Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

11 reviews

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

I’m so fortunate that A) this book exists, B) I added it to my TBR, and C) I got to read it. I don’t even remember how this ended up on my TBR, but I’m glad I did. This story is slow, layered, and beautifully written

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Murder, Grief, Sexual assault, Rape, Physical abuse, Violence, Ableism, Domestic abuse, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Chronic illness, Sexism, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Blood

Moderate: Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Cursing, Infertility, Cannibalism, Car accident, Bullying, Pregnancy, Stalking, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Torture, and Body horror

Minor: Incest and Child death

Eugenics

schausjk's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This was mesmerizing. I really appreciated the worldbuilding, and even though I doubt a sequel would be likely, I'm really interested in seeing where these characters would go.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Gore, Trafficking, Death, Body horror, Blood, Child death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Murder, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Grief, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Lesbophobia

klr0's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Murder, Death, Infertility, Sexual content, Trafficking, Grief, Gun violence, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, and Violence

idontlovejessica's review against another edition

medium-paced

 YMMV on the scope and depth of this novel. Admittedly after a diet of hard sci-fi and political thrillers, I was a little disappointed by this. There are so many fun threads and lore details I wish we could nail down and explore! My friend informed me that the author drew on the experiences of people who escaped cults and that greatly helped me contextualize this novel in a, honestly, smaller scope. Others have compared it to Handmaid's Tale and I found myself also comparing it to that, but if it is a cult allegory rather than a Conservative Republican American allegory I think it works really well! If there are future additions I'd love to explore how firm the Bookeaters abilities/disabilities are. Can they not read because of society, trauma, or is it because of biology? How effective is the ability to eat books? I'm currently obsessed with multi-personalities and fusion personalities (Shout-out The Locked Tomb and Steven Universe) so I'm very excited to explore how Kai evolves. Overall a read I found underwhelming, but so full of neat ideas I spent many more hours trying to dissect and fix what I thought was lacking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Grief, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexism, Abandonment, Cannibalism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, Incest, Rape, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Murder, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault

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

emcl7weenie's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.0

First 10 chapters of this book were fantastic with setup, character development, mystery, worldbuilding, and pacing. Then it stopped for the rest of the book. The 2 stars are for a creative concept with the book eaters and setting a fantastic gothic horror tone. As well as some well written scenes. Overall, it fell flat. It was a heavy character driven story, but lacked a lot of character development for me. As well as

Spoiler

wasting a lot of time in the past. Being in the past so often the author wasn't able to build up present tension, character relationships, and tension well enough. The ending was also very predictable.

It felt like you were in a DnD campaign and the party decided to speed run the main objective skipping all cut scenes and side quests of interest.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Sexism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Blood, Cannibalism, Gore, Sexual assault, and Violence

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

guessgreenleaf's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Minor: Sexual content

georgia7's review

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Physical abuse, Rape, Abandonment, Blood, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Death, Infertility, Murder, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Slavery and Alcohol

nicoleisalwaysreading's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.25

This one was SO GOOD! super complicated concept that was well-executed and read like a wonderful literary fiction debut, a fantastical sci-fi wonder, and high-powered adventure story. What really held it all together for me was an examination of patriarchy, morality, and fiercely loyal love. I hope there will be a sequel 👀

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Violence, and Body horror

Moderate: Sexual content