The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean has an absolute bonkers of a concept. North of England in the Yorkshire Moors, live a clan of six “Families” – who are humanoid/aliens and survive by eating books, gaining knowledge or experiences depending on the kind of literature they “devour”.  They are secretive and surrounding them is an almost Dracula-like legend that cloaks them from the rest of the humanity, only a few even suspecting as to their existence. 

Devon belongs to one of the oldest ‘families’ among these people and being one of the rarer “female” of the species, is tasked with the preservation of the clan/race. Which basically leads her leading an oppressive life of being a mule, tasked with marrying into other families as directed by her elders and procreating for the sake of the survival of the clan. Naturally, Devon – a headstrong perceptive young woman, doesn’t take kindly to her “assigned” tasks. Especially after having gotten attached to her first daughter, Salem. Who is forcibly taken away at the age of three from Devon, and when the elders push her back into this cycle.

Devon finds a friend, a video-game, graphic-novel loving nerd called Jarrow, her new brother-in-law who introduces her to the fascinating world of Mario and Tomb Raider. And with this new level of imagination injected into her senses, Devon dreams of escaping. Escape she does, along with her new son Cai. Unfortunately, to her mounting horror, she soon discovers that Cai is a “mind-eater”. A rarer kind of the species who survive by consuming whole minds and not books. A dangerous aberration, but an aberration, nevertheless. Devon is still determined to make this life work for her young son, but she needs to find a cure. And she sets off to the colder parts of Northern England in search of remedial solutions for her son, and also to find a safe haven. 

Soon she is drawn into a more sinister game being played out – among the Clans for supremacy with her own brother Ramsay leading one of these factions in a civil war that would mean the end of not just her own freedom but could catapult her son’s future into jeopardy. 

As is evident by this twisted plot, Book Eaters reads like a whimsical tale. Flitting between an impossible dark fairy tale (The Grimm’s version) and a horror story, Book Eaters tackles some heavy-duty topics, be it feminism, walking the tight rope between duty and freewill, the grey areas of shifting morality (Should we eat “right kind” people, so that we also become like them?) and lots more. It is also Sunyi Dean’s paean to this love for books and all things nerdy. 

Told in alternating bursts between the past and the present, we have ring-side tickets to Devon’s character evolution. Going from a timid, fairy-tale princess stuck in her castle, to a ferocious mama-bear who will take on the “knights” and the rest of the world to protect her small world. Apart from Devon though, the others don’t get much screen time, and we don’t really much of character development. I really would have loved to be a part of the “chase” – with Ramsay, Devon’s brother whom I thought was a very complex and interesting character to get inside of. 

What Book Eaters does very well is create the eerie Gothic atmosphere of this impossible premise. An almost Victorian England, cold, distant, almost surreal. The book fully requires an immersion into this world, a dark tale that outlines the hopes of a mother for her son but puts us the readers and her as the lead through the wringer before things even out. 

The pacing wasn’t hurried and I personally thought, this kind of dampened the overall tension of the plot. There is also very little in any way of a twist in the narrative, so we gamely just push on and get through to the very end of Devon’s fight for freedom. The mention of mobile phones, video games etc also threw me off because I thought this book was set in a different timeline. Also, because we are dealing with so much darkness and intrigue about in-fighting, historical conspiracies etc, the going gets tough at times. But hang in there, it’s a very smartly told story, written in an emphatic confident manner that doesn’t sound like a debut at all. 

Definitely checking out what Sunyi writes next! This short snappy book about the darkness in a world of book eating clans and the rays of hope that elevates it, is recommended.