Hungerstone

vampires 🤝 female rage

A beautifully written gothic with some of my favourite things (vampires, sapphic relationships, beautiful people in old houses in scenic backdrops).

I only wished that Lenore spent more time taunting and wreaking havoc on Henry in the end. But still a satisfyingly violent and well-deserved end.

Loved this retelling of Carmilla and the clear nods to other works like Dracula. Keen to read other stories that inspired Kat Dunn, and come back to this with fresher eyes and a better appreciation of the story.

I've seen it described as "a feminist retelling of Carmilla" which surprised me as I had always thought of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 novella of Lesbian Vampires (published 25 years before Bram Stoker's Dracula) was pretty darn feminist. Le Fanu's story doesn't demonize the love between the two women, the relationship between Carmilla and Laura seemed honest and features no intervention from men. Society’s starkly negative view of gay people in England at the time makes this a highly progressive story. The classism and racism however….

Anyway Kat Dunn's (an author I am now keen to explore their back catalogue after reading this) Carmilla is now in the Parthenon of this sapphic icon. My heart appropriately belongs to Netflix's Castlevania's Carmilla Queen of Styria. Another favourite is from Theodora Goss' 2018 novel 'European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman' is my third. Camilla in this novel is more an element of nature than a character, it's this version of Laura sorry Lenore that shines for me.

Initially I did not find Lenore an engaging character which is a problem as so much time in her head. She was so full of the faults and failings of anyone in the horrible misogyny and classism of this time and place. Situated in a number of essential nineteenth-century contexts: her husband Henry’s steelworks and the consequences of industrialisation for the working class, Lenore’s role as housewife and house manager, and the intricacies of social graces in this period.

Also for those that need a heads up there are some spicy scenes in the novel.

But then around halfway through the book Laura has her coming of rage moment. The realisation that for all her efforts, planning organising and sheer willpower to forge herself safety she isn't safe. She then realises she was never safe. And this is a glorious moment that propels her agency forward.

From then on I am cheering for Lenore, and some might find the resolution contrary to what has gone before I believe it is an elegant and clever acknowledgement of all the author's evocation of the culture. And of course contrary to the trope no gays are buried in this one.