"Book Eaters" Discuss Everything *Spoilers*

[SFFBC, Ancillary Mod]

Some discussion questions to get us started:

1. What did you think of the worldbuilding?
2. What did you think of the characters?
3. What did you think of the plot?
4. What worked or didn't for you?
5. Overall thoughts?


Non-spoiler thread here: First impressions

[Tina Reads]

I guess I'll go first. I read this last month when my library hold came through.

1. What did you think of the worldbuilding? The worldbuilding was good for the most part. I liked the idea that Book Eaters were living hidden among us and how SD built the families on insular, patriarchal groups/cults.

2. What did you think of the characters? I liked the characters despite the things that they did. Devon was morally grey, a murderer due to circumstance and love for her son. She knows that what she's doing is wrong and does it anyway. I feel bad for Cai, who is a monster due to a birth defect, but as a child cannot be blamed for the things he does. He doesn't want to hurt people, but must to survive. It's tragic. The brother was terrible, but the book needed a villain. I really liked the cousin who helped her out.

3. What did you think of the plot? Overall, pretty good. I was confused by some of the choices that were made. I mean, if Devon had all that money to buy the drug, why not spend some of it to get the device out of her sons body?

4. What worked or didn't for you? Overall, I just went with it and let myself enjoy where the story went. Often I was surprised at the twists the author took, especially near the end.

The strong characters worked for me, and most of the worldbuilding, except for how the Knights and Dragons spent their time biking around doing their missions when most of them didn't have ID? There's a lot unexplained about them that didn't make sense.

The timeline changes didn't always work for me, throwing me out of the zone. I needed the backstory, but it didn't always work for me.

Also, the LGBT aspect felt like it was shoehorned in to add to the genre list and didn't feel genuine to me. I didn't feel like there was actual attraction between the characters and U-hauling them didn't make sense to me, but YMMV on that point.

5. Overall thoughts? Overall, I enjoyed reading the book despite my pointing out of plot holes and minor quibbles. It was a fresh idea and I will definitely pick up more of SD's future novels.

[Hank, Hankenstein's Modster]

I will pull my usual cop out and not have an original opinion, I agree with Tina!

The world with a new take on vampires (really what the brain eaters are) was a good one.

I found Devon's moral hypocrisy easy to sympathize with. She hates what she is doing but parents can justify just about anything to protect their kids.

The dynamics of the familes were interesting and the craash of the Knights fit right into where I thought they were heading.

Happy I read it although I don't tend towards vampire novels.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

This, unfortunately, walked my line between "handwavium" and "explained magic" and ended on the "nope, doesn't make sense" side.

I did like the parent rage, and wanting to make your kid's life better no matter what, but I found much of it convenient and unearned.

[Liane]

I’m also going to be unoriginal and say I agree with Tina and Hank except for the fact that I did not like this read. Throughout I was pretty squeamish about the mind readers and I was repelled by the treatment of females, essentially as property.

I thought the LGBTQ direction was disingenuous with poorly explained (or no) basis. The only women she ever saw for more than 10 minutes (until Hes) were the old maids or, maybe, video games, but if that’s where her interest began, it wasn’t explained.

Worldbuilding was good, but overall too many triggers for me. Unlikely I’d go back for a sequel.

[Ellen]

My general impression of Book Eaters as a race is that it would not be a bad thing if they went extinct.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

haha

[Kaia]

I finished this one today, and I have mixed feelings. I enjoyed the premise and the world-building (though I reached a point where I was questioning a lot of aspects - many of which were already mentioned). I really liked the first half, and the back and forth between present and past, which helped to ease you into the less pleasant aspects of the book eaters and their families.

It hit a point, though, where the characters' choices (ones we learn about from the past and those happening in the present) became too horrible for me. And also not as believable. I felt that the "parents will do anything for their children" idea was pushed too far (and made to seem like it was right - like, kill everyone else and feel justified if that means your child survives).

Despite that, I mostly liked Devon's character, especially at first. The storyline about her childhood and her experiences with Salem were very believable and made my heart ache for her. By the end, though, she seemed less real to me, and I did not feel much empathy for her. I also agree that the romance aspect with Hester felt tacked on.

Overall, I'm not sure that I'll be recommending this one, but I'm not sorry I read it either.

[Tina Reads]

Kaia wrote: "Overall, I'm not sure that I'll be recommending this one, but I'm not sorry I read it either."

I totally agree with you. As a first novel, I thought it was pretty good, but not great. However, I'm going to be keeping an eye on her future novels because I can see potential.

