I too hunger for the blood of the patriarchy and the caress of a mysterious sapphic vampire

I know this is a retelling of Carmilla in many ways but it gives big Yellow Wallpaper vibes. A lovely book! Lots of man induced madness and feminine rage. There was a slump in the middle but the ending was delicious, and the gothic writing style really built up an atmosphere of dread and desire both.

I am from Sheffield and am well acquainted with the places and industrial history in the book so that was a fun aspect that I very much appreciated! Kat Dunn really captures the beauty and desolation of the moors.

Thank you to NetGalley and Zando for the ARC!

Who doesn’t love a book oozing with female rage. This is an atmospheric and dark sapphic romance set in 1888, based around the iconic female vampire Carmilla. This book was everything I needed and more. Mysterious Carmilla suddenly becomes part of Lenore’s life and flips everything’s on its head. She stirs up a hunger in Lenore, opening her eyes to her husband’s behaviours, and her past tragedies. Unravelling her past, and with it uncovering the darkness, this book brings drama and gothic sapphic energy that you can’t not love.

I was lucky enough to read this ARC copy through NetGalley and what a bloody amazing book it is. Honestly get this on your TBR for when it’s released in February, @katdunn has done such a fabulous job with this book!

Hungerstone is a fantastic modern retelling of the Gothic novella Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. For fans of books about female rage and sapphic female characters, this is the one for you. It maintains the Victorian style of writing while modernizing a lot of the elements of past gothic/victorian novels. The protagonist, Lenore, is relatable where you so deeply feel her emotions as her inner world is so rich and vivid. Kat Dunn also states that some of the emotion in this book is autobiographical and it shows with how grounded in reality the themes are despite this being set in the 1800s. A thoroughly enjoyable and tantalizing read.

Lenore is the childless wife of a wealthy Victorian industrialist. Poised and accomplished she is about to take charge of their first country residence refurbishing it ahead of a shooting party arrival. When they rescue a mysterious woman from a carriage accident their new house guest becomes an unsettling and magnetic distraction for Lenore.

There is a lot of pent up rage in this book. And the tension comes from that barely contained rage of Lenore who has a tragic past and is desperately lonely. I really enjoyed the historical and physical setting in this book, the country manor that Lenore is trying to repair is almost a representation of the façade she is trying to maintain to the world. They are surrounded by the wilds of the Peak District and the backdrop of industrialism in Sheffield and the dangers of factory life. And into this comes the wild, unpredictable and mysterious Carmilla. The pacing of this worked really well for me, there is a lot of slow build suspense, you know something sinister is happening but you’re not sure exactly how it’s going to unfold. And although the presence of Henry Lenores husband is significant this is the story of the women, Lenore, Carmilla, Cora. This is about the frustrations and rage and above all hunger of women. This is sapphic, it’s gothic. I really enjoyed it! I am really intrigued to read the original gothic novel on which it’s based now!

I really wanted to like this, but it was a bit of a struggle. Lenore’s backstory felt vague—she talks about her parents' deaths and her aunt’s cruelty, but there’s little detail to make it feel real. I needed more world-building to ground me in the time period and the story to enjoy it more.

The slow pacing worked for the historical setting, but I found myself wanting more of the vampiric allure and chemistry between Lenore and Carmilla. Instead, their dynamic felt frustrating at times, and Lenore’s inner thoughts made it hard to connect with her as a character as she was constantly putting herself down

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC to review! Hungerstone by Katt Dunn is a gothic historical fiction novel following Lenore as she attempts to please her husband, Henry, society, and herself while being pulled into a new world by her intriguing and enigmatic house guest, Carmilla, This was such a decadent story with really gorgeous prose and an immersive story that really slowly builds to its conclusion in such a fun way. This book was so much fun,

Some things I really appreciated about this was the super clear voice Dunn has. The writing helped to build a super immersive experience and create the dread and intrigue that Lenore feels through the novel. I also found Carmilla to feel fleshed out while also being very mysterious. Like you don't really understand her fully, but also you can like see her. That has to be so difficult to create. I also really enjoyed seeing as Lenore learned more about how Henry is the worst, the coloring of his for readers changed heavily with the description. I especially enjoyed how he is always described as handsome while also slowly becoming just worse in his personality. SO good.

