The Book Eaters

How did one give shape to absence? Fill a black hole with light?

I added The Book Eaters to my reading list after seeing it was nominated in the 2022 Fantasy category. I'm no stranger to fantasy and enjoy different takes on the genre. The Book Eaters is a low fantasy story with a very unique magic system.

It's a fun concept simply told. Right off the bat I was enthralled by the idea of a book eater.

There is also Victorian era/Bourgeoisie/Vampire vibe to the story where families can be comprised of different types of eaters, they are self governed but also have to work together to keep the harmony.

It is one thing to have a repository of data, and quite another to use it.

Unfortunately the story, albeit short, wore on, felt repetitive and I didn't find myself as interested in the characters.

I could see this book being excellent if it was within the larger eaters universe. Perhaps a different perspective from Harrow (right? the cousin?) or a glimpse into what the eaters society was like earlier. And then when we arrive at Devon's story there is a bit more investment in the characters.

One reviewer said this was a story "about motherhood, womanhood, and humanity, and less about the actual concept of mind & book eaters" and that may be the difference here. I wanted a story to understand the eaters universe but it's a story about a mother keeping her child nearby (sorry Salem, guess we'll get you in the sequel?).

Going by the Goodreads star rating, the story was okay but I didn't "like it". There were elements that were interesting and could appeal to others, as evident by the pretty high rating of the book. If there was more focus on the eaters, how their reproduction challenges are being faced, include some social commentary that you get from a secret society of mutants, etc. then maybe that little extra would give me something to grab on to and I could enjoy the story more.

"For Chrissakes, I'm a grown-up. Swearing is my privilege!"

I don't generally read urban fantasy (too "real" in a way I can't really describe, and it tends to bore me), and I definitely don't read vampire/gothic horror stuff (too romance-riddled). But I guess when you throw those genres in a blender with a unique magic system and some found-family LGBT elements, it made the whole thing a whole lot more interesting.

Devon is a book eater, a small, secretive clan of people who, rather than reading books and eating food, eat their books. Like, literally, page by page, cover to cover, omnomnom down the hatch, eat books for sustenance and knowledge. They're a very small clan and predisposed to giving birth to more males than females, so the rare females of the clan live a pampered life of a princess--doomed to arranged marriages and being treated more like property than as people. Not content with this life, Devon escapes with her second child Cai, who himself is a mind eater. Mind eaters are genetically different book eaters, and instead of eating books, eat minds instead. Like, brain matter. Memories. Personalities. That sort of thing. The clans of book eaters generally deal with these aberrations harshly, either training them as weapons or killing them outright. Devon is determined to escape the life she was born to, but still needs to procure 'Redemption', the medicine manufactured by one of the book eater clans that keeps mind eater hunger at bay.

I'm a sucker for a unique magic system. The author fully fleshed out the lore of these book eaters, with the different genres having different tastes, incorporating the knowledge aspect into the story, and having numerous epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter adding to the book eater/mind eater lore. It was really well done. I liked Devon as a main character, and loved the found family/attraction aspect between her and Hester. The book eater clans also had different stories behind each one, though I wish there had been a bit more of that lore fleshed out as well. I thought the story was compelling and interesting, and I appreciated how the current day story was weaved into Devon's story from ten years ago. The side-by-side telling was well done.

I really only wish there had been some inclusion or closure on the Salem aspect. The author has said here that this was intended as a stand-alone and is not supposed to have a sequel which is a little disappointing, but entirely understandable.

I had a lot of fun with this book, and I'm glad I gave it a chance.

This book is a darkly incredible foray into abuse that has trickled down from past generations to the future ones. I couldn’t help but identify with Devon’s struggle to break the cycle with her own son Cai, especially with her lamenting when she fails to live up to the person she wants to be—a role-model she never had, trying to create a better world for her son than the one she grew up in.

This is a contemporary fantasy that takes place in England, but it’s split storyline. While the present-day Devon’s storyline takes place in or near present-day, there’s also another storyline with her younger self in childhood, and the way the two are woven together is absolutely masterfully done. Dark, terrible things happen to Devon bringing her to her present-day quest to save her son, but they aren’t lingered on or described in detail. Instead, the reader is distanced from the events as Devon distances herself from what happens, as a way to survive.

I loved the way the culture of the Book Eaters was explored and revealed, with its struggle to stay unknown in a modern world that moves increasingly fast. I also appreciated the way dark subjects were dealt with, neither glorifying or shockingly, but also without shying away from them: things like emotional abuse and its effects, sexual assault, and physical abuse.

Devon was raised as a princess, punished only by being forced to eat dictionary pages instead of fairy tales, but with the full expectation that once she was grown she would fulfill her duty and give two other Families a child each, after which she could come back home and do as she pleased.

But Devon’s son is a mind eater. To the Family, mind eaters are monsters who must be shut away and quelled firmly by Knights who are trained in how to break their spirits and “train” them to obey. Devon’s not about to let that happen to her son, though.

The only way to save her son is to secure him a drug that will allow him to eat books instead of minds. A drug that has become impossible to find in recent years. Impossible, however, is merely a suggestion for Devon.


CW: physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual assault, body horror, gore, explicit violence, domestic abuse, violence against children


I was given a copy of this book, but that has not affected my review to the best of my knowledge.