**This article contains spoilers.**

“Hungerstone” is a sapphic, gothic horror retelling of “Carmilla”. This book is meant to bring out the queer and sapphic elements of the original book that might have been repressed or misinterpreted during the time it was written. 

“Hungerstone” (2025) by Kat Dunn is set during the late nineteenth century in England’s moorland. Dunn leaned into the theme of female desire to portray this new take on “Carmilla”. (I recommend that if you intend to enjoy this book on your own, do not continue reading until you do.) 

The title “Hungerstone” is based on the old European practice of marking stones at the waterline during a drought. These marks typically came with the date and cryptic inscriptions like “if you see me, weep” to signify its dark history. These stones were only marked during extreme droughts that lead to famine and death throughout the land. 

The story starts with our main character, Lenore, moving to the moorlands with her husband, Henry, to an estate called Nethershaw. Lenore is tasked with repairing and making the whole of Nethershaw inhabitable and presentable.

Their marriage is a major plot point within the book. It is the leading conflict as their diminishing relationship brings up a myriad of problems including inferred infidelity, emotional manipulation, and abuse as well as attempted murder. 

The new move out of the city is quickly faced with hardships as Lenore is stopped by a reporter asking about her husband’s business. When Henry finds her with this reporter, he yells about how disrespectful he is to talk to his wife and later condemns Lenore for speaking with him.

A large factor behind their marriage problems is that Lenore is infertile. After the first year they realized she couldn’t get pregnant and limited physical intimacy, even sleeping in different rooms at Nethershaw. Despite this, Lenore is content in not having a kid, she is happy she didn’t have a kid with that man. This is significant because it goes against the stereotypes of a woman needing a child to be complete or it being their life purpose. 

While on the ride from the station they stumble upon a carriage crash. The sight sends Lenore into a fit that leaves her unconscious, sparked by her own parents’ deaths. When Lenore wakes, she meets the woman they saved from the accident, Carmilla, which prompts Lenore to host Carmilla until she is better. 

In the first part of “Hungerstone”, Carmilla and Lenore have a sexual tension entirely put upon by Lenore’s repressed emotions. Carmilla is more carefree in her appearance and modesty around Lenore, compared to the other characters. 

Early into moving into Nethershaw, Henry ‘finds’ Cora, a young friend of Lenore’s, in the city. Lenore is already overwhelmed and tries to turn her away from the estate. Henry pressures her to let Cora stay with them, which adds to the strain within Lenore and Henry’s already troublesome relationship, as he and Cora are seen in compromising situations together, and are very secretive near Lenore. 

Carmilla exhibits crude behavior and mannerisms and does not conform to proper etiquette. Her unusual behavior upsets Henry and intrigues, but scares, Lenore. 

Henry’s dislike for Carmilla furthers Lenroe’s sense of ownership and care for Carmilla as Henry is adamantly against her actions and presence. Lenore sees this as an attack on herself because Carmilla is her friend and her guest. Lenore is very back and forth with liking and hating Carmilla, which influences a lot of her decisions. Despite this back and forth, the decision to keep or push away Carmilla has always been Lenore’s. 

Some of Carmilla’s odd behaviors are saved for Lenore such as the hand holding or grabbing and holding each other in bed. These actions spark and encourage, despite her reservations, Lenore’s eyes to wander when they are together. She pushes away her reactions for the sake of being ‘proper’. 

Lenore goes back and forth from trusting Carmilla whole heartedly to questioning her intentions. Carmilla appears to have a mental hold on Lenore, easily influencing all of her thoughts with only a few words. Despite her questioning of Carmilla, she still vehemently advocates for Carmilla to stay in Nethershaw. 

Carmilla eventually leads Lenore to discover the happenings in her own household that she refused to see on her own. Lenore tries to see things in a way that would make her life easier. She tries to come up with explanations for Henry’s weird behavior and the damning situations she finds him and Cora in so that she can try to have the sophisticated life she grew up wanting. 

Carmilla is purposefully vague in her language for Lenore. She does this to get Lenore to open her eyes and come to these realizations by herself. This greatly infuriates Lenore and fosters her negative feelings towards Carmilla. 

Lenore could not handle the truth and Carmilla knew this. Lenore had to dig deeper into Carmilla’s words to find the answers herself because she was so willfully blind to the actions happening around and to her that she wouldn’t have believed Carmilla if she outright said it. This is further solidified by Lenore’s on and off thoughts of pushing Carmilla out when she has her accusations. 

Eventually, life becomes too much and Lenore gives up her tight restraint on her desires. She has sex with Carmilla and this is the first time throughout the book that she feels like she is doing something for her and not for appearances or to please someone else. This sparks the unraveling of her ‘perfect life’ and she starts to become uncaring of other’s opinions and her own appearances. After their night together, Carmilla disappears and Lenore is upset at her. She goes on in hopes of making her proud, but continues her swinging emotions about Carmilla. 

They get together later when Carmilla helps her escape and they galavant around the city together. Lenore feels free with her and sees what she has missed her entire life. They skinny dip in the water together and have the obligatory chase through the water to each other, where Carmilla mentions what a Hungerstone is. This is only referenced once in the book, Carmilla brings this up to imply that her presence brings death.

There are the obligatory “happy couple in love” scenes before the final act. This explicit depiction of sapphic romance is not included in the original Carmilla. This is typically the intention behind retellings of classic queer media as despite the obvious queer undertones, there are never really explicit romantic or sexual scenes. Even if there is one, there usually isn’t the other, leaving many authors wanting to fill in the gaps. 

“Hungerstone” has a captivating mysterious storyline that keeps readers engaged with its introductions to many small plot points that are touched on and kept in suspense throughout the storyline. Dunn brings intrigue and fascination to this classic tale while emphasizing the queer aspects.