I felt like the ending was a little rushed while the rest of the story really settled into a slowly bubbling pace, so I would have enjoyed festering in the ending a bit and maybe getting a few lines that nod more to Lenore and Carmilla's endings.

Overall, I had a great time with this and would recommend this to fans of A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson!

I wanted to like it, but I was struggling a bit.
Lenore and her story seems vague, yes she tells about her parents death but then not how she suffered with her aunt as specifics besides aunt being mean old lady and in these days that must have been bad, I guess (usually reading historical fiction, i need still more worldbuilding as I am not a expert but the author should be)
Overall I thought about how can i root for a main character if i get slow pieces of info but faster thoughts of her like i know all of her past already...which i dont.
I do like the slow build that fits the time in history well, but even with that i’d want more of the vampiric allure and emphasis on the chemistry rather than the almost fustration about Carmilla’s stay in the estate

Thank you NetGalley and Zando for the e-arc of this incredible book in exchange for an honest review!
Carmilla is already a well known incredible classic, and still Kat Dunn did an amazing job at diving into it and giving us a much profound insight of it and its characters. The writing was really great, and there was a perfect balance of fear, confusion, desire, hunger, usually necessary in a vampire story, but still remaining an original piece that you can’t let go because you need to know more and see how the events will unfold.

Spoiler alert: you always root for the lesbian vampire… ALWAYS.

Also, shoutout to this gorgeous cover, I’m obsessed.

Gothic lesbian vampires? Yes please! I loved the way this book explored the idea of womens’ appetites and desires and to what extent we all suppress them due to societal pressures. Get it, Lenore.

Loved this, was a more femme reworking of Carmilla. Peak remained rage, 10/10 cover art just a total five star work for me and I will be reading more of dunks work.

3.5 🌟 thank you to NetGalley and Zando for the ARC!

this book is for the girlies who loved the divine feminine rage of nosferatu and the lyricism of a dowry in blood. i love a carmilla retelling, and this delivered the themes and gothic horror elements i was looking for. there was something that didn’t work for me in the 1st person storytelling - a 3rd person narration would’ve felt more in touch with the genre. all in all, a great read for any fans of vampire horror to (literally) sink their teeth into!

Well executed and well written loose retelling on Carmilla. I really enjoyed the prose, though the pace felt a little off at times.

Hungerstone is already in the running for being my favorite book of 2025! I’m obsessed! Kat Dunn has masterfully recreated a classic to absolute perfection! Carmilla brings a sensual darkness to Lenore’s life and each flash of horror is more dreadful than the last. Sexy, queer female rage! I devoured this book and would have loved infinitely more pages!

I was so terribly hungry and Hungerstone has satiated me!

As a result of the time in which it’s set (1888), HUNGERSTONE is largely a novel of manners. The protagonist, Lenore, is married to a man (Henry) who oversees a large steel mill outside of London, and as the story begins they are retiring for the summer to a large estate house called Nethershaw. Aptly named, as this house becomes a great source of stress for Lenore: Henry’s business associates are coming for the opening of grouse season, and Lenore must ensure that everything is according to plan (the plan being their—or, rather, Henry’s—continued upward mobility). What food shall be served? How shall the rooms be decorated? How must Henry be dressed? Can she continue to hide Henry’s dark secret?

Amid all the preparations for the shooting party, a mysterious stranger is lurking around the house and planting ideas in Lenore’s head—that she’s hungry, that she’s practically dead from lack of fulfilled desire, that her husband doesn’t actually have her best interest in mind. It’s a perfect swirl of chaos, and Lenore slowly begins to fracture under the pressure.

Despite sometimes tiring of the descriptions of petty high society and wondering whether Lenore wasn’t the most skilled person at denial I’ve ever known, I found this to be compulsively readable and well structured. I feel like I’ve read several stories about women realizing their innate power and desire apart from that of their male partners, a lot of which are fairly predictable, but this felt fresh—perhaps because of the strenght of Lenore’s character development, or because of the vampire element. (I went in to HUNGERSTONE not knowing anything about it, aside from the fact that it was a “sapphic thriller,” so was pleasantly surprised to find it a retelling of the novella CARMILLA, which inspired DRACULA and many other Gothic vampire stories.) As far as fairytale retellings go, I think this is a pretty solid one that stands on its own merits.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hungerstone by Kat Dunn is a gorgeously dark, sapphic twist on Carmilla that delivers all the gothic vibes—crumbling mansions, creeping tension, and forbidden desire. The slow-burn romance is full of angst and obsession in the best way. Moody, haunting, and impossible to put down.

