Captivating premise, first chapter had me hooked. It’s a new, very unique take on vampires with old Victorian-esque styled creatures. The Gorey aspects and horror imagery are palpable when it’s trying to be a gothic story, and every time they venture into flashbacks I was re-invested in the writing again. 

It felt like the Book Eaters world was heavily fleshed out inside the family's cultures and dynamics, but they were left to the wolves when they had to exist outside of that social network. This makes sense for characters raised to be sheltered, but it felt like there was no thought put into how the book eaters concealed themselves when they were wanted for murder, having all-out gun fights in the middle of London and having no repercussions from humans. It made the world feel less in-depth than I would have wanted, personally, just a quick explanation as to how they got away with so much with so many witnesses.

Sadly, there seemed to be a start-and-stop feeling to the tension throughout the book, and paired with some pacing issues it made wanting to finish the story incredibly difficult. Had it just been the flashback scenes, or the first chapters energy was present throughout, my rating would have been much higher. 

An amazing set of concepts and world-building in family dynamics, if not a little cliche at parts, the pacing and action-focused narrative muddies the gothic tone I was having much more fun with.