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dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK/ Orbit for a free e-ARC of 'This Vicious Hunger' by Francesca May.
The book follows Thora, the daughter of an undertaker, trying to adjust to her new life after both her father and her newly betrothed husband die shortly after one another - finding herself completely alone. 'This Vicious Hunger' appears to be set at some point in the fictional past, where women are only expected to be wives and mothers. Luckily, Thora is offered an opportunity to work under an old friend of her father - a botanist at a university. Many mysteries begin to unfold after she stumbles upon a strange garden and the ethereal woman who appears to live there.
'This Vicious Hunger' was such an enjoyable gothic queer read - which seem to be my favourite at the moment! It is such an interesting commentary on the complexities of freedom as a woman, especially queer women, in the time the book is set. It seems that no matter how hard Thora tries, she remains caged in one way or another. There were so many twists and turns and I was completely hooked.
I only have a minimal number of criticisms - I spent 4 hours straight into the night finishing the latter half of this book as I was so gripped! The first is that I would have liked a little more worldbuilding around where the characters in the world are based (this may be my fantasy bias showing), but there were many times I was wondering where this was set and more about the context of this, then realising it was a fictional place, but other than the context of the time, there wasn't much else to go off of. There were also some phrases and words that felt a little too overused throughout the book for my liking. Lastly, without spoilers, poor Leo really got the brunt of a lot of things throughout the story!
The book follows Thora, the daughter of an undertaker, trying to adjust to her new life after both her father and her newly betrothed husband die shortly after one another - finding herself completely alone. 'This Vicious Hunger' appears to be set at some point in the fictional past, where women are only expected to be wives and mothers. Luckily, Thora is offered an opportunity to work under an old friend of her father - a botanist at a university. Many mysteries begin to unfold after she stumbles upon a strange garden and the ethereal woman who appears to live there.
'This Vicious Hunger' was such an enjoyable gothic queer read - which seem to be my favourite at the moment! It is such an interesting commentary on the complexities of freedom as a woman, especially queer women, in the time the book is set. It seems that no matter how hard Thora tries, she remains caged in one way or another. There were so many twists and turns and I was completely hooked.
I only have a minimal number of criticisms - I spent 4 hours straight into the night finishing the latter half of this book as I was so gripped! The first is that I would have liked a little more worldbuilding around where the characters in the world are based (this may be my fantasy bias showing), but there were many times I was wondering where this was set and more about the context of this, then realising it was a fictional place, but other than the context of the time, there wasn't much else to go off of. There were also some phrases and words that felt a little too overused throughout the book for my liking. Lastly, without spoilers, poor Leo really got the brunt of a lot of things throughout the story!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Grief
Moderate: Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, Murder
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Sapphic horror plant girlies. This was cute and gross, haunting and ethereal, and I really appreciated it!
I will absolutely read any other sapphic books Francesca May puts out in the future. She did a really great job of making this garden and the girls within it feel otherworldly and magical and dark and dangerous. This was a wild ride, and I was absolutely buckled in and here for it.
The only negatives were 1) the first chapters before we get to Gay Gardens, while appropriate and effective in setting the stage, were slow and harder to get into, and 2) I don't have a poor communication kink, so Olea and Thora's dynamic got on my nerves sometimes. Although, I will say, it wasn't always without reason.
And, I completely ate it up anyway. I would totally read a sequel or companion novella to this. While the ending does wrap up everything well enough, I'm still left wanting to see what happens next.
Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for the ARC! My favorite ARC to date!
I will absolutely read any other sapphic books Francesca May puts out in the future. She did a really great job of making this garden and the girls within it feel otherworldly and magical and dark and dangerous. This was a wild ride, and I was absolutely buckled in and here for it.
The only negatives were 1) the first chapters before we get to Gay Gardens, while appropriate and effective in setting the stage, were slow and harder to get into, and 2) I don't have a poor communication kink, so Olea and Thora's dynamic got on my nerves sometimes. Although, I will say, it wasn't always without reason.
And, I completely ate it up anyway. I would totally read a sequel or companion novella to this. While the ending does wrap up everything well enough, I'm still left wanting to see what happens next.
Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for the ARC! My favorite ARC to date!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
Hm. Mixed feelings.
This book starts out really slow, with Thora, our main character, fresh out of mourning for her dead husband (whom she didn't really love. or even like, tbh). The mourning rituals that start the book suggest an amount of worldbuilding that never really comes to anything, a gun with a big-ass "CHEKOV" written on it that never does go off. Anyway, the death of her husband provides a catalyst for Thora to go to university and study botany, in a plot point that really doesn't make sense to me (as in, how did "husband dying" equal "go to uni, where women are barely allowed to be"). Her mentor is this lady I can never remember the name of, despite having read it hundreds of times during the course of this novel. Obviously, it is immediately clear to even ME, the stupidest of readers, that the professor is the big bad evil guy. Or girl, I guess.
The beginning of this book is extremely boring. Thora goes to endless botany lectures and makes friends with a guy named Leo, who seems to be put into the story to basically show how uninterested Thora is in men. Of course, we receive our needed dose of misogyny at this university, which apparently even permeates the botany students, because boys will be boys and all. I mean, I guess? It just felt really clumsy. As in, the author seemingly only included these scenes to show how different Thora is from literally. every. other. woman. She is so special! She likes LEARNING, and she is a WOMAN??? MIND BLOWN.
I admit I zoned out during the whole botany stuff. I am notorious in my family for having the exact opposite of a green thumb, and plants never did interest me. But still, the amount of latin plant names was excessive.