The Vibes:

—Carmilla, of course

—"oh no, I'm into girls"

—seems like a great time to get revenge upon men as a whole :)

Heat Index: 6/10

The Basics:

Taken to a remote estate with a husband she's come to loathe, prim and proper Lenore finds herself drawn to Carmilla, the mysterious stranger they find themselves taking into their home.

The Review:

Vampires are back, baby! And I'm always down for a reexamination of Carmilla, one of the most influential vampire stories. I mean, one of the most influential sapphic stories, if we're being real. This one does fall under the category of "romance", to me, but it's definitely on the Gothic horror side of things. You get what you want as a romance fan, but not without a few bumps along the way, right?

And you want these bumps, because this is a true vampire story. It centers heavily on Lenore's hunger (and, on a broader scale, the hunger that was the Industrial Revolution and all it would lead to), vampires aside. Because, like. Yeah. There's the hunger for blood...

But there's also the hunger for sex, and what you truly are. Lenore is held back by her frankly vile husband. She's held back by society. Carmilla represents not only romantic and sexual desire, but the capacity for Lenore to be who she truly is. And what she truly is.

She's angry.

Although, again, I think this works as a romance, it's definitely more so Lenore's story. Carmilla is there to serve Lenore's journey, and that's a good thing. If you're feeling angry at men; angry at where women are right now and where we have been; and a little pumped about Nosferatu... this is for you.

The Sex:

Although there is explicit sex here, it's more erotically—and a little creepily—described. It falls perfectly in line with the lyrical, sometimes grotesque writing style, and it's very well done.

This reminded me a bit of Rose Sutherland's A Sweet Sting of Salt, similarly a romantic sapphic retold tale of folkloric longing. This does have a bit more, well.... bite.

Thanks to Zando and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book made me feel. I felt her hopelessness, I felt her desperation but most importantly, I felt her R A G E.

This was such a great read. Thank you to Kat Dunn and Netgalley for the ARC.

Sapphic historical fiction that centers women's hunger and desires using vampirism as a metaphor??? SIGN ME UP.

This book absolutely blew me away. I knew I would love the book based on the summary alone, but historical fiction usually takes me longer to read because of the writing. I did not have that issue with Hungerstone. I binge read this book as much as possible considering I did have to go to work. If my boss is reading this, I'm sorry but you really can't blame me.

For the record, vampires are never explicitly mentioned, but it is heavily implied. Plus this book is inspired by a book that inspired Dracula so believe what you want. Either way, women's desires and autonomy really drive the story, making it a thrilling and thought-provoking read.

I recommend this for fans of Milk Fed, Piglet, and Thirst. Thank you to the publisher for the e-copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

(I received this book from the editor and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)
This Carmilla retelling feels very true to the original but smartly different in certain places, something which leaves our protagonist space to evolve as a character and makes the story… fuller, somehow.
The way in which Carmilla inserts herself in the life of poor Lenore, her excentric way of behaving and all the sharp knives that come out of her mouth are just the perfect juxtaposition to the oppressive atmosphere so well depicted in the novel. The husband is there, the roles in society are there… but so is she, always ready to make an impact.
I thought, however, that Lenore’s story, her past, could have been told in a different, more compelling way, because all I wanted was to come back to the present, to Carmilla. Something that says a lot about the character and her power, by the way.

I think fans of the original Carmilla, as well as those looking for something new, dark, and twisted, will find this slow-burn an amazing read. And, if I may, a very interesting companion to Robert Eggers’ latest film, Nosferatu (2024).

This is an incredible retelling. It stayed true to the original story but developed in the key areas which showed this was an entirely new entity.

I thoroughly enjoyed the journey Lenore had throughout this book. It wasn’t rushed and it didn’t feel too slow. It was the perfect balance of the difficult to navigate journey of self-liberation.