Francesca May's "This Vicious Hunger" sounds like a deliciously dark and intoxicating gothic fantasy, promising a tale steeped in obsession and the perilous pursuit of knowledge. The summary immediately draws you into a world where beauty and danger intertwine, driven by the intense connection between two women.

The setup is classic gothic: Thora Grieve, suddenly widowed and an outcast, is offered a lifeline that leads her to a university and the promise of study. This transition from destitution to academic pursuit sets the stage for both intellectual awakening and a descent into something far more sinister. Her immediate enthrallment with Olea, the mysterious young woman who tends the private garden by night, sparks the core of the narrative. This nocturnal, secretive element instantly evokes a sense of forbidden allure and burgeoning obsession.

The rapid and intense blossoming of Thora and Olea's relationship, forged through the "garden gate," hints at a powerful and consuming bond. Thora's desperate search for a cure for Olea's mysterious ailment becomes the driving force, propelling her deeper into a world of "beauty, poison, and obsession." This blending of botanical study with a growing sense of peril suggests a narrative rich in symbolic imagery and a creeping sense of dread. The central question—whether the "freedom to pursue her darkest desires" will be "worth the price"—underscores the moral ambiguity and potential for tragic consequences that are hallmarks of compelling gothic fiction.

"This Vicious Hunger" appears to be a perfect read for those who crave a story that explores the intoxicating nature of desire, the blurred lines between love and obsession, and the dangerous allure of forbidden knowledge. It promises a dark, atmospheric journey where the pursuit of a cure might lead to a far more profound and costly affliction.

1.5/5 stars rounded up.

I grabbed this ARC because the blurb sounded interesting but unfortunately the execution did not deliver for me. I considered DNFing this a few times.

The story itself did not live up to the expectations that I had in my mind and I found this book incredibly slow and truthfully, boring. I appreciated the insight into the toxic relationship and what the goal was here, but I found myself really struggling with the characters. The characters just felt unreachable to me and flat. The story felt as though it took forever to start gaining momentum and everything felt increasingly repetitive. This story could've been much, much shorter.

The tone in this book was ominous and unsettling, but it seems as though it didn't build up to much in the end. I was excited for this book and hoping that it was going to be a hit for me, but it was a tough read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

A sapphic gothic horror that explores themes of toxic relationships and obsession. This book was good but had some pacing issues and I found some of the characters were not fully fleshed out. But if your looking for the vibes this book has it all!

This Vicious Hunger is about a new widow who gets the opportunity to become the assistant to a professor of science. Her rooms overlook a mysterious garden full of poisonous plants, where lives a young woman that Thora becomes gradually obsessed with--and who may just be related to the professor's mysterious experiments.

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. I enjoyed May's first book, Wild and Wicked Things, and I was super into the premise. I love weird, toxic horror-romance! I love dark academia and weird science stuff! There is a lot of really great atmospheric prose in This Vicious Hunger. Unfortunately, outside of some stretches of good writing and a few memorable scenes, it just didn't land for me. The dialogue was disjointed, clunky and out-of-place; the characters were all insufferable; and the "eureka!" moment that the book's plot hinges on was just...silly (I'm sorry, the professor would have thought of that LONG before Thora did!). Now, obviously, in a horror-romance, the characters are not supposed to be good or even likeable, but I found Thora annoying rather than the subtle repulsiveness that I think the author was probably going for, particularly in the way she talked to the other characters. The dialogue needed some serious editing. All of this might have been minor complaints I could get over if the pacing had been tenser and the plot tighter; sadly, the first half of the book is quite slow and the pacing in the second half is clunky. I was disappointed that I didn't fall in love with this, since this kind of thing is usually right down my alley.

WOOOW. This book was such a fantastic read. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, it was so intense and beautiful, and mysterious and romantic. I know the story probably ends there, but I wouldn't be mad to see it continue.


Thora was raised around death, and then she loses her father and then her new husband. Her husband's family decides they rather not keep her and decide to send her to a university where a former colleague of Thora's father has offered a position to learn and be partner's in Botany. Once she's there she starts seeing a woman wander around at midnight in a mysterious garden and is drawn in. Meanwhile, her new friend, Leo, has some mysteries of his own and is wary about Thora spending time with the woman in the Garden.


Francesca May has shocked me in the best way possible, I knew whatever she writes was going to be good, but I had no idea it was going to be this fantastic. I highly recommend this book, This is easily one of my favorite reads of 2025.


