A stunningly gothic, dark and mysterious book, House of Hunger has lots of potential it lives up to, but still some it doesn't.

Marion lives in the slums of the South, and when the opportunity to become a bloodmaid, feeding the wealthy with the red that runs through her veins, arises, she takes it and soon learns everything is not as it seems in the House of Hunger.

I really enjoyed the worldbuilding here, despite there being a lot about the world we don't know. What we do find out I found interesting, and thought it all came together very well to contribute to the claustrophobic feeling of the book as a whole.

The characters were also a highlight, the book featuring predominately women of various standings with complex motivations and morals. Noble/maid style relationships are a guilty pleasure of mine and Lisavet and Marion were a wonderfully dark twist on them.

My main reasoning for not giving the book 5* is purely the pacing towards the end. The slowburning mystery element throughout is very well done and I enjoyed trying to piece it together myself, but the final sequence starting so late unfortunately made the ending feel rushed. I think with allowance for more words towards the end, the pacing of the book up to then could have been maintained or ramped up more slowly with more tension.

Overall though I still absolutely loved this, and would highly recommend it for anyone looking for sapphic, gothic reads.

House of Hunger is a gothic globule of blood-riddled magnificence that had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Marion's story is riveting and Lisavet a compelling 'vampire' menace - along with the rest of her house. I would LOVE to see more from this world but Alexis has tied up this part of the story nicely.

I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley - thank you to the publisher.

This was so good. SO GOOD! I devoured it (heh) in about two days, reading so fast because I couldn't bear to put it down. Lushly written, with a compelling heroine and a darkly gothic setting, it's the type of horror I can't get enough of.

Marion is a girl from the slums, living a penniless life slaving for a cruel mistress and supporting her addict brother. When she sees an advert in the paper for a bloodmaid, an indentured servant to the northern nobility, she can't resist the change to escape her life.

She isn't quite sure what to expect, knowing little other than the noble houses require the blood of the young to remain healthy, and Lisvet, the Countess Marion is to serve, is particularly unwell and in need of more blood than most. Slowly but surely, Marion finds herself settling into life with the Countess and her sister bloodmaids, and becoming increasingly captivated by Lisvet herself.

But the closer she gets to the Countess, the more she begins to uncover the truth of the household, and the purpose of bloodmaids.

This was truly reminiscent of the traditional gothic genre, with its likable heroine and strange, unsettling surrounds. I loved it.

When penniless Marion is given an opportunity to escape the slums of the South and move to the wealthy North to become a bloodmaid in an esteemed house it seems all her prayers have been answered. Bloodmaids are provided with unlimited food, lodging, a small monthly payment and a generous pension after a few years service. The catch is they must give their blood freely to their owner, in this case Lisavet of the House of Hunger. When Marion becomes the favored bloodmaid and discovers more about her predecessors she learns they have to give much more than just their blood...

This is truly gory in places. My favourite part of the novel was the journey on the night train, after that there's a lot of blood and guts but the story races along to the conclusion.

This is a delicious, dark, historical fantasy story, perfect for the Halloween season. Totally engrossing with LOTS of blood, dripping with decadence and Gothic atmosphere. A brilliant read to get lost in on darkening evenings.

When Marion leaves her poverty strike past behind to be a blood maiden in the North, she thinks all her dreams have been answered. To be indoctrined into a powerful House is to gain a life of luxury and comfort, and all that is asked in return is a little blood. And having a mistress like Lisavet, alluring and beautiful, isn't so bad. Or is it? At night Marion hears screaming, and no one seems to know what happened to her predocessors.

I loved the atmosphere of this. It's heavily gothic inspired with sumptuous dining halls and rich nobles lounging and indulging in pleasures of the flesh. Everything is a game to the rich, when nothing and no one matters. The decadence and the sly undertones of peril really made this quite the delightful read - especially the first third as Marion is introduced to the House and her fellow blood maidens.

