I was here for the vibes and sapphic horror, but This Vicious Hunger was a little disappointing in it's execution.

Sapphic horror plant girlies. This was cute and gross, haunting and ethereal, and I really appreciated it!

I will absolutely read any other sapphic books Francesca May puts out in the future. She did a really great job of making this garden and the girls within it feel otherworldly and magical and dark and dangerous. This was a wild ride, and I was absolutely buckled in and here for it.

The only negatives were 1) the first chapters before we get to Gay Gardens, while appropriate and effective in setting the stage, were slow and harder to get into, and 2) I don't have a poor communication kink, so Olea and Thora's dynamic got on my nerves sometimes. Although, I will say, it wasn't always without reason.

And, I completely ate it up anyway. I would totally read a sequel or companion novella to this. While the ending does wrap up everything well enough, I'm still left wanting to see what happens next.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for the ARC! My favorite ARC to date!

I’m a sucker for the dark gothic vibes especially when it’s a sapphic book! So was very excited to read this and I honestly really enjoyed it

It did start out slow plot wise but I found the academia setting and Thora as a main character to make up for that.

francesca may does it again, folks! i’ve been a fan ever since i read her debut, wild and wicked things, all the way back in 2022 when it first came out (which, by the way, if you haven’t read that already you know what you need to do). i loved the gothic, spooky, sapphic vibes of that book and i’m so happy that i got to tap into that sphere again with this new one!

first of all, i loved the worldbuilding, especially surrounding the funeral rites and mourning practices since thora was born into that world. it had the perfect balance of feeling realistic while also bringing us into a different world from our own. this is something that i feel like she’s done well with both of her works — the setting has some base in the familiarity of our own history (such as the gatsby-inspired events of her first book, or the gothic-victorian vibe going on here) while leveling up the story with magic and fantastical elements of her own. it’s so good!!

it’s hard to fully describe how i feel about thora and olea without spoiling what happens, but there’s something soooo personal to me about bloody messy poisonous sapphics. the overarching plot does get a little slow around the 75% mark or so, but when i realized what was happening toward the end it honestly made up for it. don’t go into this expecting something very fast-paced and i think you’ll be just as pleased as i was! i can’t wait to see whatever francesca may does next.

Thank you to NetGalley, Francesca May, and Orbit Books for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars

This was such a captivating story. I was hooked from the very beginning. I had no idea where the story was going to go. But I enjoyed where it ended up. I love a book with a sapphic romance, a dark academia setting, and supporting women’s wrongs. It’s set in a time when women aren’t allowed to go to university. It shakes everything up when Thora gets to go. I will say that the ending was abrupt. I’m assuming it’s a standalone. I just wanted to know what Thora was going to do next. Overall, enjoyed this book. I would highly recommend it! Please, look up TWs.

*very light spoilers below*

Man, this sounded so awesome and turned out to be a letdown. It was all over the place in terms of character, plot, and writing.

The story starts with nice worldbuilding about the grief rituals of this world, which then doesn’t really get used for anything important. I was excited to see what else was in store, but then there was hardly any more worldbuilding and several things that took me out of it. I didn’t really get why women weren’t allowed to study at the university, except this one random women who has a letter, and I would have loved more backstory on why the society is so (clumsily) sexist. The narrator notes that plants have “Latin names” and describes a “Franco meringue” smell. But this book clearly does not take place on Earth as we know it, so these seemed like things an editor should have caught.

I noted similar sloppiness of the writing, which had occasional moments of loveliness but was more often anachronistic and clunky, especially in the second half or so of the book. For instance, we get a “‘Sorry,’ I said apologetically,” along with similar bad dialogue tags, and characters keep asking each other if they’re “okay” and putting “fuck” into every sentence. I have zero problem with profanity if it makes sense to the characters and world, but the book had a renaissance-era setting and started with more flowery language, so it took me out of the story.

The characters were nonsensical. Our protagonist is weak even when she says she is strong, and near the end of the book insists she has changed to be stronger because otherwise the reader wouldn’t have noticed. She plans to get close to her love interest to steal things from the garden, until the author realizes that another character is bad for having done that, and suddenly this motivation is never alluded to again.

She falls into insta-lust with the love interest, who is just a sexy mysterious cardboard cutout until the narrator gets close enough to her, and she suddenly develops a strong will and something resembling a personality so that the plot can grope blindly for a new direction. (Don’t get too attached to this newfound characterization, because her resolve will ebb as the plot needs it to.) Let’s not forget poor Leo, who is just a nice dude who exists to get emotionally beat up and to provide an opportunity for the heroine to exchange cringy banter. And then the villain is cartoonishly evil who only lacked a mustache to twirl, despite a feeble attempt at an explanatory backstory.

