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sleepyshelves's review against another edition
- 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
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
- 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
Graphic: Body horror, Misogyny, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Child death, Rape, and Slavery
Minor: Alcoholism and Torture
hazel_oat's review against another edition
- 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
2.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Kidnapping, and Alcohol
Minor: Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Fire/Fire injury
musicalpopcorn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This book was quite gripping and action packed. The characters were gritty and unapologetically imperfect. I appreciated it as a stark metaphor for patriarchy and what breaking a patriarchal society would entail.
Quite enjoyable!
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Murder
Minor: Homophobia
chelseainthesky's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
4.0
Moderate: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Pregnancy
Minor: Slavery, Vomit, Trafficking, and War
ohthatcara's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Alcoholism
Minor: Body horror, Rape, Sexual violence, and Religious bigotry
imds's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Acephobia/Arophobia, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment
therainbowshelf's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Aphobiagen_wolfhailstorm's review
- 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
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.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Outing, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
snowwhitehatesapples's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, and Gaslighting
Minor: Drug abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Blood, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, and Alcohol