After reading this book, I wish I could sink my teeth into its pages. A fairytale in its own right, the Book Eaters is a convincing account of what someone is capable of doing for love. It might not be a knight in shining armor kissing the sleeping princess, but Sunyi Dean weaves a tale asking simply, are you a good person?

This is one of my first reads in the horror genre, and it was thoroughly enjoyed. There were some mechanics that I didn’t understand 100%, but it wasn’t distracting and I don’t think it detracts from the story to not have every detail and explanation of the world.

The pacing and time shifts really helped to keep me engaged and questioning, now what? I feel like I have a better understanding of what it means to be a mother, how generational trauma manifests, and I appreciated the slight queer representation.

*Spoiler free*

I was excited for this book when I heard that it was going to be about people who eat books. And those who cannot eat books - and eat minds instead.

This book was just as interesting as the premise promises. It's a wonderfully creepy world that's hidden in the pockets of the human one, where there is a hierarchy that is stifling, but one that makes you feel as if you should be grateful for everything you have. Even if what it gives you is not what it wants.

It's a wonderful story of motherhood and a woman pushed to make choice after choice for the benefit of her children. It's about love, and how it takes choices and becomes one itself.

I did enjoy it a lot, but I felt like there were a lot of threads that were trying to do a lot of things at the same time. I would have liked for each of them to be fleshed out more, and they sort of felt like a hodgepodge all put together. I wanted more the toll that motherhood took on Devon, but also everything that it gave her. I wanted more of the inner family politics, and just how corrupted the underbelly of it was. I wanted more of the world, the lore of the book eaters that are hidden away from the rest of society. I felt like there was a lot happening, and I just didn't feel like all of them came together in the way that I had hoped.

Nevertheless, I didn't hate it, and I did thoroughly enjoy the parts the worked for me!

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean
Devon is not human, she is a book eater. She does not get her nourishment from food but rather from eating the written word. With each text she consumes, Devon absorbs the knowledge each text possesses. And her blood runs black like ink.
The chapters in this novel alternate between the past and present. We learn about Devon and the Fairweather family one of Six families of book eaters where few females are born. Although this makes Devon a princess it also makes her a prime commodity for marriage for the explicit purpose of propagating their species. Love is irrelevant.
Next, we are thrown into the present where we learn Devon has escaped the family with her son and is living life on the run, hiding from not only her own family but from the “knights and dragons” whose mission it is to preserve the secrecy and sanctity of the Families. Escaping hasn’t been easy for Devon, having her five your old son with her makes it difficult, especially if the child is a mind eater. Devon must find the drug “ Redemption” in order to control her son’s need for consuming the brains of others.
Fast-paced, viscerally gripping, and descriptive beyond measure. You’ll spend all night reading until its resolution.

Awesome fantasy book that fuses the Princess trope of children’s books with a woman’s need to gain her freedom. The book eaters are an interesting concept, and I can’t wait for the next book!

Really LOVED this one. Haunting and gothic and un-put-downable. It was a story that left me thinking about when I wasn’t reading it.

A secret species of people, who may or may not be of alien lineage, live amongst us in relative peace and isolation in grand old castles. They look like humans, they talk like humans, but they are not human. Most of their kind are born with book teeth and eat our literature for sustanance, absorbing the words as knowledge. Others are born with probiscus tongues and are referred to as "mind eaters" or dragons. They feed on human essence and absorb their victims memories and personalities.

Female book eaters are becoming rarer as the Families continue to arrange marriages between themselves in an effort to keep their kind from going extinct. Mind eater children are sent off with the Knights to be trained as guard dogs, for lack of a better term. Except Devon is not having it. Having been sent off to her second marriage, and having given birth to her second child, a beautiful mind eater boy, Devon refuses to give up her son and becomes hell bent on escaping from that way of life.

You would think a book about a humanoid species that eats books and absorbs its content as knowledge would be right up my alley. Yeaaaahh, apparently not so much. As much as I wanted to like it, I could tell within the first 25 pages or so that it was going to be a struggle. I ended up talking myself out of DNFing it a few times, and I'm mostly ok with the fact that I didn't. Don't get me wrong, it's not horrible. It was just a little too fantasy-ish for me.

While it wasn't my cup of tea, you may certainly fall in love with it, if for no other reason than it being an interesting exploration of motherhood, family dynamics, and queer identity.

