crothe77 's review for:

This Vicious Hunger by Francesca May

emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

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Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

This Vicious Hunger by Francesca May is a first person-POV Gothic fantasy Sapphic retelling of Rappaccini’s Daughter. Thora finds herself widowed and kicked from her husband’s family home not too long after their wedding started. Seeing her chance at freedom, she takes the chance to study at a university and meets Olea, a young woman who takes care of a private garden at night and who never leaves.

The ‘hunger’ in the title is mostly referring to Sapphic longing rather than the more recent trend of cannibalism in fiction found in things like Yellow Jackets and The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim. Olea and Thora are both touch-starved but in different ways; Olea because of the circumstances around her existence and Thora because she’s never been allowed to actually explore her romantic attraction to women. You can feel how much they want to take the next step forward, but how impossible it feels for them to do so. There is a little bit of cannibalism but it takes way less page time than the longing for physical contact does.

This is more interior-heavy rather than dialogue-leaning. There’s not a lot of banter between Thora and Olea and instead more of a meeting of two vulnerable people who don’t really know how to interact with someone else that they have romantic feelings for. Beyond that, Thora is quite stuck in her head and her circumstances but is willing to go to bat for Olea when she sees the need. 

Rappaccini's Daughter already feels Gothic as a story so the big twist here is that it’s Sapphic. It’s been a while since I’ve read the original short story, but I do feel that this sits comfortably as a retelling that is more about fleshing out certain parts rather than changing them dramatically to fit a new mold. The setting as well seems to fit in very well with the original short story, which will be a positive for readers who prefer a retelling that also works as a character study to a reimagining.

Content warning for depictions of sexism and homophobia

I would recommend this to fans of Sapphic longing and readers of Gothic fantasy who loved Rappaccini’s Daughter