Deliciously dark, lush and enthralling, Hungerstone is a gloriously satisfying re-telling of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla. Simmering with holy, unbridled female rage, it satiated my hunger for justice and gave me a home for my anger. We sink into the dense dark English moors of a Bronte novel, cushioned by delightful prose and horrors that cut deep. At the heart of it is that strange female thing of power: the cracked open bones of birds and raw, feral hunger, offset by the world of guns, steel and male ambition. Carmilla, from literature's antiquity, rises as an archetype of female resistance. (Read for: sapphic vampires and women’s wrongs.)

"To be a woman is a horror I can little comprehend."

You know what???? Hell yeah. I feel like overall this book is 4/5, but these vibes were unparalleled so I'm making it a 5 because what are ratings if not just VIBES????? If committing crimes isn't girls-just-being-girls, then why is it girls-being-girls shaped?

I loved Kat's Bitterthorn, but this is soooo much darker and grittier. Still the same beautiful prose, but much more blood. I really enjoyed it. I found myself poring over the graphic scenes with my eyes ready to pop out of my head. The sapphic Carmilla inspired pining was delicious.

I also really loved the author's note which talked about how she wrote this book in a dark time for her and she was nervous to share this story...but I can only speak for myself when I say I have also been a victim of this hunger and appreciate her putting it out there for the world. You would be hard pressed to find a woman out there who hasn't felt the need to sate her heartbreak.

Keeping my fingers and toes crossed someone makes a pretty edition of this because it deserves it.

I read this the same week I saw Nosferatu at the cinema. What a time for horny vampires.

I love the atmosphere in Hungerstone, the slow burn of the story and the tension rising between Lenore and Carmilla. Everything here happens in a span of around three weeks, but it seems like it takes months. For some it will be too slow, but I really enjoyed it. The way Lenore changes and accepts the hunger that lies in her is built up steadily, and it works so well. I didn't know what to expect from her till the very end.

The only issue I have with this book is the characters. Carmilla is basically just an idea. I understand that she's meant to be this way, to just show Lenore the different way of living and to move things forward, but she could be more. Especially when you contrast her with Lenore, who is much more fleshed out. The same goes for Lenore's husband and her best friend. They were both quite stereotypical.

Hungerstone isn't really a vampire story, it's a story of female rage, of being put down so many times that you don't even react to the abuse and then finally you allow yourself to feel everything.

This was brilliant. A Carmilla retelling by way of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. We follow Lenore, trapped in a resentful and precarious marriage of ten years. Her husband’s booming steelworks business requires them to leave London behind to move into a countryside manor. Nethershaw is a crumbling home and Lenore is given the impossible task of bringing it back to life before an important party is held. Struggling with the new duties thrust upon her as mistress of the house, a carriage crash near the manor adds an extra responsibility to her plate: the weak and pale Carmilla. As Carmilla’s extended stay at Nethershaw progresses, she awakens an unrelenting hunger inside Lenore that turns her life on its head.

Lenore is a fascinating figure. Her entire life is driven by this intense feeling of loneliness. Desperate to survive in a world that would not miss her, she has this singleminded determination to conform into the perfect housewife. And yet, despite all her efforts, she is doomed to fail as she cannot fulfill her primary duty: to bear a child. Long married and childless, her desirability is waning. Her husband’s interest has dwindled and in its place a deep disdain has arisen. She sees this party as her final chance to reignite his affection and prove her usefulness. But as she runs herself ragged on his behalf, Carmilla’s probing remarks awakens a rage in her that has long been suppressed. Rage at her role in society as a woman. The way she is viewed as an aging woman. Rage at the cage that forces her obedience. The way men bend her to their power.

Carmilla is a figure that truly haunts the story. My favorite thing that Dunn incorporated was making Carmilla a background player. Her actual presence in the story is merely a fraction of the plot. The rest is Lenore’s continued thoughts of her. It is Carmilla’s memory that drives the entire story. Her powerful influence over Lenore is one established quickly and efficiently. She gives voice to the dark desires in Lenore’s heart, and her support is what gives Lenore the courage to act on them long after she is gone. A lingering hunger that represents many things: rage, desire, ambition. Want.

