#The Black Hunger

[jetwhenitsmidnight]

FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2024

Top 15 (in order of reading)

Someone You Can Build a Nest In

He Who Drowned the World

The West Passage

A Darker Shade of Magic

Piranesi

Compound Fracture

Babel

This Fatal Kiss

The Black Hunger

Model Home

The Atlas Six

Sorcery and Small Magics

Extremophile

Record of a Spaceborn Few

The Maid and the Crocodile

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

YA FANTASY

Sheine Lende

Dark Heir

The Worst Perfect Moment

Redemptor

Gwen & Art are Not in Love

The Legend of the White Snake

ADULT FANTASY

A Power Unbound

Saint Death's Daughter

The Sins on Their Bones

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

The Saint of Bright Doors

The City in Glass

YA CONTEMPORARY/ROMANCE

Skater Boy

Twelfth Knight

I Wish You All the Best

Felix Ever After

Fake Dates and Mooncakes

SCIENCE FICTION

Network Effect

A Closed and Common Orbit

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

Key Lime Sky

HORROR

Take All of Us

Summer Sons

The Eyes are the Best Part

These Fleeting Shadows

NOVELLAS

The Black God's Drums

Thornhedge

Time's Agent

GRAPHIC NOVELS

The Prince and the Dressmaker

Superman Smashes the Klan

The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich

The Tea Dragon Society + The Tea Dragon Festival

[lgbtqreads]

Fave Five: Queer Gothic Horror

My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen The Black Hunger by Nicholas Pullen Catfish Lullaby by AC Wise Grey Dog by Elliott Gish What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

[quillandqueer]

Interesting New Releases | 8th October

The Black Hunger: John Sackville will soon be dead. Shadows writhe in the corners of his cell as he mourns the death of his secret lover and the gnawing hunger inside him grows impossible to ignore. He must write his last testament before it is too late.

How to Summon a Fairy Godmother: After discovering a way to summon a fairy in Beatrice's old room, Theo thinks her prayers have been answered. But the fairy she meets isn't at all what she imagined. Drop-dead gorgeous, incredibly cunning, and slightly devious, Cecily of the Ash Fairies is much more interested in gathering powerful favors and smoking her pipe than providing charitable magic for humans in a bind.

I Crawl Through It: Four talented teenagers are traumatized-coping with grief, surviving date rape, facing the anxiety of standardized tests and the neglect of self-absorbed adults--and they'll do anything to escape the pressure. They'll even build an invisible helicopter, to fly far away to a place where everyone will understand them... until they learn the only way to escape reality is to face it head-on.

Swordcrossed: Mattinesh Jay, dutiful heir to his struggling family business, needs to hire an experienced swordsman to serve as best man for his arranged marriage. Luca, for his part, is trying to reinvent himself in a new city. All he wants to do is make some easy money and try to forget the crime he committed in his home town. However, neither Matti's business troubles nor Luca himself are quite what - or who - they seem. As the days to Matti's wedding count down, the two of them become entangled in the intrigue and sabotage that have brought Matti's house to the brink of ruin.

[bekah-reading]

133

5/5

This book was amazing! I love it so much. This got me reeled in right off the bat, and I couldn’t put it down.

This was a one sitting read for me. I absolutely fell in love with the writing and the characters. Very atmospheric and immersive, and the writing style was perfect for the gothic nature of this story.

Definitely an author to keep an eye on for sure.

[whatcha-reading-today]

The Black Hunger | Nicholas Pullen

Oh hooo hoooo this was GOOD. This is written as recollections before our MC John Sackville dies. He tells us about his history as it swirls with mystic nightmarish stuff throughout time. I like how our MCs are written and how well their story intertwines with the gothic nightmarish. I did think the ending wasn't as explosive as I wanted and there were definitely swaths of text that got a little on the explain-y but this was so good.

Read in: February 2025

Format: Physical copy

Favorites 2025

[beckysbook5]

The Black Hunger by Nicholas Pullen - Book Review!

John Sackville will soon be dead. Shadows writhe in the corners of his cell as he mourns the death of his secret lover and the gnawing hunger inside him grows impossible to ignore. He must write his last testament before it is too late. It is a story steeped in history and myth – a journey from stone circles in Scotland, to the barren wilderness of Ukraine where otherworldly creatures stalk the…

[biblionerdreflections]

The Black Hunger - DNF Thoughts

Hello, everyone! Today I’m doing something that rarely happens… Talking about a book I’ve decided to DNF. That book is The Black Hunger by Nicholas Pullen. Continue reading The Black Hunger – DNF Thoughts

[inabooknook]

The Black Hunger by Nicholas Pullen

Such an interesting premise for a book. The story begins switches back and forth between the 19th and 20th centuries, touching on Tibetan and Buddhist folklore, historical goings-on, and amazing fantastical otherworldly beings based in myth. The story was such an interesting spooky season read, teaching me about both history, for which the book was extremely well-researched, as well as creepy things, which of course I love. The story was so gothic and reminiscent of the great gothic masterpieces of the 19th century, that I would recommend this book to anyone looking for something so different, but so engaging and fun that you won't realize how long you've been reading. An absolute must for your pre-Halloween, and post-Halloween dark t0-read list.

