The Book Eaters

Title: The Book Eaters

By: Sunyi Dean

Length: 304 pgs 

Age Rating: Fairly open, some murder but nothing goes past a kiss. 

Rating:7 /10

The Non-Spoiler Version

I really struggled with rating this one. This book is well written, and the premise is well thought out to the smaller details. But I dislike the ending and honestly for the better part of the book I found myself thinking “ ok , so they are vampires” or incubi or some variation and really thats basically what they are. Although the book nods to that, I just struggled with it. I would go further into my issues with the ending, but its difficult to explain how the ending is wrong without spoiling how. If you like books about female rage, this is a great book for you. The whole plot is driven by female rage against the system. The romance was great and not rushed into something greater than the situation allowed. Speaking of the romance, this book includes both asexual and lesbian (Maybe bi?) representation which is handled quite well in my opinion. I love books that start each chapter with relevant quotes from other books, so that was also a bonus. Overall I think its a solid book, but I approach it from the basis of a vampire-adjacent novel which is not necessarily the worst thing in the world, I just expected it to be a bit more, different. I love how the book is written and would read other books by this author. I would re-read this book, but it didnt Wow me. 

The Spoiler Version

I know alot of other people rated this book higher, but the ending, which I deem very important was … not great. I found it very vague. Ending where she did leaves alot of unfinished concerns. With Cai having eaten Ramsey who I would not deem a good person and the intense personality hes displaying in the end of the book, any logical person worries about him turning out like Killock, tainted by his foods beliefs even if he never eats again. Additionally we never know if Devon is able to figure out how to produce Redemption or better yet the synthetic version. I feel like having to harvest it from someone, particularly Mani, if he lives that long, would lead to a whole host of problems, both moral and otherwise. Furthermore, my issues with Cai is that he is never written as a child. Hes oddly written. It does lend to the question of “what is he” and the answer that hes a collective of the memories of 25 adults. However as a baby he still acted a baby, just one that ate minds, so why is the 5 year old acting like an adult all the time. He gave more Teenager vibes rather than 5 year old, to the point I frequently forgot he wasn't a teenager. Another point of the ending is despite the catalyst Salem served for Devon, it feels unresolved. They acknowledge that shes still out there, but they put it off as a problem for later. Unless theres a sequel out there that I am unaware of, I found the ending so unresolving that I feel like there could be and should be another chapter. At least give us an epilogue. 

To touch back on the Vampire thing, I was just getting over it, and then Devon started using her “book teeth” to shred peoples throats. Firstly, I do not think eating books and tearing skin requires the same teeth shape. I was picturing another set of molars, not fangs. Secondly, I mean they are basically vampires, the old country is Romania. They do poke at it a few times, which was brought a touch of humor to the book. Devon herself is an interesting protagonist, if written any other way, I doubt I would necessarily be rooting for her. She is written as the embodiment of female rage against a messed up patriarchal system, and most of her decisions are foisted upon her through desperation and anger, not through her own rational choice. A longer ending may have been nice to see more of her actual personality as an adult. I will give credit, the small differences between them and most vampires are well thought out, and consistent throughout the book. The ketchup with glossy paper is smart as well as all the remarks regarding the genres and their different flavors, add wonderful detail to the book. 

Overall I struggled to gather all my thoughts on the book , and furthermore to settle on a rating. I would rate it higher, but the as Ive outlined above the ending left off at an awkward place. I like this author, and I liked the book. I had to settle on rating it where I did.