Can't believe a book about a woman whose a vampire left me down.

In Woman, Eating we follow Lydia, Lyd, after she moves to a studio with other artists and starts an internship in, what she considered, a great place. She also gets to met Ben, an... awkward guy that was just not interesting but got the attention of our mc, of course.
As much as I wanted to love this because of its premise, it felt like something was missing, there were so many moments where I felt like we finally got to something only to be disappointed afterwards.
Everything felt disconnected, at the beginning of whatever idea it was presented, it was nice and seemed like something that had potential, but then it left a sour taste and didnt do anything that amazed you. For example, the relationship with her mother (and also her dad), there was a lot to explore considering what happened. The side characters, especially Anju, were really interesting and I wished the author found a way to show them more, they were described as such interesting characters only to be left out after that one scene they appeared.
Overall, really disappointing, the only thing that I can rescue is the writing since it does mirror Lyd very well, obscure, sad and quite distant.

Woman, Eating was an interesting novella that touched on some fascinating concepts, but its flaws made it an uneven read.

On the positives, Lyd is a fascinating character that is well realized. The author brings you along on her journey and it is easy to connect to her emotions throughout. The book also does a wonderful job creating the world around her, with characters that are distinct and imagery painted effectively on the minds eye. The themes of duality throughout were strong: duality between her racial identities, duality between her sense of self and her generational trauma, are both explored well throughout.

Unfortunately, the book falls prey to uneven pacing that made it seem like a much longer read than its actual page length. It left me feeling unsatisfied and desiring to know more about the rich world around her. A lot of the interesting concepts introduced felt under explored.

overall, this novella was uneven with a lot of interesting things going on. I would return to this author in the future because she shows promise, but I was underwhelmed by this installment.

Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda
4/5 stars
*I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Woman, Eating is one of the most unique vampire stories I’ve had the pleasure of reading. It feels like a cross between My Year of Rest and Relaxation and What We Do in the Shadows, which prior to reading this book were two pieces I never thought would work together. But Claire Kohda proves it can work surprisingly well.

Quick disclaimer: this book is marked as horror, but it doesn’t read that way. If anything, it is literary fiction with elements of horror/fantasy. There was nothing in this book that I felt was meant to scare me. Regardless, it’s still a great read, and I think both horror fans and literary fiction fans will find a lot to enjoy here.

What I Liked
- Lydia’s POV is so compelling, and I loved getting to be in her head. The way that she sees the world is interesting to say the least, and adds a lot to the uniqueness of the book.
- Lydia’s relationship with her mother was heartbreaking and beautifully written. I can tell that this is going to resonate with a lot of readers.
- There is so much detail in the prose, from the food Lydia wishes she could eat, to the art pieces in the studio she works at, to her memories of her childhood.

What I Disliked
- Virtually all of the characters other than Lydia were flat and uninteresting to me (in particular, I did not find Ben interesting at all and the sections that heavily featured him were difficult for me to get through).
- This is very much a book where nothing happens, and I found parts of it boring. Lydia’s POV made most of these parts tolerable, however, it still impacted my enjoyment of the book.

Overall: Woman, Eating takes a fascinating concept and executes it with one of the best lead characters I’ve read in a while. This was one of my most anticipated books of 2022, and I am happy to say that it does not disappoint.

Lydia is in her early twenties figuring out what she wants to do with her life now that she’s out on her own for the first time, she is also a vampire. Her story is a fresh and unique take on how a young vampire would be able to make their way in todays world.

This unconventional novel captures a moment-to-moment quality, lacking a distinctly propulsive plot—yet it manages to stay intriguing thanks to the crisp language and unique first-person perspective. The train of thought-centric story focuses deeply on protagonist Lydia’s relationship with her mother as Lydia grapples with her half-human half-vampire heritage while maturing into adulthood. It’s essentially the listless post-grad existential crisis narrative with an added folklore element, taking on a decidedly Ottessa Moshfegh bent right down to the deeply cursed art gallery gig. I’ll absolutely read whatever Claire Kohda writes next. Thanks to HarperVia and NetGalley for the ARC.

A recent art university grad must help her aging mother into a care facility as she starts her new life in London. As she navigates a new studio and internship, she continues to try and make sense of being a vampire, her relationship with food and her biological father's absence.

This book mixes a few different directions and it's interesting to see that perspective added on to a supernatural creature that can only survive on blood; her racial otherness compiled with her introversion and general unease at needing blood in the first place.

