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dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Time in This Vicious Hunger has no fixed direction—it drips like treacle, heavy and slow, spilling forward and backward all at once. The world-building feels the same: syrupy, one distilled drop at a time, always tantalising but never quite enough to quench your curiosity.
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?
Characters here are like nesting dolls: they peel away one set of shackles only to discover another beneath. Societal expectations, a lack of choices, or simply the suffocating intensity of their own passions keep them bound.
If you’re expecting an academic dark academia novel, this may not be the one—it flirts with academia but doesn’t linger there. Instead, May leans fully into the gothic: poisoned friendships, twisted love, and the terrifying ways people trample one another in their desperate climb to power.
For readers drawn to the murky depths of obsession, betrayal, and feminine rage, this novel is a feast of shadows.
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?
Characters here are like nesting dolls: they peel away one set of shackles only to discover another beneath. Societal expectations, a lack of choices, or simply the suffocating intensity of their own passions keep them bound.
If you’re expecting an academic dark academia novel, this may not be the one—it flirts with academia but doesn’t linger there. Instead, May leans fully into the gothic: poisoned friendships, twisted love, and the terrifying ways people trample one another in their desperate climb to power.
For readers drawn to the murky depths of obsession, betrayal, and feminine rage, this novel is a feast of shadows.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore
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