Reviews with content warning for Racism - Woman, Eating

Original rating was 2.75 stars, but I made a statement at the beginning that if the book didn't live up to the review on the blurb ("What Stoker did for the vampire at the end of the nineteenth century, Claire Kohda does for it in our era" – TLS) I would on principle remove a full star from the final rating. Ergo, this book is a solid 1.75 stars.

I really wanted to like Woman, Eating. I was hoping for a fresh take on the vampire genre, and one that would rid it of the embarrassing modern legacy of contemporary vampiric romance and YA trash that, peace and love, spat on both the allure and legacy of the vampire that Camilla and Dracula started.

And listen. It's certainly not the worst book I've read, and by far it is not the worst vampire book I've read. I did, however, grow very tired of the trite and overused playbook of modern-take-on-a-genre-or-literary-classic that makes an attempt at mild social commentary, but ultimately leaves much to be desired within the realm of anything harsher than a "maybe colonialism bad 🧐 Are men who are misogynys and sex pests the REAL monsters 🤯🤯🤯". Like, girl, put some cunt into your undertones & overtones, and be just a touch bolder. Especially if you're going to plaster your book with reviews that praise your 'profoundness' and 'blistering' 'thought-provoking' work. The only 'blistering' part of this entire experience was from my eyes rolling out of their sockets from the over-used and uninspired mommy-daughter issues trope.

It's better than Twilight. That's not a hard bar to pass, though.

Content Warnings

legs_n_chins's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.0

There’s this interesting feeling I have of feeling fulfilled by how deeply I related to the story, but also feeling abruptly cut off because the resolution felt very underdone. Being mixed race myself, so much of Lydia’s thoughts and feelings and internal conflicts resonated with me: wanting desperately to connect to the side of her identity that she felt very isolated from, feeling removed from other people because of her identity, feeling like it had to be one or the other and never both. But something just didn’t fit right about the conclusion of these feelings, maybe because it felt sort of oddly sudden.

I definitely recognize all the pieces throughout the story that add up to Lyd’s ultimate resolution. Experiencing food through YouTube videos of other people cooking and eating, the sexual encounter, moments of purely feminine fear and discomfort; it’s a definite clear through line that Kohda communicates very well. But I guess it just felt odd to me that she finds some measure of peace immediately after attempting to completely annihilate one side of herself. It just feels like there was more work to do in the aftermath. Her mental state was very unhealthy and there’s so much emphasis on the lingering effects of her childhood; I think it’s not so much that her resolution felt out of nowhere and more just that it felt suddenly very easy. To me, anyway, as someone who’s come to a happy place in understanding my own identity, but still deals with a lot of the ripple effects of how conflicted I’ve felt throughout my life. I understand the story had to come to an end at some point, and this conclusion is likely stronger because it doesn’t deal with the ongoing process that is living with acceptance and maintaining that feeling, but I just felt it was abrupt,

Allllllllllll of that aside, I really enjoyed Kohda’s writing. While at times it did seem to meander through Lyd’s inner monologue, it was still entertaining to read and relevant to the topic. It lent more personality to Lyd and gave us a better sense of her voice and character. So even in the places I thought were a little overwritten, it was more like a character choice than a lack of ability to self-edit. I also liked the how Kohda managed to balance very straightforward word choice with a sort of lyrical style that really fit into this world of art that she was building. I’ll admit I’m kind of dense about art, so I don’t know if all of the metaphors made through the art totally clicked for me, but I did like what Kohda was saying through the lens of art as a profession and art as a commercial material. I do wish we’d gotten more background on what Lyd had wanted to do while in art school and more about the pieces she’d made and what had compelled her, but I recognize that wasn’t the real central point for her character. It just felt like it could’ve given her more of another dimension (not that she was two dimensional in any way, just that it would’ve been nice to see more).

I really liked the other characters, what little we did see of them. Despite their rather brief inclusions, aside from Ben, the other artists really felt well thought out and fully realized. They were warm the way a good character can feel and they fit right in their surroundings and in Lyd’s story. I had hoped Lyd and Shakti might have more interaction, especially as she seemed like an important piece to the line of Lyd being forced to reconcile feminine experiences as a human, but it didn’t feel like anything was really left out in that case. Just due to the timeline of the story, it makes much more sense that the interaction there was left more surface level.

And on that note, I also liked how Kohda handled those moment of feminine fear and discomfort. Being sexualized, being preyed upon. They’re authentic experiences that are shared among far too many women, but they’re not escalated to feeling like exploitation just to get a point across. The point is made just fine through very short, seemingly brief, encounters. Lyd can’t help but linger on them, feel shame about them, etc. And I think that makes it all the better for commenting on the human condition and relating it to Lyd’s character struggles: any level of predation is scary and upsetting. And it’s an unfortunate human experience forced upon women and female presenting people.

Overall, everything came together so well in this book. It was a really impactful read for me and, happily, in a style I really love. I love a good, meaty character narrative and this definitely fit the bill. For how short it is, it covers a lot of ground and I think that’s a great testament to Kohda’s skill. I just wish the conclusion didn’t leave me feeling a bit empty.

Content Warnings

maxattack's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

This reminded me of “Our Wives Under The Sea” by Julia Armfield,
in that it has elements of horror, while the mood definitely leans more weird and melancholic rather than scary.
It was very well-written, so I don’t feel comfortable giving it a low rating, however I personally wasn’t super invested.
The right person will love this book.

Content Warnings

askirmishofwit's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny tense slow-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

3.0

I appreciated what this one did and the fact that, for something so weird, it was also very funny. It's just not for the faint of heart re: body horror and is a pretty depressing read given you're in the head of a starving (physically and emotionally) young woman/vampire as she fights against hunger that she's been told is her human and demon sides fighting to take over from each other. Ultimately, all of it reads like a pretty well-crafted extended metaphor of a character dealing with self-loathing, emotional abuse/manipulation by a parent, sexual harassment, ennui and dissatisfaction, body dysphoria and disordered eating, but wrap it all up in a book seemingly about vampirism that doesn't shy away from some body horror and, frankly, too explicit of a description of a dead duck. But it's just very ~literary fiction~ about the whole thing, IYKWIM.

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coffeequill's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

Content Warnings

danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

This book was short and sweet. A misanthropic ‘Buffy’ and ‘what I eat in a day’ video obsessed vampire artist grapples with art and connection in present day London. If you’re a fan of Otessa Moshfegh and Ocean Vuong… imagine a vampire novel written by the two of them.

At the end of the day, this book was about breaking generational trauma, and female desire and its challenge to the gender hierarchy. And I don’t exclusively mean sexual desire, I mean ambition as well.

The prose was absolutely beautiful. The characters were rich and fascinating. Sometimes I felt the grand themes got away from the book a little. But overall, I really really enjoyed this one.

Content Warnings

bexxhenders's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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