Hunger and Thirst
In Claire Fuller’s haunting thriller Hunger and Thirst, a teenager’s isolation in a decrepit, abandoned house coincides with a grisly murder.
In the summer of 1987, sixteen-year-old Ursula moves from foster homes and a halfway house to the Underwood, a large, decaying house. Her coworker, Vince, whose upbringing makes Ursula wonder what her life would have been like if she’d been adopted, is a squatter there. Thereafter, Ursula’s emotional state is depicted through her reactions to the Underwood, which she variously worries is haunted and sees as a sanctuary. This tangling up of Ursula’s well-being with the house is masterful and macabre.
Vince’s girlfriend, Sue, is an outspoken feminist who wants to be a film director. Socially awkward Ursula finds comfort in Sue’s confidence and ambition. And while Sue begrudges her mother, Anita, for having too many children, Ursula takes comfort in Anita’s maternal nature.
Indeed, Ursula’s yearning for a family punctuates each scene, both sad and hopeful: “They swept me up into their family, a new arrival … welcomed and accepted.” Ursula also grows to care for Sue’s older brother, Raymond, who is quiet and odd.
Then Ursula’s and Sue’s desires start to clash, and the novel takes a darker turn. Indeed, vignettes from a present-day documentary reveal that one of their coworkers was murdered, and that no one knows how Ursula was involved. Other secondary cast members act as foils to Ursula; their complicated relationships are as mysterious as the components of the murder. The heightened drama and tension carry through to the book’s gratifying ending.
In the melancholy mystery novel Hunger and Thirst, an orphaned teenager attempts to fit in, with deadly consequences when she fails.
Reviewed by
Leah Block
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