House of Hunger

By: Alexis Henderson

Narrated by: Jeanette Illidge

Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

WANTED—Bloodmaid of exceptional taste. Must have a keen proclivity for life’s finer pleasures. Girls of weak will need not apply.

A young woman is drawn into the upper echelons of a society where blood is power in this dark and enthralling Gothic novel from the author of The Year of the Witching.

Marion Shaw has been raised in the slums, where want and deprivation are all she knows. Despite longing to leave the city and its miseries, she has no real hope of escape until the day she spots a peculiar listing in the newspaper seeking a bloodmaid.

Though she knows little about the far north—where wealthy nobles live in luxury and drink the blood of those in their service—Marion applies to the position. In a matter of days, she finds herself the newest bloodmaid at the notorious House of Hunger. There, Marion is swept into a world of dark debauchery. At the center of it all is Countess Lisavet.

The countess, who presides over this hedonistic court, is loved and feared in equal measure. She takes a special interest in Marion. Lisavet is magnetic, and Marion is eager to please her new mistress. But when she discovers that the ancient walls of the House of Hunger hide even older secrets, Marion is thrust into a vicious game of cat and mouse. She’ll need to learn the rules of her new home—and fast—or its halls will soon become her grave.

©2022 Alexis Henderson (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“House of Hunger is gorgeous and lushly dark, a nightmare vision that will pull you into its terrifying grip. Alexis Henderson is a master at creating enthralling fear.”—Simone St. James, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Cold Cases

“The kind of book that deserves to be devoured. Deliciously brutal, hypnotic, and brimming with ravenous malice, Alexis Henderson has crafted a bloody, sapphic fever dream of a novel and I can’t wait to read it again.”—Francesca May, International Bestselling Author of Wild and Wicked Things

"A gory gem of a story that sinks in its teeth and won’t let up, House of Hunger proves that Alexis Henderson is one of the best Gothic writers out there."—Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf

Interesting Re-imagining of Vampirism

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson is a beautifully spooky novel where vampirism is treated as an illness that nobles from the North inherit along with their ancient wealth, requiring them to have a steady supply of blood that must be filled from multiple sources. That blood is supplied by bloodmaids, young women hired to be companions to these nobles who live in luxury with them, jockeying with each other for the position of reigning favorite. These young women are promised pensions that will leave them wealthy once their contracts with the nobles are complete. At the same time, bloodmaids are considered similar to, if not worse than, prostitutes and the loss of their blood takes a toll on them physically.

Marion begins the story in difficult straights as a house cleaner who is treated terribly by her employer while also having to deal with an abusive brother who tries to squander what little money she earns on drugs. When she finds an ad in the paper for a bloodmaid, she applies for the position and is accepted with suspicious ease. The difficulty of her circumstances and the promise of life-changing wealth lead her to cut ties with her former life very brutally so she can escape to the North. Once there, she meets Countess Lisavet Bathory and is officially hired and brought into a life of opulence and leisure that she has never known before. But even as Marion settles into her new life, she discovers signs of a more dangerous reality hiding beneath all the luxury.

I loved how Henderson fleshed out the world-building not just with Marion gaining info dumps but also through the epigraphs which were made up of quotes from various bloodmaids and supervisors of the maids from all the different houses. That gave the feeling of depth to the world and views that existed beyond what Marion had access to. It was also interesting that Henderson seemed to base this novel on the legends surrounding the real Countess Elizabeth Báthory, who seems to be the basis for Countess Lisavet Bathory. She was accused of murdering hundreds of women and was rumored to bathe in the blood of virgins to retain her youth. Lisavet similarly relies on the blood of younger women to retain her health.

Lisavet draining other women for her own gain as well as pitting those women against each other so they are competing for her favor highlights a prominent issue that women have to deal with in interacting with each other. Often, women are taught to see each other as enemies on sight regardless of whether the idea is justified. It's based on the belief that there are only so many slots available for women so they must combat each other to gain those slots. Typically, it would be a man in the position that Lizavet is in in this scenario. So it's interesting to see a woman not only exploiting other women, but making them see each other as the enemy instead of her. She's weaponizing a sexist system to her own gain. Had this been played as natural and right, I would cry fowl, But this is absolutely something Henderson was critiquing and unpacking as part of the narrative, which enriched the overall story and was essential in strengthening the plot's resolution.

I couldn't give it five stars because I couldn't connect to the characters. Marion had a lot of potential as a heroine with her rough upbringing and the desperate tragedy that led to her accepting a position as a bloodmaid. But despite that, she didn't feel like she had much personality. She simply flowed along with the plot, tagging along with the reader from plot point to plot point without actually seeming to guide the story herself. Since the story was so strong, the inability to become emotionally invested in the main character wasn't a complete hindrance.

Overall, this is an excellent book.

Expected more since her first book was amazing

I was excited to read this because of the author's previous book, The Year of the Witching (absolutely loved!), but this one was kind of a letdown. I thought it was going to consist of thrill, maybe a bit eerie. It wasn't terrible, it certainly wasn't great,l. It had an incredibly slow build-up and was hard to finish.

*spoilers*
I loved that the main character Marion was made to be a survivor, a great female lead character, until she's not.

It has a random wlw love story between Marion and Lisavet that I'm still having a hard time connecting how it happened; like it was rushed or thrown out of nowhere. I had to repeat the chapter a second time and then go back a couple of chapters to see if I missed it. If there was, I obviously still missed it. AND Marion has this NEED for Lisavet's love and attention and gets jealous even. But I don't get it. I know she has this need to please her but the love part I don’t get.

The best part of the book, a bit of a thrill, doesn't happen until the end when Marion figures out what has been happening with other bloodmaids, oh and then there's the escape but that's it.

The narrators did a great job.

Could not stop listening!

This was a fantastic book! I loved how the characters came to life and could even imagine what they liked like from the brilliant writing and narrative! Recommend highly !

Not what I expected! loved the story and narrator

4.5 Rounded to 5

Wow. This wasn't at all what I expected! It's dark, atmospheric...dark 😂 This is the perfect Spooktober read. The narrator for this one is FANTASTIC. It's rare I find one that I want to keep listening so that was a huge plus for me. I'm honestly not sure I would have enjoyed this as much of I read it LOL Highly recommend for those that want different and love gothic type horror.

Fantastic take on a classic tale.

This book was well paced and well thought out. The lore, world building and reason given for the blood drinking were creative and expertly written. I felt like there was a tiny something missing that I can’t put my finger on. Maybe it was the of questions answered at the end. To be gauge enough to not spoil the ending, I want to know, is this an isolated thing, or widespread?

Good story

Very straight forward
Gets right to point although I think the heroine was very naive

Interesting enough to hold my attention

I feel like the style of writing wasn’t for me and that’s obviously not the writer’s fault, but I did feel as though it was a very slow moving plot which was interesting but never quite got captivating. I felt the story could have shortened in some areas to make room for more suspense and action. By the time we finally get to good parts, it’s almost to the end.

The story lost something along the way for me

I liked this story overall but it kind of lost something in the middle for me. I can’t place what it is but It lost gusto which dropped its rating imo

Fun fall book

Was a fun book to listen to during spooky months with the old vampire vibes. I enjoyed the development of the characters and how the played off of each other. A touch of spicy but not to much so it Made it a fairly easy ready.

I devoured this!!!

This is one of the books that I’ve binge listened to from start to finish the actor who does all of the voices is absolutely incredible and believable so good that you forget that she’s playing multiple characters even though I’m in after myself, I got lost completely in the story. it was so good that I’m going to look up author written books and get them too!!