Hunger Stone by Kat Dunn is set in the eerie backdrop of the Peak District. With feminist gothic themes and sapphic retelling of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novella ‘Carmilla’, this is the vampire story that inspired the book everyone knows, ‘Dracula’.
This book tells the tale of a married woman Lenore who is trapped in a souring marriage of 10 years, with her husband Henry in Sheffield. Suddenly, Carmilla enters Lenore’s life, bringing confusion and desire to her life. She awakens an appetite inside her.
The hunger for freedom
To me, this book does a beautiful representation of showcasing feminine desire. This includes the want of forbidden appetite through bodily autonomy. Society forced women to conform to strict expectations of etiquette, suppressing individuality and desires. The arrival of Carmilla acts as a catalyst. This transforms Lenore to unleash her appetite from a reserved wife to Henry. Therefore, Carmilla shows her there is more to her desire than societal regulations.
Dunn does an amazing job of correlating hunger for desire in the isolation of the uncanny hills of Sheffield’s Peaks. Lenore’s appetite represents her desire for freedom from her life. This reveals a longing she has always felt but never realised she could pursue. Carmilla’s arrival gives the women in Sheffield a source of liberation. Therefore, Carmilla’s intrusion into Lenore’s home awakens her desires and encourages her to make her own choices rather than submit to her husband’s control. To me, Carmilla embodies the opposite of a woman during this period. Camilla’s fierce personality makes her a patriarchal man’s worst nightmare. This provokes Henry’s deep seated distaste for her.
The grotesque of female rage
The novel portrays feminine rage as a gradual response to the repression women endure. The appetite that accompanies this rage gradually unfolds throughout as Carmilla awakens Lenore’s anger, empowering her to confront her husband and confined life even within the Peak’s vast surrounding and open land. However, the male characters portray women’s suppressed desires as monstrous. This reinforces the idea that female anger is grotesque, as society expects women to prioritise their husband’s wishes. It pushes the idea that patriarchal society fabricates that female desire becomes monstrous when male authority is challenged. If women choose to unleash their hunger, it strips back control men have within their marriage. Henrys growing fear of Lenore towards the end reveals how he begins to view her as less of a woman, instead sees her as a monstrous figure, contributing to his downfall.
The horror of the patriarchy
Overall, Kat Dunn transforms the gothic genre into a feminist exploration of how societies lack of acceptance, rather than women’s hunger and rage, poses the greatest threat. Through Lenore’s unravelling, Dunn explores how quickly a controlled woman can reach her breaking point when the right circumstances awakens the power she possesses. The novel exposes the patriarchy’s attempts to control women who reclaim their independence. Set against the scenery of the Peak Districts, Hunger Stone gives a gothic edge to a place close to Sheffield, showing how in familiar, beautiful landscapes, secrets and darkness can still bleed through.
