Thank you so much to Zando and NetGalley for the ARC!

Hungersrone was atmospheric and moody and dark and bloody and I enjoyed every bit of it! I love it when female characters realize just how much strength and power they hold.

While the build up felt a little slow sometimes, I did feel it was necessary for Lenore's arc. Change is not achieved overnight, and Lenore had a lot of issues to work through before finally accepting what she wanted and needed to do in the end.

Female rage will always be a top-tier trope for me.

A retelling of Carmilla that stays true to the historical, grounded aspect and isolated setting of a house paralleling the decay and rot throughout the story. Featuring with an ambitious main character grown docile by her life’s events, and the mysterious yet alluring Carmilla

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a great book. There were a few spots where it was a little slow, but this is to be expected with gothic ficiton. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and its horror elements. The atmosphere of the Moors was fantastic as well. Highly recommend this and I will definitely be picking up more from Kat Dunn.

I really like enjoy novels that are what I would call “quiet creepy,” and this book meets that description beautifully.

This is as much historical fiction as it is a vampire novel, and the subtle menace that pervades the slowly unfolding plot is really artfully done. It’s a slow burn for sure, but in the best possible way.

I don’t really care about romance so that part of the novel didn’t matter much to me one way or the other, and I appreciated that this component of the story was mostly about escape and obsession than moony, schlocky stuff.

The story is in some ways a tribute to LeFanu’s Carmilla and in other ways a rebuttal to it, and I was impressed by how successful it was on both fronts.

Obviously I won’t say much about the ending, but suffice it to say that it’s quite satisfying while still staying faithful to the book’s dark perspective.

5/5 Stars!!

I received Hungerstone as an advanced reader copy, and I couldn't have asked for a better introduction to Gothic vampire stories. This book completely immersed me in its dark and atmospheric world, with richly detailed settings and characters that felt true to the time period.

While some of the vocabulary was a lot (big words aplenty, lol) it never took away from my enjoyment. In fact, it added to the eerie, immersive feel of the story. The writing was captivating, the plot was compelling, and overall, this was an excellent read.

I’m thrilled to say Hungerstone is my first five-star book of 2025! If you love Gothic horror with a fresh twist, definitely pick this one up.

CARMILLA!!!! I finished La Fanu's original pretty recently, maybe in the last two years or so, and therefore this was so thrilling. The expansion we all needed.

Lenore is stunningly repressed, and Carmilla is the thorn in her side that has ignited the most beautiful undoing. In losing everything she finds a sliver of herself. The analysis of the themes of worker oppression and Industrial Revolution's impact was needed but fell short at times. Regardless, I had a blast and will pick up Kat Dunn again. Thank you Dunn and NetGalley for this ARC.

I really wish the vampire plot had more of an emphasis in this one. I found it really boring and it was hard for me to stay engaged.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Rating: 3.5 stars

I was incredibly excited to have this book in my hands, unfortunately it didn’t quite deliver as much as I had anticipated.

I guess my problem was that the vampire story was cut short by a lot of talk about the household our FMC has to do.
I totally understand what the author did here and I kinda liked it too, I think I just went in with the wrong expectations.
The vampire plot is definitely a side note and the female rage, unhinged women plot was the main focus. And that’s not at all a bad thing!
I really liked how Dunn took us on a journey of self discovery and descent to madness and she did well.
At some parts the book dragged on a bit too long though and I found myself bored a lot.
The last 20% saved the book for me and I still recommend it, it just won’t be my favourite of the year.

It gave me major My Year of Rest and Relaxation vibes so if you liked that book but wanted a sapphic vampire subplot it might just be the perfect book for you!

I really had such high hopes for this one. I mean, look at this cover, and a Carmilla retelling, yes please! But, ugh, the execution of it just didn't live up. It fell flat and I was somehow bored? I found Lenore to be a very frustrating character to follow, and I needed all the characters to be more fleshed out. I wanted (and for some reason expected) the prose to pack more of a punch, feel more literary, but instead it came off feeling basic. I wanted the horror aspects to really go there, and it didn't until the last few chapters. I wasn't at all feeling the tension or angst between the main characters. And it didn't quite give me the looming sense of dread and building tension I wanted either. I was never fully immersed in the gothic atmosphere. For me, it was like every part of the story was almost there but didn't quite achieve the desired affect. I still enjoyed it and would still recommend it, but it wasn't the new favorite read I was expecting.

LOVED THIS!!

The slow-burn development of Lenore's character might come across as frustrating at first, but once I properly sank into the novel, I was racing through the second half!

Things I liked: the atmosphere of Kat Dunn's writing; so tense, yet rooted in the sense of normalcy that added to the eerie plot. The setting was easy to picture and I loved the nature descriptions particularly when they were exploring the cliffs, etc. Lenore's character was such a fascinating one to read about as she really came alive after becoming an active player in her life. It made you sympathetic, angry and shocked all at once.

Things I wanted more of: Carmilla! I felt she dissolves into Lenore a little too much to actually know her character beyond the surface. I get her intentions but I wanted more of her emotions and past.

Grateful to NetGalley for this ARC.