More-so in the background, there is also a lot of commentary on capitalism and the aristocracy. Henry’s steelworks company has horrific working conditions and continuously denies workers comp to those injured by the machines. Both Henry and Lenore come from more humble beginnings, and the threat of returning to obscurity drives their actions. New money vs old.

In short this is a story about power. Particularly the struggle of power between Lenore and Henry. The one informed by society, and the one driven by a shedding of those societal constraints. There were certain parts where the narrative got a little repetitive, but for the most part this was an excellently crafted story that gave me all the violent gothic vampiric vibes I wanted. As well as some lingering open-ended questions to analyze.

There is a hunger in me that will never be satiated, but living through Kat Dunn’s words and experiencing Lenore’s plight came dangerously close.

I’m giving this a neutral review, because it didn’t work out for me. I couldn’t get invested and it just didn’t hold my attention

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Sadly, this did not work out for me. I had a hard time getting invested and decided to DNF at 35 percent. I do feel that I read enough to write a meaningful review. I enjoyed the premise of the story, we were gearing up for a "good for her," story. However, I really struggled to connect to the character, I think that's due to the writing. Something just really fell flat for me. Something I commonly ask myself is "if this ended in a wild way would I care," the answer here is no. It also is not really the fault of the book, but I read another book similar to this which I won't name (to be fair) and I LOVED it.

You should pick this up if you like sapphic vampires (same), good for her stories (same), and gothic literature (also same). This had everything I would want, I just really did not enjoy the writing. I felt like the story lacked a lot of detail and deeper connection.

I was so into this book. It is the perfect blend of vampires and sexual tension, which is all we want in a vampire novel anyway. I did hate Henry, and I love hating the husband in novels. It was perfection.

While reading this book, I simply couldn't stop talking about it. Kat Dunn has created a world unto itself, an almost Waverley-esque universe of attraction and repulsion. It's fitting that appetite is such a massive theme, because I devoured Hungerstone. The blurb declares it a "mesmerizing reclamation of the lesbian vampire trope," which is true, but Hungerstone is much more than that, in my opinion. It's written in a way that is charmingly old-fashioned without being either pretentious or precious. Each character, while based on a well-established trope, seems to come alive on the page. Dunn has played with the familiarity of the English manor novel and the vampire novel, while creating something altogether fresh and exciting. Thank you to Zando for my eARC in exchange for my honest review!

A gothic horror told through beautiful prose. Loved the sapphic retelling of Carmilla and all of the female rage. Lenore deserved her entire spin out and vengeance that came with it.

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

Kat Dunn's Hungerstone offers a captivating Gothic tale that breathes new life into classic vampire literature while exploring themes of desire, autonomy, and societal constraints.
Set against the backdrop of Industrial Revolution England, the novel follows Lenore, a woman trapped in a loveless marriage with Henry, a husband whose ambitions have taken them from London to the isolated Nethershaw manor. Their relationship is further strained by childlessness and a mysterious hunting incident from their past that remains unspoken yet omnipresent.
When an enigmatic woman named Carmilla arrives following a carriage accident, the story truly begins to unfold. Dunn crafts Carmilla with all the classic vampire hallmarks—weak during daylight, absent at mealtimes, and vibrant after dark—yet manages to make these familiar tropes feel fresh and intriguing. As Carmilla awakens desires in Lenore that she has long suppressed, the novel explores female sexuality and agency in a time when women had little of either.
The atmospheric prose creates a palpable sense of dread and longing throughout the narrative. Dunn skillfully weaves Gothic elements with historical context, using the voracious appetite of industrialization as both setting and metaphor. The gradual unraveling of Lenore's past adds layers of psychological complexity to what might otherwise be a straightforward supernatural tale.
What makes Hungerstone particularly compelling is its reclamation of the lesbian vampire narrative. Rather than presenting female desire as monstrous or predatory, Dunn explores it as a path to self-discovery and potentially liberation.
While some plot developments follow predictable Gothic patterns, the emotional depth of Lenore's journey and the atmospheric tension make this a thoroughly engrossing read that both honors and reimagines its literary predecessors.

