The Literary Dismemberment

      This might be my favorite horror novel of 2025. Definitely made my top 10 favorite horror books of all time.      From the first page to the last, I was hooked. I needed to know what was happening. Why was our main character bu ried alive? Did she actually die? What is happening on this island?     Our main character, Mara, digs herself out of her own grave, then breaks into our second main character's artist's stay cottage. Delcan finds a woman, who is supposed to be dead, raiding his fridge.     It's a shocking way to start a book.     The setting is an island off the coast of Ireland. It's a tiny island where locals are reluctant to interact with outsiders.     The book is steeped in Irish folklore and legend. It's a gory, amazing take on these mythical creatures. They are terrifying. It's beautifully well done.      As we go through Mara's story, she and the readers know something is wrong. Sh...

      " Almost every woman I have ever met has a secret belief  that she is just on the edge of madness, that there is some deep, crazy part within her, that she must be on guard constantly against 'losing control' 一of her temper, of her appetite, of her sexuality, of her feelings, of her ambition, of her secret fantasies, of her mind." 一(Elana Dykewomon)     This quote came to mind once I finished Hungerstone. What drew me into this book in the first place was that it's a queer retelling of Carmella. And, while that is precisely what it is, this book expands and focuses on Lenore, our main character.      Lenore has been the perfect wife to her husband, Henry, for ten years when we meet her. It's the height of the Industrial Revolution, and her husband owns a steelworks.     Eleven years before Bram Stoker's Dracula, there was Carmella. A female vampire that only fed upon women's breasts. The original work is ripe for a more height...