Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

60 reviews

ladyknightkaci's review against another edition

Nothing about this book grabbed me. I kept reading because of the hype around it. I can get why people finish it, but I don’t understand anyone who loves it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Alcohol

Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, Gaslighting, and Alcoholism

Minor: Cannibalism

ms_sarah621's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book has really good writing and a great premise. I wasn’t fully expecting the book to go so deep into the Family dynamics and the darkness of the Family. I was hoping for a thriller/horror story about this woman and her child. But, it was about motherhood, feminism, creating family, trauma, and religion/cult beliefs. Some of this took me out of the world and distracted me. However, the writing is just so well done, and Cai’s character is indescribable. I really kept reading to get more from him. And that ending….. anyways, I enjoyed this. I wish it focused more on the book eaters occasionally, rather than trying to be deep. But I think that’s just a it’s not you, it’s me thing. Typical of me. I would definitely recommend to others and truly did enjoy the story and the comparison of fairytales and deviating from them throughout. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pregnancy

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

eggfartz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Cursing, Gun violence, Alcohol, Blood, Cannibalism, Confinement, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Sexism, and Vomit

squisheebee_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

5.0

This book was much paced much slower than my usual reads. Even though I didn’t read it straight through because of the pacing, I loved every minute I was reading.

Incredible, flawed, queer anti protagonist & her “monster” child who I could not help but adore. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, Sexism, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Homophobia, and Misogyny

Moderate: Trafficking, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Death, Pregnancy, and Grief

Minor: Sexual assault, Violence, and Rape

asolis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

Moderate: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Child abuse, Medical content, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Blood, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Pregnancy, and Rape

criticalmiss's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.5

this book was unlike anything I have read before. The mother/child relationship was visceral. This book was compelling , full of female rage , the patriarchy that Devon didn’t realize she was stuck in till she did and the efforts to try to escape the families that tore her loved ones away. Had some horror elements as well. 
Sapphic rep
TW: violence, gun violence, death, family separation, implied forced sexual activity

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Murder, and Body horror

snowwhitehatesapples's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

3.0

 Also on Snow White Hates Apples.

As one of my most highly anticipated reads, I was a little disappointed by how average this book turned out.

The Book Eaters has an intriguing premise that I’m sure would attract every bibliophile out there — after all, what’s not to love about a book where books play a prominent role? To make it all the more interesting, this book features a species of human-like beings that subsist on either books or brains only. They’re hidden from the watchful, fearful eyes of many humans and they have long lifespans. However, their females can only give birth to two children all their life which means that if not enough females are born, there will come a time when they’ll become extinct. As such, knights and dragons play a crucial role in arranging marriages between the Families, which contributes to maintaining and enforcing the status quo.

This results in an insular and strongly patriarchal community where a female’s only worth is the offspring she has…and she’s not even allowed to care for the child past them turning 3 years old. All this gives a lot of room for social commentary on patriarchy, misogyny, misandry, toxic femininity, toxic masculinity and other gender issues. It also allows for explorations on trust and identity.

Sadly, both the execution and characters were lacking. Although there were some complexities and depth to the social commentary, the way the story was written wasn’t strong enough to uphold those notions. It also didn’t help that despite the clear system and context on book eaters and mind eaters, their presence was more secondary. So in overall, these two aspects made for an underwhelming story.

Moreover, I found it difficult to care for the characters. Sure, I could sympathise with them and their situations, but there remains a distance that somehow made them feel flat even though they were all distinct, compelling and memorable.

Everything considered, The Book Eaters has a lot of promise and potential, which makes it a shame that I didn’t find it as mind-blowing as I had hoped for. Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a read where the focus is more on an underdog’s journey to gain freedom and independence away from all that confined them and their loved ones, this is a book to try. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Death, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Grief, Gore, Sexism, and Misogyny

Minor: Drug abuse, Gun violence, Alcohol, Blood, Abandonment, Religious bigotry, and Rape

mo345's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, Grief, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Abandonment, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Infertility, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia and Trafficking