This was Gothic and moody and wonderfully weird all at the same time. It was a fantastic commentary on women's desires and how often marriage and society repress them. I'm really glad to have read it.

I had such high expectations for this book, but it just didn't work for me. It was supposed to be a 'good for her' book, but since I never cared for 'her' OR--crucially--Carmilla, I didn't care to root for her. This was quite shocking, since it takes very little to have me rooting against the cis man antagonist, but with this book I didn't really like anyone. And as other reviewers have said, it wasn't all that sapphic for a sapphic novel!

I utterly adored this book. A fantastic take on the lesbian vampire trope with influence from classic texts such as *Carmilla*, *Dracula*, *Christabel*, and *Great Expecations.*

The Gothic/Victorian atmosphere was brilliantly constructed against a decaying grand house and the misty moors.

I loved the writing and clear extent of research that went into creating deep characters, setting and plot.

This was grotesque and feral and I could not put it down.

Women yearning, haunting, hungry, and full of desires. What more could I ask for?

My only critique was that the pace was a little slow at times and a bit too much time was spent with internal conflict for my liking.

Thank you for the netgalley proof!

Kat Dunn’s new novel is a gorgeous vampire story. Though the vampiristic elements are fairly subtle, the social and gendered vampirism of the time is portrayed wonderfully throughout the book. The novel follows Lenore, who is married to Henry, as they navigate their new home and the social impacts. Their newest house guest, Carmilla, adds to the already-present tension between Lenore and Henry.

When it’s she and Lenore alone, Carmilla challenges Lenore to question why she does the things she does and why she doesn’t live more for herself. Carmilla’s presence and her questionings of Lenore showcase the lack of agency women had in that time (and what Lenore could do to gain agency). As Lenore starts to suspect that Henry is not all he’s cracked up to be and that she doesn’t necessarily have to live the life she’s built for her and Henry, her relationship and dynamic with Carmilla becomes more complex.

The novel was a little slow to start, but the wait was worth it—the novel is a gorgeous reimagining of a classic vampire story. Also, I was a big fan of the novel used vampirism to represent social, gender, and cultural issues, especially those most relevant to women. Overall, this novel was spooky and sensual and would definitely recommend people read it.

Hungerstone is a clever, victorian, gothic novel that is the prime example of supporting women’s rights and wrongs. The reader follows the story of Lenore and some peculiar events that have been occurring since Lenore and her husband took in Carmilla. We don’t know much about her but as this is a novel inspired by some classics like Carmilla, the woman and white amd dracula, we understand that things are not as they seem.

Hungerstone was a captivating read and one that was extremely vivid which is a testament to dunn’s writing. I could picture the story so well while reading and it is one that would do great on the screen.

I had really high hopes for this and boy did it deliver!!! First five star book of the year and it was a doozy. I loved the lushness of the writing style and it read like a classic. Potentially a hot take but dare I say that it was better than Carmilla…?

In times of drought, there are stones that are only exposed when the river runs low. People mark them, so that, next time, they will know when they are to starve. Their appetite will go unfilled.” She runs my finder over a cut in the stone. “It’s a death marker.”’

Palpable is the tension - a darkness that rolls in quietly; vile, seductive, poisonous, and greedy. Yes, if you have read and enjoyed Carmilla, you will most likely enjoy Hungerstone as well.

Lenore, the wife to steel magnate Henry has kept the picture-perfect affront of marriage in society. Barren and second in beauty to her friends as her husband makes her feel, she is taunted by dreams of salacious affection not received by her husband after a carriage accident that brought a woman named Carmilla into her home for recovery. Torn between pervasive sickness that is seeping into her flesh and bones, there are the ever so brief and provocatively felt intense encounters with Carmilla, seemingly innocent. She is the one to open her eyes to the dirty doings of her husband, his business, and shady deals. Hardest to realize is the truth of this heartless love she is living in and the bodies her husband will bury to keep an old secret quiet. Awakened by Carmilla, a slow-burn, scintillating tale unfolds.

The book is everything you expect and isn’t, simultaneously. The tension, I loved. The ephemeral atmosphere and prose were wonderful and if you take the time to read the afterword, in my case, I was taken by the research and Victorian setting carefully chosen for the novel and all the inspirations drawn from such as Christabel by Coleridge, The Woman in White by Collin and many others that fed into the writing of Hungerstone. This leaves me to say that learning of these things made the novel almost better for me if I didn’t feel that the writing at times felt too modern or timeless for a story that takes place in Victorian Sheffield. That aside, it is an atmospheric read worth your time if you enjoy a classic vampire tale!

Thank you for the opportunity to review Hungerstone!

Scarlett

Everyone raves about this book, but i have been reading it for ONE THOUSAND YEARS and im still at only 40%

The best sort of love letter to a classic text, Hungerstone not only pays worthy homage to Carmilla, but is deftly interested in its continuing appeal and legacy into the present day despite a Victorian setting.

Included in BookTrib Chill Quill monthly round-up: https://booktrib.com/2025/02/11/the-chill-quill-love-bites-and-dark-delights-this-february/