I kind of loved this book! This is a beautifully and complex written science fiction horror story that was unique and full of action. I feel that the synopsis didn’t really set the tone for what this book is, but then again I somehow grazed over the last part of it: you know, the hungry for human minds part. Not sure how that slipped by me so I really had no idea what I was heading in to. By the end of the first chapter I kept asking myself “what on earth am I reading???” LOL

It is dark and a bit gory. I was interested all the way through and by the end, I was really loving this book. The characters are so well written. I love when an author is able to show you the different sides of a character and why they make the choices that they do. This book is one that will make you think and can lead to some great discussions. By the end of this book, I’m still asking myself what I just read. This is one that I will read again.

I don’t know what the author is planning, but I hope that a book two is being considered. I really want this story to continue, but I will read whatever this author decides to write next.

Thank you Net Galley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Books for this digital arc in exchange for my honest review which is not affiliated with any brand.
I will post a copy of this review on GoodReads now and on Amazon and B&N after this book is published.

The Book Eaters has a really unique premise. That is what immediately grabbed my attention from reading the description. This story is about a group of being who eat books to gain both sustenance and knowledge.

The book eater society is fascinating and the details are wonderfully written. While it's a one of a kind, sci-fi, it also touches on relevant topics that people can relate to in real life.

Definitely recommend for anyone who wants to read something exciting and a little different!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for sending me a free ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Book Eaters is a unique thrill of a book where every character is a monster in their own way. I frequently found myself alternating between rooting for and against characters as their backstory and motivations gradually became more known. I don’t generally flip between liking and disliking characters so much, and to be able to pull that off with multiple characters is very difficult.

To be honest, though, I think other readers will enjoy this book more than I did. It was much darker than I anticipated (the depictions of violence were borderline too graphic for me) and I got more horror vibes than fantasy. I was also hoping for more smashing of the restrictive and abusive systems Devon grew up with: I didn’t really enjoy reading about the patriarchal Family societies and was waiting for some sense of satisfaction by the end of the book. While the ending was somewhat resolved, there are plenty of issues that are left open.

While this wasn’t really the book for me, I know plenty of other readers who will enjoy it. Thank you again to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the opportunity of reviewing an ARC.

If you're in the mood to read something unique, with a story line you've never seen before, you need to read this book. While definitely darker than most books I read, I got sucked into this book and had to find out more about the Book Eaters and how their society operates. I will certainly be looking out for future books written by Sunyi Dean.

First off what a fun concept. Book eaters have to eat books to survive and females are very rare. For a fantasy book it had a connection to the past and how women had little say in their life. The book was fun and a quick read.

Sunyi Dean's The Book Eaters is a beautifully written adult fantasy about Devon, a mom who grew up as a "princess" in a twisted and abusive family, doing everything she can--even the horrible and immoral, to protect her five-year-old son, a monster by almost any definition. She's a fugitive living among humans trying to hide from the knights and their dragons to find the only people that have the medication her son needs to control his monstrous hunger. It's a story about unconditional love, family trauma, and the lengths a mother will go to keep her child safe. It's fantasy with a touch of Midnight Mass style horror and a weaving of fairytale and most of all, it's a must read.

It’s been 24 hours since I finished this book, and I’m still not quite sure how to describe it accurately. Book Eaters is about a society of creatures who look human but need to devour books in order to live (except they can drink alcohol). The story follows a book eater who after being fed a diet of fairy tales discovers that her society is more sinister than she knew. She has to run away from her society with her son who eats human brains instead of books and keep them both alive.

This was a rough one for me. When I get an ARC of a book, I usually power through even if it would normally be a DNF since I want to write a full review. This was the first book in a while to challenge my rule to always finish my ARCS. I had to put it down multiple times because so much of the book borders on absurd.

It reminded me of a vampire story except the publisher told the author, “Vampires aren’t in right now. Make them something else” It’s never quite clear why they have to eat books (at one point it’s speculated that they might be descended from aliens?) especially since it turns out eating too many books makes your brain slow down. They’re also supposed to be hidden away from human society, yet they all take to it seamlessly as the characters play video games, drive cars and have humans working for them. At one point a character is saved thanks to a Chanel purse. At another, the characters speak Polish for a while with no translations. The random bits like those just made it really challenging to get through the book or see any coherence to the plot.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

When I first read the synopsis for The Book Eaters I was immediately interested. The idea of a Book Eater immediately excited me. The lore in The Book Eaters draws the reader in. The conflicts of the story require the characters to make difficult decisions that have no clear perfect resolution. A theme throughout the novel is living with the decisions you make and moving forward, regardless of the outcome. A thread throughout these decisions are the sacrifices made for love, particularly the love between a mother and her children. I found The Book Eaters to be slower paced than I expect from a fantasy novel, but the slow buildup led to a satisfying story overall. I really enjoyed reading The Book Eaters.

