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Rottenheart
“Feed this directly into my veins.” —Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author
From the bestselling author of Hungerstone, an intoxicating and chilling gothic horror novel that reimagines Hamlet with a seductive sapphic twist—and where the only thing more dangerous than a family secret is a mother's revenge.
Revenge me. For I am murdered . . .
Odette and her best friend, Cecilia, grow up between two grand homes, one in Hampstead and one in Suffolk, the ancient and imposing Herne House. Odette’s mother, Lydia, is almost parasitic in her neediness, but despite her, Odette and Cecilia come of age together—free to roam, to learn, and to love. When Lydia inexplicably sickens and dies, a dark veil falls. Odette’s father retreats to his study, while her aunt—the cold and cruel Claudine—increasingly takes charge of the household. Lost in grief and spiraling into madness, Odette disappears into the shadows, leaving Cecilia alone and with her affections tested. As Claudine is announced as Odette’s new stepmother, the girls reckon with this final betrayal, and a sinister presence awakens. To her horror, Odette realizes that her mother never truly left. She now haunts the manor, ready to drag long- held secrets into the light and exact revenge against those who thought her dead and gone. A visceral tale of grief and madness, Rottenheart exhumes the heart of Hamlet to tell a fearless queer love story laced with an unforgettable haunting, asking whether we can truly outrun our suffering, or if we are forever indebted to the vengeful dead.
From the bestselling author of Hungerstone, an intoxicating and chilling gothic horror novel that reimagines Hamlet with a seductive sapphic twist—and where the only thing more dangerous than a family secret is a mother's revenge.
Revenge me. For I am murdered . . .
Odette and her best friend, Cecilia, grow up between two grand homes, one in Hampstead and one in Suffolk, the ancient and imposing Herne House. Odette’s mother, Lydia, is almost parasitic in her neediness, but despite her, Odette and Cecilia come of age together—free to roam, to learn, and to love. When Lydia inexplicably sickens and dies, a dark veil falls. Odette’s father retreats to his study, while her aunt—the cold and cruel Claudine—increasingly takes charge of the household. Lost in grief and spiraling into madness, Odette disappears into the shadows, leaving Cecilia alone and with her affections tested. As Claudine is announced as Odette’s new stepmother, the girls reckon with this final betrayal, and a sinister presence awakens. To her horror, Odette realizes that her mother never truly left. She now haunts the manor, ready to drag long- held secrets into the light and exact revenge against those who thought her dead and gone. A visceral tale of grief and madness, Rottenheart exhumes the heart of Hamlet to tell a fearless queer love story laced with an unforgettable haunting, asking whether we can truly outrun our suffering, or if we are forever indebted to the vengeful dead.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published June 4, 2026
About the author
Kat Dunn
10 books1,586 followersKat Dunn is the author of HUNGERSTONE (2025), BITTERTHORN, and the Battalion of the Dead trilogy:
DANGEROUS REMEDY, MONSTROUS DESIGN and GLORIOUS POISON.
She grew up in London and has lived in Japan, Australia and France.
She has a BA in Japanese from SOAS and an MA in English from Warwick. She’s written about mental health for Mind and The Guardian, and worked as a translator for Japanese television.
DANGEROUS REMEDY, MONSTROUS DESIGN and GLORIOUS POISON.
She grew up in London and has lived in Japan, Australia and France.
She has a BA in Japanese from SOAS and an MA in English from Warwick. She’s written about mental health for Mind and The Guardian, and worked as a translator for Japanese television.
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November 28, 2025sapphic and Shakespeare inspired. say less.
