Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

93 reviews

kim_j_dare's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Stumbled across this in a bookstore. The title and beautiful cover caught my attention, and when I read the description, I was hooked. Completely original, fantastic world-building, horrifying and un-putdownable. At its heart, this is a story of the power of a mother’s love in the face of some really nasty characters and circumstances. I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Violence, Grief, and Pregnancy

sleepyshelves's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Violence, Dementia, Cannibalism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Body horror, Infertility, Slavery, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Alcohol

orbae's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Misogyny, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Child death, Rape, and Slavery

Minor: Alcoholism and Torture

jackal_ope's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Infertility, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Minor: Trafficking

vivivi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I appreciate the feminist themes woven into the story. It hits a few points that made me stop and think! 
There is such a strong portrayal of motherly love and questions of what makes you who you are. The bond between Dev and Cai is very dear. Ultimately, this book is about the bond between mother and child and the lengths someone would go to protect their family. I wasn't expecting the book to weigh so heavily into that theme, but it's a pleasant surprise. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: Sexual violence

sonjaelisee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Ableism, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape and Sexual content

anna_hepworth's review against another edition

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

5.0

Absolutely loved this - the writing, the characters, the carefully released world-building. The plot beats were great, although 'highly patriarchal non-humans' is a trope I've seen just a bit too much of. What it made me think of, repeatedly, was the first of Sheri Tepper's Mavin Manyshaped books. 

There are so many clever details, most of which aren't spelled out for the reader but hinted at in the reactions of the characters, in the sideways references to assumed knowledge. And, for rather a lot of 'what am I missing', the 'excerpts' at the beginning of each chapter, which were snippets of info-dumping while also skipping large amounts of explanation. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

dr_ruby13's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

I love that the book has a diverse writer, characters, and reader. I enjoyed the neurodivergent and lgbtqia+ characters and plot that was done with care and attention. I will say even with all the ways I felt seen in this book, it was hard for me to get through than any other fictional and magical elements book I have read recently. I think that is because the author didn't sugar coat and paste over horrible lives, childhood trama, with a nice pretty bow at the end. So I found myself making connections to my own life. And at times that was hard to stomach, so I had to put the book down and start again many times. The ending does feel abrupt, but at the same time it seemed the perfect way to go and anything different would have a disservice to the characters and the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

chrysanthxmum's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Sexism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Violence

hollyd19's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.5

I wanted to like this more than I did. It’s more of a horror than I anticipated, and the premise of “book eaters” isn’t nearly as robustly explored as I’d hoped. I was intrigued by the setup, but found the delivery weak. There is far more emphasis on the variant of “mind eaters,” leaving the core world-building concept underdeveloped. I also found the ending abrupt and somewhat unsatisfying. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol

Minor: Cannibalism