It’s also just a really entertaining read.”- BOOKRIOT “A fairy tell reimagining unlike any other you’ve ever experienced…How To Be Eaten is an intriguing take on what it means to exist in the world as a woman in the 21st century and trauma in the digital age.

“After her well-received collection Girls of a Certain Age, Adelmann offers a wickedly imaginative work envisioning fairy-tale characters as members of a trauma support group in contemporary New York.”- LIBRARY JOURNAL A deft exploration of trauma, authorship, the power of storytelling, and the healing potential of connection, How To Be Eaten will stun readers page after page, offering an unforgettable, empowering, and above all entertaining tale of reclamation and transformation.”- Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author of Group “In this wildly imaginative and trenchant novel, female characters from mythic fairytales emerge as modern-day heroes capable of reclaiming their lives from the trauma of their past. “Gorgeously written and mind-bending, How To Be Eaten is fiction as a magic trick: by redrawing these archetypal characters with modern, vivid, and gothic specificity, Adelmann reminds us that, be it enchanting or devastating, our myths remain.”- Julia May Jonas, author of Vladimir Pure fun pulsing with a dark heart.”- Rachel Yoder, author of Nightbitch “Even better than it sounds, HOW TO BE EATEN presents vividly real women haunted by their fairy tale pasts in this deliciously angsty debut. What really brought them here? What secrets will they reveal? And is it too late for them to rescue each other?ĭark, edgy, and wickedly funny, this debut for readers of Carmen Maria Machado, Kristen Arnett, and Kelly Link takes our coziest, most beloved childhood stories, exposes them as anti-feminist nightmares, and transforms them into a new kind of myth for grown-up women. Though the women start out wary of one another, judging each other’s stories, gradually they begin to realize that they may have more in common than they supposed. And Raina’s love story will shock them all.

Ashlee, the winner of a Bachelor-esque dating show, wonders if she really got her promised fairy tale ending. Gretel questions her memory of being held captive in a house made of candy. Ruby, once devoured by a wolf, now wears him as a coat. Bernice grapples with the fallout of dating a psychopathic, blue-bearded billionaire. In present-day New York City, five women meet in a basement support group to process their traumas.

This darkly funny and provocative novel reimagines classic fairy tale characters as modern women in a support group for trauma.

How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann