This is a vampire story with atmospheric writing, echoes of Carmilla and a split narrative; one navigating heartache of her mothers illness in modern Buenos Aires and the other doused in bloodthirsty eras past. Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk, translated by Heather Cleary, is releasing tomorrow in the UK—perfect timing for Halloween !

‘𝑰 𝒎𝒆𝒍𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒔 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔, 𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅, 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒘𝒔 𝒐𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒔.’

This story is short but somehow felt like a full length novel with each character’s points of view reading like two completely different books. The prose is lyrical and somehow works for both the fast paced first half and slow paced second.

The depictions of life for a blood lusting vampire in the 19th century delivered a Carmilla flair that I was interested in right away. However, the lush atmosphere that was created during this was soon sterlised by the introduction of the modern day setting in the second part, sadly. That being said, i did enjoy the grief explored with the slow passing of the human character’s mother and think that the slowing of the pace here echoed that.

‘𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒔, 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒂𝒏 𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒓, 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒂𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒆: 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒅; 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒍.’

Overall i enjoyed this quick read (just wished there was more vampire moments in the second half !) and will be picking up the next release from Marina Yuszczuk.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thirst, at times, feels like two books rolled into one—they do link together and act as two parts of a whole, but it feels quite jarring when switching from the first act to the second.
 
We begin with our unnamed vampire—her creation, early life, and how she passed the decades that spun onwards from that. Loss, survival, and learning to hide in plain sight. 
 
The first act was incredible, frankly, and I think that if the rest of the book had continued in that way or even remained in our unnamed vampires perspective, this book may have been a five-star read for me. It was brutal, heady, and yet also sexy, in the most macabre of ways. I also found its handling of religion fascinating.
 
The second act revolves around a woman in the present day who is losing her mother to a cruel disease whilst trying to juggle work and her young son. She is handed the keys to a tomb in the Recoleta cemetery, which have been passed down through her family, and she finds herself being repeatedly drawn to said tomb.
 
I think I struggled with the sudden change of pace. Again, the first part feels like a gory, hedonistic rollercoaster, which suddenly rolls to a stop and plunges us into a much slower-paced book. 
 
I also then found the ending to be incredibly abrupt. The book was dragging slightly, and then, when it was finally getting interesting, it suddenly ended in a way that left me scratching my head. I suppose that might have reflected how our modern-day woman was feeling about that period in her life—a slow existence that suddenly sped up—but it made for a disjointed reading experience. 
 
I do want to say that I loved the setting of this book. Bueno Aires feels like a living, breathing character in this book as the city moves through the decades and grows around the famous cemetery. 
 
This novel isn’t too long, so I do feel like it’s still worth checking out—the setting alone heightens the story, and the first act is a brilliant piece of vampiric literature. It’s just a shame that the second act drags it down somewhat. 
 
Thank you to the publishers, and Netgalley, for the copy to review.

People are calling this the "return of the gothic vampire novel" and I agree. Absolute vibes and a rich writing style, and a take on vampires that felt simultaneously fresh and classic.

The first half is set in 18th century Buenos Aires and we follow our unnamed vampire narrator as she quenches her thirst for blood and tries to deal with a changing world amid an epidemic and the modernisation of technology. We then follow a divorced mother in the modern day who is (failing at) deaing with her own mother's terminal illness and ends up meeting our vampire.

I especially liked the exploration and antithesis of a vampire dealing with immortality, and a terminally ill woman who wants to die but is forced to endure her body being kept alive by modern medicine.

The first half was definitely my favourite because I was SAT for the animalistic vampire drinking her way through Buenos Aires. The second half was definitely done very well but was very "standard literary" for a while and I really missed the supernatural elements. I think the ending left me a little bit unsatisfied as well.

A 2 generational lens into the life of a female vampire. Part 1 was absolutely fantastic, a first person lens inside the body, mind and emotions of the vampire. Part 2 was less great & the last page was unbelievable to me.

"Thirst" is a fantastic take on the vampire mythos. I confess that the first half felt a bit too rambling for my taste, as if we were following an aimless character, sitting back and watching time pass her by. However, the second half of the book was much more captivating, especially in its exploration of grief and death through the main character. The ending is both unusual and unexpected.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC of Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk, translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Heather Cleary. I was drawn to this book because of its promise of moody sapphic vibes, and in the first part it definitely delivered. One of the editorial reviews praises the author for taking vampires, ‘a trivialised monster’, and bringing them to life in her own way. I both agree and disagree. Vampires thanks to Stephanie Meyer have been subject to so many jokes and memes that I found it difficult to see the vampire as ominous. She slotted right into all the vampire clichés, driven only by her need to feed and have sex. I think there was much more that could have been done with her character.

The second half focuses on Alma, a human woman in modern day Buenos Aires who’s struggling with single motherhood and her own mother dying. Although we lose the moody gay vibes (temporarily), I did appreciate the mediation on grief and mental health.

The storylines don’t intersect as much as I’d hoped, and the ending completely blindsided me. Overall a mixed back, with the atmosphere and portrayal of grief making up for gaps elsewhere.

