
The Book Eaters
The Book Eaters is a 2022 sapphic fiction and queer fantasy novel by Sunyi Dean. The story is set in Newcastle and Yorkshire. Key subjects include lesbians, Lesbian, Sapphic and books About Books.
Open Library readers give it an average of 3.6 out of 5 from 5 ratings, and 67 more have it on their want-to-read list. It has been published in 10 editions.
It runs to roughly 304 pages — 5–6 hours of reading at an average pace.
About 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.
Awards & lists
- ✦Locus Awards 2023 — Best First Novel (nominee)
Quick answers
Who wrote The Book Eaters?
The Book Eaters was written by Sunyi Dean and first published in 2022.
What genre is The Book Eaters?
It is usually shelved as Lesbian & Sapphic Fiction, Queer Fantasy, Queer Science Fiction and Myth & Legend Fiction.
How long is The Book Eaters?
The median edition has 304 pages, about 5–6 hours of reading at 250 words per minute.
What books are similar to The Book Eaters?
Readers who like it often enjoy Final Strife, Nona the Ninth and A Dowry of Blood.
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