The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

I would like to thank the author and Harper Voyager for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Harper Voyager

Published – Out Now

Price – £14.99 Hardback £8.99 Kindle eBook

Hidden across England and Scotland live six old Book Eater families.

The last of their lines, they exist on the fringes of society and subsist on a diet of stories and legends.

Children are rare and their numbers have dwindled, so when Devon Fairweather’s second child is born a dreaded Mind Eater – a perversion of her own kind, who consumes not stories but the minds and souls of humans – she flees before he can be turned into a weapon for the family… or worse.

Living among humans and finding prey for her son, Devon seeks a cure for his hunger. But time is running out – for her family want her back, and with every soul her son consumes he loses a little more of himself…

This is a story of escape, a savage mother’s devotion and a queer love that will electrify readers looking for something beguiling, thrilling, strange and new.

What is a monster? I don’t mean give me examples like a zombie, werewolf or vampire but why do we call them monstrous? When we are children we are told monsters are the creatures that want to eat us. When we get older its used for people who go outside of our society. Sometimes we label monsters those who challenge society when they just want rights for themselves. In Sunyi Dean’s excellent dark fantasy tale The Book eaters we meet Devon who is not human; when we find what she does we will fear her but more importantly when we find out why she does these things we may understand her and remember the world we live in really makes monsters.

We first meet Devon feeding an innocent Vicar to Cai her five-year-old child who devours his mind and memories. Devon is on the run from her Family one of the six Families of the mysterious race known as Book Eaters. They devour information not food or blood and they do this by consuming books – everything from a little pamphlet to a dusty leather tome. They have lived in isolation for years. Each ruled by an Uncle and female Book Eaters are rare and as are youngsters. Devon originally grew in her remote manor house – treated as a Princess. Taught to be a girl and not to worry about men’s business. But Devon found out that Princesses were many things but never free and they exist only to produce children not even raise them so when Cai is born and with the despised ability to consume people’s minds not books; then Devon knew that she would need to escape. She seeks the only Family that could stop Cai’s hunger for human minds but now her brother Ramsey is closing in on her for one final confrontation.

I was very very impressed and constantly surprised by this story which delivers something powerful, unsettling and hugely enjoyable. The Book Eaters life sounds tempting which of us dear reader would not just love to devour a book in minutes? But they while not blood suckers are not a group of people you want to live with. This is a story about what happens when we have a society so rigid that only certain books are read by certain people. That allocates everyone roles based on gender and refuses anyone to allow to be someone else. Devon as she grows up and even when she becomes a grown woman is only fed tales of sweet fairy tales where the girls are obedient and do what they are told hence they will become Princesses. Devon though knows the illicit thrill of eating books she cannot and also starts to belatedly realise that her role is really just producing offspring for family heirs. She is transactionally married to someone; will have a child and then move onto another marriage. Her children will be removed from her and if she is quiet she can live a simple life in the Family but never doing anything remarkable than women’s housework. Safe to say this is the story what happens next.

But the first surprise is Devon is not a standard heroine. From the first scene she feeds a human to her son. What I really loved in the story is that Devon is not just a rebellious young woman with magical powers she is clearly not human. She has different values and doesn’t see us as something she wants to be but something she wants to lives amongst. Dean I think cleverly uses this scene to shock us and make us wary of Devon but as all the best stories about unlikeable characters we get to slowly understand why she is doing this. In alternating scenes of Devon’s past and present we get to see how she grew up and how this has led to her desperate life on the run. Devon is someone we can label a monster but when we see the society that shaped her we may ask well how could she not have been? Did she really have any other choices? We also get confronted that for Devon keeping her son alive by any means necessary is her key goal. Walking with Devon over this course of the novel we find that our sympathies rise and fall with her actions. Dean confronts the reader o imagine being in this position and ask what would we have done? Uncomfortably we may realise that when a society doesn’t allow anyone freedom for non-compliance with their rules then perhaps you need to make your own rules and escape. I also really found the use of motherhood as a powerful and seldom explored role in fantasy. Devon’s relationship with Cai is touching. We see moments of genuine banter and love; but we also get to understand that anyone or anything that can get in the way of that relationship becomes a threat and will need dealing with. Love can drive us to protect and kill even if we know good people may be harmed in the process

The other surprise is that with its Families, Princesses and use of manor houses we imagine initially a gothic novel in the classic sense; but I loved how this story merges that with a contemporary fantasy thriller feel. A lot of this story is a cat and mouse game as Devon and Cai get chased through the North of England – train stations; deserted town streets and dingy B&Bs all come to life but also get strange. There is a fantastic threat in the form of Knights (the protection and some would say military wing of the Book Eaters) who have trained Mind Eaters dressed in suits and motorcycle helmets as their enforcers; plus all the Eaters all have immense strength and skill – expect fights, jumps and gun battles playing out throughout. This is what Cai would have ended up becoming and having the squad led by Devon’s once charming and very devious brother Ramsey makes the stakes and the confrontation quite personal. I really liked how we see Ramsey both as a terrible ruthless antagonist, but we also realise that he like Devon is a product of the society – this is what all unruly yet likeable young boys are made to be as they grow up. Their lives are instead filled with cruel training and the loss of empathy. Ramsey again becomes a monster but one we understand that some societies create toxic male roles just as much as obedient female ones.

The Book Eaters is a tight fast paved story that skilfully crosses boundaries of fantasy, horror, and thriller to give us something new and quite exciting. It is a story that challenges the reader and asks us to imagine being in Devon’s place. Dean writes beautifully each chapter is tightly plotted and not afraid to throw some curveballs to surprise us and yet it all plots together rather beautifully. There is a delicious sense of tension rising towards a bloody conclusion and leaves open that we may one day explore this world a little more. I am hugely impressed and strongly recommend this tale as a bit like devouring the books that The Book Eaters consume them; knowledge that will stay with you for some time and may change the way you see monsters in the future.