The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

​I love books about books. Any sort of bibliomystery or bibliowhatever and I’m there. So, naturally, this one piqued my interest. And turned out unlike any other book about books out there since this is a book about…eating books.
So what’s that…bibliophagia?
Anyway, Book Eaters are a world onto themselves, an old world dynasty surviving in present day England by maintaining their backwards practices rigorously and ruthlessly. That is the world the protagonist, Devon, of this novel is born into and that is the world she spends the entire novel fleeing.
Not just her, but her young son, who was born a deviation of his kind – a mind eater, a more dangerous variety that needs to kill to survive. And mommy Devon will kill to feed her baby, even other babies. Mother’s love and all that.
Anyway, naturally Devon is chased and naturally there’s all sorts of intrigue and action, but mainly this book skates by on its original idea and the concomitant world building. These are people who EAT books. Imagine absorbing knowledge that way. And yet, the written word is quite beyond them – they cannot write. They live like a fairy tale, a dark one. The one where princesses are sacrificed for timeworn traditions. There are no happy princesses in this tale.
But Devon, shedding her royal title, is determined to forge her own path in a world she lived besides and hardly knew. For her own sake and for the sake of her murderous baby boy. For the sake of trying to find a new (and improved) life.
Meanwhile, in flashbacks we are told of courtly intrigue, Book Eater’s policies, and Devon’s life until now.
Do the flashbacks get to be too much and overpower the plot? At times, yes. But then again, this is a debut. Debuts tend to cram too much in. Did I love the protagonist? Not  as such, but did find her compelling. Overall, this debut is quite dense and proved to be a notably slow read, but it was interesting and original enough to entertain. Plus, it allows the reviewer to say, “Now you know. Now, go eat a book.” and that’s just fun in and of itself.