The Book Eaters

“‘Beauty and the Beast,’ ‘Cinderella,’ ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ and ‘Snow White.’ Various others. All stories of girls who sought and found love, or else who fled their homes and found death.”

Devon lists a series of popular female-led fairy tales, although the heroines are now in dispute for their submissive natures. In each story, the princess is obedient; sometimes, as in Cinderella and Snow White, their obedience isn’t even rewarded. It soon becomes clear that feminine submissiveness has become entrenched in the book eaters’ culture and has shaped the way they view the role of women.

“The aunts discussed that a lot, in their private quarters. No more knights. No more dragons. Women marrying who they please. And other things that Devon didn’t really understand, although she could sense the cautious hope in their words.”

At this point in the story, Devon is intentionally positioned as an unreliable narrator; her innocence and youth prevent her from seeing the bigger picture. Yet, even at this stage, she dimly understands the concept of hope and the idea that things could change for the better. This moment shows that even the elder women who later turn on her are victims of a wider, toxic system.

“When Devon had been young, she’d wanted to sometimes read books and sometimes eat books, rather than always eating them, but the main thing was choosing her own books, deciding how to shape and immerse herself.”

This moment speaks to a key message of the novel: Stories very literally have the power to shape the way people think, behave, and see themselves and their place in the world. It is a reminder of the power that real-world literature has to shape society. The book eaters take this to the extreme and literally absorb the culture of the books they ingest. Here, Devon recognizes that she can choose who she will become.

“Still others—most humans, in fact—lived lives without purpose or direction. Many were crushed by poverty and circumstance. Their women were volatile, disorderly, disadvantaged.”

This line illustrates what Devon will become in the novel’s present-day timeline: “volatile, disorderly, [and] disadvantaged” as a refugee from her people. Devon perceives her purpose as a form of enslavement. This shows how deeply her upbringing has shackled her and how much she has changed by the end of her journey.

“The details and contexts vary, yet consistent patterns emerge across cultures and time periods to form a single conclusion: we have all of us been prey to these creatures for centuries.”

This epigraph examines the parallels between book eaters and other vampiric creatures across cultures and time. This roots the novel in a wider literary and folkloric tradition. Mani chooses to use the word “prey” in this context, a word that Devon revisits on several occasions throughout the story.

“Salem Winterfield. The syllables mushed in her mouth like rotting paper. It made her think of witch trials and women being burned, and seemed such a heated nomen when stuck to chilly old Winterfield.”

This line connects the Salem witch trials, where women were murdered and burned, to book-eater culture. Devon’s daughter’s name carries with it deeply ingrained symbolism of female suppression, echoing Devon’s own struggles in the novel.

“She didn’t yet know how much of a coward he was, or she’d have been suspicious.”

This line highlights an important element of Luton’s character, especially when viewed in juxtaposition to Matley. Although he is not a good man, he is also not a malicious one; his fatal flaw is his inability to stand up for what’s right. In this way, he acts as a foil to Devon, whose greatest strength is her courage.

“Dull realization grew around her like choking vines. The only way out was to behave. Every time she defied the Family, someone else paid the price.”

As a rare book-eater woman, Devon is placed in an unusual predicament; she is immune to direct punishment, with her punishment redirected to those around her. This line capitalizes “family,” illustrating how the organization serves a much greater role than a traditional family and wields more power. The passage uses a simile, where something is compared to something else using “like” or “as.” In this case, Devon’s awareness is likened to “choking vines,” creating the impression that she’s suffocating.

“Even in the happiest fairy tales, princesses did not usually have much choice. They were prizes to be won or given away and there was no other context in which she could understand her life.”

This line reiterates the damaging mindset that Devon has been raised with (and raised on, as nourishment). It highlights the vulnerability of young women brought up in book-eater culture and how they have no experience with anything else. Here, the concept of being a “princess” is both something to aspire to and something to be feared.

“Devon, who had never seen a film or cartoon or television of any kind, let alone a video game, gaped at the screen in spellbound astonishment. It was the closest thing she’d ever seen to real magic.”

The concept of magic is lightly touched on throughout the novel, as Mani struggles to understand the existence of the book eaters, yet Devon never sees herself as a magical creature. This moment displays the way that the mundane world, and the developments it takes for granted, appear enchanting to her. It marks a turning point in her development as her worldview begins to broaden.

“Self-hate was intrinsic to the entire human race. He’d come to that conclusion after his various dealings with humans. When they could not find enough to dislike in their own selves, human folk went looking for flaws in their neighbors.”

This observation highlights the way Ramsey sees the world through a filter of his own self-loathing and mistrust. This is in direct contrast to Devon’s experiences with human interaction.

“You will never have to fear what you have mastered.”

