This was a really interesting dive into hunger, desire, and want in the human condition. Definitely worth the read!

This book is a moody slow burn that is overall a good read. However I felt that the sapphic relationship was severely lacking and I just wasn't interested in them at all.

This Vicious Hunger is a beautifully atmospheric read that drew me in with its gothic tone and dark romantic undercurrents. Francesca May has crafted a story that feels both intimate and otherworldly, rooted in grief and longing, but blooming into something far more twisted and alluring.
Thora is a compelling protagonist: recently widowed, repressed, and aching for purpose and connection. Her descent into the world of Olea—mysterious, ethereal, and dangerous—felt like watching a flower slowly open and wilt under too much sun. Their relationship is intense, fragile, and edged with obsession in a way that fits the gothic tone perfectly. The way May uses botany and poison as both literal and symbolic elements throughout the story is particularly striking.
This book leans more on mood and emotion than plot, so if you’re looking for fast pacing or high stakes, it might feel a little slow in places. But if you love slow-burn queer romance, morally gray characters, and a sense of creeping dread wrapped in beautiful prose, this is for you. Dark, dreamy, and just a little bit dangerous, This Vicious Hunger is a botanical gothic tale that lingers like the scent of night-blooming flowers.

The build up was amazing I was engrossed in the first part of the book. The atmosphere that the author created was gothic and mysterious. I ended finishing this book in a day. I do have to say the ending did disappoint. I feel like I was expecting more to happen and it made the last hundred pages hard to get through. There was this huge build up that I felt like never got resolved.

DNF
I honestly got bored. The beginning is really slow and the character isnt very likable. I read another one of Francesca May's books and it was slow and similar flavoring and didnt really enjoy it. It was for book club so thats why i finished reading it.

Simply just not for me

Well, this was disappointing :/ It's not that my expectations were ridiculously high, it's that this book promised so much. It promised a tale of sapphic obsession and poisonous love, all wrapped in a moonlit embrace. It kind of did all of that, it just didn't do it well.

Because this book was so! boring! So many plot points just feel useless. Why did we spend the first quarter with her dad and mourning? Don't care. Why did Leo exist at all? He did nothing other than show up and say useless words. Half of this book felt filler. And the bits that were important happened so late that I didn't care.

And the whole love story just felt empty. Don't get me wrong, I eat up sapphic obsession every time. Give me lesbians who are in love with each other an unhealthy amount! But, would it be too much to ask that they actually have a conversation? Neither of these guys had any personality. They just kinda existed near each other and then fucked. Snooze!

Also, the entire end of this just came out of nowhere. I had all the twists guessed, but the way they came about was nonsensical. I really wish I'd enjoyed this, but sadly, I did not.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Quite literally toxic lesbians.

Gothic, academic, and very supportive of women's wrongs, this book had me hooked very early on. I enjoyed Francesca May's first book though with some caveats, and this book shows her growth as a writer immediately - it's beautifully written and immediately enthralling.

While this is set in a world not dissimilar from an English historical world, the key differences, such as the death rites, were laid out early on and very well-done. Beyond that, the settings came to life, especially Olea's garden.

Where this book focused - and where it shone - was the characters and their relationships between one another. It's best to go into this without knowing much so you can discover the world and discover Olea alongside Thora, but if you're not a character-driven reader, then this may be a bit frustrating for you. If you are a character-driven reader, then can I interest you in sapphics in a poison garden?

I think this would have worked a bit better as a standalone, perhaps - though if you tell me it was a standalone, then I think the ending should have been reworked slightly, so there's just no pleasing me on this matter.

Overall, a captivating and fantastic entry into what is poised to be a toxic lesbian summer.

Thank you to the publisher, Redhook, and to NetGalley for the

Thank you to Netgalley, Orbit books, and Francesca May for the ARC Ebook. I was sucked in right from the beginning, immediately lost in the gothic world May laid out for her readers. Thora Grieve is a young widow given an opportunity to study botany at her father's old college, where she sees a mysterious night gardener tending a strange locked garden deep into the night. I loved the rich descriptions and the excellent pacing of the book, as well as the unpredictable plot. The ending felt a little abrupt but not to the extent that I felt cheated or dismayed, just sorry it was over before certain things were resolved. I will be adding her other book to my list of books to read.

Amazing execution of the gothic fantasy genre. I was swept away by the atmosphere and entrapped by the characters' unquenchable thirst. The atmosphere was perfection, and it tied into the desperation and isolation of the plot beautifully. This is one of my favourite types of sapphic yearning stories, and I had a great time being entrapped by this story. I do feel that the ending is a bit abrupt and feels unfinished, so it removed the smallest amount of my enjoyment from the book as a whole. I would quickly devour a sequel, as it is sure to be as haunting and beautiful as this book was.

I wasn’t connecting with the main character. The prose are lovely and evocative but this book isn’t for me.

This Vicious Hunger by Francesca May is a luscious gothic tale about poisonous plants and forbidden love.

Thora has been consumed by death her entire life. After the sudden death of her husband, she is offered the opportunity to study botany at a prestigious university. Thora finds herself drawn to the mysterious locked garden home to unusual plants and Olea, the strange caretaker of the garden who she becomes obsessed with. When Thora apprentices under a famed botanist who is seeking a death defying cure, she becomes entangled in a dark and dangerous plot, one involving blood and all consuming passions.

