OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: Sunyi Dean (sun-yee deen) is an autistic author of fantasy fiction. Originally born in the States and raised in Hong Kong, she now lives in Yorkshire with her children. When not reading, running, falling over in yoga, or rolling d20s, she sometimes escapes the city to wildswim in lonely dales.

FORMAT/INFO: The Book Eaters was published on August 2nd, 2022, by Tor Books. It is 298 pages split across 35 chapters. It is told in third person from two POVs, including Devon. It is available in hardcover, ebook and audiobook formats.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Devon Fairweather is a book eater, a supernatural creature that sustains herself by literally eating books. In return, she gains the knowledge the book contained. After a lifetime of being fed a strict diet of fairytales, Devon’s used to doing what she’s told and patiently waiting in the hopes of one day having the happily ever after she craves. But when her son is born with an offshoot craving to consume human minds, Devon finds herself fiercely fighting to escape the control of the family factions and find freedom for her and her son.

The Book Eaters is a deeply unsettling read that manages to invoke the fierceness of a mother who will do anything to protect her son. This is not a book that pulls punches. Devon has a son whose feedings leave humans catatonic, and she is willing to sacrifice human lives to provide for him. Mind eaters are disturbing creatures, especially due to the way they feed, and one of the reasons this book veers into horror; in fact, mind eaters and book eaters alike are just vampires of a different variety.

But balancing out this horror aspect is the burning passion Devon has to protect her son Cai. I am not a mother myself, yet I was filled with Devon’s rage at the book eater society that tried to dictate what happened to her and her son, without any input from the mother herself. Women in book eater society exist solely to reproduce and are not given any consideration in any matters, from where they live to what happens to their children. And because the books a book eater eats shapes their personalities, Devon is prone to thinking that the bad things that happen to her are her fault, that she shouldn’t have caused trouble. At least, that’s how she behaves until the Families finally go too far.

The story itself is told in alternating timelines, going back and forth between a present day Devon (in the early 2000s) and Devon’s life growing up. There’s plenty of tension in both storylines, and I was equally excited to solve the mystery of Devon’s early life as I was to see how she would handle her current predicament. I was a bit surprised to find this was a relatively modern day story, but it wasn’t any real hurdle to my enjoyment of the story once I adapted my expectations. (In fact, since the Families are isolationists, large parts of the story felt like they could have been Any Time.) I especially liked that video games became a way for Devon to experience stories outside the ones she’d been fed; it was a fun addition to looking at the way different medias shape our lives.

CONCLUSION: The Book Eaters is a quick read, but one that has plenty to say on motherhood, sacrifices, patriarchy, and cultural impact. It will make you reach for your children (even if you don’t have any) with a desire to protect them. And most of all, it will have you thinking about how the stories we read become a part of us long after we finish the tale.