Review of Hungerstone
Title: Hungerstone
Author: Kat Dunn
Genre: Horror, Fantasy, LGBT, Vampires
Year Published: 2025
My Rating: 4.5/5
Blurb:
Ten years into their marriage, Lenore’s relationship with her husband Henry has soured, and no child has arrived to fill the distance between them. Lenore’s frustration grows when Henry’s ambitions, both work and societal, take them out of London and into the countryside, to the imposing Nethershaw manor, where he is planning to host a hunt. 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.
A carriage accident near their home soon brings the mysterious Carmilla into Lenore’s life. Carmilla, who is weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night; Carmilla who will not eat meals with the family; Carmilla who stirs up a hunger deep within Lenore.
Torn between regaining her husband’s affection and the desire Carmilla’s presence awakens in her, Lenore begins to unravel her past. Her search leads her to uncover a darkness in her household that’s set on destroying her.
Hungerstone is a mesmerizing reclamation of the lesbian vampire trope, set against the backdrop of the voracious appetite of the Industrial Revolution.
"For what do you hunger, Lenore?"
Review
Hungerstone sunk its teeth into me and refused to relinquish its grip upon me; it had me hooked from the very start. It is a soft retelling of Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. Carmilla is known as the progenitor of the sapphic vampire trope and its legacy is continued in Hungerstone.
Before sinking my teeth into Hungerstone, I decided to read Carmilla so I could collate the two with it fresh in my mind.
Where Carmilla is a tale of fear and hunger; I believe Hungerstone to be more a study of feminine rage, desire and overcoming trauma. It certainly has feminist overtones and critiques the Victorian notion that men are the heads of the family and their wives are simply nothing without them. We see that Lenore, the protagonist, is mostly responsible for her husband Henry's success. She supports him in his endeavours and fulfills his every wish, whilst he neglects her physically and emotionally. This takes a toll on Lenore, though she won't admit it until the appearance of - who I like to call - our morally grey fairy godmother, Carmilla.
Without spoiling too much, Carmilla slowly and surely teaches Lenore that is okay to feel and to want. That it is okay to be her own person and not whomever the people in her life have always told her to be. Throughout the novel, I just wanted to scream at Lenore, notifying her she's being used and neglected and Henry does not care one iota for her. It is clear that Henry is nothing without his wife, but sadly they both think the opposite. Her past - and current - abuse and neglect have made stone out of our protagonist. She believes she must not feel and to want: she must be whoever her current abuser wants her to be. This reflected in Lenore's narration: she was rather bland and never revealed much of her own thoughts until Carmilla's interference.
I found Hungerstone to be a thrilling and captivating read, almost as if Carmilla lured me in herself. Dunn writes her prose wonderfully and poetically and I look forward to any possible future books by her. The only thing I can critique about this novel is that the tying up of the novel seems a bit abrupt and convenient; I would've loved to see a bit more of our new Lenore and Carmilla.