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Title details for The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean - Available

The Book Eaters

by Sunyi Dean
Katie Erich
Audiobook
1 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 2 copies available

"Katie Erich's riveting and emotionally rich realization of Dean's strange and vivid world makes this an entrancing listen from start to finish; we hope to hear much more from author and narrator alike." - The Seattle Times

"Katie Erich narrates Devon with the voice of a true storyteller, providing a mesmerizing performance that communicates the devastating harshness and rich emotionality of Devon's journey....Beautiful and intense, it is a must-listen."- Library Journal

This program includes a bonus conversation between the author and narrator about the novel, family, and neurodivergency.
Sunyi Dean's The Book Eaters is "a darkly sweet pastry of a book about family, betrayal, and the lengths we go to for the ones we love. A delicious modern fairy tale."— Christopher Buehlman, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author
"Katie Erich's Northern English accent transports listeners to the windswept Yorkshire moors in this atmospheric fantasy about a woman on the run."- AudioFile on The Book Eaters
Truth is found between the stories we're fed and the stories we hunger for.
Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book's content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries.
Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairy tales and cautionary stories.
But real life doesn't always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds.
A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 2, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781250856555
      • File size: 387580 KB
      • Duration: 13:27:27

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from April 4, 2022
      Dean’s unputdownable debut gives the phrase “voracious reader” a new, very literal meaning. Devon isn’t human. She and others like her live off eating books, and they retain all the knowledge they consume. Book eaters are rare, and book eater girls are even rarer. Raised by the isolated, cultish Family, Devon is treated like a breakable princess and fed a steady diet of fairy tales in which the girls are always the damsels in distress. Devon’s duty is to grow up and produce two children by two different husbands to ensure the survival of their species. Willful and stubborn in nature, Devon has always chafed under the Family’s control—and when her first son is born not a book eater but a far more dangerous mind eater, she goes on the run to save the boy from the Family, who no longer want him. But to survive, she’ll have to find a way to sate the hunger that plagues him, a hunger far more sinister and alien than her own. The fascinating magic system, impeccable and unusual worldbuilding, and well-shaded characters will keep readers riveted through every twist of this wild ride. Gothic fantasy fans will want to snap up this thrilling tale.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Katie Erich's Northern English accent transports listeners to the windswept Yorkshire moors in this atmospheric fantasy about a woman on the run. Devon grows up among book eaters--a mysterious species that consumes books instead of food. When her son is born with a rare condition that gives him a hunger for human brains, not books, she sets off on a dangerous journey to save him--and herself. Erich's pacing is perfect. She delivers breathless chase scenes at a fever pitch and voices Devon's thoughts with a constant edge of fear and desperation. Her portrayal of Devon's son, a five-year-old who has consumed the minds of grown humans, is both chilling and heartbreaking. This is a darkly beautiful book about violent family legacies and impossible choices. L.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      December 1, 2022

      Dean's outstanding debut introduces a unique world featuring a clan of book eaters, people for whom books are food. Devon Fairweather, a female book eater, has been treated as a princess and is fed a carefully curated diet of fairy tales so that she fulfills her duty--to ensure the continuity of The Family by producing two children with two different fathers. When her son, Cai, is born, not as a book eater, but as a mind eater, she goes on the run to save him from a ghastly fate. Despite almost immediately experiencing the horrors Devon will visit upon humankind to protect her child, it is hard not to root for her, as her love feels so strong and pure. Katie Erich narrates Devon with the voice of a true storyteller, providing a mesmerizing performance that communicates the devastating harshness and rich emotionality of Devon's journey. Erich's calm tone is pleasantly grounded in a story that could be too dark, complex, or morally gray for some. VERDICT This is the type of dark fantasy that breaks out of the genre and into popular culture. Beautiful and intense, it is a must-listen.--Matthew Galloway

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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