And with characters like that, could there be much hope for a believable plot? It slowed to a crawl around 60% and just meandered through a bunch of crises, stupid decisions, lots of sex (which honestly wasn’t written too badly so props for that), and weird fake science that doesn’t get much explanation when it works (or doesn’t?). The main characters, particularly the protagonist, have almost no agency and almost never move the plot forward. The narrator is also frustratingly slow to figure things out. And then the ending was unsatisfying, hinting at a story that might have been a lot more interesting. Sequel bait, perhaps? I don’t think I’ll bite.

I save 2-star reviews for books I’m not excited to pick back up to finish. I kept reading because this one had SO much potential and I wanted to see where it was going, but it needed another draft or two to work out the kinks.

CW: Spousal Abuse, Intimate Partner Violence, Gore (Blood, Wounds), Unethical Experimentation, Child Neglect, Gaslighting, Manipulation, Misogyny, Starvation, Animal Cruelty

May’s novel drips with gothic beauty. Her descriptions of poisonous gardens, suffocating, misogynistic society, and cravings for knowledge, food, and blood are all fantastic. However, what killed this book for me was the pacing. It just dragged, only rarely hitting exciting marks before beginning to drag again. The abrupt ending is thus not only unexpected but unsatisfying. I’m not sure if this book is intended to stand alone or be part of a series – either way, the ending is too abrupt. If this is a standalone book, it does not wrap up the plot threads enough. If it is part of a series – and doesn’t tell the reader that going in – that just feels like a rug pull.

Thank you, NetGalley and Obit Books, for this ARC.

I LOVE a sapphic dark academia! Unfortunately I struggled to connect to the characters. The pacing also felt disjointed to me.

I’m a sucker for dark academia, botanical gothic vibes and sapphic characters. The atmospheric prose and beautifully built world worked for me. While some readers might find Thora and Olea difficult to connect with, I personally enjoyed the built up of obsessive tension between them, and I enjoy a story with characters that are less concerned with being “palatable”. I do feel that there were some pacing issues at points- there were some moments that felt like the plot was stalling, particularly towards the middle and end. Overall, I would recommend this book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I’ll admit that the beginning of this book took me awhile to get through. The author built a beautiful world, but the FMC is just extremely unlikable. Once Olea came into the picture I was so intrigued by both her and the garden I couldn’t put it down. The last half of the book is fantastic! I still don’t like the FMC much, but would definitely pick up the second book in the series if the author writes a follow up. Definitely worth the read - especially if you’re into dark academia and/or sapphic romances.

This was my first book by Francesca May, and I really enjoyed it!

This Vicious Hunger follows Thora, who is recently widowed, as she gets the opportunity she has been dreaming of: to study botany at the university. There, she finds Olea. A mysterious woman who tends to a locked garden at night. What starts as curiosity delves into obsession and infatuation.

The chemistry between Thora and Olea is full of longing. They both long for companionship and connection, but there are secrets and a niggling feeling that something is not quite right. I loved the imagery and setting of the book. It was written so well. The pacing was a bit slow in some places and fast in others! I was ready for the drama to begin. When it did, it was over super fast.

I can't wait for more. Thank you, NetGalley and Obit Books, for this ARC.

This Vicious Hunger by Francesca May is a moody, gothic tale with a strong sense of atmosphere and a dark, magical edge. Set against a backdrop of decadent parties, hidden secrets, and forbidden magic, the novel draws readers into a lush and shadowy world that feels both historical and fantastical.

What worked well for me was the rich setting and the eerie, almost seductive tone that carries through the story. May excels at crafting a sense of place—each scene feels like it could be painted in deep, dramatic strokes. The themes of desire, revenge, and power were compelling, and the sapphic romance at the heart of the book was a refreshing inclusion.

However, the pacing felt uneven at times. The story starts strong but loses momentum in the middle, with some plot points feeling repetitive or drawn out. I also found it difficult to fully connect with the main characters—they’re intriguing, but often feel emotionally distant or underdeveloped in ways that lessened the impact of key moments.

Overall, This Vicious Hunger has a lot of promise and will definitely appeal to readers who enjoy slow-burn gothic fantasies with morally complex heroines. While it didn’t quite hit all the marks for me, it’s an ambitious novel with a unique voice and plenty of atmosphere.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This Vicious Hunger by Francesca May is a beautifully written gothic dark academia horror. I enjoyed May’s writing style so much. I felt that the pacing was perfect, it wasn’t too slow and it went at a medium pace. I was sucked in immediately to the story. The romance and love story? Toxic toxic lesbians, but that’s what makes the best sapphic love stories! The obsession and the pining was immaculate. The setting was beautiful and enchanting. Instead of a mysterious and spooky forests, we are given a garden that is so much more than what meets the eye. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters. I was very interested in how each of the women mentioned in this story would deal with the cards that were dealt during this time. I can’t get over how beautiful the setting and writing was. I need more of these types of stories!

This Vicious Hunger is set to be published August 26, 2025.

