When I receive an object through POST, req.body looks like:
{ '{\n "attrs" : {\n "name" : "myName",\n "books" : ': { '\n {\n "attrs" : {\n ...
How can I get the request to turn it into JSON?
You most likely need to set the Content-Type of your request as application/json. For example, if you're using cURL, this means setting -H "Content-Type: application/json".