The Book Eaters

Ramsey is the primary antagonist of The Book Eaters. He and Devon have a complex relationship of enmity threaded with a begrudging respect. He’s first introduced in Devon’s past as someone whom she pulls into her headstrong schemes and who suffers the brunt of the punishment. This illustrates how much of Ramsey’s path is beyond his control. Yet even in the most adverse of circumstances, Ramsey makes himself invulnerable and strong. He displays inner resilience and a refusal to be beaten. 

The author tells several chapters from Ramsey’s perspective, conveying humanity behind his villainous actions; however, he has gone too far down his path to ever be fully redeemable. He proves this when he attempts to activate Cai’s explosive device, severing his ties with Devon forever.

Ramsey demonstrates clear leadership capabilities and an ability to think creatively—an unusual talent for book eaters. He detests weakness, especially in those capable of more. For example, he murders Kingsey because he once saw the other man as strong and imposing, and he scorns the fall into uncertainty. Ramsey demonstrates how he absorbed Kingsey’s lessons and took them even further, making himself invulnerable. This likely stems from his childhood experience of complete powerlessness. Now, he positions himself as someone with all the power.

Although Ramsey is deeply flawed, many of his actions throughout the novel are responses to either his childhood trauma or the literature he absorbs (most notably, George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman). When his consciousness is merged with Cai’s at the end of the novel, Cai is able to unpack his emotional barriers and convey the more complex regrets and affection that he carried with him.

Hester is the secondary lead female character in the novel and a physical foil to Devon. While Devon dresses tough and dark, often suggesting that she is a man to the unobservant eye, Hester is smaller and overtly feminine. When they first meet, there is an attraction as well as an uncomfortable tension between them; Devon worries that Hester’s gentle guesses are straying too close to the truth. Initially, Devon views Hester as a potential prey for Cai, but their dynamic shifts dramatically when Hester reveals that she can help Cai and give Devon what she’s been spending years searching for. At this point, Hester becomes the one in their partnership with the power.

Hester is arguably the most morally good character in the novel, though she, like the younger Devon, feels trapped in her own life. The novel gives Hester more depth when revealing that not only was she born a mind eater, but she also surgically removed her own tongue as a way of trying to become a better person. However, this act of morality—which she thought she was doing as part of a collective—has left her isolated from the members of her family. 

When Devon comes into her life, Hester becomes caught between the future she had hoped for and a new, uncharted future away from the expectations she had built. Ultimately, she is able to recognize the toxic patriarchal structure of her family and the need to break free of it.

Cai is an unusual figure who is caught between the extremes of childhood and adulthood. Although he’s only five, he’s strongly influenced by the numerous adults he’s devoured throughout his life. He’s able to use mature language, though his understanding of that language is dubious; he also shares memories and emotions with the humans he’s fed off of. For example, he absorbs some of the vicar’s religious beliefs and shows an interest in media that he’s never seen. This makes for a very confusing and erratic childhood.

Although Cai is physically powerful and unnaturally mature, he is also deeply lonely and yearns for acceptance. While Devon finds a certain empowerment in the lack of acceptance from her people, Cai wants to fit in and be loved for who he is. The revelation of the truth behind the Ravenscar family presents a tragic temptation, as they are a family filled with people just like him. At one point, Cai weighs the possibilities of this temptation, telling Devon that he could join Killock Ravenscar and that they would be “like brothers.” 

Ultimately, Cai prioritizes his love for Devon over the potential for a new, like-minded family. At the novel’s climax, he saves Devon by devouring Ramsey and absorbing some aspects of his mind. As Cai and Devon move into their future, he carries with him all the minds he has touched, keeping some small parts of them alive.

Mani is the “everyman” character within this magical world. He sees the book eaters through a mundane human lens and struggles to understand them through his own human experiences. This makes him an extension of the reader and is used to process the book eaters in a way that the reader will connect with.

Mani is first introduced in Devon’s childhood as her first exposure to someone outside of her insular family. He, like the reader, is being led into an unfamiliar situation and is forced to adapt through clues. Mani appears in the opening epigraph from “Paper and Flesh: A Secret History” (18). Excerpts from his book appear in several more epigraphs throughout the novel. While many are objectively academic, some, like Mani’s reflections on the book eaters’ origins, illustrate his own perspective and ways of understanding their culture. He reappears later in the novel when Devon and Cai arrive at Ravenscar manor, revealing that he’s been imprisoned and experimented with in order to produce Redemption. Although these chapters aren’t told from Mani’s perspective, it is clear that he has suffered extensive trauma over the years. The epigraphs illustrate that his time was not a complete loss, as he learned more about book eaters than any other human ever could. Since Mani is an explorer with an artist’s drive, his acquisition of hidden knowledge eases the burden of his treatment.

By the end of the novel, Mani has received a second chance at a new life. Although he can never get back the family, career, and innocence he left behind, he is now free to make his own way through the world and begin again.