Kat Dunn's HUNGERSTONE pulled me in with the very first sentence: "It starts with blood." And it never let me go. The writing is well crafted--beautiful, even--and the characters are well developed. The novel also has a strong sense of atmosphere, delivering on its gothic setting. The most important thing here is that it delivers on its promise of a sapphic retelling of Carmilla, giving readers a satisfying, obsessive sapphic vampire story.

This story brings the raw pain of a woman entrapped in a relationship and life that she chose as a means to survive. She considers herself safe and content, but as she meets a stranger, she realizes all of her perfectly checked boxes are unraveling and her eyes are opening as she’s asked over and over again “what is it that you truly want?”

I’m forever in love with a sapphic Carmilla inspired tale and a haunting of minds that questions what is reality and how have we arrived at the life we currently exist in. This book weaves it’s story in a way that resembles Jane Eyre and clearly define feminine rage. I can't wait to return to its pages. I’ll leave you with this quote that will stay with me for many years to come:

“It is a future envied by many, I say instead. For it is. I have fought for this life, when I could have so easily drowned beneath the waters of my misfortune. No one has loved me for so many long a year, I have done it all from spite. If the world offers me no kindness, then I will take from it armor and sword, create an unassailable fortress for myself and lock the door.”

Thank you to Zando and NetGalley for an E-ARC copy of this book.

kat dunn you have redeemed yourself.

i am a disliker of bitterthorn for a myriad of complicated reasons - maybe i see too much of myself in either character and don't like it, maybe the reality of helplessness is too much for me, maybe a happy ending amidst all the painfully real misery made me too jealous to allow myself to like it, I DUNNO.

but this one... oh my god. stunning imagery as always, a wonderfully bleak setting and the most decadent vibes i have read in a while. truly this is a comeback bc i think i rated bitterthorn like 2 or 3 stars after listening to it twice but this one is a five easily. banging. i will never stop thinking about it.

when in doubt, eat your problems.

Another amazing read for 2025! HUNGERSTONE is the sapphic gothic horror I've been waiting for, and it absolutely doesn't disappoint. Told from the point of view of Lenore, a dissatisfied wife keeping a secret on which her marriage to the ambitious but dismissive Henry hinges on, it explores the story of what happens when someone like Lenore meets Carmilla, a dynamic stranger who takes refuge in Lenore's home and begins to unravel all of the things that Lenore believed kept her secure and content and unwilling to take action. Dunn does a phenomenal way of reflecting Lenore's spiralling motivations as Carmilla sinks her teeth (figuratively) deeper and deeper into her. In particular, I love how the inherent, passive but condescending misogyny was worked into this story, giving the reader a feeling of sustained frustration and righteous anger. Carmilla was a fantastic character, lingering at the edges but with such an obvious and wicked presence, you couldn't deny her. But I would say the relationship between Lenore and Cora cinched this book for me — there was a real rawness here that reflects so many real-life friendships, acknowledging the envy and the love and the hate and the anger that can come hand in hand in these relationships. The book is a retelling of Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla, and brings to it all the gritty, bloody joy of nineteenth century vampirism but with a strong lesbian centre with plenty of ooey-gooey feminine rage and hunger to make it a real standout for the genre!

A genteel woman traveling in the woods comes across a damaged carriage and offers shelter to its shaken and injured passenger, a young woman who calls herself Carmilla. You might think you've heard this one before, but Hungerstone isn't just a rehashing of Sheridan Le Fanu's classic tale of vampirism. The main character, Lenore, is not an adolescent girl but the wife of an industrialist who has long battled with the malaise of feeling like she just doesn't fit into her world, as hard as she may try to mold herself to its constraints. The arrival of Carmilla suddenly stokes feelings of discontent and gives voice to the quiet female rage that Lenore has been used to stifling, stirring a certain...shall we say, HUNGER in her.

