Ever since her mother found Penny Wilson's eardrum in her mouth when Maren was just two years old, she knew life would never be normal for either of them. She didn't choose to be this way.īecause Maren Yearly doesn't just break hearts, she devours them.
She hates herself for the bad thing she does, for what it's done to her family and her sense of identity for how it dictates her place in the world and how people see her-how they judge her. But her secret, shameful needs have forced her into exile. She wants to be someone people admire and respect. Overall, I highly recommend this quick and queasy - see what I did there? ba-dum-TSS - read.Maren Yearly is a young woman who wants the same things we all do. There’s a level of distance in the prose, like she’s holding us all at an arm’s length. On top of all that, the book vaguely hints that “eaters” are paranormal, which I thought added a cool (and mysterious) layer to it all.Īlthough part of me yearned for DeAngelis to get into all the gory details of how and why Maren and others around the country suffer from this particular affliction, I actually ended up being a fan of her restraint. She has some major (and majorly gross) ups and downs along the way, involving potential love interests, a bone-chilling nemesis, and the pain that always goes hand-in-hand with finding your true self. Thus Maren is left to begin a journey to find the father she never met and hopefully get some answers as to why she is the way she is. The literal growing pains of adolescence.īut mainly, yeah, it’s about Maren eating people.īecause of her, uh, affliction, let’s call it, Maren’s mom abandons her the day after her sixteenth birthday, having tired of needing to uproot them every few months because her daughter can’t control her primal, cannibalistic urges. It’s a visceral display of cannibalism, sure, but it’s also a (kind of camp?) way to tap right into that feeling of being a teenager when you allow your emotions to overwhelm you, to drive you so out of control that you lose yourself.
As in, anytime someone shows even the slightest hint of affection towards her (specifically guys her age), she can’t stop herself from tearing the flesh from their bones and devouring them whole. And by “eater” I mean that she literally eats people (yes, people) who possess a very specific personality trait - they have to like her. The story follows 16-year-old “eater” Maren Yearly.
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