[Joelle.P.S]

Oh I enjoyed this one. I don't disagree with the negative points above, but I enjoyed the ride. I'll recommend it to a couple other genre lovers, & I'll be curious to hear their thoughts. :-)

[Ayushi]

I finished listening to this today and will post reviews soon. However, I have really mixed feelings about the book as I was mildly interested when they were introducing the whole other types of beings/race. The characters were not quite well put together but they still kept me going on. I have felt that some plots looked very obvious to go in one way only. I was disappointed when I never had one big aah! moment throughout the whole audio.
Not too bad but might not be good to recommend to say for my local bookclub. 3/5

[Gabi]

It's been a while that I've read it, so if course I already forgot details with my Swiss Cheese brain. But I recall loving it, being fascinated by the society depicted and totally buying into the brutal single-minded mission of the mother. Not that it was right what she did, but it was understandable from her position. I love it when stories go unapologetic into a tunnel view direction.
The mentioned shortcomings were minor to my ovwrall positive reaction (and thrown in LGBTQ+ plots are meanwhile so mainstream in SFF that I completely ignore them), so that I gave full stars and put the author on my look-out-for list.

[Jenni]

1. What did you think of the worldbuilding?

I enjoyed the world building. It was an interesting premise and it was a simple enough concept that it was mostly believable.

2. What did you think of the characters?

I liked Devon and could empathize with her feelings. Perhaps because I'm 7 months post-partum myself. It was heart breaking to think of someone taking away her baby- because my baby is so fresh and new too and I would be absolutely crushed if I couldn't keep him. It seemed unbelievable to me that more book eater women weren't as affected as Devon by the idea of being separated from their children. It was written to sound like they all just went with it and no one had any second thoughts except for Jarrow's sister.

I also really liked Devon's son- which I would have spelled Kai, but I guess, after reading all these posts is actually spelled Cai. I loved how cheeky he was and how intelligent and mature he was. It was a subtle character development choice that made his character believable. A 5 year old absolutely would be that mature after consuming the minds of 25 adults. I never would have thought to do that.

3. What did you think of the plot?

I really liked the plot and I liked how the flash backs to the past were sprinkled in amongst the present day happenings. I found myself trying to guess certain aspects of things that hadn't been revealed yet.

4. What worked or didn't for you?

Again, I liked the premise, but I just didn't really find it believable that it had taken centuries for a woman like Devon to be so determined to keep her child. I just feel like this would be an issue that would have come up more often. I know there were references to what they used to do to women who resisted, but I don't know- it seemed a little too subtle.

Another thing that didn't really work for me was the relationship between Devon and Cai. I definitely got the impression that she was trying not to bond since she knew he'd be taken away eventually which was really good. But, at some point, I feel like she was supposed to have bonded with Cai without meaning to. It was cool that it happened gradually during the flashback parts, but I didn't really buy into their bond until what was, in my opinion, really late into the present day stuff. When they started off on their journey to find the Ravenscas (I was listening to it, so I have no idea how to spell this stuff) that's when I found their bond believable. Everything before that seemed forced. And I was absolutely crushed that he was calling her Dev and not Mommy, but it was a choice that made sense. I was so happy that he chose to stay with her and didn't tell anyone about their escape plans.

5. Overall thoughts?

Overall, I did really like the book. I could tell I was hooked when I was choosing the book over my usual football talk shows that I listen to during football season. lol.

[Bobby]

The book kept my attention unlike some other recent books that dragged for me. I liked how weird and different it was. It seems like some of the other readers did not like the unrealistic things about the book which makes sense. Maybe for me I liked the creative weirdness and didn’t expect any kind of normality in terms of the behavior.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I'm so pleased it worked for you! What were your favorite bits?

[Bobby]

I forget which conflict it was but it was the first one where Devon pulls out her book teeth and successfully attacks someone. It was just such an absurd image and funny surprise. Similarly when Hester pulls out the gun and shoots four knights it was so odd and surprising because they didn't seem to use guns or be that modern. I was amused when Devon mentally looked up words in her dictionary reviewing each definition. Just kind of funny bookeaters instead of vampires. The jumps between the past and present may have helped keep my attention. I thought I might get tired of it but it seemed to come together fast enough for me to not lose motivation to keep reading.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I'm enjoying this through your eyes, thanks!

[Ruth]

This book was super pacey and really kept me reading, even though I found all the characters repellent in one way or another (I initially had a lot of sympathy with Devon but some of that went after she (view spoiler)[ fed a baby to her son (hide spoiler)] .

The concept of the book eaters was intriguing and I enjoyed the touches like the banquet of fake foods made of paper (my edition has a stylised picture of that scene on the cover and it’s delightful).
Not all of the world building 100% made sense but I enjoyed the ride!

[A]

1. What did you think of the worldbuilding?
It was well done. I enjoyed this unique take on vampirism and how it was explained, as well as their culture and politics. The author did a good job at setting descriptions, which added to the worldbuilding.

2. What did you think of the characters?
I liked finally reading a work with a well-written morally grey protagonist! I also enjoyed the atypical mother/son relationship and how that was a focus of this book.

3. What did you think of the plot?
It was well done, and the author excelled at balancing darker themes with positive ones in a way that enhanced the plot.

5. Overall thoughts
Definitely recommend this unique and dark read

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

There was a very good sense of world, wasn't there? Great thoughts, A!