Perpetually Bored

what do you mean it went from sweet gay thoughts to The Horrors™️

Throughout the novel Lenore is shown to be a people pleaser, who isn’t able to articulate or ask for the things she wants/needs. Carmilla’s presence is at first a blight for her, as Carmilla questions Lenore’s actions and criticizes her lack of backbone. One of the central themes that really stood out to me was the idea of hunger, (haha name of the novel) the idea that when we starve ourselves of our own desires, and put ourselves second to those around us, we are essentially killing our true selves. Lenore was a very relatable character to me not only in that way, but also in the way her anxiety is portrayed in the novel one line that sticks out in particular, “…my body bucks and breaks beneath my hand, it is it’s own animal, with it’s own limits. It betrays me with its wants and needs…” (p.89). Lenore is so disconnected throughout the novel not only from her own desire but also from her own physical form. She denies herself everything to the point in which she quite literally feels separate from her own skin. A sentiment that shows up several times throughout the first part of the book. By the time Lenore is unleashed (turned) in part 2 she is a much more calm collected and most importantly CERTAIN individual, she finally asserts her wants and desires in her own inner monologues, something she struggled with in the first half of the novel. And when she finally frees herself, first with the murder of her friend Cora, a character symbolizing Lenore’s ties to polite society and self control, and then the murder of Henry, a character symbolizing Lenore’s ties to marriage and more specifically misogyny, she has severed herself from the things in her life that were 1. Trapping her in an unhappy and subservient life and 2. Killing her (literally). Overall my most enjoyable read of the year so far!

This is the first novel by T. Kingfisher I’ve ever picked up, and I must say I’m very glad to have found it in my local library last week. Overall, I found it to be a very well written horror novel, with a good heaping of mystery thrown in for good measure, and not only was it a compelling mystery but also a well written one at that. Middle aged scientific illustrator, Sonia Wilson, leaves her post as a teacher after the death of her father to work for an entomologist in the Carolinas. The locals seem rather shifty, and warn her of the woods and other supernatural beings such as devils and ‘blood thieves’, which Sonia takes with a pinch of salt. However the longer she works for Dr. Halder (the entomologist) the stranger living on the manor becomes. Despite her better judgement, Sonia’s inquisitive mind pushes her to investigate the mysteries surrounding the previous scientific illustrator, the blood thieves, feral botfly infested animals, and what exactly it is that Dr. Halder gets up to in his shed. Theme wise it was quite straightforward with Sonia learning to let go of her anxieties and fears, but I’d say the main call of this novel is the way in which it reimagines the southern gothic horror genre. Other reviews seem to think ‘Wolf Worm’ is formulaic and similar to Kingfisher’s other works, but as previously stated I haven’t read any of those yet, so uhh no comment there😀. The introduction of mutated botflies due to a vampiric host was something I most certainly wasn’t expecting, and the way in which it was written had me clawing at the pages to see what happens next. If you’re a horror lit fan, ‘Wolf Worm’ is definitely worth the read.

Those are my arrogant support doctors, y’all can’t we just love both !