THE BOOK EATERS by Sunyi Dean – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

THE BOOK EATERS by Sunyi Dean – ReviewThe Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean
Published by Tor Books on August 2 2022
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Horror
Pages: 304
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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four-half-stars

The nitty-gritty: The Book Eaters is a delicious, dark surprise, strange and compelling and utterly original.

“A moment of perverse beauty: one child holding another, with Cai’s mouth on the baby’s ear. Almost a kiss, almost a cuddle. It was love and it was death and Devon thought that, for her, those things had become inextricably yoked. Her children were fires who needed fueling; she would burn anything and everything to keep them going.”

Don’t let the whimsical, fairy tale-esque cover fool you. The Book Eaters is a very dark fantasy, bordering on horror at times, and I was not prepared. I’m always delighted when a book surprises me, because it doesn’t happen that often, and The Book Eaters subverted my expectations in just about every way possible. The worldbuilding is fresh and unexpected (and a bit complex, to be honest). The characters are flawed and sometimes do horrible things, but I fell in love with them anyway. Best of all, Sunyi Dean infuses her story with relevant themes and plays around with fairy tale tropes in new exciting ways. 

The story revolves around a species called book eaters, humanoid creatures (for lack of a better word) who consume books instead of food. Book eaters live within six Families, but their numbers are quickly dwindling, and so measures have been taken to preserve their kind with arranged marriages and forced pregnancies. The story is told from the perspective of Devon, a grown book eater who appears to be on the run when the story starts. We meet her five year old son Cai who was born a mind eater, a creature who eats minds instead of books. In Devon’s world, mind eaters are a danger to society, and so they are forced to become “dragons” when they grow up. A group of enforcers called the knights use a drug called Redemption to temper the dragons’ constant hunger for minds, and the knights are responsible for conducting marriage matches and making sure they produce a child.

The story shifts back and forth from the present to the past, showing Devon as a child and how she came to have her son Cai and why they are on the run. Sunyi slowly peels back layer after layer of Devon’s story and gradually introduces the reader to this strange world, its even stranger characters, and the emotional ties that bind them together.

That’s the plot in a nutshell, but of course it’s much deeper and more complex than my simple recap. Let’s talk about the worldbuilding first, because it’s simply fascinating! Book eaters were “created” by an entity called the Collector, but the author doesn’t give us much information about who the Collector is or why book eaters exist. You just have to go with it, although to be honest I wanted to know more about this world, and although this book appears to be a standalone, I’m secretly holding out hope for a sequel. Book eaters can pass as human, but instead of eating food they eat nothing but books. They are born with “bookteeth,” which I’m imagining are a lot like vampire fangs, and they extend these teeth to eat. In fact, the image of a vampire isn’t too far off the mark. Different genres of books taste different, and even the type of paper a book is printed on affects the taste of the book. Even better, when you eat a book you absorb its knowledge, so if you want to learn about guns, for example, all you have to do is eat a book about them. Pretty convenient, right?

On the flip side are the mind eaters, who are seen as deviants and treated horribly in this world. Devon’s son Cai is a mind eater and she spends most of the book trying to find Redemption so he can live a fairly normal life. Mind eaters are born with a long proboscis instead of bookteeth, which they insert into a person’s ear in order to suck out their brains! Just like book eaters, they absorb what they eat, but with mind eaters it’s much worse because they take over the thoughts and personalities of the people they kill. Watching this happen to a five year old child was truly horrifying, especially when Cai eats bad people.

Readers will recognize shades of The Handmaid’s Tale and other dystopian stories that revolve around societies where women are oppressed or forced to bear children. Devon has been raised eating only fairy tales, and so she’s grown up knowing she’s a “princess” with specific rules to follow. Girls are rare, and so each one is treated as such until they come of age, and then they must marry and produce a child. And when the child turns three, the mother is separated from them and forced to marry again and give birth to another child. These scenes were heartbreaking and rage inducing, and yet I loved seeing Devon’s love for her children and the lengths she’ll go to keep them in her life.

Devon is a wonderful character, and Dean perfectly captures the fierce love a mother has for her child. Devon knows what’s expected of her, and she doesn’t complain, even when her husband drugs and rapes her. But when she holds her baby for the first time, she experiences a profound shift, a sense that her life will never be the same again. She can no longer be the good princess who follows the rules. Her child sets her on a different path, one filled with pain and joy, anger and determination. Devon finds she can do things she never thought possible, all for the love of her child. Luckily she meets others who help her along the way. I absolutely loved Jarrow, the brother of Devon’s second husband, who introduces her to video games and plays a key role in her escape. We also meet a human journalist named Mani who is writing a book about the history of the book eaters and befriends and helps Devon on her journey. My favorite character, though, was Hester, a woman with her own secrets who gets tangled up in Devon’s and Cai’s lives.

There are a host of other characters, most of them on the “bad” side, like Devon’s brother Ramsey who is determined to control his sister at all costs. Killock Ravenscar is Hester’s brother (I think Jarrow is the only good brother in this story!) who is a fanatical cult leader and the source of all kinds of misery. And then there are Devon’s two husbands, one who appears kind but really isn’t, and the other who is downright evil. The story is filled with tense, thrilling moments and plenty of exciting chase scenes, as Devon spends most of the book trying to evade her brother and the other men who want to catch her.

The author uses quotes from fairy tales and excerpts from Mani’s book Paper and Flesh: A Secret History at the top of each chapter. I loved the way these quotes give us glimpses into the history of book eaters, and the fairy tale quotes mirror Devon’s thoughts and experiences and give her situation even more depth. 

The Book Eaters is a rich, complex story with fully developed characters, beautifully written and executed. Highly recommended for readers who appreciate unique world building and enjoy a darker edge to their stories.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

Posted August 8, 2022 by Tammy in 4 1/2 stars, Reviews / 46 Comments

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46 responses to “THE BOOK EATERS by Sunyi Dean – Review

  1. Ha, we’re review twins today. That cover definitely fooled me. It was a much darker read than I was expecting but such a fascinating one. It took me a little while to really take in and understand all of the worldbuilding but once I settled in, it was a wonderful read.

    • Tammy

      You definitely have to keep reading to figure the world out, lol. But it was so interesting!

  2. I’d already been curious about this one, and now I’m very much looking forward to trying it. In fact, I’m getting a little hungry. Thank goodness I have plenty of books. 🙂

    • Tammy

      Definitely, it has some nice horrific elements that would be completely at home during Halloween:-)

  3. Ohhhh it sounds delightfully dark! I didn’t expect that at all. I can’t wait to read it. Thanks for your comprehensive review!

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