter how entitled we feel to them. This is a roadblock that all of us, not just Lydia, has to learn to overcome to become her own person using the tools that she already has.

There was one thing about Woman, Eating that really bugged me while reading, and that was the rest of the title: A Literary Vampire Novel. I’m confused as to why Kohda felt the need to try (keyword: try) to set her book apart from other vampire novels by differentiating hers as “literary”. The literary vampire novel isn’t a new concept; Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles exists! Maybe Kohl’s intention was to emphasize how her vampire novel was not going to be action-packed or whatever, or would be more internal and introspective; I really don’t know. But what I do know is that it honestly comes off as a little pretentious, like she’s looking down on other vampire novels for not being literary, or maybe that she thought she had something more to add to the subgenre by elevating it with her “literary” take. I’m not gonna lie, at first I was intrigued with the title, but after reading I’m left thinking “That was it??”. Maybe I’m being salty, I don’t know. Just a thought.

Overall, this book was good. The vampire aspect added an interesting nuance to Lydia’s life regarding hunger, need, and independence, but it wasn’t exactly groundbreaking or something that other vampire books haven’t already done, and better, in my opinion. I think this would be good for someone who wants to dip their toe into vampire novels and not have to read something with a lot of gore—although this does have a bloody scene or two, just nothing over the top. I think Lydia’s story was well-told, even if I wanted more.

This one didn't work for me. If I take away the vampire hook it feels like the story about a young person whose life isn't very interesting and whose problems aren't all that bad compared with many other lives.

This was unlike the books I normally read, but it was enjoyable overall. I didn't feel it fell into a horror genre, even though the protagonist is a vampire. Written from a first-person perspective, the novel deals with a girl coming into adulthood while navigating her tough family situation. It was more of an exploration of coming to terms with the bad cards life has dealt, more than a straight-forward vampire novel.

Lydia is a recent college graduate trying to figure out her next phase in life. An artist, she is interning at a gallery and following in the footsteps of her late father who’s sold works allow for her to rent (and secretly live in) a studio as well as pay for her deteriorating mother to be cared after in a lavish nursing home. Navigating through this quarter life crisis while watching who you know your mother to be fade away would emotionally drain any normal person but, it hits Lydia exceptionally hard. She’s starving in other ways, too. Her bloodlust is getting unbearable as she goes days without a proper meal. Lydia rides the line between morality and immortality; how can she take control of her life and deal with the truth of what she truly is?

Woman, Eating surprised me in many ways. This was a character driven read, focusing on Lyd and her internal struggles. These ranged from her adopted self-hatred instilled from her mother and her view of vampirism, the feeling of disassociation that stems from sexual harassment/assault, and the sadness of missing out on any form of relationship with her father. Kohda dug deeper than I anticipated. While most of Lyd’s battles were framed through the lens of her being a vampire, there were some very real and raw emotions exhibited throughout that are universally relatable. While the plot was fairly stagnant and the storyline very much falls under the “melancholy millennial with no life direction” umbrella, it packed a heartier punch than most of the reads in the same category. The sense of closure delivered felt on par with Lydia’s character and development throughout, a classic twenty-something vibe. Lit fic is a genre I don’t venture into too often and reads like this make me want to broaden my horizons more frequently. A quick, raw read.

i was very excited to read this one! while i'm not disappointed with the book, i do feel that some key elements could've been stronger. i liked the first person perspective, but at times i felt like the writing was inconsistent and fragmented. the characters were also more average than i expected them to be, and there wasn't much depth to them. i'm not sure why the book is labeled as horror either, it had no scary elements to it. all and all, i did like this book, just wasn't quite what i was expecting.

it was ok!! it was just a book to me tbh, i really was expecting more out of this. it should’ve been interesting but honestly it was kind of a slog. i didn’t hate it but i didn’t love it either and pretty much just had to force my way through it!!