Hungerstone by Kat Dunn Summary, Characters and Themes
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn is a gothic, feminist horror novel set in the shadowy moors of 19th-century England.
Through the eyes of Lenore, a woman trapped in a loveless, patriarchal marriage, the novel explores themes of grief, desire, supernatural seduction, and personal transformation. When an enigmatic woman named Carmilla is rescued from a storm, Lenore’s reality begins to unravel as spectral visions and buried traumas rise to the surface. Steeped in eerie atmosphere and echoing classic vampire lore, Hungerstone is a haunting meditation on female rage, autonomy, and what it means to be truly alive—or terrifyingly undead.
Summary
In Hungerstone, Lenore is a wealthy but emotionally estranged woman in 1890s London, suffering silently under societal pressures, infertility, and the controlling hand of her industrialist husband, Henry.
The novel opens with her in a state of physical and emotional vulnerability, foreshadowing the unraveling of her identity. She and Henry depart for their remote new estate, Nethershaw, set on the moors near Hungerstone Edge—a landscape as haunting and unknowable as Lenore’s internal world.
On their journey, they rescue a mysterious young woman from a carriage crash during a violent storm. The woman, Carmilla Kernstein, is silent, pale, and unsettlingly beautiful. Once at Nethershaw, Lenore finds herself increasingly disturbed by Carmilla’s presence, even as she’s drawn toward her.
Her dreams grow vivid and violent, filled with feline creatures and blood, and reality begins to blur.
As Henry departs for business in Sheffield, Lenore is left to manage the estate and prepare for an incoming shooting party.
Carmilla, meanwhile, slowly recovers and integrates into the household—but no records of her identity can be found, and her behavior grows ever more inexplicable.
Lenore’s body begins to weaken; she suffers from insomnia, fainting spells, and a sense of being watched. Staff whisper of Carmilla roaming at night, barefoot and ghostlike.
Tensions mount with Henry’s return. His business dealings are unraveling, and there are rumors of unsafe conditions at his steelworks, Ajax.
At the same time, Carmilla thrives—magnetic and radiant at social events, subtly undermining Lenore’s position. Lenore, slipping between sanity and delusion, suspects Carmilla of hiding a dark secret, especially after a guest is found dead, seemingly drained of life.
Delving into local folklore, Lenore learns of ancient stories about women disappearing on the moors, of vampiric entities, and of a cursed stone—Hungerstone Edge—that marks a boundary between the living and the dead.
These legends mirror her experiences, deepening the eerie resonance between Carmilla and something ancient and predatory.
Henry, desperate to restore control, confronts Carmilla and attempts to banish her. But Lenore, now emboldened, protects Carmilla and takes command of Nethershaw, rejecting Henry’s authority.
The estate descends into chaos: servants flee, guests fall ill, and the natural world grows twisted and wild. Isolated and deteriorating, Lenore reaches a breaking point.
In a night of intense passion and horror, Carmilla and Lenore share blood, a moment that symbolically and literally transforms Lenore.
Freed from the constraints of her former life, she awakens changed—no longer the woman Henry married, but something new, something ancient. She has crossed a threshold, both physically and psychologically.
Henry’s death follows soon after, suspicious and unexplainable, his body pale and lifeless. Carmilla disappears—or perhaps never fully existed outside Lenore’s need for escape and self-realization.
In the final moments, Lenore stands alone at Nethershaw, reborn. She is no longer bound by societal roles, grief, or fear. She is sovereign, monstrous, and free.
Hungerstone brings to us gothic horror with feminist reclamation, using the vampiric mythos not just for scares but as a vehicle for transformation. Lenore’s journey—from repression to awakening—turns traditional horror on its head, making the female monstrous not a threat, but a liberation.
Kat Dunn masterfully fuses eerie folklore, sensual dread, and a woman’s fight to reclaim herself from a world that would rather see her silenced.