Woman, Eating is the book to read if you want an example of completely wasted potential. We follow our protagonist, Lydia, around the city as she begins an art internship under an infamous so-called "art advocate", where she moves into a studio shared by multiple other young artists and cautiously enters a complicated relationship with a boy named Ben. But she's also a vampire, slowly descending into hunger as she struggles to find animal blood to feed from.
Woman, Eating should've been a great addition to the rising genre of Sad Woman, with all the necessary traits that could have warranted it a high standing alongside with some of my favorites, such as A Certain Hunger, The Pisces, Strange Weather In Tokyo and My Year of Rest and Relaxation. All the books I mentioned follow the same concept—a depressed woman, living her life while a complicated relationship/desire/urge connects her inner longing to a current event unfolding in her life. But while all the others managed to fulfill expectations laid by its synopsis and follow a clean, well-written storyline, Kohda failed to materialize into words any idea she could've held in her head.
The best way I can describe this book is surface level. Kohda constantly teases interesting conversations, but when the trap is set, she immeditely moves back into the comfortable blandness of the narrador's inner monologue. Lydia is a passive, forgettable character, and since the beginning I found myself unable to root for her. Even when she did questionable things, I was unable to even hate her, I just didn't care where she ended up. As for the side characters, even with their minimal page time, left me curious to know more. Anju in particular was a very interesting character that was swept under the rug in favor of an unoriginal plotline centering a white man.
I will admit, the last chapter was surprisingly Fleabag-esque, and I actually enjoyed the puppet storyline, but even the big climax failed to impress after so many pages of bleak prose and even bleaker character work.

Very character driven for a vampire tale. Lots of focus on the character’s thoughts and feelings rather than a supernatural adventure. Sort of literary fiction with a fantasy/horror tilt. I really liked the way this book deals with identity and self image. Lydia has a lot of inner conflict surrounding her relationship with her parents and her heritage, which combines well with the alienation of being a vampire—she’s an other, separate from society, trying to find herself. her mother is a vampire, her father died when she was young. She has trouble connecting with her parent’s heritage especially because she is cut off from the ceremony of cooking and enjoying food around a table. She often fantasizes about eating food from Japan so she can connect with her father’s homeland. It was interesting to see a young, lost vampire trying to navigate her early twenties, while also dealing with things like where to get fresh blood. I was really happy to see her gain confidence and come into her own power by the end of the book.

This was a very odd and intriguing read. Very unlike anything else I have read. I still don’t know if this is one that I adore because if it’s eccentricities or if it will be remembered simply as a very strange little tale that was maybe too eccentric for me. It was enjoyable to read and I liked how it was so different from my usual read.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and Claire Kohda for the chance to read and review this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Honestly, the description of this story intrigued me far more than the actual book. I am a huge fan a vampires and believe we always need more vampire fiction, and I believed this would promise that. Did I get it? Not really.

Honestly, this had more focus on a agonizingly boring romance than it did on the main character (and her vampirism). I don’t even have much to say about this book, other than it neglected it’s most interesting aspects in favor for the flavorless, and I barely even managed to finish it.

Lydia is a struggling artist attempting to cope with depression, her mother's recent decline into dementia, unresolved feelings about her dead father and disconnected heritage, and the general ennui of being a twenty-something. Also, she's a vampire.

I loved this strange little book -- Kohda offers a remarkable debut novel that is both lush and spare, and I respect her ability to refrain from over-explaining the metaphor. The book is a clever meditation on race and colonial inheritance through the twin staples of the vampire genre, blood and consumption. The novel is frequently hilarious (Lydia naming her stolen puppet 'Lydia' killed me, and I cannot stop laughing at the idea of an envious vampire watching hours of Youtube mukbang ASMR videos.) and often poignant, particularly in Lydia's complicated relationship with her mother and her ambivalence toward human connection. I'll admit, I'm excited to see what Kohda publishes next!

This, for me, is a quintessential 3-star book. I liked it, albeit felt it was a tad too long, but it didn't wow me. The premise, setting, characters were all promising, but I didn't feel an emotional connection with any aspect of the book.

Thank you Harper and Netgalley for providing me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Woman, Eating was an original take on vampirism with a millennial , post-grad , identity crisis lens. This is definitely better enjoyed for the character driven and “vibes” readers rather than those looking for extensive plot.

Personally though, I adored this book. I can’t even quite describe or piece together why. It feels like a case of picking it up at the right time of my own millennial post-grad crisis. Lydia’s journey is relatable, tragic, darkly funny at times, and thought-provoking.