(I received this book as a arc)

This had so much potential but unfortunately it didn't come together. Its way too long and everything was very two dimensional. I never felt connected to the characters and the dialogue was, at times, immature. Then we have one poor guy who gets the brunt of the main characters emotional immaturity. I skimmed to the end for the last 50 pages and they were still talking about the same thing.

Eerie, gothic and atmospheric! Absolutely devoured this, or did it devour me? A saphhic fantastical masterpiece

Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice Rating: 🌶

What a wild ride this book was! You meet our main character, Thora who is mourning her husband. She is sent away to the university to study botany under the illustrious Dr. Petaccia. She will discover a gated garden and an elusive girl inside. What starts as curiosity will divulge into obsession, hunger, and so much more. This is overall a fairly dark story, so beware. There is animal cruelty, human experimentation, implied murder, outright murder, scientific vampirism, starvation, hallucinations, suicidal ideation, violence, domestic violence, misogyny and so much blood. I think overall this was a great read and its ending left it open for a second book if the author so chooses. If this sounds up your alley, go check it out!

This novel was an interesting case. I honestly don’t know how to rate it. I really enjoyed reading this book, however there were some complaints to be had, but also the vibes are just so awesome, yet it was also somehow disappointing. Yet good. What a ride.

This was what I sometimes call “a great novel that has some problems”, as opposed to “a bad novel with some redeeming qualities”. This description makes sense to me, and is complimentary.

When I got to about 90% through this novel, I decided that I would give it 5-stars. It has some issues, but it worked for me well enough that I want to give it full marks (even if I’m not sure that I would recommend it? Its strange). Unfortunately though, the ending was wildly disappointing to me so I’m taking away one of those stars. This is the kind of ending that some people might enjoy a lot, but it doesn’t work for me in the slightest:

I realize I haven’t actually told you anything about the book, and honestly, I don’t think I will. Instead, I will leave you with pseudo-review that is just keywords that relate to this novel:

Positive:
Inspired, creative, clever, atmospheric, mysterious(ish), awesome vibes.
Negative:
Drags, repetitive, frustrating, unsatisfying ending.

P.S. There is a romance in this novel, but I would not call this novel a romance. FYI.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free ARC. This honest review was left voluntarily.

This book has gothic, eerie, sapphic vibes, and I was absolutely here for it! There were so many themes explored in this book, like what makes a relationship toxic. Thora is invited to study at a prestigious university by a renowned botanist and medical researcher. She is feeling a bit alone in this world of men. Then she meets Olea. I will say I am not the biggest fan of the miscommunication trope, however, in this case, I think it shows the toxicity of the relationship. Such a great book!

4.5⭐
Gothic, sapphic, sexy...need I say more?

As a new widow, Thora is given an opportunity to learn at an esteemed university thanks to the benevolence of Dr. Petacchia. Upon arriving, Thora begins to realize that things are not all they seem on campus and there are larger things at play, in the shadows.

I'm going to get my one little nitpick out of the way: the world building was a little shaky. While I love the world that Francesca May is introducing, there were certain lines that sort of stood out that jolted me out of the fantasy. For instance, a character says "bingo"; does this fantastical world actually have Bingo? Some of dialogue does border on contemporary sometimes. However! Those by all means are NOT reasons to skip this book.

Dark, moody, sexy; this book was Gothic and sapphic in every possible way. The tension was palpable, and the plot was amazingly well-constructed; just as I thought I had an idea of where the story was going, May rips the rug out from under me and proves me wrong. Such an amazing romp that - as I sit and write this review - makes me want to reread it all over again!

A huge sincere thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for access to this ARC!

Pub Date: Aug 26 2025

interestingly atmospheric, and the characters were (mostly) well-developed (the villain, less so), but parts of the plot felt to be disconnected and chekhov's guns were never fired. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