May 22, 2026
thank you so much to netgalley for this arc!!
this is my first book by kat dunn, and it definitely won’t be my last! this was such a fun concept, and was almost a ‘meandering’ plot? which i don’t say in a negative way, it really worked for me. this is also sapphic which immediately made me fall in love with it. the writing style was gorgeous and very very atmospheric - i would say this is more of a gothic/despair/grief-driven story, as opposed to a spooky/scary horror, and i think that suited these characters well. i very much fell in love with both odette and cecilia (although odette specifically was definitely frustrating at a lot of points).
my only teeny tiny issue i had with this book was the time jumps - in and of themselves, they are fine, and added to the plot, but we jump back and forth between different months of the same year and it can get a tiny bit confusing in places. i just flicked back and made sure i understood exactly where we stood, so not exactly a hardship.
i would definitely recommend this book if you like more atmospheric, gothic stories, as opposed to high stakes spooky stories. the ‘romance’ was very sweet, the story was engaging, and the characters were really interesting to follow. very much enjoyed!
this is my first book by kat dunn, and it definitely won’t be my last! this was such a fun concept, and was almost a ‘meandering’ plot? which i don’t say in a negative way, it really worked for me. this is also sapphic which immediately made me fall in love with it. the writing style was gorgeous and very very atmospheric - i would say this is more of a gothic/despair/grief-driven story, as opposed to a spooky/scary horror, and i think that suited these characters well. i very much fell in love with both odette and cecilia (although odette specifically was definitely frustrating at a lot of points).
my only teeny tiny issue i had with this book was the time jumps - in and of themselves, they are fine, and added to the plot, but we jump back and forth between different months of the same year and it can get a tiny bit confusing in places. i just flicked back and made sure i understood exactly where we stood, so not exactly a hardship.
i would definitely recommend this book if you like more atmospheric, gothic stories, as opposed to high stakes spooky stories. the ‘romance’ was very sweet, the story was engaging, and the characters were really interesting to follow. very much enjoyed!
Review of advance copy
I will be reflecting on this book in my dreams. Ordered from Blackwell's.
Read
June 2, 2026Sapphics with mommy issues, gather round!
Kat Dunn transports Hamlet into the tail end of the 19th century in this queer, gothic retelling. Aesthetically, Dunn pulls from 19th century illustrations such as the infamous painting of Ophelia, Victorian ghost stories, and fairytale imagery—an eclectic concoction that somehow all find themselves tethered together by the source text: Hamlet. Narratively, Kat Dunn explores the family dynamics and insular interpersonal conflicts of the source material. Cycles of revenge are zoomed in on and dialed up to focus on cycles of familial revenge. Hamlet’s role as an extension of his father (through name, through task) bleeds into this world through themes of mother/daughter entanglement and codependency, bordering on incestuous as Hamlet (Odette)’s relationship with her mother parallels Ophelia (Cecelia)’s relationship with Odette. As secrets unfold and tensions shift and grow, roles and selves become twisted into one unending knotted loop of revenge.
This book is About a lot of things: inherited trauma, the definition of the self through and by another to the point of losing oneself, the idea that madness is nothing more than a declaration someone uses to assert themselves as reason, image—to violate, to preserve, to perform. Its themes are interconnected and cyclical, an ever-spinning web of parallels and codependency and projection between mother and daughter, sister and sister, aunt and niece, husband and wife, lover and lover, over and over. ROTTENHEART is ripe with rot: memento mori and gothic imagery, fucked up dynamics and toxic behavior, and bleeding with heart: full of love for stories and women and love between women, determined to break the cycles at hand.
Kat Dunn is a favorite author of mine, queer Hamlet retellings are my favorite subgenre (yes, really, ask me any day), and this book was certainly no disappointment. I highly recommend this gothic story: rich with ruination, tangled with toxicity, and blooming with brilliant character work. I especially recommend this book for fans of THE LAST TALE OF THE FLOWER BRIDE, the Millais Ophelia painting, and GHOST QUARTET (for those who know GQ: I can’t emphasize enough how many plot and theme similarities this book and GQ have! If I didn’t know for sure that it wasn’t intentional, I’d almost pitch this as a Ghost Quartet retelling nearly as much as a Hamlet retelling).