Marion is an interesting character. Rising from a street rat, frequently used and a used by her old employers and norther, she sees becoming a blood maiden as a way to escape. But her naivity, that life can be so different when dressed in velvet gowns, is what makes her so endearing. She doesn't see herself as good enough to be in this world, when really she's better than all of them. Her relationship with the other blood maidens was nice, but could have been developed more as I found their bonds to be fickle and it made the ending that little bit more unbelievable and didn't have the intensity that Marion and Lisavet's has. An intensity that is all consuming, obessive and dangerous.

I also wanted more from the world building. The story is very closed off, claustrophobic even, in that it only features the House of Hunger when Marion reached the North. We hear hints of how blood is used in the world for transportation etc, but nothing is expanded on beyond this. We also get glimpses of history from the other powerful houses and their alliances, but this is never built on and is left by the wayside as Marion's status within the household rises and she isn't tutored anymore - which could have given us some well needed exposition. The power struggles and political machinations would have been a wonderful addition to really expand this world and give some backstory to Lisavet's character.

Gorgeously gothic and richly descriptive story that I fell into with open arms. I just wish there had been a bit more build up, and the ending wasn't so rushed to make me fall head over heels for it. However, I will cotinue to read anything Alexis Henderson puts out, if only for atmosphere alone.

Marion lives from hand to mouth. Her job as a maid brings in just enough money to keep herself and her drug-addicted brother alive. That's why she can't resist when she sees a job ad as a bloodmaid in the newspaper. As a Bloodmaid, all Marion has to do is regularly give her blood for someone else and in return she gets a comfortable life in a large estate... right?

+++ Possible minor spoilers. I don't think so actually, but you can never be too careful+++.
I really liked The Year Of The Witching, so I was looking forward to House Of Hunger. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. The story started so well. We first follow Marion in the slums of her city and everything is described so atmospherically, I ate it up. Unfortunately, it doesn't stay that way for the whole story. It feels a bit like Alexis Henderson realised at some point that her book would become very long if she kept up the descriptions like this and then cut them away. However, I missed them. We got to know Marion very well as a character, which is always important to me in stories. However, we hardly learned anything about the other characters in the book, they all remained quite one-dimensional for me. What also bothered me was how quickly the whole mystery about the house came to a head and then was solved, a few more pages would have done the book good. The social part was also somehow "too fast". Marion is given rules at the beginning that have to be followed very strictly, but she breaks them almost immediately and it's not a problem at all, everyone just accepts that. Likewise, some other things are not questioned, but simply accepted. In the first half of the book I was still quite enthusiastic and had fun with the story, but the second half unfortunately slackened so much that in the end I only rated it two stars.

This is the second book by this author and the first I have read. I really did not want this book to end. From the first to the last page I was hooked. I was immersed in the story of the Blood Maiden Marion. This story has vampiric vibes, creepy, gothic and so good!!!! Beautifully written and richly descriptive. A dark sexy fantasy that had me reading late into the night. Fantastic and this deserves more than five stars. As I said before a new author for me and I have already downloaded her first book The Year Of The Witching and I can't wait to read more from this very talented author. Loved, loved it!!!!
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

Neah, nor for me. The pacing is really off, there isn't enough in the characters and not enough plot... no idea where this is going. Too much world building but at the same time, not enough... Still confused about what timeframe we were meant to imagine it all....

The Neon Demon meets True Blood in Alexis Henderson's hypnotic Gothic fantasy, House of Hunger, with its ravenous female envy, sapphic obsession, hedonistic houses and a captivating Countess who plays with her food.

20 year old Marion has lived her life devoted to survival in the smog filled slums of Prane, an industrial society loosely inspired by Victorian England, working tirelessly as a maid and struggling to put food on the table. So when an advert in the paper presents an opportunity to trade her life of poverty in the South for velvet chaises and silken bedsheets in the North, she refuses to let anyone get in her way.

"WANTED - Bloodmaid of exceptional taste. Must have a keen proclivity for life’s finer pleasures.."

Marion feels no reservations about bloodletting – already used to losing blood, sweat and tears in the service industry – she might as well be comfortable, right? Promised a hefty pension, delicacies beyond her imagination, and a stay at a cavernous Gothic mansion in exchange for her blood, she willingly accepts the position. A charismatic blood taster, Thiago, assures Marion her blood is of exquisite taste and accompanies her on the night train headed North which is fueled by blood, because, as we come to find out, blood is power. But when Thiago leaves her at the door with guilt in his eyes, Marion fears what's next.