I had high hopes for this one and really wanted to like it. Sapphic, gothic, and inspired by Rappaccini's Daughter (a favorite short story of mine), it had all the hallmarks of a favorite read. However, I feel like the story went on for too long and tried to do too much. There were so many climactic events that any sense of suspense and anticipation was lost (how many times were these characters near death?), and I found myself losing interest. And as for the ending--I didn't sign up to read a series, and as far as I can tell nothing about the book's marketing points toward this book not being a standalone title. The ending was anticlimactic and wholly unsatisfying, and if there are indeed no plans for a sequel, then the ending is even worse. Zero resolution. If the author was set on the story playing out as it did, I think this book would have worked out better if it was actually two books. Like I said, I felt it was trying to do too much and the story was spread thin. The character development also felt very circular--Thora and Olea were stuck in the same cycle of arguments and did not move forward or backward. It made their interactions tiring. Olea weirdly felt like an entirely different character in the latter half of the book, but without any kind of personal growth or development to justify it.
The book started out much stronger and seemed like it knew where it was headed--not the case for the last 40% or so.

beyond excited to see this books hit my inbox- this is one of my most anticipated books of 2025 and i will be sure to post my review on all retailers!! 💞

Let me start with a couple positives. I think Olea as the secondary FMC was interesting. Her layers of being smart, but not curious, strong, but weak-willed allowed me to understand why Thora would gravitate so easily towards her. Especially in part one as we unravel the mystery of who Olea really is, there's an element of seduction that gets revealed and that addition really works. I also appreciated the way Leo was crafted, not falling into a very typical male role in a sapphic story. He was a true friend and while flawed in his own way, cared about Thora's well-being.

So now, some not so great parts. I understand what Francesca May wanted to get across with the toxic relationship between Thora and Olea, how it's difficult in any relationship (especially one so intense like theirs) to untangle love vs lust. I could understand that there was supposed to be a commentary on selfishness and greed, and the desperation for women in higher academia. But just because I could recognize those themes in the story doesn't mean they were done well.

So much of this book was repetition, with ideas, dialogue, and character dynamics. Thora's narration discusses the same things without coming to different conclusions until the plot needed her to, normally at the expense of making her look and feel stupid. As our FMC, I struggled to understand if she was written intentionally making bad choices to show her naive side or if that was just overlooking character development. Because of this, the pacing felt very off and when I was hit with a "Part Two" I shocked because I thought I was almost done. If we had switched perspectives during this part to Olea, I genuinely think I would've loved it a lot more. Perhaps that's just because I'm much more inclined to Olea as a character. I'm all for 'support women's rights and wrongs', but this was more like trying to support a woman missing every single sign imaginable.

As a short note on the worldbuilding, I knew this was set in an alternative Italy around 19th century, maybe a little earlier, but the dialogue vs the prose threw me off so much while reading. May would write long poetry-styled prose and then follow it up with things like "staring down the barrel" which, while from the 19th century, originated from the "wild west".

I have deeply mixed feelings about <i>This Vicious Hunger</i>. It is slow, tense, and creeping sapphic gothic horror, exploring hunger and toxicity in both the literal and metaphorical sense. Success, love, fame, belonging—for women that are forbidden from such wants, hunger comes at a great cost. Moreover, the book explores toxicity in relationships: what happens when desire becomes selfishness? When success outweighs all else? When you believe you know what is best for another? The book pits love against academic valor, twisting it all in a botanical horror where plants are both refuge and toxin. There are a lot of really interesting ideas at play in this book, though I struggled with the pacing and worldbuilding, particularly with a somewhat unsatisfying ending.

Thora, daughter of an undertaker and recently widowed of a brief and unhappy marriage, is at the mercy of her in-laws: she has no money, and has no desire to fall back into the cage of marriage with another. Salvation comes when she is invited to study at a prestigious university by a renowned botanist and medical researcher—a friend of her deceased father whom she has never met. She is swept into the world of academia, the lone woman in world of men. She finds solace only in the garden outside of her window, and the strange woman, Olea, who lives inside. Caught between her pursuit of academic success and her greedy fascination and lustful friendship with Olea, Thora must navigate a world which seeks to cage her and desires that could not be more difficultly intertwined.

The tone of this book is fascinating; it achieves a great sense of gothic horror. It never feels as though all is right with the world. The reader is always left with the sense of darkness brewing in the background, of something that could go wrong at any second. This, combined with a really fascinating take on plant-based horror, was fascinating. I loved the use of toxicity, of poisonous plants and an overgrown garden, as both danger and refuge. While the romance is certainly its own breed of toxic across the book, I also really enjoyed much of it: rife with miscommunication and flawed protagonists, the book presents haunting and compelling metaphors of hunger and desire. In this, I do think the book was a success. I finished the book feeling like I had a lot to think about within its symbolism and relationships.