This was honestly such a unique take on a vampire story. I feel like we romanticised vampires to such a degree that they aren't really monstrous anymore. They are just love interests at this point, dark but never crossing certain lines.

Thirst wasn't afraid of crossing those lines. The vampire in this story is murderous and doesn't care who she hurts. She's cruel and senseless and... To me she felt more like personification of death.

For so many of the characters whose path she crosses she reflects their connection to death. For a doctor who couldn't help his patients she was a temptress, a lover and someone he tried to posses. For a priest who broke his vows she came quickly and violently with just emptiness beyond. For a woman buried alive she was the personification of being stuck in this half place between life and death. For a man who spent his life in service of the cemetery, she was a trusted friend who he longed for.

And for Alma death was always nearby, terrifying but at the same time so enticing. Death was someone she wanted to welcome, not tame or overcome.

It was surprisingly beautiful and enchanting story. And it was nothing like I expected. It is not your normal vampire story but it's still so worth delving into.

In the first half of this book we follow a nineteenth century vampire as she goes on a murderous rampage across Europe. She realises she should probably split before someone catches onto her and gets on a boat to Buenos Aires. Here she goes on another murderous rampage in the height of a yellow fever pandemic.

The second half is modern day Buenos Aires where a woman is struggling to cope with the later stages of her mother’s terminal illness. Her world is shattering. She encounters the vampire in the cemetery one day and this changes the course of things.

I will say that I expected a whole lot more queer vampires than I ended up getting. This is more of a study of these two characters independently and the connecting of the narratives was really clunky? I much preferred the first half and could’ve read a full book on her gruesome escapades.

A tale of two parts that didn’t quite weave together for me!

As a vampire lover I was extremely excited to read this and though I did struggle at some points to keep reading due to pacing and language, overall I did enjoy this book.

The first part was exceedingly atmospheric and blended literary fiction and vampiric fiction beautifully. But I was more engaged by the second part as it felt more relatable to me.

Both parts explored death and grief in a very interesting and unique way.

Though I did think the two women’s lives would intersect more, I did like the small similarities and overarching themes they both shared.

Thank you to Scribe and NetGallery for allowing me to read this book before publication.

the first half of this was incredible to me! maria had such an interesting life and i really enjoyed reading i think i would have preferred more of that over the second half.

part two was good, but after part 1 felt slightly disappointing. there’s a lot of focus on alma’s mothers illness, which i understand i did quite like, but i feel like it took away from some of the other plots. i particularly wish more time had been spent on her relationship with her son.

i also didn’t quite understand the ending. she talks about loving her son, yet is willing to leave him? for a woman she barely knows? it just felt strange to me.

Absolutely loved this - the perfect literary / historical blend.

This book is set up into two parts - the first part is the perspective of the vampire as we follow her through her life to the present day, from her time in Europe to arriving in Buenos Aires and her centuries there. This part falls into the historical fiction/horror category, and the writing is expressive and bold.
The second part follows another character in present-day Buenos Aires as she deals with being a parent and having her mother die of a terminal illness, and eventually unlocks the tomb of the vampire. This half is much more literary and the writing is a lot more meandering, and you really get a sense that this character's world is slowly unraveling.

I loved the parallels that were drawn between these two parts - the themes of dying, grief and experiencing change against your will. It was such an evocative read and I loved the sense of impending doom you got throughout the book.

100% recommend for anyone looking for vampire books... this is IT!!

Thank you Scribe & Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Content warning: murder, death, terminal illness, death of a family member, violence, pandemic/plague

As a fan of vampiric novels, it feels strange to say that the vampire element was actually my least favourite part of this book, though I did appreciate some of the less traditional choices the author made with the vampire story arc. I considered DNFing it during the first half, but I’m glad I persisted because the second half resonated with me on a much deeper level.

Although I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I’d hoped, I appreciated its exploration of life, death, and illness. The thematic culmination tied everything together in the way I had been hoping for. That being said, I can imagine the ending being fairly divisive, so definitely keep that in mind!

It was certainly a slow read, but for those who appreciate slow-burn literary fiction with darker themes, I think this book could be for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for my review copy!

Having seen some glowing reviews on bookstagram for this book, I was so excited to read it - especially now we are in Autumn and spooky season is beginning. I found this book to be really engaging in the first half, but lacking in the second half. I don't know if the issue is with the translation as a lot of people who read the book in it's original language seem to be saying that it's a 5 star read, compared to people who have read the translation who seem to not enjoy it as much. That's not to say that I did not enjoy this book. The first half really did hook me and I really enjoyed the pace and the writing and the atmosphere. But it just seemed to fall flat the more the book went on. It felt a bit rushed and not executed to it's best.

