My Five Word TL:DR Review: Lovely Writing and Mixed Feelings

This Vicious Hunger has got so many things going for it.  Not least some absolutely stunning writing by Francesca May.  That being said this story didn’t quite hit the spot for me and even now the reasons for this are alluding me.  I’m hoping to reach some clarity as I write this review.  So, here goes.

The story takes place in an alternate world, very similar, to our own but maybe from a slightly earlier period where old-fashioned values were still very much the order of the day.  We make the acquaintance of Thora who has just lost her husband after an almost indecently short, and quite unhappy, period of marriage.  Her husband’s family are keen to offload her and having no remaining family of her own a ‘dream’ opportunity makes itself apparent with an offer of a placement at University working under a renowned professor of Botany (and friend to her father).  It’s literally Thora’s dream come true. Without further ado she trundles off with the few belongings she owns and arrives at the very male dominated university.

This is a beautifully told gothic horror story.  The writing is really good and on top of that we have this dark academia setting.  Thora is placed in an almost forgotten building, so remote it could be off campus and seems to have no other inhabitants but it does have a spectacular view of an exquisite garden full of unusual flora and a tower!  It’s positively Rapunzel-esque!  Anyway, Thora eventually meets the doctor she is to study under and whilst she is a bit intense and quite eccentric she seems to be keen to work with Thora and in fact has ideas of a partnership.  Thora soon settles into her new life, she has little time to reflect as she has such a busy schedule attending lectures and tutorials, she barely has time to catch lunch, although she does eventually make a new friend amongst all the other prickly male students.  Things are going, if not brilliantly, fairly much as you would expect.  That is until Thora catches a glimpse of a young woman tending the garden below her rooms and becomes somewhat fixated.

So far, my speculations are not helping to clear the waters – still muddy.  Let’s look at the good.

I loved the idea of this alternate world, like I said it feels like a throwback to Victorian (maybe even late Edwardian) times, women had little agency, not allowed in the main to attend university (an educated woman!  Whatever next – voting I suppose).  Very subservient to the men, etc, etc.  But, this world has some differences – for example the mourning rites – Thora’s father (now deceased) was an undertaker and Thora is well versed in mourning and grief.

Gothic and dark academia.  I mean, colour me happy.  The setting plays into this perfectly with the beautiful university and the dark and secret garden.  I really did enjoy the setting very much.  Thora rushing between lectures and then off to the dining hall.

Now, the slightly off – I am puzzled about the alternate world setting because after we make Thora’s acquaintance and learn a little of her earlier life we don’t really find out much more about the world.  It isn’t really a criticism so much as something that puzzled me.  Why not just set it in our world in an earlier period?  There’s probably a perfectly good reason that I just haven’t figured out.

Thora pretty quickly becomes all consumed with the young woman who appears in the night to tend the secret garden and, in fact this is an element of the book that I loved – this obsessiveness bordering on hunger.  Hunger and toxicity very much feed into this story.  The garden is full of toxic plants and the relationship that forms between Thora and Olea (the tender of the garden) also eventually becomes toxic.  But, I’m just going to say, I didn’t really feel any chemistry between Thora and Olea.  There was something decidedly off track about it.  I didn’t buy it.  And, why was Thora so instantaneously obsessed?  It felt a bit surface level.

Also, this is a slow paced read, there is plenty of meandering, even a little bit of repetition when it comes to Thora and Olea.  But, I can honestly say that I don’t mind a slow pace, I can be patient and sometimes I prefer this approach to an all out action-thrown-in-at-the-deep-end-way-too-many-threads approach.  Therefore, no complaints from me about the pacing.  I like a story that takes its own time to develop.

Now, here comes another little niggle, strangely linked to the above comment about pacing – well, I wanted to be absolutely clear that I don’t have an issue with the pacing in this story, but, at the same time I do feel like the story doesn’t quite support the length of the book – so, go figure.  That being said, I do love the new lore around vampires that is created here.  Very unique.

I really do not want to be negative, so I will say that the writing hooked me and kept me reading. I will definitely pick up more by this author.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 3 of 5 stars