Thank you to the publisher for sending me a finished copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
CW: grief, death of mother, toxic relationship, suicidal ideation and attempt, dead body, hallucinations, gun violence, sexual assault, drowning, murder, misogyny, child death (off-page), animal death, blood & gore, body horror, abusive parent (emotional and physical), fire, emesis, adultery
Kat Dunn transports Hamlet into the tail end of the 19th century in this queer, gothic retelling. Aesthetically, Dunn pulls from 19th century illustrations such as the infamous painting of Ophelia, Victorian ghost stories, and fairytale imagery—an eclectic concoction that somehow all find themselves tethered together by the source text: Hamlet. Narratively, Kat Dunn explores the family dynamics and insular interpersonal conflicts of the source material. Cycles of revenge are zoomed in on and dialed up to focus on cycles of familial revenge. Hamlet’s role as an extension of his father (through name, through task) bleeds into this world through themes of mother/daughter entanglement and codependency, bordering on incestuous as Hamlet (Odette)’s relationship with her mother parallels Ophelia (Cecelia)’s relationship with Odette. As secrets unfold and tensions shift and grow, roles and selves become twisted into one unending knotted loop of revenge.
This book is About a lot of things: inherited trauma, the definition of the self through and by another to the point of losing oneself, the idea that madness is nothing more than a declaration someone uses to assert themselves as reason, image—to violate, to preserve, to perform. Its themes are interconnected and cyclical, an ever-spinning web of parallels and codependency and projection between mother and daughter, sister and sister, aunt and niece, husband and wife, lover and lover, over and over. ROTTENHEART is ripe with rot: memento mori and gothic imagery, fucked up dynamics and toxic behavior, and bleeding with heart: full of love for stories and women and love between women, determined to break the cycles at hand.
Kat Dunn is a favorite author of mine, queer Hamlet retellings are my favorite subgenre (yes, really, ask me any day), and this book was certainly no disappointment. I highly recommend this gothic story: rich with ruination, tangled with toxicity, and blooming with brilliant character work. I especially recommend this book for fans of THE LAST TALE OF THE FLOWER BRIDE, the Millais Ophelia painting, and GHOST QUARTET (for those who know GQ: I can’t emphasize enough how many plot and theme similarities this book and GQ have! If I didn’t know for sure that it wasn’t intentional, I’d almost pitch this as a Ghost Quartet retelling nearly as much as a Hamlet retelling).
Thank you to the publisher for sending me a finished copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
CW: grief, death of mother, toxic relationship, suicidal ideation and attempt, dead body, hallucinations, gun violence, sexual assault, drowning, murder, misogyny, child death (off-page), animal death, blood & gore, body horror, abusive parent (emotional and physical), fire, emesis, adultery
November 13, 2025
Future Lea here: From now on I can promise you, if there is a sapphic Kat Dunn book, you can be sure that I’ll be around somewhere. Another feast of sapphic yearning,female rage and some light horror and sprinkles of gothic aesthetic.
I am a bit disappointed by the ending though. Like what happened to the original plot of the movie?!?
Past Lea: Oh hello, what are you ?? More sapphic gothic books from Kat Dunn !? 👀
I am a bit disappointed by the ending though. Like what happened to the original plot of the movie?!?
Past Lea: Oh hello, what are you ?? More sapphic gothic books from Kat Dunn !? 👀
November 5, 2026
GOTHIC.🕯️ MOURNFUL. 💔 UNEVEN. ⚖️
Kat Dunn's Rottenheart reimagines Shakespeare's Hamlet as a sapphic Victorian Gothic, following a grieving daughter caught in a family troubled by secrets, resentment, and the possibility of a haunting. I found this a lovely and often fascinating retelling, though I finished with some rather mixed feelings about how it all came together.
I went into this already familiar with Hamlet and knowing that Dunn intended to explore Shakespeare's story through a gender reversal, particularly the psychological aspects of mother-daughter relationships, and I think she did a wonderful job in that regard. The complicated family dynamics are already present in the original, but approaching them through mothers and daughters offers different perspectives on those familiar conflicts, especially when considering the expectations placed upon women and the ways those expectations influence their relationships. I appreciated how Dunn expanded upon the story through these different circumstances, exploring the various forms of control that can exist within a family and how deeply our identities can become tied to the people we love.
