merlin_grey 's review for:

Hungerstone by Kat Dunn

5.0

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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

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This was recommended to me as an adaptation of Carmilla that takes a very different perspective on the morality of vampires, and which digs deeper into the queer aspects of the original novel. Kat Dunn really looked at the line “it will never desist until it has satiated its passion” from Carmilla and went you say that like it’s a bad thing. It was an amazing roller-coaster ride of a narrative, which flipped expectations about morality and monstrosity on their head, and I found myself swept up in the story enough to root for the main character to do things that I would never have considered at the beginning of the novel. Despite how dark the book was, I do think the admonition “‘You are feeding the wrong hunger’” is one that will come back to me whenever I find myself questioning whether I’m really being true to myself and prioritizing the things I value in my life.