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A review by vigil
The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
if nothing else, this book serves as a great manifesto to the vile natures of boy moms.
somewhere in this book there is a promising story. unfortunately, it comes in small increments, few and far between.
the first issue with this book is structural. there are two timelines, a past timeline, and a present timeline. in her commitment to the dual timeline, dean gives justice to neither of them, creating an uneven overly drawn out narrative but also an undeveloped and not well thought out one. this book, when it is not repeating itself, giving long drawn out explanations, revealing plot points too early or too late, will actively contradict itself, even when concerning information that was given not even three pages prior.
in my opinion, this reads like the first draft of a book. the seeds of promise are there, but is ultimately bogged down by nonsense and unnecessary factors. any editor worth their salt would not have sent this book out to print; i am upset that dean doesn’t seem to have that editor in her corner.
another issue is the premise. book eaters are a species, created by an alien known as the collector, to eat and gather knowledge. however the collector apparently abandoned them, and this plot point is utterly irrelevant to the novel. they live in secret societies for no good reason, and it seems to only make things harder on themselves. there is a sort of vampire racism here (the book eaters here are a very dumb vampire allegory) in the mind eaters who do exactly what you’d think they’d do. this sort of biological reasoning for oppression and discrimination is a common and short sighted trope in sci-fi fantasy and i really wish it would die off already.
this book also chose to essentially make a poor imitation of the handmaid’s tale, by implementing a gender essentialist society (which is utterly ridiculous in general, but especially here where the basis of the society is that knowledge is power) and recreating patriarchal structures, despite book eaters being secluded from human society and explicitly not sharing their customs, aside from stupid moments of christianity that are unaddressed and make no sense.
the author’s handling of this misogyny is shallow and reductive, and often ends up falling prey to the very structures it is attempting to criticize. it writes a cartoon character of a villain in her elder brother ramsay, who’s pov is written identically to that of a 13 year old boy who’s been radicalized by andrew tate.
devon herself is mostly devoid of a personality, aside from being kind of selfish (though she has been given no reason and often no option to be selfless) and her most important trait, being a mommy. you’d think that as a former childbride who was sold off twice to become an incubator and had to abandon her first child at three, and had her second unwanted child be a monster who eats brains, her relationship to motherhood and her children would be fraught and complicated, especially in the case of cai, where she is forced to murder innocents to keep him fed. but alas, no. everything is overcome through the power of motherlove which overcomes all, and is magic, instantaneous, and controls all your thoughts. give me a goddamn break.
devon has approximately two positive female dynamics, one is the sister of her male friend who she talks too all of twice, and bond over #motherlove with, and the other is a woman she spent two days with and somehow fell in love. the other women are generally portrayed as jealous old hags, and not usually mentioned.
and the ending. the ending is contingent around the fact that the book eater families are undocumented and thus the women cannot leave. so they must go to ireland where there is an unguarded border.
the issue is that the idea for the ending is introduced just a few chapters after the reveal that one of the book eater families uses undocumented immigrants for cheap labor. if you can traffic people in, surely, as an ancient super race, you can find a way to get across the ocean. (if you’re wondering if the human trafficking is relevant or commented upon much, the answer is no. like 50% of all the other information in this book.
the only reason I’m not giving it a flat one star is because this book is exactly like a cw show. it’s not outstanding but mostly banal in its inoffensiveness(aside from the aforementioned shallow treatment of feminism and the fact that the author creates an asexual character just to be aphobic to him whenever it’s brought up) and somewhat interesting in its ideas. you can see the promise and potential it has, and occasionally it lives up to it….. then crashes and burns back down.
it’s like if julie plec did a vegan vampire take on the handmaid’s tale. if that doesn’t make you shiver in horror then i can’t help you.
somewhere in this book there is a promising story. unfortunately, it comes in small increments, few and far between.
the first issue with this book is structural. there are two timelines, a past timeline, and a present timeline. in her commitment to the dual timeline, dean gives justice to neither of them, creating an uneven overly drawn out narrative but also an undeveloped and not well thought out one. this book, when it is not repeating itself, giving long drawn out explanations, revealing plot points too early or too late, will actively contradict itself, even when concerning information that was given not even three pages prior.
in my opinion, this reads like the first draft of a book. the seeds of promise are there, but is ultimately bogged down by nonsense and unnecessary factors. any editor worth their salt would not have sent this book out to print; i am upset that dean doesn’t seem to have that editor in her corner.
another issue is the premise.
this book also chose to essentially make a poor imitation of the handmaid’s tale, by implementing a gender essentialist society (which is utterly ridiculous in general, but especially here where the basis of the society is that knowledge is power) and recreating patriarchal structures, despite book eaters being secluded from human society and explicitly not sharing their customs, aside from stupid moments of christianity that are unaddressed and make no sense.
the author’s handling of this misogyny is shallow and reductive, and often ends up falling prey to the very structures it is attempting to criticize. it writes a cartoon character of a villain in her elder brother ramsay, who’s pov is written identically to that of a 13 year old boy who’s been radicalized by andrew tate.
devon herself is mostly devoid of a personality, aside from being kind of selfish (though she has been given no reason and often no option to be selfless) and her most important trait, being a mommy. you’d think that as a former childbride who was sold off twice to become an incubator and had to abandon her first child at three, and had her second unwanted child be a monster who eats brains, her relationship to motherhood and her children would be fraught and complicated, especially in the case of cai, where she is forced to murder innocents to keep him fed. but alas, no. everything is overcome through the power of motherlove which overcomes all, and is magic, instantaneous, and controls all your thoughts. give me a goddamn break.
devon has approximately two positive female dynamics, one is the sister of her male friend who she talks too all of twice, and bond over #motherlove with, and the other is a woman she spent two days with and somehow fell in love. the other women are generally portrayed as jealous old hags, and not usually mentioned.
and the ending. the ending is contingent around the fact that the book eater families are undocumented and thus the women cannot leave. so they must go to ireland where there is an unguarded border.
the issue is that the idea for the ending is introduced just a few chapters after the reveal that one of the book eater families uses undocumented immigrants for cheap labor. if you can traffic people in, surely, as an ancient super race, you can find a way to get across the ocean. (if you’re wondering if the human trafficking is relevant or commented upon much, the answer is no. like 50% of all the other information in this book.
the only reason I’m not giving it a flat one star is because this book is exactly like a cw show. it’s not outstanding but mostly banal in its inoffensiveness
it’s like if julie plec did a vegan vampire take on the handmaid’s tale. if that doesn’t make you shiver in horror then i can’t help you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infertility, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Pregnancy, and Alcohol