A review by leonormsousa
The Book Eaters, by Sunyi Dean

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

REP
Spoiler lesbian MC, sapphic LI, asexual male SC, disabled Indian-British SC


QUOTE 
“For here was the thing that no fairy tale would ever admit, but that she understood in that moment: love was not inherently good.
Certainly, it could inspire goodness. She didn’t argue that. Poets would tell you that love was electricity in your veins that could light a room. That it was a river in your soul to lift you up and carry you away, or a fire inside the heart to keep you warm. Yet electricity could also fry, rivers could drown, and fires could burn; love could be destructive. Punishingly, fatally destructive.
And the other thing, the real bloody clincher of it all, was that the good and the bad didn’t get served up equally. If love were a balance of electric lights and electric jolts, two sides of an equally weighted coin, then fair enough. She could deal.
That wasn’t how it worked, though. Some love was just the bad, all the time: an endless parade of electrified bones and drowned lungs and hearts that burned to a cinder inside the cage of your chest.
And so she looked down at her son and loved him with the kind of twisted, complex feeling that came from having never wanted him in the first place; she loved him with bitterness, and she loved him with resignation. She loved him though she knew no good could ever come from such a bond." 

THINGS I ENJOYED 
  • Sunyi Dean's writing is stunning (something I've confirmed in her two recent short stories), and I think I might read everything she puts out there
  • So many great and strong passages! (I'm not one to annotate but this book made me want to)
  • We love a book that doesn't shy away from talking about misogyny and oppressive societies
  • How the author explored the topic of love, especially maternal love and how it can twist your moral boundaries (see the quote I included)
  • The queer rep <3
  • The concept of book and mind eaters was so interesting and original, and the chapter introductions with the lore really made the experience better
  • It really stuck with me (it has been 4 months since I read and I not only think about it but almost feel like rereading it)
  • The dual-timeline storytelling works so well

THINGS I DIDN'T ENJOY
  • The ending was a bit too rushed and even almost “too easy”.
  • Some details were given a lot of emphasis in the book but then ended up not playing any part at all, which felt a bit misleading and incoherent.

THINGS THAT I'VE SEEN CRITICISM ABOUT AND WHY I ACTUALLY LIKED THEM
  • The world-building is limited - I think that the vagueness and unresolvedness of this book fitted it quite well. It's very rooted in Devon, so for me, it made sense that we didn't knew much about the book/mind eaters origin or lore (or other topics of the book in general) because she didn't knew it as well, either because she wasn't given that information as a woman or because it was not knowledge the book eater society had at the time.
  • The abrupt ending - I actually like open endings and thought this one fitted the book well

READ IF YOU ENJOY
  • creepy books with grey/dark characters
  • stories about unhinged women trying to break free
  • topics like misogynist societies and motherhood
  • urban fantasy/sci-fi elements as a means to uncover and discuss real-life situations
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