Both a meditation on trauma and a sendup of our society's obsession with scripted reality, this book sings.' - KIRKUS, Starred Review, 'Adelmann spins gold.weaving together two high-concept premises into one coherent and complex narrative that pulls off several impressive tricks along the way.The worldbuilding is immersive and original, and she doesn't reimagine the fairytales she pulls from so much as implode them.The question of what happens to the fairytale characters after the fairytale ends? could easily be taken in a run-of-the-mill direction, but Adelmann answers it in a way that feels genuinely fresh, thrilling, and even self-referential, baking into the novel's premise the very idea that stories, no matter how often they're told and retold, can always be broken apart and fashioned into something new.' - AUTOSTRADDLE, 'Even better than it sounds, HOW TO BE EATEN presents vividly real women haunted by their fairy tale pasts in this deliciously angsty debut. In the end, Adelmann's true subject is actually her audience, the great anonymous we who consumes the horrors of violent husbands, ravaging wolves, hungry witches, and made-for-TV love stories with such compulsive demand we never pause to think what might come after the happy ending. However, it's her nuanced consideration of our own culpability that makes this book unique.

'Adelmann travels the well-worn paths of some of the Brothers Grimm most famous fairy tales with stylistic panache and 21st-century verve. What really brought them here? What secrets will they reveal? And is it too late for them to rescue each other? Dark, 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