Synopses & Reviews
A darkly funny and provocative debut novel that reimagines classic fairy tale characters as modern women in a support group for trauma
In present-day New York City, five women meet in a basement support group to process their traumas. Bernice grapples with the fallout of dating a psychopathic, blue-bearded billionaire. Ruby, once devoured by a wolf, now wears him as a coat. Gretel questions her memory of being held captive in a house made of candy. Ashlee, the winner of a Bachelor-esque dating show, wonders if she really got her promised fairy tale ending. And Raina's love story will shock them all.
Though the women start out wary of one another, judging each other's stories, gradually they begin to realize that they may have more in common than they supposed...What really brought them here? What secrets will they reveal? And is it too late for them to rescue each other?
Dark, edgy, and wickedly funny, this debut for readers of Carmen Maria Machado, Kristen Arnett, and Kelly Link takes our coziest, most beloved childhood stories, exposes them as anti-feminist nightmares, and transforms them into a new kind of myth for grown-up women.
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"Stylistic panache and 21st-century verve….Both a meditation on trauma and a sendup of our society's obsession with scripted reality, this book sings." Kirkus (Starred Review)
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"This powerful first novel holds up a mirror to the reader and challenges our perceptions of truth." Booklist (Starred Review)
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"A fresh and inventive gem." Publishers Weekly
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"After her well-received collection Girls of a Certain Age, Adelmann offers a wickedly imaginative work envisioning fairy-tale characters as members of a trauma support group in contemporary New York." Library Journal
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"A fairy tell reimagining unlike any other you've ever experienced...It's also just a really entertaining read."
Bookriot
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"Maria Adelmann's debut novel is jagged and daring and darkly funny. Her wit is an exquisite instrument, one she uses to shred the myths by which capitalism and patriarchy exploit and commodify the female quest for love and selfhood. If you've ever hate-watched a reality TV show, or struggled with the blithe misogyny of a fairytale, this is the book for you."
Steve Almond, author of Bad Stories and All the Secrets of the World
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"Maria Adelman does more than reinvent the fairytale, she brings it into the twenty-first century, frankenbites and all. From Bluebeard to The Bachelor, Adelmann spins 'familiar' tales together into gold. Funny, violent, cutting, and insightful, How to Be Eaten made me want to join this unlikely group of confidants and start confessing my own secrets, just to keep the conversation going." Gwen E. Kirby, author of Shit Cassandra Saw
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"In this wildly imaginative and trenchant novel, female characters from mythic fairytales emerge as modern-day heroes capable of reclaiming their lives from the trauma of their past. A deft exploration of trauma, authorship, the power of storytelling, and the healing potential of connection, How to Be Eaten will stun readers page after page, offering an unforgettable, empowering, and above all entertaining tale of reclamation and transformation." Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author of Group
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"Even better than it sounds, How to Be Eaten presents vividly real women haunted by their fairy tale pasts in this deliciously angsty debut. Pure fun pulsing with a dark heart." Rachel Yoder, author of Nightbitch
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"Gorgeously written and mind-bending, How to Be Eaten is fiction as a magic trick: by redrawing these archetypal characters with modern, vivid, and gothic specificity, Adelmann reminds us that, be it enchanting or devastating, our myths remain."
Julia May Jonas, author of Vladimir
About the Author
Maria Adelmann is the author of the short story collection Girls of a Certain Age, which explores the many impossible choices of modern girl and womanhood. Her work has been published by Tin House, n+1, Electric Literature, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Threepenny Review, the Indiana Review, Epoch, AQR, MQR, and many others, and has been selected by The Best American Short Stories as a distinguished story. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram @ink176. How to Be Eaten is her first novel.