I loved the parts that dove into vampire lore around the world and the conflict of the self-perceived human and demon parts of her. I would’ve liked to see a bit more of her biracial identity crisis and get more closure in a few plot threads and character dynamics.

But this book is short, pretty well paced, and just hypnotic with the compulsion quality of vampires.

“I feel unsteady on my feet, like my body isn’t mine, and it isn’t a good fit for me-like on my next step, I might just accidentally step out of it, leaving it behind me.”

A coming of age story that follows Lydia, a starved vampire and artist who is trying to fit into the world surrounded by humans. As Lydia is navigating a new gallery internship, newfound romantic feelings for her studio neighbor, and the yearn to be fully human, she can’t help but remember her mother’s distaste and distrust for mortals. With her mom’s teachings in the back of her mind, Lydia has to figure out if she wants to live as a normal person or embrace the vampire side of her.

POV: Sad woman in her 20s who happens to be a vampire. The plot and setup for this book sounded like the perfect combination, but the execution lacked for me. This is a very airy read that focuses on the main character and her inner thoughts rather than being very plot-heavy. While I usually really enjoy these novels, this one felt like it lacked direction and development.

With that being said, I still breezed through this book and enjoyed reading about the main character Lydia a lot. I found her inner struggles to actually be quite relatable. She is grappling with either listening to what she’s been taught her entire life or taking a different path or normalcy, which is a dilemma most people have to face at some point.

While I expected more from this book, It was still something I’m glad I got to read and enjoy for a bit.

I really wanted to like this book. The premise was interesting enough, though I tend to shy away from vampire stories. I was expecting there to be better drawn connections between what Lydia, the main character, experienced as a biracial young woman and what it meant to exist as a vampire. There were moments when it seemed like the author would take us there, only to have the connection fizzle and miss. Those were missed opportunities, I think, and so the full effect was somewhat underwhelming.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review


This is a weird little book. I can’t tell if I actually liked it, or just wanted to like it. I found myself enjoying parts but not being too sad when it was over.
3.5 rounded up

This book feels like a short story that got out of hand. It's an introspection-heavy book, with the protagonist not doing much more than letting things passively happen to her until the middle (which is easily the best section of the book), and it feels incredibly direction-less. This meandering quality comes, I think, from the fact that there are so many (interesting!) ideas seeded throughout this book, which are never given enough space to really bear fruit. And I don't think that the relatively short length of the book is to blame as much as the fact that Kohda chose to spend a lot of time describing Lyd laying on the floor (I get it, she's depressed) and obsessing over Ben - easily the least interesting of the characters and potential plotlines presented here - rather than letting the stronger ideas play out outside of Lyd's head. With a stronger sense of plot movement, this book could have very well fully tackled the great ideas it presented, but as it stands...not so much.

And yet the middle (before the ending brings us back down to more lying on the floor scenes and a rushed finale) has quite a few scenes in it that stick out in my mind - when Lyd started to make art again was really when the book kicked into gear. And yet again, here, there were so many things brought up that I thought would be delivered on by the end - Lyd's relationship with her childhood friend, Lyd's burgeoning relationship with the other female artists in the studio - and then they were all left hanging. This sparseness would have been okay if, like I said, this was only a short story, looking just to give a glance at this vampire obsessed with human food. But for a full length book? There needed to be more delivered on here.

It's a shame, because this book had a lot of potential. But ultimately, it never cohered or worked for me.

Woman, Eating is an unconventional, literary vampire book about young vampire and artist Lydia. Lydia, who goes by Lyd, has just put her vampire mother in a care home and moved to London for a prestigious gallery internship. The book explores themes of identity and family while portraying what post-grad life looks like in the 21st century.

I came away from this book with pages of highlights. Woman, Eating is at times hilarious and at times heartbreaking and often both. Lydia's social awkwardness and uncertainty feel so fresh compared to tales of glamorous vampires and her experiences working as a GLAM intern were super relatable. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys literary fiction with "Woman Eating" themes like The Vegetarian, The Edible Woman, and White is for Witching or more generally anyone interested in a new kind of literary vampire novel.