Characters
Lenore
Lenore, the protagonist of Hungerstone, is an upper-class woman grappling with her sense of identity and a turbulent marriage. At the story’s beginning, she is portrayed as emotionally distant and socially constrained, particularly due to the societal expectations surrounding her infertility.
Lenore’s journey is one of psychological transformation, wherein she oscillates between fear and fascination, particularly in her relationship with Carmilla. Her struggle is both internal and external, as she faces the oppressive grip of her husband Henry and the eerie forces that surround her.
As the story unfolds, Lenore’s increasing obsession with Carmilla and the supernatural events that occur around her bring to the surface Lenore’s suppressed desires, fears, and growing awareness of her own power. The conclusion of her arc shows her completely liberated from the chains of her past, embracing a new, dark identity that symbolizes both empowerment and monstrous transformation.
Carmilla
Carmilla is the enigmatic and supernatural figure whose presence disrupts Lenore’s life and the entire household at Nethershaw. Mysterious, seductive, and ambiguous, Carmilla’s true nature is concealed for much of the story, though hints of her vampiric tendencies become apparent as the plot progresses.
Carmilla’s role in Lenore’s life is transformative and predatory, but it also represents a strange kind of liberation. Through their interactions, Carmilla reveals both the allure and danger of embracing one’s darker instincts.
While she is a source of fear for those around her, she also represents freedom and empowerment, especially for Lenore, who begins to see her as a means of reclaiming control over her life. Her mysterious origins, her cryptic speech, and her ability to manipulate others make her an unsettling but magnetic force in the narrative.
Henry
Henry, Lenore’s husband, embodies the archetype of a man bound by societal expectations of success and power. His coldness toward Lenore and his hidden activities, especially his labor practices at Ajax Works, reveal a man who is both morally corrupt and emotionally distant.
His treatment of Lenore is neglectful and oppressive, yet he does not appear to notice or care about the emotional turmoil he causes her. As the story progresses, Henry’s role as the villain of the piece becomes clearer.
His attempts to control the household and remove Carmilla reflect his desperation to maintain power, but he ultimately succumbs to the same supernatural forces that he tries to suppress. His death at the end of the story signals the complete breakdown of the patriarchal structures he represents, leaving Lenore to reclaim both her physical and emotional autonomy.
Dr. Bartolomé
Dr. Bartolomé serves as a secondary yet pivotal character in Hungerstone. He is the physician who attends to Carmilla and acts as a point of contact between the supernatural occurrences and the logical world.
His medical expertise brings a veneer of rationality to the otherwise mystifying events, but his role is ultimately limited in the face of the overwhelming supernatural forces at play. His presence highlights the tension between the rational and the irrational, the known and the unknown.
Themes
The Corrupting Influence of Power and the Patriarchy
Throughout Hungerstone, Kat Dunn delves into the destructive effects of patriarchal structures and the ways in which power and control seep into every aspect of life, especially in the realm of marriage and social status. The character of Henry, Lenore’s husband, represents the oppressive patriarch who manipulates both his wife and those around him for personal gain, using the guise of respectability and societal norms.
His treatment of Lenore reflects the broader social expectations placed on women in the late 19th century, where they were often treated as property rather than individuals with autonomy. The tension in their marriage is not merely personal but symbolic of the broader systemic issues women faced.
The tension between Lenore and Henry becomes a commentary on the societal pressure for women to maintain roles that are not just limiting but ultimately suffocating. The novel shows how power dynamics in such relationships lead to emotional and physical destruction.
The collapse of Henry’s business due to labor exploitation further underscores the connection between male power, wealth, and the suffering of others, particularly women and the working class. This theme reflects how patriarchal systems feed off the labor and lives of those under their control, especially women.
Identity, Transformation, and the Struggle for Autonomy
A major theme in Hungerstone is the complex journey of identity, especially for women who are trapped within societal constraints. Lenore’s struggle to understand who she is, beyond being a wife and an object of desire, forms the emotional core of the novel.
