The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Adelmann, Maria. How to Be Eaten. Hachette Book Group. 2022. Kindle.

How to Be Eaten is told in both present and past tense, depending on the section. It is narrated by a present-tense omniscient narrator that is eventually revealed to be Bernice, who is writing the novel in order to protect her story and the stories of her friends from exploitation by Jake Jackson, who has been masquerading as Will, their therapist, throughout the whole book. The narration switches to first-person past whenever a woman is telling her story. Wearing the suit of a handsome young man, Jake Jackson poses as a therapist operating an experimental narrative therapy group. He emails dozens of famous women who have lived through traumas that have been dragged through the media. He also, accidentally, emails his wife, Raina, but then decides he wants to hear her story, too, when she signs up for the session. Four other women also sign up for therapy: Bernice, who dated a murderer with a blue beard; Ruby, who got eaten by a wolf when she was 12; Ashlee, who won a reality dating show; and Gretel, who got kidnapped by a witch when she was six.

During the first week, Bernice tells the women her story first. She met the tech billionaire, Ashton Adams, when he bought a mansion across from her family’s home in West Hampton. They started dating, even though she was not a gorgeous model like all his exes. Eventually, he gave her a key to his locked room behind the library and told her not to go inside. Of course, she went inside the room and discovered that Ashton had killed all his exes and turned them into furniture. He tried to kill her too, but she escaped, and he killed himself before the police could arrive. Bernice took the furniture to her apartment and the women started talking to her. Bernice keeps the furniture close and feels like it is her duty to listen to them speak because she survived.

In the second week of therapy, Ruby tells the women her story. She comes in late, wearing her fur coat, which was made from the wolf who ate her when she was 12. Her coat is covered in something like blood. She passes out from the heat, but then refuses medical attention and tells the group why she has had such a bad day. She arrived at work late and was fired, and then her casual boyfriend broke up with her. She went to a McDonalds and was recognized by a woman who had seen her interview with Barbara Walters. Ruby matched with a random guy on Tinder and went to have sex with him at his apartment, where she took off her coat and revealed scars on her body—some from the wolf and some self-inflected. She told the group that she had flirted with the wolf when she was 12 and on the way to her grandmother’s house. He, in turn, had killed her grandmother and attacked her. Just after he ate her, a hunter killed the wolf and released her. After hooking up with the guy from Tinder, Ruby decided to go get her coat cleaned, but then a protestor threw red paint on her. After therapy, Will goes to his office and takes off his “Will suit,”

In the third week of therapy, Ashlee tells the group her story. She was 22 when she signed up to be a contestant on The One, a reality show hosted by Jake Jackson. She quit her job and maxed out all her credit cards buying gowns for the show. When she arrived, production put her in an isolated hotel room and took away all her electronics and books. The only person she could talk to was her producer, Hana, who told her that she was going to win because she was perfect for the bachelor, Brandon. Ashlee convinced herself it was love at first sight when she met him, and he ended up proposing to her. However, when the show came out, he got angry because she had been depicted as the villain in the show, and now everyone thought he was an idiot for choosing her. Ashlee confesses to the group in therapy that, though she is still engaged to Brandon, she does not know if she ever really loved him. After therapy, Will goes to his office and watches footage he has taken of the women.

In the fourth week of therapy, Gretel tells the group her story, though she is not quite sure about the details. When she was six and her brother was nine, they were abandoned by her parents and taken in by an old woman for three months. They thought they were living in a house made of candy, but authorities were never able to find the house. Gretel thought the woman was a witch trying to fatten her brother up to eat, but her brother just remembered playing a lot of PlayStation. When they grew up, Hans got married and lived a happy life, but Gretel could not get over the past because she did not understand what had really happened, so she sabotaged all her relationships.

In the final week of therapy, Raina finally tells her story. She married Jake Jackson after her father got her a job working as an editor for the show. She had no experience, but Jake thought she was pretty, so he gave her an office and an opportunity to prove herself. However, he did not expect her to succeed. Luckily, Rumpelstiltskin snuck into her office and helped her edit footage, which allowed her to stay. She started sleeping with Rumpelstiltskin and Jake at the same time. When she got pregnant, she told Rumpelstiltskin first, and he asked her to choose to be with him. However, she rejected him. He tore himself in two and she regretted her decision ever after, especially when her daughter was born, and she realized Rumpelstiltskin was the father.

Jake Jackson, disguised as Will, gets so upset by this story that he takes off his suit and reveals himself. He tells the women that he has recorded them and asks them to support him in creating a new reality show out of their sessions, but he threatens to produce it even if they say no.

In the epilogue, Bernice reveals that she and all the other women have banded together to sue Jake and prevent the show from airing. However, he has been dragging them through the mud in the media, and they are not sure what will happen next. As a failsafe, Bernice has written this book, which is intended to tell all their stories in their own voices, which finally explains why the novel is a hodgepodge mix-up of voices and tenses.