After some time, Thora meets Olea, who tends to a garden of poisonous and rare plants. At first, she only wants to go into the garden, but then ... she wants Olea, too! PLOT TWIST (not really.)
The relationship between Thora and Olea was really strange. Maybe because they only talk through a gate, or because Olea never had contact with the real world outside of her strange garden, or maybe it's because Thora has no personality at all except being a woman scholar. Olea is a really strange character, and this is where the book started getting good for me. I wanted to figure out what was going on with her. I didn't give a damn about Thora, and I still don't, because she really is such a blank slate before. It's only when she meets Olea and starts trying to find a cure for Olea's curse, that she becomes stranger. She's still rude as fuck to everyone, but her character makes a big shift towards what I like to call the Hungry Woman stereotype. Essentially, all main characters in novels like these are the same and undergo the same transformation. First, they're normal, and then something happens that makes them capital-H Hungry, culminating in either literal or symbolic cannibalism. At this point, I feel almost tired of this type of character development. It was fun during the first few times I read it, but by now, it's lost its appeal. This Vicious Hunger brings nothing new to the table (wait, that was unintentional, I swear), except maybe the botany angle. I was so eager to get to the bottom of the mystery that when I found it out, I went like "wait, that's it?" Yes, that was indeed it. And it's a shame.
One thing this book does well is the ... well, the vibes. I'd say athmosphere, but that's not really the word - it's vibes, it brings amazing vibes. A lush, poisonous garden paradise. The moonlit maiden tending to her plants, and the plants caring for her in return and protecting her from those who mean to harm her. The evil professor, tenderly stroking a sentient vine. The crazed couple lusting for human blood, surrounded only by plants, forced to eat those to still the ravenous hunger and desire for blood and flesh (which is a weird description, but it's a "good" vibe - I just can't find the words to adequately describe it). This was the best part. I could basically smell those plants, even though they would have killed me instantly.
In the end, I just wish the plot had risen to the level of those vibes, or that this book has done something ... new.
Hm. Mixed feelings.
This book starts out really slow, with Thora, our main character, fresh out of mourning for her dead husband (whom she didn't really love. or even like, tbh). The mourning rituals that start the book suggest an amount of worldbuilding that never really comes to anything, a gun with a big-ass "CHEKOV" written on it that never does go off. Anyway, the death of her husband provides a catalyst for Thora to go to university and study botany, in a plot point that really doesn't make sense to me (as in, how did "husband dying" equal "go to uni, where women are barely allowed to be"). Her mentor is this lady I can never remember the name of, despite having read it hundreds of times during the course of this novel. Obviously, it is immediately clear to even ME, the stupidest of readers, that the professor is the big bad evil guy. Or girl, I guess.
The beginning of this book is extremely boring. Thora goes to endless botany lectures and makes friends with a guy named Leo, who seems to be put into the story to basically show how uninterested Thora is in men. Of course, we receive our needed dose of misogyny at this university, which apparently even permeates the botany students, because boys will be boys and all. I mean, I guess? It just felt really clumsy. As in, the author seemingly only included these scenes to show how different Thora is from literally. every. other. woman. She is so special! She likes LEARNING, and she is a WOMAN??? MIND BLOWN.
I admit I zoned out during the whole botany stuff. I am notorious in my family for having the exact opposite of a green thumb, and plants never did interest me. But still, the amount of latin plant names was excessive.
After some time, Thora meets Olea, who tends to a garden of poisonous and rare plants. At first, she only wants to go into the garden, but then ... she wants Olea, too! PLOT TWIST (not really.)
The relationship between Thora and Olea was really strange. Maybe because they only talk through a gate, or because Olea never had contact with the real world outside of her strange garden, or maybe it's because Thora has no personality at all except being a woman scholar. Olea is a really strange character, and this is where the book started getting good for me. I wanted to figure out what was going on with her. I didn't give a damn about Thora, and I still don't, because she really is such a blank slate before. It's only when she meets Olea and starts trying to find a cure for Olea's curse, that she becomes stranger. She's still rude as fuck to everyone, but her character makes a big shift towards what I like to call the Hungry Woman stereotype. Essentially, all main characters in novels like these are the same and undergo the same transformation. First, they're normal, and then something happens that makes them capital-H Hungry, culminating in either literal or symbolic cannibalism. At this point, I feel almost tired of this type of character development. It was fun during the first few times I read it, but by now, it's lost its appeal. This Vicious Hunger brings nothing new to the table (wait, that was unintentional, I swear), except maybe the botany angle. I was so eager to get to the bottom of the mystery that when I found it out, I went like "wait, that's it?" Yes, that was indeed it. And it's a shame.
One thing this book does well is the ... well, the vibes. I'd say athmosphere, but that's not really the word - it's vibes, it brings amazing vibes. A lush, poisonous garden paradise. The moonlit maiden tending to her plants, and the plants caring for her in return and protecting her from those who mean to harm her. The evil professor, tenderly stroking a sentient vine. The crazed couple lusting for human blood, surrounded only by plants, forced to eat those to still the ravenous hunger and desire for blood and flesh (which is a weird description, but it's a "good" vibe - I just can't find the words to adequately describe it). This was the best part. I could basically smell those plants, even though they would have killed me instantly.
In the end, I just wish the plot had risen to the level of those vibes, or that this book has done something ... new.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Gore, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual content, Blood, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent
Minor: Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Abandonment