Thank you to the publisher, Zando, and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

This is a story of hunger. Of making yourself small, ignoring your wants and needs to only please someone else, and then finding out that they do not appreciate you and your sacrifices.  This is a story of the anger that arises from that and a hunger that feels like starving when you have ignored your own wants for so long.  This is also a story about misogyny, both internal and external. It is also a story, as with Dunn's last book, Bitterthorn, of loneliness and how debilitating it can be, how desperate it can make you.

This story is not a faithful retelling of Carmilla. It is more of a complete reimagining that has taken inspiration from other gothic books of the time. It is also not that well-paced. It takes a long time for things to happen, and it's also somewhat repetitive in the middle.

This is also not a traditional vampire story. There's one scene where Carmilla possibly drinks blood from Lenore and another where she refuses to walk on sacred ground, but the vampire aspect is left for the reader to interpret. So if you want "explicit" vampire content, this is most likely not a book for you. Carmilla is more about hunger and desire. She awakens that in women, often in grotesque and gruesome ways. She is perhaps a manifestation of what vampires truly represent in literature.

She is both entrancing and repulsive, and her relationship with Lenore goes from disgust to want in rapid succession. I personally wanted more scenes with them, and more relationship development, although I realise it was not really the focus of this book. This book is more about Lenore, herself.

The setting is very typical of gothic literature. A crumbling mansion in the middle of the moors, isolated and resistant to being fixed.

Beyond Lenore's relationship with Carmilla, there is no other representation.

Four stars due to the slow pacing, otherwise the rating would perhaps be higher.