Book Eaters
"I devoured this."—V. E. Schwab, New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue
An International Bestseller
An NPR Best Sci Fi, Fantasy, & Speculative Fiction Book of 2022
A Book Riot Best Book of 2022
A Vulture Best Fantasy Novel of 2022
A Goodreads Best Fantasy Choice Award Nominee
A Library Journal Best Book of 2022
Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book's content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries.
Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairy tales and cautionary stories.
But real life doesn't always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds.
BUY THE BOOK
Join a book club that is reading Book Eaters!
Community Reviews
This book has a fascinating concept (eating books) that very often felt tangible. I could practically taste them and imagine the mouthfeel. Making something so fantastical feel so sensory is an impressive accomplishment. The entire novel struck me as something that would make an outstanding 85-to-90-minute anime film. Unfortunately, while the concept is excellent, the execution never fully lived up to its potential for me. Much of the action relies on familiar cloak-and-dagger storytelling tropes that felt predictable and overused. My larger issue was with the characterization. The characters consistently behaved in ways that felt logical and goal-driven, but rarely emotional. Their decisions often made sense intellectually, yet they lacked the messy human reactions that create empathy. The novel repeatedly tells us the mother loves her son, yet I rarely felt that love on the page. It often came across as parental devotion because society – or the story - required it. The “romance” completely lacked warmth and chemistry also. The ending arrived surprisingly quickly – and very deus ex machina. Overall, this was a novel I admired more than enjoyed.
There was a few sections of this book that I had trouble getting into, but I’m really glad I finished reading it to the end. I really appreciate that this book had a messy ending and wasn’t wrapped up in a picture perfect happy ending. I thought it was very fitting for Devon. The ending had me really worried for a bit that it was going to end darker. I was almost sure that Hester was going to die, and that Cai was going to lose his mind. I’m glad neither of those things happened, I think Devon deserves at least a little bit of happiness.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.