I have a new answer to this question:
“If you were a mythical creature, what would you be?”
I would be a Book Eater.
Think of vampires that survive on ink and paper instead of blood. I mean it’s not too far a cry from my current nature as is.
Anyhooooo.
Devon has never been good at doing what she’s told.
In Eater culture, little girls are princesses, fed a steady diet of fairy tales that are supposed to teach them their place in the world.
Pretty, quiet and breed-able.
Book Eaters are a dying species in this modern world, and their borderline incestuous practices (so the patriarchs say) are the only way to ensure their survival.
Females in the Families, have their marriages arranged as soon as the time is appropriate. They go to the land that their new husband’s family occupies – they marry, they consummate, and they keep trying until they conceive a child.
Once the child is no longer nursing, the mother and baby are ripped apart. The child is raised in whatever way their gender dictates and the mother is sent back to her own family to await her next marriage arrangement.
Devon’s already had one child stolen away. When the true nature of her second baby (a boy) is revealed, Devon commits the ultimate act to protect her son.
No one is going to take this baby from her. Nobody.
When we meet Devon and her now five year old son Cai, they are in hiding – constantly on the run from the wrath of The Family and also in desperate search of the drug that allows Cai to live something even resembling a ‘normal’ life.
When the opportunity presents itself, to kill several birds with a massive fuck-off rock – Devon will give the term ‘Mama Bear’ a whole new meaning.
I devoured this book (no pun intended but fuck it – pun intended coz I’m funny).
It’s one of the most original concepts I’ve come across in quite some time and is written with exceptional talent.
Devon is my murderous sister from another non-human mister; I too would probably resort to violence if I was only allowed to read fairy tales as a kid.
I joke - but the whole story is a wonderfully dark and fantastical look at the ideas of agency, autonomy and identity – and for Devon, that does indeed start with her carefully controlled diet of good-girl fairy stories and cautionary tales.
I couldn’t recommend this book highly enough – perhaps with a little salt and pepper to aid with digestion.
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