NetGalley Review - Hungerstone

I bet you saw the word hunger and thought this was going to be a Hunger Games post, didn’t ya? 

Ok, backstory time. Book blogger pal Luna’s Little Library has been pestering me to read the vampire novella, Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu for YEARS! YEARS! And though I wanted to, I’ve always held off or put it further down my reading list for a mix of reasons: vampire burnout, it’s a classic and I never feel smart enough to read classics, you get the idea. I think they’ve given up on me ever reading it. 

Why is that important, I hear you ask? Well, this book is inspired by Carmilla. Look, Luna, I’m one step closer to actually reading/audiobooking it!

Title and Author: Hungerstone by Kat Dunn

Publisher: Manilla Press/Bonnier

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, though listen to audiobook via library’s audiobook app. 

Buy From (Affiliate): https://uk.bookshop.org/

Lenore has been married to steel magnate Henry for ten years, but the marriage was a marriage of convenience, not love and with no child. Henry decides to move to Sheffield and host a hunt to celebrate his steelworks and its future. But Lenore remembers what happened the last time Henry attended a hunt and is shocked that he would consider hosting one. 

On the way to their Sheffield estate, they discover carriage accident and bring the injured party to their estate to rest and recover. But Carmilla isn’t who anyone expects. She is weak during the day, but vibrant at night. She doesn’t eat meals with her hosts and is unsettled by churches. She unnerves Lenore, but stirs things up with Lenore. A hunger, a desire that Lenore has ignored for so long but now refuses to be ignored any more…

I really liked this. Far more than I was expecting. I think it’s because I went into this thinking I was going to get a sapphic vampire story and while I got that, I also got a story of a woman unravelling, finding her empowerment and female rage. 

I really liked the writing and, because I listened to the audiobook, I liked how it was read by Perdita Weeks.

I am going to admit there are one or two things I wasn’t a fan of. I found that there were certain words and phrases that were very repetitive and, after a period of time, it got irritating. How many times can the word “blood” be used in a paragraph where blood is nowhere near this scene is a good example. 

Also, in the audiobook, there was no pause between present day events and Lenore’s history (the first time the timeline switched, it took me a good few moments to realise what was going on). I think in the book, the time difference would have been easier to stop but in the audiobook, not so much. 

But I found this this slow burn gothic read really compelling, so much so I think this might be one of my top reads of 2025 (I will need to write a post at the end of year now, don’t I?). and yes I am planning to audiobook Carmilla in the near future.