Woman, Eating audiobook

i really think this is gonna be the type of book that a lot of people do not like so naturally i loved it. it's very much character driven, all vibes, no plot. but i loved being in the mind of a vampire trying to survive on her own for the first time and struggling with what is clearly an eating disorder. I thought vampires have been so over done there aren't original stories anymore but this was a very fascinating way to exploring being a vampire in a new and fresh way

as a connoisseur of food and lover vampires this was a great mix of the two

I really really loved this book! 🖤It's so beautifully written and I just loved the characters, I'm going to be always thinking about Lydia and where she's at..It's a different view on vampirism, which I can appreciate. I like different. It's hard to put down once you start.What a stunning debut.

I couldn’t tell whether I was beginning to like him and wanted to be with him, or whether I was hungry and wanted to eat him.I knew as soon as I read the negative reviews that I would enjoy this book and I was RIGHT. Lydia just wants to feel connected to humanity and culture (mainly through food, which she sees as a thing humans can have power over and a complex relationship with, tied to their identity) and find her own identity separate from her mother, which is really the only relationship she has ever known besides a childhood friend. Despite her immortality, Lydia struggles with some pretty standard human issues. Loneliness, hunger, complex family dynamic. She ends up coming across like one of the most human protagonists I’ve read, and it’s endearing. She’s shy and awkward and sad and has to wear an insane amount of SPF. She has what seems to me like a codependent mother, she doesn’t really have any money but still has plans for a future library, she watches Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and like everyone finds Riley annoying) and she doesn’t really understand how to interact with people she is interested in or wants to be friends with. At one point she says “lol” to a guy in person and I basically died) It’s all pretty relatable. This really isn’t a fantasy or horror novel, it’s written like contemporary, sort of speculative fiction. There’s a bit of dry dark humor. The ideas of good and evil and demons are discussed. (If an animal lives on its young, blood, etc is it evil or is that just its nature?) So if you’re looking for a ton of world building, an elaborate backstory, or some kind of twilight situation, I can pretty much guarantee you’re not going to like this. Lydia just happens to be a vampire. We know how she became one and that’s basically it. I’m not really into vampires, but I do like weirdly lovable and dysfunctional protagonists so this was up my alley. She’s just kind of fumbling along, trying to be good (relatively speaking), find her place in this vast world as an aspiring artist, and other things. I appreciated her growth during the novel and while I know towards the end there are events some people might take issue with, I liked the conclusion and it felt organic to me, considering the subject matter.

4.0 starsThis was a slow burning character driven horror novel that I fell in love with slowly and all at once. Normally vampire fiction is not my thing but this one was just so refreshing. In many ways, this is a story of an individual with an eating disorder which hit me on a very personal level. I will admit that the plot was very slow and dry in places, but the protagonist's relationship with food and hunger kept me coming back. I highly recommend to fans of literary horror.

4.5* Loved this!

An introspective novel about a 23-year old vampire fascinated by human food, and discovering life on her own for the first time. I found it interesting at the beginning, and doomy, gloomy by the end. This is not a page-turner, more of a deep dive into someone’s psyche. Overall, enjoyed it.

WOMAN, EATING by Claire Kohda is a story of a young woman who’s half Japanese, half vampire and it not only met a lot of my expectations, but also made me really hungry! Lydia is making her way in the world for the first time without her vampire mother who’s been put in a home. She’s twenty-three, an art school graduate, new to London, and always hungry. She’s used to a strict diet of pig’s blood, having never once sunk her teeth into human flesh and unable to digest human foods. She wishes she could eat the foods her father used to eat—sushi, ramen, sashimi. In fact, one of the things she loves about fully human people is how their food makes up a part of who they are. And so when she’s not binge-watching episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she’s hours deep into YouTube videos of people eating food. She wonders if being a vampire inherently makes her a bad person and there’s a cute boy she likes but also wants to eat. Basically she’s got it rough in spite of her immortality and eternal youth. I picked up this book hoping Lydia would be predatory and vicious (because I love my bloodshed) but instead, she’s awkward, yearning, lonely, insightful, and sweet. I just wanted to hug her. This is a book about a young woman’s desire and appetite, about race and self-love, about wanting to belong while feeling stuck in the middle. Pick this one up if you’re looking for books that give an appreciation for food and art, or if you’re on the search for paranormal fiction centering a mixed-race vampire written by an Asian author!

All vibes, no plot. Definitely wont be for everyone, but personally, i loved it.

ate (haha) this up, one of the better in the lonely girl genre & super engrossing. read a few reviews saying this was disturbing - i don't agree but maybe that says more about mee :'-) but very similar vibes to rachel yonder's 'nightbitch' !!!

beautiful in the way frankenstein is beautiful/beautiful in the way hunger is universal and in turn can be explored in a variety of ways and still be relatable

Read my full blog review here!Woman, Eating was great. Both on an allegorical level and a very literal one: Lydia's life as a vampire unable to eat what she wants most—human food—and subsequently denying herself blood can be seen as a not-so-subtle commentary on eating disorders; her mother's whole existence can be replaced with the concept of Lydia's insecurities about herself and her place in society, because her mother is the root of these insecurities and also interchangeable with them, at least in Lydia's eyes. If one reads the story as it is, though, it's still engaging. As a Gen Z vampire, Lydia resorts to YouTube and Instagram to watch people eat food in lieu of eating it herself; when she's in a mood, she ignores all texts and phone calls in order to binge Buffy The Vampire Slayer on her laptop. Despite being a supernatural creature, she's true to life, and true to our lives in the contemporary digital age. Although technology in fiction sometimes seems to take away from the vibrancy of a more "natural" life, so to speak, in this novel it fit seamlessly.Pacing-wise, this novel is pretty slow until it suddenly isn't. That's not a bad thing, at least in my opinion: the pacing reflects Lydia's own internal struggles with her identity, and when she finally figures things out, she makes decisions in rapid succession, because her fears have now been alleviated. She's pretty fun to follow around in her life between her studio and the Otter, an art gallery where she's completing an internship; her sudden impatience whenever her mother is mentioned allows the reader insight into why she avoids meeting her as much as possible.Kohda explores a lot of heavy topics in her debut: identity, colonialism, the female appetite, vapidity in the art scene. While done meticulously and impressively, she sometimes falls into the habit of over-explaining the thought process behind her words:In the photo accompanying the article, artwork from what looks like all over the world is spread across the floor, on the walls, even hanging from the ceiling. In the centre of it all is Gideon, sitting on a wooden chair that looks like a throne.Pretty imagery, but a bit too obvious: we already know Gideon's associations with colonialism in the form of stealing artwork from various countries. The reader doesn't have to be told (again) that he's associated with colonialism in the form of stealing artwork from various countries. (This is what reading that quote felt like.)Still a great read, though, and one I'd easily give five stars. I'd also highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading both vampire novels and literary fiction—not just one, because this blend of the two won't be to everyone's taste.Thank you to NetGalley as well as Little, Brown Book Group for providing me with an eARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not sure how I connected so much with a vampire’s struggle to relate to humanity but I did!