House of Hunger

What a great read!! Dark, bloody, and intoxicating! I had no idea I could enjoy gothic horror this much, to me it was impossible to put down! I had a lot of fun with this book!

⭐️3.75⭐️

This was a very quick and enjoyable read! I liked the gothic eerie setting and the romance in the book. I did feel as though the pacing was weird with such a short book there seemed to be too much world building and boring filler until the climax at the end which was very rushed and to me not fully fleshed out, because of the pacing the book didn’t have that much depth and the chapters fell flat. But I overall enjoyed the plot, the politics of the house of hunger and taboo nature of being a blood maid.

Fav Quotes <3

Marion had heard it said, many times over, that mothers would rather see their daughters become harlots on the streets of Prane than bloodmaids in the North. And many a southern priest had preached from the pulpit about the immortal dangers of bleeding, the toll that dark work took on the body and soul.

Raul kept pleading and bleeding on the floor, his hand a finger’s length from Marion’s feet. But she didn’t move to help him. Instead, she turned her back on him, on the slum house and the only home she’d ever known—which was, in earnest, no home at all—took to the streets, and ran.

“I’ll let you in on a little secret that will serve you well in the North: The whole world runs on blood. Who has good blood. Who has bad blood. Whose blood is shed and whose isn’t. That’s what it all comes down to in the end.

Marion recalled the story Lisavet had told her. The one about the founder of the House of Hunger, who’d lived in the caves it was built on. She remembered the girl he’d fallen in love with, who’d satisfied his lust with her blood. Enna, the first bloodmaid to ever live.

Marion screamed, her mouth an open wound, life bleeding from it. Lisavet arched over her, jaw unhinged—devouring and digesting her years and life and youth. There was something close to fear in the young Countess’ eyes, and Marion realized then that she was dying and Lisavet was every bit as powerless to stop it as she. The power within her, primordial, eternally starving, would never be slaked.

3.75 ⭐

You know those books where you don’t have the highest of expectations but you want your reading experience to go a certain way so you come out at least liking the book? That was me with House of Hunger. I knew going in I wasn’t expecting it to be my new favourite of the year or anything, but I still had some expectations for it. Luckily this hasn’t stopped me from wanting to read Henderson’s other book, The Year of the Reaper (whenever I get to that). Either I like/love it or I know not to read Henderson’s future books.

I should’ve marked this a Did-Not-Finish rather than slogging through the book and disliking it all the way through. I originally rated it 3 stars but then after thinking about and it’s now a 1 star for me. Which also proves to me I should’ve stopped reading early on or when I first started realising it wasn’t going my way – which there were so many parts where I had the urge to stop reading it. But I didn’t and that was a bit of a mistake – whoops.

Both covers were just absolutely stunning. I had the review copy with the UK cover but the US cover is also amazing. The cover (both of them) were definitely why I wanted to read it. Unfortunately the cover did not make up for everything else. Which is sad because they’re both so gorgeous!

I sort of liked Marion as a character. I started off interested in her journey and then she met Lisavet and everything immediately went down for me (whoopsie!). I would’ve rated higher if the plot just matched the characters? I don’t know if this makes sense but to me Marion was written (a bit) better than the plot. And I only mention her because I disliked all the other characters so much that even though I didn’t like much of anything, Marion was basically my favourite by default because she was the best… of sort of the worst.

I don’t like books that only start picking up – pace or plot – right at the end. For House of Hunger, to me at least, the “real” action I think was only after the 80% percent. Which is not what I want in a book at all – especially when it’s a book that I’m disliking all the way through.

I can’t even bring myself to say like one nice thing about Lisavet and the representation surrounding her because I disliked her so so much. Obviously that’s how the character is meant to be written but I was reading reviews and others were raving about how much they loved the characters and the represention was good. Because you had me sitting and thinking “good representation? WHERE”. Did these readers purchase a special edition of this book where Lisavet was interesting? I didn’t find her compelling or interesting or likeable in the slightest.

I know that because this is a Gothic novel certain traits of the genre are expected from it. Specifically a slower pace – which means I should have expected this. But this isn’t always the case with other Gothic novels so maybe it was me, maybe it was just this book – like I say a lot – you can’t always win with every book.