Thirst: A Novel

Written by Marina Yuszczuk

Narrated by Maria Liatis

“Vampires are making a comeback, and Yuszczuk is spearheading their revival with this bloody novel.”
—The New York Times Book Review
 
It is the nineteenth century, the twilight of Europe’s bloody bacchanals, and a vampire must escape. She arrives to the coast of Buenos Aires and, for the second time in her life, watches as villages transform into a cosmopolitan city. She adapts, intermingles with humans, and attempts to be discreet.

In present-day Buenos Aires, a woman finds herself at an impasse as she grapples with her mother's terminal illness and her own relationship to motherhood. When she first encounters the vampire in a cemetery, something ignites inside the two women—and they cross a threshold from which there’s no turning back.

With echoes of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Thirst plays with the boundaries of the Gothic genre while exploring the limits of female agency, all-consuming desire, and the fragile vitality of even the most immortal of creatures.
 
“Channeling Carmen Maria Machado and Anne Rice, Yuszczuk reimagines the vampire novel, with a distinctly Latin American feminist Gothic twist.”
—The Millions

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Translator: Heather Cleary
• Release date: Mar 5, 2024
• ISBN: 9780593827581

Marina Yuszczuk

Marina Yuszczuk was born in Argentina in 1978. She is a writer and founding editor of Rosa Iceberg, a press focused on publishing writing by women. She is the author of multiple books of poetry, short-story collections, and novels.

Reviews for Thirst

[jfe16 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Review of Uncorrected eBook File

In the nineteenth century, a woman becomes a vampire and travels to a new home, only to discover the area is in the throes of a pandemic. She realizes that no one understands what it is like to be what she is, even though people have invented a variety of stories to explain her kind. As Buenos Aires grows, so does the woman, finding ways to fit in, to keep herself undiscovered.

In the present day, Alma, a woman struggling with her mother’s terminal illness, meets the vampire woman in a cemetery.

What lies ahead for the two women?

=========

The story, told in the first person, follows the lives of two women, the vampire and Alma. Both grab the reader’s attention; their situations are well-explained. The portion of the story dealing with the outbreak of yellow fever is particularly strong; throughout the telling of the tale, an eerie feeling underscores the unfolding narrative.

The narrative is atmospheric and melancholy, less a tale of vampires than it is an introspective contemplation of loneliness, grief, and survival. Though the narrative is dark, the emotion-filled prose is lush but the denouement may not be what the reader expects [or desires].

I received a free copy of this book from PENGUIN GROUP Dutton, Dutton and NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
#Thirst #NetGalley

[Lectora Andrea · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was good, but honestly, I thought I would like it more. In the first part, I was hooked, but in the second, I started to lose interest, and I also felt anger towards the main character... The things he did made me want to yell at him, although I suppose that was the intention (unstable characters do incoherent things). In the end, he did the right thing. As for the writing, excellent. (Translated from Spanish)