With a decadent prose whisking me away to an alternative 19th century Italy (unnamed in the story), I was overwhelmed by the sensory descriptions that intoxicated me, not unlike the characters in this sensuous story. Dark glamour oozed from the pages, staining the plot with its seductive atmosphere. Thora was a fascinating character, ruinous and lustful adding to the toxic relationships explored in the story. I loved the originality of the setting and location and the fantastical herbalism. I have read many books about poison gardens, but This Vicious Hunger is the best I have read. The dangers of science and forbidden romances mirrored each other in the story with their high stakes and potential deadly consequences.

In many ways I believe the poisonous plants were a metaphor to explore the addictiveness of romance and the perilousness of choice. There was an almost claustrophobic quality to the story with a feeling of being trapped- by circumstance, time, and dependency. The insatiable hunger for freedom and rebirth created a palpable tension that burrowed deep within the story, expressing the unquenchable desires of the characters. It has been a while since I have read a book whose plot is infused with that much emotion and angst. On a personal note, the Sapphic and erotic elements did not need to be that descriptive. I feel that alluding to or implying the scenes would have created even more tension, which would have paid homage to the Gothic essence of the story more.

For fans of dark botany and decadent gothic literature. This Vicious Hunger by Francesca May will have you yearning for more.

Gothic and intriguing. The sapphic relationship develops slowly and realistically. The work with plants, creation, brewing, crafting with the cast of other characters adds to the academic, gothic mystery enriching atmosphere. The tone is very classic and wry. It does drag but it’s lovely.

*Thank you F. May and Redhook for the, This Vicious Hunger ARC. My opinions are my own.

if you looked up the definition of gothic fantasy, it would just be a picture of this book.
add in slow burn and this is a feast fit for a king (me, of course)

This Vicious Hunger delivers everything I want from a gothic fantasy: obsession, weird science, sapphic tension, and a creeping sense that things are about to go very, very wrong. Thora is such a compelling main character—grieving, isolated, and desperate for purpose—and watching her spiral deeper into the world of poisons, plants, and Olea was completely gripping.

The relationship between Thora and Olea walks the line between romantic and unsettling in a way that kept me hooked. The setting feels like a decaying greenhouse—moody, claustrophobic, and full of dangerous beauty.

This one reminded me of The Death of Jane Lawrence or Crimson Peak, but queerer and with better pacing. If you're into gothic stories about women losing their grip in the name of knowledge and love, you’ll fly through this.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I was enthralled by the first half of this book. It did gothic very well, and I loved the interplay of longing, hunger, lust, and ambition. I was also really engaged by the plot, and invested in seeing how things would play out. The second half, however, was somewhat disappointing. The pacing in the second act slowed down, with a lot of the scenes being repetitive. It also completely gave up its sense of science or academia, and while it was never particularly rigorous in those areas, I did enjoy the “botanicallness”—I invented a word, move over, Shakespeare—that the first half brought. Lastly, the ending was abrupt and not very satisfying. I was under the impression that this was a standalone book, but it feels so unfinished that it reads more like the first installment of a duology. That being said, I enjoyed the first half of the book and the writing enough that I would probably read this author’s work in the future.

I have no doubts that fans of a slow burn with gothic vibes will eat this book up, and normally I would be one of them. It just didn’t stick for me. I was loving it and then towards the middle the pacing lagged a bit for me.

Arc review ✨

All the sapphic gothic vibes with this one and it was definitely giving. With that being said, I am still not 100% sure how I’m rating this one.. I really liked it overall I think so I’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 I’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!

Overall I would say that I’ll definitely read on. Hopefully we will get a great happily ever after 🖤

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for a review!

Francesca May authors a novel that satiates a hunger for poisonous gardens, sapphic love, and the gothic diction so elaborately written you will not put this down. Soaking this novel in word for word satiates a desire that dives into the reality of first time sapphic relationships. Do we feel guilty for revoking our heteronormative appearances when we become the toxicity in sapphic narratives? I think these novel answers that question from a perspective of thirsting for something more and always needing to find more to fulfill that craving.
Such a vibrant description that really sets this fantasy apart from others. From the darkness of the garden to between the protagonist thighs – the descriptions are professionally written with eloquence and dainty precision. So much action occurs without it happening simultaneously. Take your time reading each decorated line to truly unravel the horrors of coming to terms with our desires. What is truly the hunger for knowledge or research or at the core what do we gain from it?
The cover presents an antiquated anticipation of what the garden will have the audience explore. This was an absolute must to utterly understand the deception of the human condition. The comparison of the human condition with a garden expresses the ways in which delicacies no longer manifest in our frame of mind and they then become twisted for overconsumption. This garden is beautiful but becomes deadly in the hands of too much satiation! A steamy lesbian romance with a hint of toxicity – but a well-written one at that.
The garden flowers dying are a metaphor for the grace that runs away when we forget how to ground our satiation with bits of knowledge at a time. Overconsumption takes over our thoughts, our actions, and our mental state. This narrative is a notable example of how the human condition overwhelms itself and becomes the monster in the end. Carmilla minus the vampires meets a botanist student on Dorian Gray fashion. Thank you Net Galley and Redhook for the opportunity to review this digital arc in advance.

I thought the book had beautiful characters and amazing detail to story and world building. I love plot and characters and the main character was really good. I love cover of the book and the style of writing for the book.