*still thinking about my review, so I will return, but I really did enjoy this story. ( )

3.25

I listened to this on audio book which was why I pushed through til the end, I also wanted to find out what happened to Salem…

The premise was so interesting but the characters were just so unlikeable. The only characters I somewhat liked were Jarrow, Manny and the chick who could shoot a gun (forgotten her name).

Devon and her son Kai just creeped me out as did all the eaters, dragons, knights and mind eaters.

It could have used a heavy hand to edit - so many pages could be deleted and you would still have the info you need to read it - so unnecessarily long.

It just felt unsatisfying. There were no real resolutions or changes made in their world. I understand that this book all hinges on her love as a mother and the willingness to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to save her kids even if that means becoming a true monster - but by the end of it I just wanted Sam and Dean to show up and end it all so I could move on.

Watch my reviews here: https://youtube.com/@starkissedstories ( )

I should have known from the book description that I was going to stumble through this one...but being the stubborn individual that I am, I refused to stop reading. So, I will say to begin with that the 2.5-star rating wasn't really any fault of the story or the author...it was just that I didn't "get it" and truthfully, I don't think I really cared enough to try. At the start of the story the main character, Devon, is on the run with her son Cai, who had been born a "Mind Eater", in the present day, carrying out some… extremely morally acts on the "gray' side. We are slowing "drip fed" the past throughout the entire story. It became confusing, as if I wasn't confused enough to start with by interchanging past and present chapters. We learn quickly that Devon will do anything to look after her son's wellbeing. Her "mother of the year looking after" borders on a lot of highly questionable acts. Devon is a 'book-enter". It seems that these "people (?) thrive and survive off of the ink, paper and words of the books they eat.... yes...REALLY EAT. Strange??? Do you think???. The women who are born as book eaters are only supposed to keep their young for a few years and not form any kind of bond with them. There is a bit of the "gay lifestyle" in this story also, which I didn't get at all, and I read a lot of M/M romances. I would consider the story to be a kind of hybrid fantasy/horror. It has won or has been nominated for numerous awards including the NPR Best Sci Fi, Fantasy, & Speculative Fiction Book of 2022, A Goodreads Best Fantasy Choice Award Nominee & A Library Journal Best Book of 2022. I guess if we all liked the same thing there would never be enough to go around and that includes our choice of reading material:) ( )

Slightly disappointed that eating books didn't really play a large role in the story. A more appropriate title would have been Mind Eaters since while the story is from a book eaters perspective the "eviler" version, mind eaters, are so much more relevant. In fact, Devon could have been human and not much would have changed in the story.

Fine book, but misleading title made me not be quite so thrilled about it in the end. ( )

I started this book and could put it down until I finished it. So I devoured it just like the characters in this book eat books. I hope there is another book because I think the author created a fascinating magical horror world, and I’d love to learn more about these book eaters. ( )