I finally understand smut and all it took was some lesbian vampires

Hungerstone by Kat Dunn

I have never understood the appeal of smut. One of my book club friends (and lets be real a fair portion of women on the internet) love the stuff. This friend in particular is always telling us about some smut book she’s reading, from the insane to the mild to the arousing.

Now, I know that everyone reads for different reasons but I could not get my head around this one. I mean if you want to see some X-rated fun then just watch porn. It’s free, readily available, and (most importantly for me) quick. I mean why spend hours reading when you can watch what is essentially just some fucking in 10 minutes. I actually don’t even watch porn – so maybe it’s not the medium of the pornographic content that's the problem.

But is reading it even arousing? I have never read a steamy scene and been genuinely tickled. It can be interesting, fun, playful, or cringy. But never anything that’ll actually get me going. I have to be honest here, I don’t read a lot of this stuff. I don’t like romance and have never willing read any of the books that the internet frequently gets it’s panties all a flutter for.

Well that was until I read Hungerstone by Kat Dunn. This book, and its Sapphic vampirism had me getting all hot under the collar.

I mean it was hot.

Like really hot.

I was all a flutter.

It was bizarre and delightful and I found myself wondering if this was it? Is this the feeling I have seen so many memes and reels about? Is this the naughtiness that so many women delight in? I immediately took to our book group chat to share the news.

All pervy-ness aside Hungerstone is a great book. A retelling of the classic vampire tale Carmilla, the story explores the social constraints upon women during the Victorian age. It very effectively highlights the lack of autonomy women suffered – even those nicely breed highborn women. They were so often victims of circumstance. The circumstance of their birth, beauty, marriage would determine the kind of life available to them. Women had very little recourse to determining their own future, and even there own safety. It also perfectly displays the kind of ingrained misogyny that is our cultural heritage. Women were (and in many places still are) second-class citizens.

Lenore’s 10-year marriage to steel magnate Henry has soured. They have moved to a new country estate, meant to be a symbol of power for Henry in his ambition to legitimize his new money amongst the British aristocracy. On the way to their new home they encounter an upturned carriage and a young woman. Carmilla infiltrates the home and mind of Lenore, unsettling her well ordered life and forcing her to confront the own powerlessness.

Lenore has traded her desires for a false sense of security, and Carmilla forces her to confront this lack. It is human to want things, to have a preference, it is how we take up space in the world and assert our place within it.

This is a story of confronting the systems that oppress and pushing against them, choosing ourselves no matter how hard or uncomfortable that can be. Hungerstone has been described as a story of women’s rage, but I found it to be a story of women’s desires. The capacity for cruelty and absurdity simply expresses the irrepressible truth that these women are human. That they want just as the men do.

Hungerstone is a feminist tale that centers the desires and humanity of women – and we need these stories now more than ever. Women’s rights are historically very new, and have been under continuous threat since their inception, especially in the current political landscape.

It was while I was mulling this all over, polishing my ‘I’m a feminist’ badge, when I realized what actually got me all hot and bothered. It wasn’t that there was some excellently written fucking. It was that the sex was an expression of unadulterated female desire. It was curious, and soft, and ferocious. And most importantly in was the moment in the story when Lenore became an active participant in her life. It was an expression of her moving from a passive thing that others desires are acted out upon and a person that does the desiring.

It’s some really hot girl on girl feminist fucking. It’s the kind of sex I wish for everyone, especially women. Free, enthusiastic, and fabulous - the kind of sex that feels like a revelation. The kind of sex that makes you feel empowered to be boldly yourself, in and out of the bedroom. Sex that is liberating.

And there is nothing hotter.

I’d love to know what books get you hot under the collar, or ignites your feminist rage.