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A review by tashasbooks
House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson
4.25
House of Hunger is a gothic mixed with horror book and has an iteration of vampires set in a historical industrial setting.
Marion has lived in the slums of the South where she works a miserable job with no reprieve and has to help support her sickly brother. She wants out, but there are no options for her besides becoming a bloddmaid. She sees the listing in the paper and decides to apply. All Marion knows is that in the North, the wealthy lords drink the blood of those in service and the women are greatly compensated and treated with a pension. Once Marion arrives at the House of Hunger, the countess takes an interest in her and throws her into mystery and secrets, and she has to find out what is going on in order to save her life.
I very much liked the atmosphere and the gothic setting of the House and its history. In general, there isn't a lot of worldbuilding, the story is very centric to the people in it rather than an overall world. It's very reminiscent of the Industrial Revolution/early 19th century due to the description of the slums and the working atmosphere.
I really liked Marion as a character and I completely understood her decisions. One she starts to get more attention from Countess Lisavet, she becomes enamored with her and will do anything to keep that attention. Because of her characterization and background, you understand her wanting that relationship and monogamy with Lisavet, enough to overlook her suspicious actions.
The pacing is super quick, and once I was two-thirds of the way through the book, I was thinking that there had to be more to the story. The very end of the book picks up super fast and overall it left on an ambiguous ending. I was hoping it would be a bit more happy in a sense, but this is technically a horror novel so the ending made sense.
Marion has lived in the slums of the South where she works a miserable job with no reprieve and has to help support her sickly brother. She wants out, but there are no options for her besides becoming a bloddmaid. She sees the listing in the paper and decides to apply. All Marion knows is that in the North, the wealthy lords drink the blood of those in service and the women are greatly compensated and treated with a pension. Once Marion arrives at the House of Hunger, the countess takes an interest in her and throws her into mystery and secrets, and she has to find out what is going on in order to save her life.
I very much liked the atmosphere and the gothic setting of the House and its history. In general, there isn't a lot of worldbuilding, the story is very centric to the people in it rather than an overall world. It's very reminiscent of the Industrial Revolution/early 19th century due to the description of the slums and the working atmosphere.
I really liked Marion as a character and I completely understood her decisions. One she starts to get more attention from Countess Lisavet, she becomes enamored with her and will do anything to keep that attention. Because of her characterization and background, you understand her wanting that relationship and monogamy with Lisavet, enough to overlook her suspicious actions.
The pacing is super quick, and once I was two-thirds of the way through the book, I was thinking that there had to be more to the story. The very end of the book picks up super fast and overall it left on an ambiguous ending. I was hoping it would be a bit more happy in a sense, but this is technically a horror novel so the ending made sense.