This is a really beautifully written book from beginning to end. There's something so elegant about the prose that held me captivated even when the plot lags just a tiny bit at certain points. There's so much atmosphere, the language feels authentic to the characters and masterfully manages to keep you immersed in the lush historical world, and it's just suh a delight to read. The final act of the story was where it lost me a little, because there are certain events in the narrative that I think had potential for exploration at greater depth. But overall this is a really well written gothic tale that perfectly captured the mood I was looking for.

I was excited to read this book knowing that it was a Carmilla retelling however I wished there was just a little more chapters involving Carmilla! I liked the overall gothic vibe, the author definitely made it feel dreary, and the feminine rage at the end was the highlight (along with the sexual tension between Carmilla and Lenore). There were times where I did lose interest in the story and this was mainly during scenes focusing on Lenore’s husband Henry and his company; I despised Henry and he got what was coming for him. Lenore also did annoy me at the start because she couldn’t make her own decisions but that improved once Carmilla showed her how to be “free”.

Definitely one to read if you need some lesbian vampire action and a gothic lit fix 😋

Thank you to netgalley and Zando for the ARC!

Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
*Advanced Reader Copy*
Publish Date: February 18, 2025
🌟🌟🌟🌟

Hungerstone is a creepy and unsettling tale of female rage. Set in the Moors of England Lenore is set with the task of rebuilding a damp, falling apart manor house to entertain her husband’s peers. Of course Lenore is up to the task, this isn’t her first time playing the perfect wife. She has spent years perfecting society’s expectations and delivers flawlessly until a mysterious house guest arrives. Lenore is left asking the question that many women struggle with: what does she want? What does she hunger for? If society’s expectations were not on her what would her heart desire?

Thank you to Zando Project and Netgalley for an Advanced Reader Copy. #Hungerstone #NetGalley

This lesbian story based on the story of Carmilla brings all of the gothic atmosphere and obsessive sapphic vibes to the forefront.

Overall, I enjoyed this but it didn't push over the threshold from "like" to "love" for me.

I felt like the morals and feminism of this story were used to beat the reader over the head a bit, especially in the beginning. As the plot picked up it became less obvious, but I did feel a little preached to in the first half.

I also think the character of Carmilla was a little on-the-nose and she felt pushy at the beginning of the story. I found myself annoyed with her and how everyone tiptoed around her. I didn't feel like there was enough backstory to justify the relationship between Lenore and her the entire time she was present on the page. I honestly liked the narrative more once she left and Lenore found a bit more of her agency, and I recognize that she was necessary to be the catalyst for Lenore despite me not enjoying her as a character.

That being said, the final 1/3rd of this story was absolutely gripping. The "good-for-her" narrative and the way all of the previous threads tied together were incredibly satisfying at the end. The back and forth power struggle between Lenore and her husband had an incredible amount of tension built and I truly didn't know how the story was going to end until it did.

The relationship between Lenore and Cora was perhaps the most interesting part of this story for me. Their strained friendship spanning multiple years, layered with comparisons and jealousy built the most stunning plotline of the book.

3.5/5, rounded up

"The hunger women feel when left to starve in a man’s world fuels so much rage and an animal instinct to be free." - my own words

Truly it is hard to leave a review for a book with such a vague summary without spoiling the hypnotic journey that is Hungerstone.
I was at the mercy of the captivating narration of Lenore and hung on every moment Carmilla graced the pages. I was furious, I was anxious, I was in tears, I was talking to my eReader, I was pacing, I was enthralled, I was in love, I was filled with anguish, I was filled with rage!

I was enchanted by Dunn's writing as I was thinking about darling Lenore when I was not reading her story.

I was only left hungry for more freedom, more carnage, more women's rage and happiness. I was also left hungry wanting my own Carmilla and left thinking about what do I want and how do I plan to feed my own hungers. It was a blessing and a curse to see myself in Lenore and Lenore within myself in a few places. I have learned to be my own Carmilla from time to time and it was reassuring to see how Lenore handled the cruelty placed upon her and the empathy she had at the worst of times. This book has a loud and deep message to those who need it.

This was a gorgeous, haunting tale and I absolutely must own a physical copy to re-read again and again!