This Vicious Hunger
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
This Vicious Hunger is a dark, gothic fantasy of intoxication, obsession, and two women's desperate hunger for knowledge, whatever the cost.
Thora Grieve finds herself destitute and an outcast after the sudden death of her husband, but a glimmer of hope arrives when a family friend offers her the chance to study botany under the tutelage of a famed professor. Once at the university, Thora becomes entranced by a mysterious young woman, Olea, who emerges each night to tend to the plants in the private garden below Thora's window.
Hungry for connection, Thora befriends Olea through the garden gate and their relationship quickly and intensely blossoms. Thora throws herself into finding a cure for the ailment confining Olea to the garden and sinks deeper into a world of beauty, poison, and obsession. Thora has finally found the freedom to pursue her darkest desires, but will it be worth the price?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
May (Wild and Wicked Things) mixes romance, body horror, and dark academia in this disappointing queer retelling of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter." Thora Grieve has been trapped all her life, first by her undertaker father's expectations and rituals and then by her socialite husband's "short temper and shorter leash." Now an orphaned widow, she leaps at the chance for a freer life of study at the university of St. Elianto with botanist Petaccia. Upon reaching the university, Thora becomes obsessed with the high-walled, overgrown garden outside her room—and with Olea, the mysterious and captivating woman who tends to its dangerous, poisonous plants. May conjures a fascinating gothic atmosphere, but doesn't bring many new ideas to Hawthorne's original apart from a basic gender swap. Meanwhile, the relentless repetition, especially the frequent descriptions of Thora sweating, distracts. Thorny Thora proves a difficult narrator to root for as she bites the head off anyone she talks to and alternately argues with and bullies Olea. For dark romance fans looking for a queer gothic, the literally toxic relationship will be a feature not a bug, but others may be frustrated, especially as the narrative offers no real resolution to their love story. This is all vibes, no follow-through.
