This Vicious Hunger
On sale
26th August 2025
Price: £19.99
From the Sunday Times bestselling the author of Wild and Wicked Things comes a dark gothic fantasy about intoxication, obsession and a desperate hunger for knowledge, whatever the cost.
Thora Grieve finds herself destitute and an outcast after the sudden death of her husband, but a glimmer of hope arrives when a family friend offers her the chance to study botany under a famed professor. Once at the university, Thora becomes entranced by a mysterious young woman, Olea, who emerges each night to tend to the plants in the private garden below her window.
Hungry for connection, Thora befriends Olea through the garden gate and their relationship quickly and intensely blossoms. Intoxicated, Thora throws herself into finding a cure for Olea’s ailment and sinks deeper into a world of beauty, poison and obsession. She’s finally found the freedom to pursue her darkest desires, but will it be worth the price?
Praise for Francesca May:
‘Brimming with romance and gilded with danger, Wild and Wicked Things is a heady, lyrical gem of a book’ Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf
‘Haunting, immersive, and seething with dark magic, Wild and Wicked Things cast its spell on me’
Alexis Henderson, author of The Year of the Witching
‘Wild and Wicked Things ticked all my boxes. May’s vivid prose carries us off to a world not quite unlike our own and spins the story of one woman coming into her own, another fighting the darkness inside her, and the two of them drawing together to become something more. I couldn’t put it down’
Genevieve Gornichec, author of The Witch’s Heart
Thora Grieve finds herself destitute and an outcast after the sudden death of her husband, but a glimmer of hope arrives when a family friend offers her the chance to study botany under a famed professor. Once at the university, Thora becomes entranced by a mysterious young woman, Olea, who emerges each night to tend to the plants in the private garden below her window.
Hungry for connection, Thora befriends Olea through the garden gate and their relationship quickly and intensely blossoms. Intoxicated, Thora throws herself into finding a cure for Olea’s ailment and sinks deeper into a world of beauty, poison and obsession. She’s finally found the freedom to pursue her darkest desires, but will it be worth the price?
Praise for Francesca May:
‘Brimming with romance and gilded with danger, Wild and Wicked Things is a heady, lyrical gem of a book’ Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf
‘Haunting, immersive, and seething with dark magic, Wild and Wicked Things cast its spell on me’
Alexis Henderson, author of The Year of the Witching
‘Wild and Wicked Things ticked all my boxes. May’s vivid prose carries us off to a world not quite unlike our own and spins the story of one woman coming into her own, another fighting the darkness inside her, and the two of them drawing together to become something more. I couldn’t put it down’
Genevieve Gornichec, author of The Witch’s Heart
Newsletter Signup
By clicking ‘Sign Up,’ I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Hachette Book Group’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Reviews
Brimming with romance and gilded with danger, Wild Wicked Things is a heady, lyrical gem of a book
A rich, Gothic fantasy of obsession, trauma, and lies that twist and knot like tangled roots. This Vicious Hunger is a feminist tale of women starved for love and autonomy, their screams of rage smothered by gentile smiles. A queer fairy tale of toxic romance that echoes with longing