Hungerstone
-
-
4.8 • 4 Ratings
-
-
- $14.99
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
A Rolling Stone 10 Most Anticipated Books of the Year • A Scary Mommy 11 Most Anticipated Books of the Year • A Them 10 Most Anticipated Books of the Year • A Goodreads Editors' Top Pick of the Month • A Town & Country Must Read Book of the Winter • A LitHub Most Anticipated Book of the Year • A Fable Most Anticipated Read of the Year • A Goodreads Readers’ Most Anticipated Horror Novel of the Year • A Book Riot Most Anticipated Book of the Year
A compulsive feminist reworking of Carmilla, the queer novella that inspired Dracula.
“Hungerstone is a delicious tribute to the inherent horrors of womanhood and the desperate and exquisite vulgarity of desire. This is everything I dream of in a novel.” —Ava Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning and Lady Macbeth
It’s the height of the industrial revolution and ten years into Lenore’s marriage to steel magnate Henry, their relationship has soured. When Henry’s ambitions take them from London to the remote British moorlands to host a hunting party, a shocking carriage accident brings the mysterious Carmilla into their lives. Carmilla, who is weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night. Carmilla, who stirs up something deep within Lenore. And before long, girls from the local villages fall sick, consumed by a terrible hunger . . .
As the day of the hunt draws closer, Lenore begins to unravel, questioning the role she has been playing all these years. Torn between regaining her husband’s affection and the cravings Carmilla has awakened, soon Lenore will uncover a darkness in her household that will place her at terrible risk.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dunn (Dangerous Remedy) offers a moody and triumphant retelling of Carmilla, the 1872 gothic novella by Sheridan Le Fanu, about a married woman in Victorian London who experiences an existential and sexual awakening at the hands of a female vampire. Lenore Crowther, 30, a restless aristocrat, sleeps alone in the drafty mansion she shares with Henry, a steel mill magnate, whom she married for his money. When the couple witnesses a roadside carriage accident, they rescue the distraught victim, Carmilla Kernstein. As Carmilla recovers, Lenore realizes how much their new guest resembles a ghostly girl who's been haunting her dreams. Soon, Carmilla kindles a long-buried desire in Lenore and turns Lenore into a vampire like herself. Bodice-ripping and bloodsucking ensue, as Lenore discovers her independence. Dunn portrays the newly awakened Lenore as increasingly outspoken, empowered, and fearless, turning the novel into a meditation on womanhood, corporate greed, and queer desire, delivered in frank prose ("To be a woman is a horror I can little comprehend"). This revitalizes Le Fanu's classic tale without losing any of its appeal.
