Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

11 reviews

sarmckay's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Starting this review by saying that this is definitely not my usual genre-and there were moments where that really mattered in some of the more descriptive horror-y sections, and that’s why I can’t rate it higher than 3.5 stars. If you like horror, I’d recommend it. 

Devon was a great main character, a mother who would stop at nothing to protect and save her children, but her son, Cai, was not my favourite character.

Spoiler

I found Cai incredibly unlikable, which I guess is part of being a mind eater? But still, very hard to connect with the character and want him to succeed

I really enjoyed the ending, although the big twist wasn’t hard to spot it was still fun to read. Couldn’t put it down for the last 100 pages. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Stalking, Blood, Pregnancy, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Vomit, Rape, and Trafficking

gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

 The Details:
 Narrated by Katie Erich
Unabridged

This was just okay for me. It had a really cool snd unique concept but I just lacked any emotional connection for the story and ended up more or less having it on as background noise, unfortunately. 
I wish I had had a stronger feeling for this title.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Misogyny, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Medical content, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Physical abuse, Gore, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexism, Body horror, Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Blood, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Addiction, Abandonment, Violence, Torture, Outing, Toxic relationship, Stalking, and Sexual violence

nahimgood's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Murder, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Alcohol, Drug use, and Pregnancy

Minor: Slavery, Confinement, Infertility, and Fire/Fire injury

clairew97's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Classism, Death, Abandonment, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Confinement, Grief, Homophobia, Bullying, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Sexual content, Stalking, Blood, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

kllyholt's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Body horror, Cannibalism, and Child death

Moderate: Stalking, Sexism, and Sexual violence

jebowman123's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A super interesting take on vampires that is written from the point of view on inconsequential characters. It asks the readers to consider what can happen when certain people control information and act on it. Themes of addiction, temptation, motherhood, ableism, queer identities, and neurodivergence.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Misogyny, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Toxic relationship, Stalking, Torture, and Trafficking

cassie7e's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I think I've found a new author to bingeread!
I read this book with very little knowledge of what I was getting into beyond "people who eat books" and that made every layer of context a wonderful discovery! I loved the ominous oppressive atmosphere, the literary references, the nonlinear timeline, the nuanced internal conflicts given the external circumstances.  This book is fantastic for the story itself, and on top of that provided some much needed representation.

I think what keeps this from being a 5-star for me is that it is not invested in a lot of world-building. I don't think that hurts this story necessarily but I generally prefer books with more intrigue and complex details. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, and Body horror

Moderate: Blood, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Death, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault

books_and_fairy_lights's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

It was good, I can't say I didn't like it. I read it pretty fast and got somewhat into it because I really wanted to know what had happened in the past and what was gonna happen now. The story was well built, in that it really kept the reader wondering while still getting some answers. That part was great. The story was also quite original I think, or at least I don't think I've ever seen anything else with book eaters or anything close to that (which is actually quite surprising, thinking about it). So yeah it was a good book. However, it was often "too obvious" for me. Like it was very often trying to make a point/give a lesson/preach some point of view - and I'm not saying it was wrong in its ideas, it just didn't leave much room for nuance in those instances. Ironically I found it very black and white, for a book that was advocating that "things are more complicated than they seem" and "there's no good and bad" it made a heavy emphasis on what it considered "the right idea" and didn't really let the readers decide for themselves. Also, the whole "life isn't a fairytale" thing was really lacking in subtlety in my opinion. In addition to being (sorry if it's harsh) unoriginal, it was also very heavy and expressed too forcefully for me. Like, of course life isn't a fairytale, and I'm the first person to agree with the fact that reality is brutal and full of disappointment and disillusion, but you don't have to say it so plainly. In fact, I think that a less obvious, more subtle way of making it clear (through hints and ideas and metaphors and what not) is way more efficient than just saying it like that. It gives more room for people to interpret it in a way that resonates with their own feelings and experiences.

Anyway, although not groundbreaking, it overall was a nice read and I'm glad to have read it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Misogyny, and Death

Minor: Alcohol, Rape, Stalking, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Trafficking, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Cannibalism, and Genocide

bitteralbatross's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Physical abuse, Murder, and Misogyny

Minor: Sexual violence, Trafficking, Stalking, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Sexual assault

leonormsousa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

REP

Spoiler

lesbian MC, sapphic LI, asexual male SC, disabled Indian-British SC

QUOTE 

“For here was the thing that no fairy tale would ever admit, but that she understood in that moment: love was not inherently good.
Certainly, it could inspire goodness. She didn’t argue that. Poets would tell you that love was electricity in your veins that could light a room. That it was a river in your soul to lift you up and carry you away, or a fire inside the heart to keep you warm. Yet electricity could also fry, rivers could drown, and fires could burn; love could be destructive. Punishingly, fatally destructive.
And the other thing, the real bloody clincher of it all, was that the good and the bad didn’t get served up equally. If love were a balance of electric lights and electric jolts, two sides of an equally weighted coin, then fair enough. She could deal.
That wasn’t how it worked, though. Some love was just the bad, all the time: an endless parade of electrified bones and drowned lungs and hearts that burned to a cinder inside the cage of your chest.
And so she looked down at her son and loved him with the kind of twisted, complex feeling that came from having never wanted him in the first place; she loved him with bitterness, and she loved him with resignation. She loved him though she knew no good could ever come from such a bond." 

THINGS I ENJOYED 

• Sunyi Dean's writing is stunning (something I've confirmed in her two recent short stories), and I think I might read everything she puts out there
• So many great and strong passages! (I'm not one to annotate but this book made me want to)
• We love a book that doesn't shy away from talking about misogyny and oppressive societies
• How the author explored the topic of love, especially maternal love and how it can twist your moral boundaries (see the quote I included)
• The queer rep <3
• The concept of book and mind eaters was so interesting and original, and the chapter introductions with the lore really made the experience better
• It really stuck with me (it has been 4 months since I read and I not only think about it but almost feel like rereading it)
• The dual-timeline storytelling works so well

THINGS I DIDN'T ENJOY

• The ending was a bit too rushed and even almost “too easy”.
• Some details were given a lot of emphasis in the book but then ended up not playing any part at all, which felt a bit misleading and incoherent.

THINGS THAT I'VE SEEN CRITICISM ABOUT AND WHY I ACTUALLY LIKED THEM

• The world-building is limited - I think that the vagueness and unresolvedness of this book fitted it quite well. It's very rooted in Devon, so for me, it made sense that we didn't knew much about the book/mind eaters origin or lore (or other topics of the book in general) because she didn't knew it as well, either because she wasn't given that information as a woman or because it was not knowledge the book eater society had at the time.
• The abrupt ending - I actually like open endings and thought this one fitted the book well

READ IF YOU ENJOY

• creepy books with grey/dark characters
• stories about unhinged women trying to break free
• topics like misogynist societies and motherhood
• urban fantasy/sci-fi elements as a means to uncover and discuss real-life situations

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Violence, Gaslighting, and Death

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Blood, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Child death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Stalking, and Vomit

Minor: Trafficking, Acephobia/Arophobia, Homophobia, and Slavery