Sadly it wouldn't load for me it kept saying error but I am excited for when it's released as the story seems right up my alley. From the sound of it this is the world I want to live in, reading books gaining their knowledge so can't wait to be able to read it

The Book Eaters has a really cool premise and great world-building to support it. Who wouldn't love a book about a mysterious group of beings who subsist on books (and sometimes braaaains) to gain both sustenance and knowledge. The way book eater society is set up is fascinating. I really enjoyed the way we move from the present predicament with Cai and Devon to Devon's past. It's a good way to add depth to Devon while providing the grounding needed to tell the present day plotline. The characters were complicated and layered, and I really wanted to root for them, even though they were doing questionable things. There were some loose threads that I hope get explored further in a later novel, but overall it is a very solid sci-fi/fantasy book.

Recommended for: Anyone looking for a tense sci-fi thriller with really cool world-building and a badass, morally gray heroine. Also, anyone who wishes they just had to eat a book to gain knowledge.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was given the opportunity to read an ARC of The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean from NetGalley. I was initially drawn to this book for its' title and the images on the cover. I was instantly intrigued. Within the first chapter, I was hooked, and I found myself savoring the beautiful descriptions and connecting with the phrase "biblichor" as I, too, love the smell of really old books. Devon's life is not what I would have expected for a book-eater, and the depth of the main character was relevant to the world today. While I may not eat books to sustain my life and I may not bleed ink, I am a mom, I am a daughter, and I am a woman in a world where I have been asked to be less than my true self or asked to make impossible choices for my child. Just like Devon did for Cai, I would stop short of nothing to keep my child alive and safe—even if it meant sacrificing my own mores and beliefs.

What I enjoyed most about this book was the story's natural flow. It was easy to follow how the past connected to the present throughout the book. I also appreciate how Dean developed each of the main characters throughout the entirety of the book and did not front-load character or world development in the beginning chapters. This allowed for continued engagement with each character throughout the book and maintained their relevancy in the storyline.

I think this book takes a unique spin on addressing ever-present and increasingly relevant societal topics. I would definitely recommend it to others.

I figured I would love this title and I was not disappointed. It grapples with heavy topics like the lengths we go to to protect those we love, how patriarchal systems are inherently unfair to women and cannot be rebuilt to be better while a man is still in charge, and how the media we consume can shape our worldview and how we see ourselves. There were several lines in this book that stuck out to me as a poignant turn of phrase that accurately captures how it is to live in our society as a queer woman. It's a title I will definitely be recommending to the people in my LGBTQ book club in the future.

The Book Eaters follows a young mother named Devon as she struggles to create a better future for her child who survives off of consuming minds. As she struggles with her conscience over rendering individuals brain dead so her child does not starve she is also staying out of the way of her family of fellow book eaters and trying to find contacts to access a drug that will allow her child to survive without eating people's minds. The narrative goes between Devon's past and present in each chapter as we see how she and her child were shaped by their circumstances.

This is a great title to recommend to fantasy readers, paranormal/urban fantasy lovers, sapphic/LGBTQ readers, or anyone who just enjoys a great title!

*I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review*

I had a really good time reading this book! There are definitely some trigger warnings that need to be given: human trafficking, body horror, and domestic abuse. Devon was a really good POV character, and I couldn’t always tell if she was being unreliable on purpose or if she had convinced herself that what she was saying was the truth. I loved that her love for Cai was so strong, and that she still held on to her picture of Salem, even when everything around her was being left behind or destroyed. The idea of the six Families is really cool, especially how secular and closed off they all are. I liked that they had their own ways of doing things (like weddings and birthdays) that didn’t carry over to other houses. I also really liked how the chapter quotes were taken from stories mixed in with works from Devon and Cai’s world, and how obviously relevant they were to what was happening and what was about to happen. I wish we had learned more about the Collector, and what the original purpose for the book eaters was supposed to be, but I’m hoping there will be a sequel that will explain more of that. Or at least a sequel so that we can see Devon and Salem reunited.

Overall, a really strong story and I hope there will eventually be more.

I tried with this one, but it was much more horror than I was expecting and I just couldn't get into it. It's not a fault of the book, I just hadn't expected it to be so dark and violent. DNF. I'll give it a three star rating I guess? The writing was good, just not for me.