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Synopsis:

Hungerstone is a thrillingly seductive sapphic romance for fans of S.T. Gibson’s A Dowry of Blood and Emilia Hart’s Weyward.

For what do you hunger, Lenore?

Lenore is the wife of steel magnate Henry, but ten years into their marriage, the relationship has soured and no child has arrived to fill the distance growing between them. Henry’s ambitions take them out of London and to the imposing Nethershaw manor in the countryside, where Henry aims to host a hunt with society’s finest. Lenore keeps a terrible secret from the last time her husband hunted, and though they never speak of it, it haunts their marriage to this day.

The preparations for the event take a turn when a carriage accident near their remote home brings the mysterious Carmilla into Lenore’s life. Carmilla who is weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night; Carmilla who stirs up a hunger deep within Lenore. Soon girls from local villages begin to fall sick before being consumed by a bloody hunger.

Torn between regaining her husband’s affection and Carmilla’s ever-growing presence, Lenore begins to unravel her past and in doing so, uncovers a darkness in her household that will place her at terrible risk . . .

Set against the violent wilderness of the moors and the uncontrolled appetite of the industrial revolution, Hungerstone is a compulsive feminist reworking of Carmilla, the book that inspired Dracula: a captivating story of appetite and desire.

Review:

Lenora is an orphan raised by her aunt until she marries steel baron, Henry. After they get married, Henry buys a crumbling estate and moves them from London to Nethershaw manor. On their way to the manor, they ride up on a wrecked carriage and a ghostly woman, Carmilla, distraught from the wreck and in need of time at the manor to mend. What they do not expect is that Carmilla is going to change Lenora’s outlook, open her eyes to the state of her life, and give her the strength to do something about it.

The novel starts with the expected pace of a gothic novel. We expect them to be a little slow and broody, foggy and mucky. and filled with mold and isolation. Nethershaw manor is in complete disrepair, and it is up to Lenora to get it into shape before Henry hosted an influential list of visitors for a hunting party. The first half of the novel is rife with the stress of getting the house put together, but also learning about Henry and how he might not be the person that she thought she was marrying. This is a pretty typical of a gothic novel: someone marries into a situation where she did not know what she is getting into. 

The wildcard with Hungerstone is Carmilla. She comes and goes as she pleases, and things start to happen to the women in the neighboring village to the Nethershaw. Lenora gives her attention because she is stressed and lonely. Carmilla is interesting and a mystery, and before long Lernora’s feelings for her cannot be ignored. The attention Carmilla gives her is eventually enough to allow Lenora to figure out what is going on in her marriage and her life. In the end, Carmilla could be anything. She could be a ghost. She could be a vampire. She could be a manifestation brought on by Lenora. The final truth is that Carmilla is the catalyst to the changing in Lenora and her life. 

The first two thirds of Hungerstone are slow and moody, and when the action does start to speed up toward the last third, there are some pacing issues. The truth is coming out, the consequences are happening, and the house of Nethershaw is about to crumble down, but Kat Dunn stops the momentum a few times for more flashbacks that are unnecessary. This kills the momentum, and an ending that could have felt like a carriage flying off of a cliff becomes very controlled. This does not stop Hungerstone from being a novel I would recommend, but I wish that the final third of the novel was structured a little more reckless.

I received Hungerstone as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.