Most vampire fiction gets vampires wrong. Or at least, it creates vampires I don’t care for or about, glamorous nihilists drunk on decadence or brooding forever-teens. And so, it’s always a pleasure and sometimes an event when someone gets vampires right. And this book came tantalizingly close.
Its protagonist, Lydia, a 23-year-old woman freshly on her own after spending all of her life with an oppressive and mean mother, it trying to find her way in the world and, mostly, just trying to eat. The title…it’s apt.
Lydia’s mom is a self-loathing vampire, a quality she tried to instill in her daughter, referring to themselves as demons, unworthy, etc. There’s no logical explanation to how her mother was able to get pregnant with her (by a regular, non-vampire father) and have a child and then turn the child into a vampire as a baby and have her grow to adulthood…that’s just kinda there for you to suspend your disbelief and go along with. But now that Lydia’s 23, she is done growing, she just needs blood to sustain her life.
The thing is…her mother raised her on animal blood they’d get from a local butcher, but now that avenue is closed, and Lydia can’t line up a new supply and so she’s hungry. Terribly, terribly hungry.
She’s also trying to set up a new life for herself, by renting an art studio she also sleeps in, making new friends in the building and working an internship at a trendy gallery with a creep for an owner.
So, in a way it’s a coming-of-age story too. An aspect that easily overshadows the vampire thing. Lamentably so, because reading about a character with a very unusual set of personal challenges is considerably more interesting than reading about a Gen Z artist trying to make her way through life. The latter is practically New Adult or at least very hipstery and the entire production is certainly very hip, but it stretches itself thin with insubstantiality, much like Lydia’s attempts at abetting her appetites with powdered blood.
This would have made a dynamic novella, as a novel, even a relatively short one, it leaves something to be desired. There’s too much concentration on the awkward romantic subplot with an awkward romantic lead who speaks in unfinished sentences. There’s a MeToo workplace situation nod. But overall, the novel seems to skirt its most fascinating aspects in favor of the quotidian ones. It’s a nicely written book, especially for a debut, original and has a great ending, but it’s also young in slightly emo, Twilight generation way. So, something of a mixed bag, but at least a quick read. Thanks Netgalley.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Woman, Eating.

I finished reading this a few weeks ago but it's taken me this long to write a review on what I recently read.

This is not your typical vampire novel. There are no sparkling vampires. There's some blood, a little, but not much. I had some expectations, more of the violent kind, sort of like an Interview with the Vampire, but Woman, Eating was so much more.

Lydia is an artist struggling to find her voice and when she begins an internship at a gallery, she believes she may have finally found her tribe. She meets humans, and is taken with Ben, an artist she begins to have feelings for.

But she's constrained; by her true persona, the beliefs her mother has instilled in her since she was young about their demonic origins and Lydia is torn between trying to live a normal life she may be able to have or living within the margins of normalcy and darkness.

Life is hard. She's starving, she's hungry, she's lonely, she misses her mother, she watches food bloggers and wonders what it might be like to eat Japanese food, or any food.

Despite her longevity and the power she keeps tightly wrapped within herself, when Lydia is sexually assaulted by the owner of the gallery, she is stunned. Shocked. Powerless. A feeling she is not accustomed to.

How can this be? Someone with her knowledge, her wisdom and experience, and an inappropriate touch has rendered her into a mere mortal. She does not like this feeling. She does not approve. What can she do?

Lydia will eventually come to terms with her desire to be human, but face the ultimate fact that she is not human. But is that such a bad thing?

Despite it's short length, the author packs a lot in Woman, Eating and it's heavy: issues of race, disability, misogyny, body image, sexual abuse are touched upon, but also societal expectations, personal desires, love and companionship.

Lydia, despite her vampirism, is no different than mortals; she desires love, a purpose, to enjoy food, to enjoy life, seeking a tribe of her own, wonders about her origins and her future.

She's not just hungry for blood to sustain her life, she's hungry for life, to live like everyone else, to belong somewhere and be like everyone else

Lydia is no stranger to the tribulations mortal women face as well; sexism, degradation, her purpose constrained by men and societal expectations, and when she's assaulted, it's still a blatant shock.

How can someone with her power and life still be demeaned? It torments her as she wracks her brain wondering why she didn't speak up or fight back.

Is it because she wants to be like everyone else and just let it go? Or is it something worse?

I was intrigued by Lydia's mother and her origins; how she became a vampire is touched upon but not elaborated. I wished the author had delved more deeply on that subject.

I liked Lydia, I could see us becoming friends. She's sensitive, empathetic and self aware; perhaps because she's really much older than she looks. Some of her habits I could identify with, such as watching food videos and wishing for something you don't have and wish you have.

The writing was good, thoughtful, and though I saw the ending coming, it was satisfying.

There's a lot to digest (pun intended) in Woman, Eating, and it was not the read I had been expecting but it was a different kind of good read for October.

Its not a scary read, but it makes you think, and the issues are as prevalent now or 100 years ago, no matter your age.