And I’m back to the random library books! Libby had this in a list of books that I cannot remember too much about, but it was at least somewhat featured and it sounded interesting enough to pick up. And then I promptly forgot about it for a few weeks until it came up on my rotation of books.
Feeder primarily follows Lori, a young woman who gets paid to deal with otherworldly eldritch horrors called Feeders. She takes a job for the Lake Foundation that ultimately turns into a rescue mission where she saves several people from a shipping container and earns the wrath of her employer, a god looking to essentially end the world.
To start, I’ll warn that there’s very little in terms of explanation of how the world or the specifics of how a lot of other elements of the story actually function and I am completely okay with that. The focus is entirely on the narrative and explains only enough to give the characters what they need to continue to move through the story. As a result, the story is very fast pace and great for a quick read, but not as good if you’re trying to figure out the mechanics.
But the story is where all of the fun happens. It is very much a modern YA Lovecraft story, with the focus being on the unknown and the horrors that lie just where you can’t see them and how they are always around you and sometimes even inside of you. In the tradition of the modern Lovecraft narratives I’ve seen, there’s also a lot more diversity1 that is done really nicely that helps to compliment the story.
Each of the characters have been brought from around the US and the world, with different worldviews that both clash and compliment one another. It’s great to see them interact with one another, particularly as you get to see the world from their perspective and get to understand why they are the way they are. All five of the leads is diverse in a different way, and in some cases you don’t even find out about that until the very end of the story though it’s clear that their diversity impacts their interactions. And I really liked that.
I will also add that the story left me feeling like there could be more. At the end, the status quo gets reset to a degree and it feels like this could work really well as a prequel to a whole series of books that has the kids going out and encountering more horrors throughout the world. Which I would be great with, because the characters were a lot of fun and it was an entertaining take on the genre.
Overall, it was a fun read! I do recommend reading it over the weekend and not spending too much time analyzing the why of some of the elements. The characters are fun, the voices are unique, and the premise makes for an interesting story.
- Suck it, Lovecraft [↩]