This ebook was provided by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[nina-s0]

"Don't read the same book twice, and expect a different ending."

Fuck off that's what fanfiction is for tf.

[suzieloveships]

"I loved your father like a brother and in another, kinder, world you and I would have been a family" is up there among the saddest relationship trope

[jetwhenitsmidnight]

The Black Hunger by Nicholas Pullen

Release date: 10 October 2024

Genre: adult historical gothic horror

If you like: cannibalism, cults, epistolary

Synopsis

A spine-tingling, queer gothic horror debut where two men are drawn into an otherworldly spiral, and a journey that will only end when they reach the darkest part of the human soul.

John Sackville will soon be dead. Shadows writhe in the corners of his cell as he mourns the death of his secret lover and the gnawing hunger inside him grows impossible to ignore.

He must write his last testament before it is too late.

This is a story steeped in history and myth - a journey from stone circles in Scotland, to the barren wilderness of Ukraine where otherworldly creatures stalk the night, ending in the icy peaks of Tibet and Mongolia, where an ancient evil stirs.

Content warnings

Death, murder, gore, body horror, blood

Cannibalism

Torture

Homophobia

Anti-semitism from the antagonists, anti-semitic speech, anti-semitic imagery

Blackmailing, threats

Sexual harrassment

Mentions of war

I am not sure if I managed to get all the content warnings, so please proceed with caution as this book gets quite dark.

Review

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC!

I am not sure how to talk about this book. I have many feelings about it, some of which are rather complicated, which I am not sure if I will be able to express adequately.

Firstly, I really enjoyed the writing style, which reminds me of classic gothic novels in the best ways. I loved the epistolary format of this novel, and the way it's interspersed with diary entries and (more) letters. The atmosphere is haunting at times, and downright terrifying at others. I could sort of guess how this book would end, but at the same time, the story is riveting and I couldn't put it down.

I will say, there are only five chapters in this whole 400 page book, which could make it a tough reading experience. For me, I struggled to find intervals where I could put the book down, which isn't really a problem I guess, because I wanted to keep reading anyway.

I also loved the romance, which was really sweet but also heart-wrenching. I appreciate how the characters navigated their dynamic, of being master and servant, as well as how dedicated they are to each other. However, I should note that this is NOT a romance novel. If you want to read this for the romance, refer to the synopsis and reevaluate.

One important aspect I have to discuss is how Buddhism factors into the story. Given that the Evil Cult in this book follows a (fictional) heretical branch of Buddhism, I was a little worried about how Buddhism would be portrayed. Barring the Evil Cult, I think the author did a good job of being respectful to the religion and culture; the main character is a white guy who studies Buddhism, and he is portrayed as respectful and fascinated by Buddhist/foreign culture and texts. (I have seen some other reviewers criticise this book as being too "woke", so.) However, this book references and quotes translations of Buddhist texts, as well as features important historical figures like the Dalai Lhama. Given that I have zero knowledge of early 20th century Tibetan Buddhism, I have no idea how accurate or realistic this portrayal is.

I was raised Buddhist, so I know some of the basic lore enough to know what's going on, as well as which aspects of the story are fictionalised. When reading other reviews of this book, I realised that a lot of readers know basically nothing about Buddhism. This makes me worried that people may read this book and form incorrect, or even damaging beliefs about Buddhists or Buddhism.

My version of this book is an eARC, so this may have been included in the final version, but I believe that the above issues I mentioned could be easily rectified by including an Author's Note to clarify which aspects of the book are fictionalised, as well as references to research sources.

I will say, I do appreciate Buddhism being such a large focus. Most gothic novels take place in western settings and focus on Christianity or Catholicism, and lots of horror genre cults are some variation of Satanic, so I quite enjoyed getting to read a gothic novel inspired by my own religion for once, even if some bits might be blasphemous.

There's a lot more that could be discussed about the book's approach to, like, religion in general, but I'm going to leave my thoughts on this as is, simply because I am not knowledgeable enough to analyse this.

I think this could be a divisive novel; as far as I can tell, people either love or hate the writing style and format, and the inclusion of Buddhism seems to have left other reviewers confused (people who don't know what's going-on) or conflicted (people who do know what's going on, enough to point out that the depiction of Buddhism is worrying).

Personally, while I am still somewhat conflicted about the portrayal of Buddhism, I would still highly recommend this novel to gothic horror enthusiasts.

Overall, this is a phenomenal novel, one that fascinated and moved me.

[pandoraistheloml]

no rizz just pretty eyes and a overwhelming amount of knowledge about fictional characters.

[quillandqueer]

I had such a good day yesterday! I went to Exeter with my Gran to do a bit of Christmas shopping and find myself some new (to me) jeans.

I found some Carhartts that are so soft, and also stopped in Book Bag and Waterstones, finding two books I'd been searching for for a while too. 🥰

[nocturnalr4ven]

[bunubunss]

the dream team (o´▽`o)

[angsty-art-ist]

are we gonna have a problem?