Maybe one of them strangest books I’ve read. The idea was great, but the characters felt flat and were superficially developed. It was just an odd, weird story. (Hardcover, library) ( )

Really loved it! ( )

Adelmann, Maria. How to Be Eaten. Little, Brown, 2022.
If you are intrigued by the premise of Maria Adelmann’s How to Be Eaten, you will probably enjoy the whole performance. We begin in contemporary New York, where several women have gathered as part of a trauma support group moderated by a sensitive young man who might remind you of a high school teacher. But nothing is what it seems. The women are analogs of heroines from Grimms’ fairy tales suffering posttraumatic stress from the experiences that made them famous. There is Berniece, who married a psychopathic killer and is haunted by the ghosts of his victims. There is Gretel, who was kidnapped as a child, killed her abductor, and suffers from an eating disorder. There is Ruby, who wears the stinking pelt of a wolf who once ate her. Finally, there is Ashlee, who won a husband on a competitive dating show like The Bachelor. There is some sly satire of for-profit therapy and the media exploitation of trauma victims. 4 stars. ( )

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on ebook from my library.

Thoughts: This is one of the books I put on my ten authors to read in 2022 list. I thought the premise of this book sounded amazing and have been waiting anxiously for my copy to come up to borrow at the library. I ended up being very disappointed in this book for many reasons.

The story focuses on each of five women who meet at a support group in New York City to tell their modern day stories of surviving classic fairy tale scenarios twisted to modern day situations. I guess my expectations were just too high for this book, it just wasn't what I was expecting or hoping for.

This is more a collection of five short stories, very loosely tied together by a wisp of a larger story that doesn't make a lot of sense. In lengthy chapters each of the five women are given a chance to tell their story. In each case the story does have slight fantastical elements (very slight). However, mainly they are just stories about five women who make bad decisions (either because of low self-esteem, societal pressure, or need) and find themselves involved with bad men. It's to be more of a commentary on how poorly women are treated by society than anything else.

The overall story that ties all the mini-stories together was confusing and poorly done. It did not work well. The stories themselves come across as a bit dis-jointed too. They jump around willy-nilly in time and can be hard to follow. This is definitely very, very adult; there is a lot of fairly explicit sex and the people are viciously mean to each other.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and it just wasn't very well done. Both the writing and the construction of the book needed some help. That being said I did appreciate that these classic fairy tales were basically woven into modern day stories of caution for women. I always feel like that is what classic fairy tales are anyway; stories of caution and I appreciate the effort to modernize them in a darkly vicious way. However, even this was a bit lacking and I kept thinking that the stories could have gone a bit deeper and been a bit more dark.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay but disappointing when weighed against my expectations (which were admittedly high). I found the lack of cohesion throughout the book troubling. I also thought it felt a bit preachy at times about the dangers to women in our society; I like the parallels between modern day and classic fairy tales but it felt heavy-handed at times. The writing didn't flow well and was hard to follow. Am I unhappy I read it? Well, it was okay and it was a quick read but it was also surprisingly forgettable. However, I won't be seeking out more books by this author. ( )

How to Be Eaten tells the stories of a variety of fairytale characters from their perspectives, modernized and with some twists. Each one of them is suffering from the trauma of what they've experienced as well as from the unwanted media attention. One thing all these women have in common is that their stories are being told for them--and they're being told very badly. From victim blaming to sexist assumptions, the worst of society is on display, and the reader is left wondering if these characters will ever be able to find peace.

I sometimes get bored with twisted fairytale plotlines because you can anticipate what's going to happen, but the clever thing about this book is that it starts with all the characters having already been through the experiences you would know them for, which creates a totally different plot. Combined with the modernization, the inclusion of a character who isn't from a classic fairytale at all, and the fact that some of the women have names that leave you guessing about the story they're from all help add to add surprises also. I particularly enjoyed the role reality television plays in the story, as that really added something fresh and hammered home the fact that the problematic stories our culture tells are not all passed down from the distant past.

Certainly, this book makes no secret about being feminist, so you're more likely to enjoy it if you enjoy reading the type of book that makes you think about these sorts of topics. You might also enjoy it if you like a book that has a larger cast. In this book, each woman tells her own story in first person, separated and introduced by sections written in third person, which makes for a variety of different voices in the spotlight. It's largely realistic, with certain aspects of fantasy that are depicted in such a way that many characters aren't sure whether to believe that these things really happened, so I would also recommend it to people who like just a dash of the impossible to spice things up.

Overall, it is a book that I enjoyed, and I had to force myself to take breaks to absorb everything that I'd just read before going back to my swift page-turning. If you decide to give it a try, I predict you'll also find it a quick read!