Indentured at the House of Hunger among four other bloodmaids, all young women extracted from poverty, the bloodmaids are ranked in order of favour. Confined within the dark walls of the mansion, the rest of the world drips away and worshipping Countess Lisavet is all they know. The women feast on one another's insecurities as the lust for significance plagues them, vying for first place, desperate to be the one most adored. Infatuation becomes obsession and obsession becomes madness once the girls' loyalty to their insatiable Countess is put to the test.

Putting an original spin on the "chosen one" trope, Henderson explores the power dynamics involved when vulnerable women depend on those in control; how an impoverished background aids exploitation, and how easy it is to be manipulated under the guise of compassion, only to be used and disposed of later. The majestic mansion almost serves as a representation of Marion's illusion of safety as she finds comfort in sumptuous meals and fur blankets, but when she discovers hidden staircases and secret passageways, she realises she is trapped in a web of deceit.

Taking inspiration from a ~certain~ figure from the 1600s, Alexis Henderson's depraved novel fuses historical intrigue with rich world building to unshackle a genius premise for a horror story. Against the political backdrop of a fictional classist society, not unlike our own, Greed is a sickness there is no cure for, and it comes in many forms..

Alexis Henderson's mesmerising prose reads like an ode to Gothic Literature with Marion's journey to the North evoking the foreboding atmosphere of Jonathan Harker's journey east in Dracula, with the superstition building in the storm along the way; the House takes on a personality of its own like Racliffe's castle of Udolpho, inciting terror and fear but ultimately provides the answers Marion searches for; the echoing of an ancient prophecy in which a man emerges from the sea to bleed women dry; and the parallels in how the women dealt with the men in their lives… Henderson is a master of her craft.

The pacing is perfect and the plot is concise; Henderson fleshes out her secondary world with quotes from bloodmaids of the past and present in the chapter headers, while never deviating from the building terror. Marion's story pulses its way to a violent climax, all the while dripping with opulence, seduction and depravity. It's a wretched little thing.

I liked the idea of this book more than the actual book.

The book follows Marion Shaw who becomes a bloodmaid at the House of Hunger to escape her bad circumstances. There the Countess Lisavet shows some special interest in Marion, but then bloodmaids start to mysteriously disappear.

First of all, I found House of Hunger very well written. Henderson created a dark and atmospheric setting and I loved the overall mood of the story.

However, the characters lacked depth and I felt like the story could have been more fleshed out. Marion wasn’t a particularly likeable protagonist either, and I definitely disliked Lisavet throughout the whole book.

The big plot twist in the end was somewhat predictable.

Lastly: I’m not a horror reader, but even I found this pretty light on the horror elements.

Overall this was a solid read, but it lacked… something.

I really loved this book, the world building was done really well and the characters were done in a way that they were all different and stood out on their own. I really liked Marion as a main character and she was really layered and complex in her actions and how she approached situations. She changed and developed over the course of the story and I liked seeing her react to the different situations she found herself in. The basis of it being based on Elizabeth Bathory was really interesting and i liked how they used it and somehow made it work in this newer fantasy setting. The drama was exciting and i sped through this as i needed to know what happened. I found it thrilling and exciting and would read another book by this author.

I've been anticipating House of Hunger ever since the author announced it. The plot was everything I've ever wanted. A sapphic spin on the Countess Bathory legend? Count me in. I had very high expectations, especially as I also enjoyed Alexis Henderson's The Year of the Witching.

Upon finishing this book, I think it's 40% great and 60% confused. The beginning was great, the introduction to the world, the characters, the whole blood maid thing. I really enjoyed the atmosphere. I loved Marion's personality. But, I felt like a good portion of the book didn't match it's exceptional start.

Events started happening quite fast, but then the middle started to become slow. There wasn't a lot happening in the pages. Many aspects of the story were just told instead of shown. I didn't see a good amount of development for there to be the level of obsession that there was between Marion and Lisavet.

