Synopses & Reviews
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
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 fairytales 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.
Review
"A gripping and beautifully plotted story told with verve and deliciously dark wit." — The Daily Mail
Review
"Dean's unputdownable debut gives the phrase "voracious reader" a new, very literal meaning ...The fascinating magic system, impeccable and unusual worldbuilding, and well-shaded characters will keep readers riveted through every twist of this wild ride." — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Review
"A powerful story of overwhelming mother love, as something both powerful and potentially horrific....Readers will devour this compelling, rich fantasy." — Booklist (Starred Review)
About the Author
Sunyi Dean is an autistic author of fantasy fiction. The Book Eaters is her debut novel. Originally born in the States and raised in Hong Kong, she now lives in Yorkshire with her children. When not reading, running, falling over in yoga, or rolling d20s, she sometimes escapes the city to wildswim in lonely dales.