Sunyi Dean’s The Book Eaters is a gripping, gothic-horror-meets-fantasy novel about a mother’s quest to save her son no matter the cost—and maybe, just maybe, save herself in the process. Haunting, adrenaline-laced, and dripping with themes as dark as book eater blood, this novel has teeth and isn’t afraid to show them.

Main character Dev comes from an English secret society of monsters known as book eaters, whose vampiric natures have them consume books instead of blood to survive. In addition to a harrowing, misogynistic, and patriarchal political landscape, there’s another horror in book eater society: mind eaters. When Dev’s son is born a mind eater, she learns the depth of cruelty book eater society is capable of.

Dev is so believably messy and flawed as the main character, and her choices fascinated and compelled me. Told in a series of flashbacks between past and present, the present-day sections have all the tension of a thriller and the past sections are laden with emotional weight. The interweaving of the two makes for a complex blend.

A note: While Dev is queer (sapphic and lesbian in my interpretation, though the label is not used on page), this book is not a romance nor does it heavily involve romantic elements. It is much more fantasy/horror and though there is a romantic subplot, it is very minor in the overarching narrative.

To fantasy fans who enjoy explorations of unconventional motherhood and family, examination of stories and the ways in which they shape us, and a darker tone to their fantasy, I would highly recommend The Book Eaters. 

Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for an advance review copy. All opinions are my own.