This aphorism, or statement that contains a truth, is repeated several times in Ramsey’s memory and serves as the foundation of his upbringing. This lesson can be applied to many of the characters and the journeys they undergo: Devon, Hester, and Cai all learn to master the things of which they are most afraid. Ultimately, Ramsey only becomes afraid once he has lost control of the thing he fears.

“She didn’t understand their interactions—either what Jarrow wanted from her, or she from him. In a world dominated by Family ties and nothing else, the concept of friendship baffled her.”

Jarrow’s friendship is the first uncomplicated, emotionally rewarding relationship Devon has in her life. Even the love she has for her family, including her daughter, is colored by expectation and loss. The value of her friendship with Jarrow comes from the fact that he asks nothing from her and doesn’t require her to be anything but herself.

“She’d eaten a fantasy novel once, a lush and alien book full of words that made her dizzy, containing a sketchy map of invented places. At the time it had seemed vast, but it hadn’t been nearly as large or detailed as the real-world variety in front of her.”

This moment of metafiction, where a work of fiction alludes to its own artifice, places the concept of fantasy novels inside a fantasy novel. The irony is that the magical world that Devon was briefly, artificially able to connect with pales in comparison to the limitless ordinary world. This parallels Devon’s earlier experience with video games.

“For here was the thing that no fairy tale would ever admit but that she understood in that moment: love was not inherently good.”

This moment marks a major turning point in Devon’s development as she becomes capable of independent thought in conflict with the messages she has been raised with. The truth that she stumbles upon is a difficult one that is often shied away from in literature and certainly in fairy tales; however, it reflects a core human reality that Devon is being exposed to for the first time.

“How did one make friends? Let alone keep them? Mysterious. Then the unbidden thought: Maybe she’d find out with Hester.”

In this moment, Devon displays how out of depth she feels in the human world. Until this point, Devon’s sole priority has been caring for her son. Now, with a cure within reach, she’s able to briefly turn her attention to her own emotional needs. This line illustrates how her growing connection with Hester is forcing her to recalibrate what she had previously understood about herself.

“He hungered for something less tangible yet just as crucial: an antidote to loneliness. He craved, even then, the company and acceptance of other people.”

The need for human connection (with “human” in this context extending to the novel’s non-human, human-adjacent entities) is a recurring theme throughout the novel. From a very young age, Cai is able to recognize his ostracization and the way his and Devon’s lives differ from other people’s. Cai unconsciously craves an open communication with other people in the way that Devon craves the practice of reading books.

“Adam and Eve had nothing on Killock and Cai. Apples were for amateurs. Sons eating fathers: that was a truly forbidden feast.”

Biblical imagery and symbolism occur repeatedly throughout the novel. In this instance, the imagery is overt and acknowledged. There is also a hint of other world myths, as the devouring of parents and children occurs in many cultural narratives worldwide. Dean also employs a metrical parallelism in this line, with “Adam and Eve” having the same syllables and rhythm as “Killock and Cai.”

“Consuming someone is—is so deeply intimate. You know them, you come to love them, and they become a part of you forever. It feels like merging souls.”

This line reveals another facet to the previously one-dimension affliction of mind eating. Instead of viewing it as a one-sided vampiric attack, Hester sees the practice as a spiritual union. However, there remains a clear imbalance in status within this union, with one spirit being absorbed, or “consumed,” by the other.

“Fear had been an anchor, dragging her down, and the certainty of death had finally cut that chain.”

This line subtly parallels Ramsey’s victory over fear earlier in the novel. Although Devon hasn’t “mastered” her fear in the same way, she has been set free of it because she no longer has anything to lose. She uses despair as an unexpected source of strength, giving her the motivation needed to overcome the fear that was holding her in place.

“Information is not intellect. Computers can contain entire books, too, but they’re not considered intelligent yet. It is one thing to have a repository of data, and quite another to use it, let alone creatively.”

This line directly calls into question what “intelligence” really is. Mani inadvertently pinpoints the major book-eater weakness: an inability to be creative. This gives humanity an advantage over the seemingly superior book eaters. Mani’s observation gives Devon a deeper understanding of humanity’s endurance and strength.

“Sometimes, she would watch humans while out and about: this heaving mass of folk, so like and unlike her. Watched women wear jeans and hold hands in public, watched men get married to other men openly—not meeting discreetly like Family brothers did.”

This moment emphasizes Devon’s otherness and particularly her connection to her sexuality. In book-eater culture, same-gender attraction is essentially ignored in favor of more traditional, fairy-tale-driven relationships. This world that Devon’s being exposed to for the first time represents a more honest, authentic version of herself.

“It was the most beautiful place they’d ever seen. Raw. Real. Authentic. Hard-edges, and unpretentious. In another life, she might have stayed here forever, lingering on that boundary between sea and earth.”

This setting is literally a boundary between two worlds. Metaphorically, it represents a stage in Devon’s life when she exists between one state of being and another. She finds solace in this setting that is not quite one thing and not quite another because she recognizes it within herself.