I devoured the first half of this book in one sitting with thunderstorm sounds and gothic classical music in the background and it really matched the vibe.We follow a vampire for a few decades and watch how the city of Buenos Ares grows and changes in that time. I loved how dark the story felt and anytime you might be foolish enough to think the vampire had changed and maybe had a bit of humanity she’d prove to you the monster she was. There’s a point where the vampire doesn’t know how much time has passed and the chapter doesn’t have a number, I thought that was really clever.
The second half was a little harder for me to get into at first but I still really enjoyed it. We follow a main character who is continually grieving as her mother slowly succumbs to a degenerative disease. She becomes obsessed with things and ideas maybe in a way to distract herself from what’s really going on. She spends a long time considering and worrying about a Pandora’s box that her mother tells her not to open and her need to rebel against that. My only complaint is I that I wish the ending wasn’t so opened ended and we got a tiny bit more maybe even a page. I just don’t understand how she could abandon Santiago like that when the majority of the book we see how infatuated she is with him.

This book looks at the complexities of identity and humanity when facing death and grief.
#ad I received this book for free as an arc but the opinions are entirely my own.

I'm going to start with that this is a very difficult book to summarize.

We follow two women, from two different timelines, one is a vampire and her story starts way back. The other woman lives in current day and ages.
The vampire perspective was very interesting to read, I loved reading her way of thinking, and the unique writing style could not be a better fit with this book. We start her story back to her "creation", all the way to her moving from Europe to Buenos Aires for a "fresh" start. We read about her struggles, and how she tries to adjust to life. I really liked her view of how time passed, it was written really well.

The human perspective was very different, but also similar to the vampire one. She also deals with struggles, and mostly struggles lots of us will find similar.

At the end both stories intertwine.

And I cannot tell anything more without it being spoilerl-y. This is not a book for everyone, I can say that for sure. It is very different with the writing style, and I also had to get used to it a bit. The writing style fits the book and the whole story perfectly, which made for such an enjoyable read. This is not a book for everyone, and if possible, I'd recommend to read a few pages before purchasing this book. because the writing style isn't for everyone.

Description:
A vampire moves through the world and decades before deciding on a life (death?) of solitude. In the present day, a woman struggles to cope as her mother dies of a terminal illness.

Liked:
Loved the latter half of the book - the present-day protagonist is engaging, flawed and sympathetic, with lots going on and lots to process. Both her mother and her relationship with her mother are beautifully portrayed.

Disliked:
The first half didn't really resonate: it felt repetitive and drawn out. I think this could have been more engaging if it had begun in the present day and interspersed the OG vampire story in between chapters, but as is, it was a bit of a slog, and I was very pleasantly surprised with the tempo switch in the latter half.

Would recommend, but maybe start at the halfway point!

Anything Else:
There’s some absolutely gorgeous cemetery descriptions in this, including some nice musing on the purpose of their ornamentation.

This novel had several separate aspects that I enjoyed, but unfortunately as a whole it just didn’t work for me. To begin with, it’s very short and it does have the feel of a novella in that the writers sweeps across events and time in general in a “and then this happened” sort of way. I enjoyed the first half -the story of our vampire- better, because I’m a sucker for historical fiction in general. However, it is not until the last 10% that the two main characters actually meet, making the first 90% feel like a mere introduction and I’d have loved to have read the story of what happens next. As a mum I find it difficult to believe a woman would leave her infant child to run off with a vampire she’s known for a few days, so that also fell a bit flat to me. I enjoyed the writing though, and that helped overall.

a gorgeous feminist gothic horror in two parts. the first part is wonderful and follows a vampire trying to figure out how to exist in the world while being controlled by her undying need for blood. it's set in Buenos Aires over multiple centuries so I enjoyed reading bits of history about the city through the eyes of the main character and adored this part of the story. the second part didn't live up to the first but was still interesting, instead following a young woman who meets the vampire from her point of view. much less happened in this part and it felt quite rushed but overall I <3'd the sapphic vampires


huge thanks to netgalley for an arc of the english translation of this book which is out on the 24th of October

In the first part this novel, Marina Yuszczuk beautifully evokes a rich, haunting atmosphere in Buenos Aires' past as our narrator, an unnamed vampire, witnesses the city developing around her from its infancy. This section is a character study of a unique being trying to carve out an existence and experiencing the profound loneliness of an immortal life.

The second part of this novel is also set in Buenos Aires, but this time in the present day. The narrator is a single mother who is struggling to cope with her own mother's degenerative disease. Similar to the first half, the plot is fairly sparse, with the focus primarily on the emotions of the main character.

The tone varies between melancholy and reflective to violent and sexually charged, and all of it is executed brilliantly by the author! Honestly, I don't really read much gothic lit but now I'm going to look for more!

I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and publisher.

This book was kind of wild. At times it felt like a fairly traditional vampire novel, at others it got weird and pretty intense. All of this in a good way. We follow a violent vampire over centuries. The first part of the book is more traditional, the second part is modern. When the second part of the story starts and for a fair while it’s really different, I wasn’t sure how it was going to connect back to the first part, but when it does it really makes sense.

There is so much death in this book and it’s often fairly callous. Our vampire is animalistic and vicious. She creates suffering and it’s driven by her thirst. She hurts people even where it’s to her own detriment. She fantasises about bringing back someone she killed so she can watch as she kills then all over again. She appears human but for much of the book she doesn’t have much empathy.

I love a vampire novel and this manages to be quite traditional whilst also being really shocking a new. It was clever, frightening, bizarre and really entertaining