Discover Well-Read Black Girl Books and the projects reshaping publishing →

Book Summary and Reviews of Hungerstone by Kat Dunn

Hungerstone by Kat Dunn

Hungerstone

by Kat Dunn

  • Readers' Rating (2):
  • Published:
  • Feb 2025, 336 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

The seductive reimagining of a Gothic classic—a repressed wife encounters a mysterious woman who awakens her desire in the "lesbian vampire novel we need." (Them)

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, 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 something deep within Lenore.

Soon, girls from the local villages fall sick, consumed by a terrible hunger, and Lenore begins to unravel. Torn between regaining her husband's affection and the cravings Carmilla has awakened, Lenore must confront a darkness that will place her at risk.

This immersive reworking of Carmilla, the queer novella that inspired Dracula, delivers a richly atmospheric look at feminine rage and the desires that feed our hunger.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"A moody and triumphant retelling of Carmilla ... A meditation on womanhood, corporate greed, and queer desire ... Revitalizes Le Fanu's classic tale without losing any of its appeal." —Publishers Weekly

"A dream of a Gothic. Combines all the best of Carmilla and would make Edgar Allan Poe jealous. Reading Kat Dunn is like finding treasure." —Sarah Rees Brennan, USA Today bestselling author of Long Live Evil

"Kat Dunn repaints the classic story of Carmilla in the boldest, bloodiest colors. Hungerstone is decadent, brilliant, triumphant and I devoured it." —Sarah Underwood, author of Lies We Sing to the Sea

This information about Hungerstone was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Click here and be the first to review this book!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Kat Dunn

Kat Dunn grew up in London and has lived in Japan, Australia, and France. She has a BA in Japanese from SOAS and an MA in English from Warwick. She's written about mental health for Mind and the Guardian, and worked as a translator for Japanese television. Her YA has been published by Head of Zeus and Andersen Press in the UK.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
When No One Else Will
by Amanda Skenandore
1940s Chicago nurse risks everything at an illegal women’s clinic during a high-profile trial of courage and sisterhood.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    The Jellyfish Problem
    by Tessa Yang
    A marine biologist rescues a Maine island menaced by a giant glowing jellyfish in this inventive debut.
  • Book Jacket
    Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young
    by Zayd Ayers Dohrn
    Son of Weather Underground radicals recounts life on the run and decades of revolutionary struggle.
  • Book Jacket
    Look What You Made Me Do
    by John Lanchester
    A propulsive tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee.
Who Said...

There is no science without fancy and no art without fact

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

Q S, S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.