Woman, Eating

A Literary Vampire Novel

By: Claire Kohda

Narrated by: Jane Lui

An IndieNext Pick! A Best Book of 2022 in Harper’s Bazaar, Daily Mail, Glamour, and Thrillist!

Most Anticipated of 2022 in The Millions, Ms. Magazine, LitHub

A young, mixed-race vampire must find a way to balance her deep-seated desire to live amongst humans with her incessant hunger in this stunning debut novel from a writer-to-watch.

Lydia is hungry. She's always wanted to try Japanese food. Sashimi, ramen, onigiri with sour plum stuffed inside - the food her Japanese father liked to eat. And then there is bubble tea and iced-coffee, ice cream and cake, and foraged herbs and plants, and the vegetables grown by the other young artists at the London studio space she is secretly squatting in. But, Lydia can't eat any of these things. Her body doesn't work like those of other people. The only thing she can digest is blood, and it turns out that sourcing fresh pigs' blood in London - where she is living away from her vampire mother for the first time - is much more difficult than she'd anticipated.

Then there are the humans - the other artists at the studio space, the people at the gallery she interns at, the strange men that follow her after dark, and Ben, a boyish, goofy-grinned artist she is developing feelings for. Lydia knows that they are her natural prey, but she can't bring herself to feed on them. In her windowless studio, where she paints and studies the work of other artists, binge-watches Buffy the Vampire Slayer and videos of people eating food on YouTube and Instagram, Lydia considers her place in the world. She has many of the things humans wish for - perpetual youth, near-invulnerability, immortality – but she is miserable; she is lonely; and she is hungry - always hungry.

As Lydia develops as a woman and an artist, she will learn that she must reconcile the conflicts within her - between her demon and human sides, her mixed ethnic heritage, and her relationship with food, and, in turn, humans - if she is to find a way to exist in the world. Before any of this, however, she must eat.

“Absolutely brilliant – tragic, funny, eccentric and so perfectly suited to this particularly weird time. Claire Kohda takes the vampire trope and makes it her own in a way that feels fresh and original. Serious issues of race, disability, misogyny, body image, sexual abuse are handled with subtlety, insight, and a lightness of touch. The spell this novel casts is so complete I feel utterly, and happily, bitten.” -- Ruth Ozeki, Booker-shortlisted author of A Tale for the Time Being

©2022 Claire Kohda (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

A Feast

So glad I picked this book up. A timely commentary on the place of self and art in the world. Deeply feminist and gorgeous prose. I almost never listen back to sections of audiobooks after I've finished it but I listened to that entire final sequence twice. Just stunning.

Narrator was excellent, the voice perfectly suited to the character. Awesome experience.

the last few minutes are the best.

the story seemed drawn out, without a lot of movement and the narrator was a bit too breathy for my taste.

Incredible

I loved this interpretation of vampires. Felt like a Phoebe Waller-Bridge story the whole way through! Incredible portrayal of feeling alienated from your culture, feeling objectified, growing up with a self-loathing mother, and overall coming of age. Just so incredibly good!!!!

Loved it all

I loved this. It gave slight gothic vibes and a slightly different than usual vampire interpretation. Love the narrator as well.

Jane Lui's voice is both powerful and sensuous

What a captivating story and a magnificent performance by the narrator. I hope there will be a continuation for Lydia...

My favorite book I have read all year

The most poignant contemporary vampire novel of our time, a beautiful commentary on identity, immortality, suffering, the art world, feminism, the relationship between mothers and daughters. It’s deeply tragic and so relatable.

Beautifully narrated

I honestly hope that this author writes a follow-up to this book, cause I want more!

Not worth a credit

Over half the book is the author suggesting that the character might do something and the character electing not to do that thing. "Should I answer my phone messages? No. Should I talk to that person? No." The author wants to convey a sense of depression and perpetual social anxiety but it's overwrought.

If you were to remove the navel-gazing then the book would likely be 1/4 of the running time. So much of the book ends up as filler. While it can set the mood, it's still filler.

Nothing...happens

Nothing but depressing melancholy. I trudged to the end thinking something would happen! I guess it did resolve, we weren't left hanging but it should have been a short story instead of hours of dull nothing to end up with nothing. Perhaps the narrator was on point for the mood, but she was breathy, which always annoys me.

Short Book

This is a short book with a moderately interesting theme. Had this book been half the length with a less condescending sounding narrator, I might have enjoyed it. By the end, I wanted to scream "yes girl, I GET IT, YOU CAN'T EAT REGULAR FOOD". Also, the major plot hole of her not being able to find animal blood was super irritating.