From the outset, her identity is fragmented, with her infertility, her cold marriage, and her emotional repression limiting her sense of self. This internal turmoil deepens when she encounters Carmilla, whose presence forces Lenore to confront the parts of herself she has long suppressed—her desires, her fears, and her need for control.
The relationship between Carmilla and Lenore becomes a reflection of the struggle for personal agency and power. As Lenore gradually embraces the influence of Carmilla, she begins to shed her previous identity, a process symbolized by her physical transformation and the way she begins to assert herself in a world that previously reduced her to a passive role.
This theme of transformation is mirrored in the supernatural elements of the narrative, where Lenore is not merely changing psychologically but becoming something entirely new—both monstrous and liberated. Through her interactions with Carmilla, Lenore discovers her own potential for power, reshaping her identity in profound and unsettling ways.
Supernatural Forces as Metaphors for Repressed Desires
The novel’s supernatural elements, particularly the eerie presence of Carmilla, are integral to the psychological and emotional landscape of Hungerstone. The strange events, such as Carmilla’s nighttime wanderings and the blurred boundaries between dream and reality for Lenore, evoke the uncanny—the sense of something familiar yet deeply unsettling.
Carmilla’s presence is both literal and metaphorical, serving as a manifestation of Lenore’s repressed desires and fears. The supernatural occurrences in the house become a reflection of Lenore’s internal unraveling, as the boundaries between what is real and what is imagined begin to dissolve.
Carmilla’s enigmatic and seductive nature reflects the desire for freedom from societal constraints. Her apparent immortality and vampire-like qualities symbolize the consuming nature of unacknowledged desires, forcing Lenore to confront her hidden emotional and physical longings.
The haunting of the house, with its dark history and the moors surrounding it, becomes a metaphor for the oppressive forces that haunt Lenore’s mind and spirit. These forces are at once external and internal, representing both societal expectations and personal traumas that continually shape Lenore’s reality.
Memory, Trauma, and the Intersection of the Past and Present
Another prominent theme in Hungerstone is the role of memory and trauma, particularly how the past continuously bleeds into the present. Lenore’s sense of self is deeply influenced by her childhood experiences and her marriage to Henry, both of which are fraught with emotional neglect and loss.
Throughout the novel, she is haunted by dreams and visions that seem to draw from her past traumas, especially those related to her inability to conceive and the societal rejection that follows. These past experiences shape her emotional responses to Carmilla, who represents both an escape and a return to her unresolved feelings.
As Lenore’s interactions with Carmilla intensify, her understanding of the present is clouded by her repressed memories and the emotional baggage they carry. The presence of Carmilla, with her otherworldly nature, forces Lenore to confront her buried emotions—particularly those related to her relationship with Henry and the expectations placed upon her as a woman.
The novel suggests that the past is never truly gone; it constantly reasserts itself, influencing our actions, desires, and even our very identity. The unraveling of Lenore’s reality is a reflection of how trauma is never fully resolved but remains a pervasive force, shaping the way individuals perceive themselves and others.
Revolution, Rebellion, and the Power of Female Solidarity
In the latter part of the book, Lenore’s transformation and ultimate defiance of Henry suggest a larger theme of revolution and rebellion against oppressive systems. As Lenore becomes more attuned to her own desires and potential for power, she begins to break free from the societal expectations that have kept her in check.
The relationship between Lenore and Carmilla becomes a form of rebellion, one where Lenore begins to see herself not as a passive victim but as an active participant in her own liberation. Carmilla, as a figure of power and autonomy, serves as a catalyst for this shift in Lenore, and together they embody a kind of female solidarity that defies the male-dominated world they inhabit.
The novel explores not only personal revolution but the power of women coming together to confront and dismantle patriarchal systems. Lenore’s eventual inheritance of Nethershaw and her rejection of Henry’s control signify a reclamation of both her agency and her identity.
Lenore is no longer merely a wife; she becomes something more—both monstrous and sovereign. In this moment, the novel suggests that female solidarity and empowerment are key to breaking free from the chains of male dominance.