Hungerstone

Kat Dunn’s Hungerstone (2025) is a sapphic gothic horror novel that reimagines J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novella Carmilla. The novel is set in 1888 and follows Lenore Crowther, the repressed and emotionally starved wife of an ambitious Sheffield steel industrialist. Trapped in a passionless marriage and haunted by past trauma, Lenore’s meticulously controlled life unravels when she and her husband rescue a mysterious woman, Carmilla Kernstein, from a carriage crash. Carmilla’s unsettling presence begins to awaken Lenore’s long-suppressed appetites, setting her on a dark path toward self-discovery and liberation.

Drawing on the tradition of Victorian sensation fiction, Hungerstone uses gothic tropes to explore feminist and anti-capitalist ideas. The novel examines The Intertwined Struggles of Class and Gender by connecting the domestic tyranny of Lenore’s marriage to the lethal exploitation at her husband’s factory, which is set against the historical backdrop of the Sheffield Outrages. It also criticizes The Monstrous Nature of Capitalism, framing the systemic violence of industrial greed as more terrifying than any supernatural threat. Ultimately, the narrative portrays Desire as Self-Actualization by depicting Lenore’s awakening as a brutal but necessary reclamation of her agency. The novel was a National Bestseller and was named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and Book Riot. It won the 2026 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction and the 2026 Lord Ruthven Award for Fiction, and was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award.

This guide refers to the 2025 Zando edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, gender discrimination, sexual content, cursing, child abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, animal death, mental illness, suicidal ideation, illness, and death.

Language Note: The term “asylum,” used to indicate a mental health facility, is preserved throughout. It is historically and linguistically accurate to the novel’s setting.

Plot Summary

In 1888, Lenore Crowther lives a meticulously managed but emotionally sterile life in London. The 30-year-old is married to the ambitious steel industrialist Henry Crowther and finds her purpose in curating their social standing, a role that offers a sense of control but little satisfaction. Her marriage is childless and passionless, and she is haunted by the trauma of her parents’ violent death in a carriage accident when she was 12 and her subsequent austere upbringing by her cold Aunt Daphne. As Lenore and Henry prepare to move to their newly acquired remote estate, Nethershaw, on the edge of the Derbyshire moors, Lenore is plagued by a vivid dream of a beautiful, mysterious woman who enters her bedroom and bites her neck. 

During the journey to Nethershaw, Lenore and Henry’s carriage comes upon a crash. They rescue the sole survivor, a woman named Carmilla Kernstein, whom Lenore recognizes as the figure from her dream. They bring Carmilla to Nethershaw to recuperate, and her presence unsettles the household. While Henry is distrustful and wants her gone, Lenore insists she stay, feeling a strange, compelling connection to their mysterious guest. Carmilla’s influence proves to be uncanny and disruptive; Lenore’s maid, Molly, is discovered eating strands of Carmilla’s hair in a trance-like state. Lenore also witnesses two disturbing incidents in the nearby village: A young farm girl devours a raw chicken with her bare hands and, later, a woman eats flesh carved from her husband’s arm. Carmilla is present at both scenes, seemingly a catalyst for this eruption of primal hunger. 

The situation is complicated by the arrival of Lenore’s pretty, conventional friend, Cora Lamb, whom Henry has invited to stay. Lenore quickly becomes suspicious of the intimacy between Henry and Cora, seeing them together in his study and at a hotel in Sheffield. Simultaneously, Lenore’s own health deteriorates as she suffers from severe cramps, nausea, and vomiting, which she initially dismisses. Although Nethershaw is in a state of decay, Henry is determined to cement his social status in the area by hosting a shooting party for members of the aristocracy. He leaves the insurmountable tasks of restoring the mansion and preparing for the party to Lenore despite her ill health. The rift between her and her husband grows when she accompanies him to his factory, Ajax Works, and witnesses an accident that fatally wounds a worker. Henry then falsely claims that the worker’s negligence caused his death and denies his family compensation. 

Lenore’s sickness intensifies, and she connects it to the tins of pastilles Henry frequently gives her. Searching his room, she discovers a hidden bag of white powder. A medical compendium identifies the substance as arsenic, which explains her symptoms. The realization that her husband is poisoning her shatters Lenore’s carefully constructed world. Lenore falls into despair, and Carmilla confronts her, deriding Lenore for her passivity and repressed desires. Their confrontation escalates into a violent and passionate sexual encounter, during which Carmilla bites Lenore, awakening a fierce, previously unknown appetite within her. Soon after, Lenore confronts Cora about a diamond necklace she is wearing, a gift Lenore had found among Henry’s possessions and assumed was for her. During the heated argument on the edge of a cliff, Cora stumbles. In a critical moment, Lenore’s hand closes on Cora’s blouse but then slips, and she lets Cora fall to her death.

Lenore meticulously constructs a narrative for the police. At first, she frames Cora’s death as a tragic accident, but she then subtly manipulates the investigation by planting the idea that Cora, heartbroken by a secret affair with Henry, died by suicide. To secure her own safety, she gives a letter to the sympathetic Detective Inspector Lacey that details Henry’s crimes at Ajax Works including a scheme to defraud injured workers of their compensation. She instructs the detective to open the letter only if she dies. Lenore’s newfound boldness infuriates Henry. He locks her in her bedroom and summons a doctor, planning to have her declared mentally ill and committed to an asylum. Trapped and tormented, Lenore descends into a state of primal hunger, tearing at the wallpaper and chewing on furniture. Carmilla reappears at her window and helps her escape into the night.

Their escape culminates in a wild night in Sheffield, where Lenore sees Henry with another woman. Fully embracing her own rage and appetite, Lenore returns to Nethershaw with Carmilla, just as the guests arrive for Henry’s grand shooting party. The following day, on the moors, Henry confronts Lenore, threatening to send her to the asylum if she does not agree to a divorce on the grounds of her own adultery. Unleashing her pent-up fury, she attacks him with inhuman strength and rips his throat out with her teeth. When the shooting party discovers the gruesome scene, Lenore, covered in blood, calmly blames Henry’s poorly trained hunting dogs, which have been gorging on the remains. The aristocratic guests, already disdainful of the industrialist, readily accept her story and close ranks around the well-bred widow. Detective Inspector Lacey’s suspicions are brushed aside. As the authorities depart, Carmilla arrives in a magnificent carriage, revealing herself to be a woman of great wealth and power. She extends her hand to Lenore, and they leave Nethershaw together.