While nothing happened in the middle, the plot picked up again near the last 20%, but because it was so late, so many things felt rushed again and some events felt very convenient. I really admired Marion during the first half of the book but some choices she made did not reflect the characterization I've seen of her so far. Some of her moves just felt....kinda dumb, especially since they were in danger.

The prose is quite good, what I think the problem really is the plot. The characters as well, especially the side characters, felt flat and their relationships with Marion were underdeveloped too. I feel like this book could have benefited with like a hundred more pages.

Overall, kind of a disappointing read. I still liked a few aspects of it like the writing, the world, the gothic atmosphere, etc., that made me give it a 3.5. Hopefully, other readers will be able to enjoy it more than me.

I wasn’t sure how to rate this because, whilst being well written, it didn’t hold my attention for some reason. I did enjoy the concept which was unique and something really bizarre but I didn’t warn to the main characters sadly. I didn’t feel a connection that made me care about their fates that much. There was a lot of blood in this book which I was not quite expecting and the scenes of blood letting and drinking were really quite gruesome but made the book uncomfortable to read in a good way!

To quote Lady Gaga - AMAZING, SHOW STOPPING, SPECTACULAR, NEVER THE SAME, TOTALLY UNIQUE. I am obsessed. I am captivated. I’m so sad that it’s over.

This gothic, sapphic fantasy is loosely inspired by the true story of Elizabeth Bathory & it’s as fucked up as it is epic. It gives vamp vibes but in a way that is both sensual & stomach churning & also feels, somehow, like a brand new idea. Honestly? I couldn’t get enough of this richly drawn, nasty little story.

I feel so intimidated trying to express how much I love this book. It’s well written, atmospheric, claustrophobic, diverse, sexy, scary & more than a little bit sad. I love that it’s unapologetically queer & doesn’t veer away from the rawness of its themes - whether that’s sexuality, violence, love or fear. I love that it feels like the love child of Jennifer’s body & Game of Thrones. Basically, I love everything about it & I wish sincerely for MORE. I’ll be ordering a gorgeous hard copy as soon as it’s released because I NEED this cover for my bookshelves & the book itself for many a wintery reread.

Gothic, bleak, dark, atmospheric and creepy.

I was thrilled to read this book, I loved the luxurious writing and the depth with which characters and locations had been described. I am not someone who reads much horror but this was the perfect amount, it just adds to the thriller underneath.

I would recommend this to thriller readers that fancy taking on a darker book. You won’t regret it!

Thank you to Netgalley & Random House UK for this arc in exchange for a review. A gripping horror fantasy with immersive writing, I felt like I’d be transported to the island with Marion as we followed her throughout this story. The ‘mystery’ was but predictable and I wasn’t a fan of how the author just let certain storylines drop - like Marion had her hand trapped in a door at the beginning of the book but after she arrived at the island it wasn’t mentioned again? Overall a gory, haunting story that will stick with me.

I didn't know what to expect from this book but it was so much better than I expected it to be. It was dark and chilling with a creepy atmosphere and a haunting storyline. I was completely hooked from the first page right to the last.

The handmaid's tale meets Dracula! This book captured from the first page. In this book there are seem less intricacies of love, servitude, submission and being trapped. The main character is a lovable woman who finds herself like the frog in the pot of boiling water which is heated so slowly she doesn't know she is being killed. The villain was also a likable character throughout and the setting was so well detailed I can still picture the rooms in the house.
There are many facets to this story and despite finishing the book I keep thinking about it. This is a solid five stars for me and a book I want to own so I can re read it.

This was a mixed reading experience. I really liked both the beginning and the end, but the middle was hit and miss for me. The premise sounded very interesting and I was intrigued by the concept and it did turn out really interesting, but there was just something lacking.

The darker horror elements in this very quite good, I liked the atmosphere and the gothic elements and the characters were intriguing enough. The story started out really strong but lost me somewhere in the middle. The middle dragged a bit, the pacing was off and not much happened for a large part of this. The ending was very exciting again and I liked how everything wrapped up, but overall I just felt like some thrill was missing.

Overall this was still a fun read and I think if you like vampires and gothic horror this will definitely be a good book for you.