<b>Thank you, NetGalley and Redhook Publishing for this ARC. </b>

This book hardly made it to 2 stars for me. I wanted to love this. <b>SO BAD.</b> The premise held such promise but was poorly, poorly executed. I am a sucker for gothic academia and I bow to any sapphic romance... My first immediate thought when starting this book was how utterly disconnected I felt from the main female character, Thora. The depth of Thora was limited, which didn't help the situation. This story progressed at a snail's pace. It dragged, and sadly, I was relieved when it was done.

I was really excited about this book. I love the dark, nature related horror. Unfortunately the pacing was off for me. They lost me in the last 10 chapters because I felt like things were dragging on. I did feel this earlier on in the book, but there was enough to draw me in and keep me reading. I ended up dnfing this book because I found myself getting tired of the slow pacing and repetitive nature of the book. I would still recommend this book to a very specific audience, but it ended up being too slow for me.

This Vicious Hunger is a moody triumph of gothic fantasy that blends dark academia, historical magic, sapphic romance, and slow-burning dread into a poison-laced bouquet of desire, ambition, and secrets.

Set in an alternate Victorian-esque London where magic is as old and tangled as the city’s roots, Francesca May builds a lush and lyrical world of secret societies, dangerous knowledge, and forbidden cravings. From the very first page, the writing is elegant and immersive—painting a landscape dripping with atmosphere, moral complexity, and that signature slow, creeping tension that gothic fans live for.

At the heart of the story is Thora, a protagonist drawn into the toxic beauty of Olea’s world—a woman, a garden, and a legacy shrouded in secrets. Their romance is as thorny as it is tender: full of unspoken history, mutual fascination, and the kind of morally gray entanglements that taste like ruin and revelation. May doesn’t write queerness as a twist or revelation—it simply is, a natural part of a world where sapphic longing is as deadly as it is beautiful. It’s refreshingly unapologetic.

If you’re here for fast-paced action or a tight plot, this may feel deliberately slow in places. The narrative leans heavily on mood, character, and emotional depth, rather than twists or urgency. But for those who love complex relationships, poisonous longing, and richly crafted settings (especially a literal poison garden!), this book delivers. The tension between characters, the careful unraveling of trust, and the ever-present undercurrent of danger keep the story sharp beneath its beautiful prose.

All the sapphic gothic vibes with this one and it was definitely giving. With that being said, I am still not 100% sure how l'm rating this one.. I really liked it overall I think so l'll just go with my heart here and round it up. I did feel like it was a lot of build up primarily and maybe that's why I find myself a bit torn on how to rate.
So l'll just start with what I liked-
I absolutely loved the setting, all the bits with poisons and botany were great. I really could visualize everything well. I found myself hooked to the story for sure even though sometimes it was a bit slow but my heart went out to our main couple. I had no idea where it was going and I was along for the ride.
However, right when I was like, yeah, finally! Let's do something about this!.... it ends! So that's why I say it was mainly a lot of build up. That's what is hard about ebooks haha, I did not see that abrupt ending coming as I did not check page count at all! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for a review!

Unfortunately, this was not a fit for me. I couldn't connect with the characters or story line. Thank you to Netgalley for this opportunity to read this e-arc.

This Vicious Hunger
by Francesca May
Pub Date: Aug 26 2025

Thora Grieve finds herself destitute and an outcast after the sudden death of her husband, but a glimmer of hope arrives when a family friend offers her the chance to study botany under a famed professor. Once at the university, Thora becomes entranced by a mysterious young woman, Olea, who emerges each night to tend to the plants in the private garden below her window.

Hungry for connection, Thora befriends Olea through the garden gate and their relationship quickly and intensely blossoms. Intoxicated, Thora throws herself into finding a cure for Olea's ailment and sinks deeper into a world of beauty, poison, and obsession. She's finally found the freedom to pursue her darkest desires, but will it be worth the price?

This Vicious Hunger by Francesca May is a beautiful and intoxicating mix of historical fantasy and dark academia, with a little murder mystery, and morally gray romance. Set in an alternate Victorian-esque London where magic is infused in the proverbial soil. May crafts a world that is rich and steeped in queer longing, hidden motives and the deep rooted power of knowledge.

The story follows a FMC that is drawn into a web of family legacies, secret societies, and forbidden desires. May’s prose is lyrical, painting a moody and gloomy, gothic landscape that perfectly matches the story’s themes of ambition, deep hunger for power, love, and even identity.

At first I thought this was going to be a sort of "coming-out story"...but to my pleasant surprise, it’s a story where queerness simply is, and that feels both refreshing and.. well, normal. The character dynamics are viciously complex, especially the strained relationships and the slow unraveling of trust - there is this constant doubt glooming in the back of ones mind.
The pacing slows in a few places and some plot elements feel a bit "thick", but the emotional depth and overall world building make up for it. Fans of "The Atlas Six" will feel right at home here.

Francesca May created a gloomy and atmospheric tale that will have its roots deeply seeded in your imagination, long after its last page. Thank you to May, Orbit Books and Netgalley for this adventure!