Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > Thirst

Thirst is a lovely vampire (though the term is never used) origin story, following one woman from old Europe (the text is open to interpretation, but the timing and the general narration suggests vampires originated from Vlad Dracul) to the newly opened port at Buenos Aires in the late 18th century where she spends near a century contemplating her never-ending thirst, the pain but necessity of loneliness, her monstrous existence, and the heavy knowledge of her immortality as she chooses to live eternally, locked inside of a lovely mausoleum inside of the labyrinthine La Recoleta Cemetery.

The first 50% of the book is this lovely, sweeping historical fiction that I just described to you. The prose is heavy, gothic, violent, and full of anger aimed both internally and externally.

Then the book switches gears and protagonists for the second half and the story is being told by a human woman with a five year-old child, a mother dying from a disease that is briskly paralyzing every part of her body, and living with the knowledge that disease will come for her someday too. Everyday is another crisis and it’s all blending together until her mother gives her an envelope with the ownership papers and keys to a crypt in the La Recoleta Cemetery. Her mother can’t talk anymore or write more than short words, but there’s something about this crypt that just speaks to her.

Both of these women were just trapped: One by thirst and loneliness, one by family obligation and fear of her own impending demise. This book turns the historical (and still relevant) lack of female agency and the fragility of human life into a sapphic romance about escaping the trappings of men and embracing the arms of monsters.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: LGBTQ Fiction/Literary Fiction/Sapphic Romance/Translation/Vampire Fiction