Reviews tagging 'Acephobia/Arophobia'

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

33 reviews

blewballoon's review against another edition

The most interesting aspect of this book, the book eating, is such an insignificant part of the story. Instead the book is mostly covering the same themes as Handmaid's Tale, but with less dystopia and religious commentary. Characters and conversations are flat, predictable, and monotonous. I've listened to like 6 hours of this audiobook at 1.5 speed and it feels like it's been 12, it's really dragging and depressing. I don't want to make myself read another 7 hours of this bleak situation, and I don't really care what happens. I assume it's bad, like everything that's happened so far. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Body horror and Acephobia/Arophobia

mrsjoellebell's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Torture, Trafficking, and Pregnancy

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

directorpurry's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, and Acephobia/Arophobia

Minor: Homophobia and Trafficking

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

blacksphinx's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infertility, Slavery, and Trafficking

Minor: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Medical content, and Fire/Fire injury

saracat's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I listened to the audiobook, so before I get into the book review itself, I want to say it was a delightful surprise to learn that both the author and narrator are neurodivergent and hearing them chat together at the end was really nice. This is the first book I’ve listened to that had a chat between narrator and author and now wish more of the books I listened to had this. 

Now to the review. I became so invested in the main characters. And the world Dean created felt so fresh and unique to me. While I never quite got my head around understanding the knights and dragons completely, it doesn’t really bother me. 

I love characters and books that are riddled with morally grey - which this book is full of. Though, the farther I got into the book, the more I hesitated to keep picking it up because after everything the characters had been through I wanted them to at least have ‘better’ and I just couldn’t get a sense if Dean had written a book that would have an ultimately happy ending, tragic ending, something in between, etc. And I didn’t want to reach the end. But I finally did, and I think the ending fits everything that proceeds it in the book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Murder, and Abandonment

Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Rape, Kidnapping, and Acephobia/Arophobia

chase0w0's review against another edition

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

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

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Infertility, Rape, Torture, Medical content, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Child death, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Racism, Vomit, Trafficking, and Acephobia/Arophobia

esme_may's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Gun violence, Infertility, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Homophobia, Incest, and Trafficking

looseleafellie's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

This contemporary fantasy novel introduces a secret society of creatures called Book Eaters, who eat books instead of food to gain knowledge. As a Book Eater woman, Devon grows up only allowed to eat fairy tales, doomed to a life of forced marriages and being torn from her children for the furtherance of Book Eater society. But when she gives birth to a Mind Eater — a boy who craves minds instead of books — she must break free of the system to save both her son and herself.

This is a relatively short read that packs a wildly imaginative premise into its pages. The Book Eater concept is so WEIRD, but I happily ate it up.

The point isn’t the biology or abilities of the Book Eaters, but rather how their society is set up. Just like real oppressive systems, there are any number of “logical” reasons for Book Eater society to function the way it does, but no amount of logic can justify the way the system strips its marginalized members (in this case, women and mind-eaters) of their agency.

Devon is a sharp and savvy character hardened by her circumstances. I guess she’s a classically “unlikeable” protagonist, but even before I learned about her past that made her that way, I couldn’t help sympathizing with her motivations for doing questionable things.

The story is told in both the present day and flashbacks, which propelled the plot along while revealing more about Devon’s backstory and the Book Eater world. Toward the end, when the flashbacks got close to the present day, I felt like they slowed things down, but I generally liked the dual timelines.

Overall, I would recommend this book to those who want a dark, imaginative, compelling fantasy read. Also if you like books. But if you’re reading this, that’s probably a given.

Spice level: None.

CWs: Violence (inc. toward children), gore, murder, domestic abuse, misogyny, forced marriage, forced parent/child separation, childbirth, and mentions of human trafficking, SA, and acephobia.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Sexual assault, Trafficking, and Acephobia/Arophobia