That being said, I also struggled with this book. It’s really slow and meandering. I’m familiar enough with gothic horror to expect a degree of tense, deliberate pacing. However, I felt that this book was brought down by the sheer amount of repetition and the feeling that the plot often just wasn’t moving forward. Ideas are repeated a lot; the characters often have very circular thought and behavior patterns. While I know that this was intentional to a degree, the book just feels too long. It was a 6-7 hour read for me and probably could have been a 5-6 hour read and achieved all of the same things. It takes a lot for the plot with Olea to really begin. I found this to be especially exacerbated in the ending: the book is so slow, so meandering, so repetitive, <i>especially</i> in the end. I don’t want to say much to avoid spoilers, but a big part of the ending is deliberately off-page and ambiguous. While I can tell it is a deliberate decision to be on-theme with the rest of the book, it was also just frustrating after an already slow reading experience.

Another minor nitpick is that the world is clearly a fantasy world: made-up country names and places, made-up deities, its own folklore. However, these ideas were used so sparingly that, when they were brought it, it almost felt like a mistake. I think it needed to be fleshed out to really have impact. For example, Thora is the daughter of an undertaker and has spent a lot of time around death rites. The death rites are modeled on deities unique to the world. We hear references to these deities and their myth no more than a handful of times throughout the book. With death and the ritual of death is so important to the story, it feels like something is missing when it’s built on a fantasy world that is so swept into the background. We hear one folklore in the book which is clearly meant used symbolically for the characters, but it feels so obvious and intrusive because the worldbuilding is otherwise nonexistent. I normally love the use of folklore, but in this book it ended up feeling more like the reader wasn’t trusted to see the themes of the book than something organically built into the story.

In the end, I’m giving this book 3.5 stars rounded down. There’s a lot I liked about it, and a lot of the themes were explored successfully. However, I still just struggled with some aspects of the book. I would recommend it for a reader interested in sapphic gothic horror who is looking for a book with a slow pace and a lot of complex and intriguing metaphor to think about long after the book is done.

I very much enjoyed this beautifully rich and Gothic novel. The pacing was excellent, she really made you sit in the atmosphere and emotion on every page.

I really appreciated having a slow flowing story that let the tension and obsession slowly build instead of rushing to the exciting parts. How I wouldn't give to be in such an academic setting even if I have to put up with so many men and an overbearing gothic atmosphere.

I do have to say that the dynamic was frustrating and miscommunication is not a favorite trope but I will still always read about women obsessed with each other and all of their wrongs.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for this ARC!

Thank you, Net Galley and Orbit, for the opportunity to read and review this arc in advance.

I had thoroughly enjoyed the themes of feverish obsession and desire that had pervaded throughout the novel. The gothic academia setting aided in further bringing these qualities to the forefront. The novel had more of a medium/slow pacing that gradually led you along through the progression of Thora and Olea’s obsession with not only one another, but with their morbid fascination with knowledge and their research. The mysteries behind the garden and Olea had been intriguing and had me wanting to know more as they unraveled. A gripe I did have with the novel though, was how it felt as though there were things left unanswered that left me wanting to have more closure after I had finished the novel. Despite that issue, overall, I really enjoyed the novel and would highly recommend it to anyone that is looking for a Sapphic gothic fantasy that features a dark obsessive all-consuming passion between the women, their academic pursuits, and their innermost desires.

I do like that this is sapphic and we need more books of this genre in the community. That being said, I was not in love with this book. The writing is good, but the premise is not executed in a way I love. The cover is pretty though.

Epistemophile, philomath, or scholar. All describe those with an obsession, enchantment or fascination towards learning. This novel takes that obsession and adds the allure of secrecy, the attraction of power with a helping of desire. Its dark, its mysterious, its vengeful and beautifully pernicious. So much potential right.

The botanical horror/magic aspect is the main reason I wanted to dive into this read but it doesn’t really even show up until well into the novel. Then once it shows up its just ok. I had the same feeling about the romance between Thora and Olea, it was just there. Thora just does not see capable of making any kind of memorable relationship because her attempt just fall flat for me. I found myself more interested in the plants. The story finally picks up and gets interesting about 65% in. The last third of the book is what saved it for me.

Overall this book ends up being all atmosphere with a bit of sapphic romance. It’s pacing can be slow at times but I appreciated the details those portions of the book added to the story. There was also times that I wished Thora was less predictable with a little more personality but I see the point in making her character appear malleable.