Her portrayal of grief is deep: in how debilitating it can be, the waves in which it comes, and the ways it changes us and our relationships with those around us. There are so many other losses that accompany the death of someone dear to us, including the family we once knew and whatever hopes we held for a different future with the person we've lost, which becomes all the more complicated when that relationship was already fraught with hurt or resentment. I also found the question of who is permitted to suffer, and who is despised for that suffering, particularly interesting through the gender reversal (Dunn mentions this in her acknowledgments, although it was something I'd already been considering throughout the novel). There's another line in those acknowledgments that affected me perhaps even more than the book itself: "We love our mothers even when they starve us." It's a sentiment I can relate to deeply, and I found it incredibly moving in its simplicity; those few words helped me better understand certain aspects of what Dunn was trying to accomplish with this story.
Dunn's prose is absolutely gorgeous, and I think her writing is largely what kept me so engaged throughout the novel, even when I was struggling with other aspects of it. There's such a lovely fluidity to her writing, and I also enjoyed the way she moves between different styles, with the epistolary passages being some of my favorites. I've always loved how intimate letters can feel in fiction, and how much they can reveal about a character through what they choose to share or leave unsaid; Dunn handles these moments beautifully, giving us a more personal understanding of people whose relationships are often complicated by what they cannot express to one another openly (especially in the case of our two sapphic lovers). I think her characterization is quite good in general, and although not everyone is as fully fleshed out as I would have liked, we do come to know many of them quite intimately. Their flaws are an enormous part of what drives the story, and I enjoyed how much of their behavior could be understood through the histories and relationships Dunn gradually reveals, even when that behavior was difficult to sympathize with.
As much as I adore Gothic fiction and have an enormous appreciation for a very slow burn, I did struggle with the pacing here, and I think the story meanders a little too much in places. I wasn't entirely convinced that the movement between perspectives and timelines always benefited the novel, particularly because each narrative was developing at a different pace and building toward something quite different. We'd be following the gradual psychological deterioration of one character or becoming increasingly invested in the mystery unfolding through another perspective, only to be pulled away just as things were becoming more compelling, and I found that those interruptions sometimes diminished the impact of the eventual revelations. (There were moments when I was completely invested in what was happening, but by the time we returned to that part of the story, some of the tension had already dissipated.) I understand the value of gradually revealing the characters' histories and allowing us to see their relationships from different perspectives, but I do wonder whether a different approach might have allowed some of these developments to have a greater impact, considering how much time we spend building toward them.
I was also dissatisfied with the resolution, and although I respect the liberties Dunn took with Shakespeare's story and understand some of what she was hoping to accomplish, I wasn't entirely convinced by the choices she made. Revenge and its consequences are such an integral part of Hamlet, and I was particularly interested in seeing how Dunn would approach that aspect of the tragedy through her own interpretation; unfortunately, I found the conclusion somewhat underwhelming, even with an appreciation for the ideas behind it. Reading her afterword, where she discusses struggling to find a way to finish the novel and some of the liberties she took in the process, was interesting because I'd already felt that something wasn't quite coming together in the narrative, even before knowing about those difficulties. There's so much potential in this retelling, and although I found it lovely in so many respects, I finished feeling that it hadn't quite reached what it could have been.
I would still recommend Rottenheart to readers who enjoy classic Gothic fiction, particularly those who appreciate its much slower pacing and complicated relationships, though I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone specifically looking for horror. Despite how frequently I've seen it described as sapphic horror, I really wouldn't categorize it that way; to me, it's much more of a Gothic romance and family drama with paranormal elements (an important distinction when considering the kind of reading experience to expect).
I also still highly recommend this to anyone who needs a dose of sapphic yearning. 🫦
Kat Dunn's Rottenheart reimagines Shakespeare's Hamlet as a sapphic Victorian Gothic, following a grieving daughter caught in a family troubled by secrets, resentment, and the possibility of a haunting. I found this a lovely and often fascinating retelling, though I finished with some rather mixed feelings about how it all came together.
I went into this already familiar with Hamlet and knowing that Dunn intended to explore Shakespeare's story through a gender reversal, particularly the psychological aspects of mother-daughter relationships, and I think she did a wonderful job in that regard. The complicated family dynamics are already present in the original, but approaching them through mothers and daughters offers different perspectives on those familiar conflicts, especially when considering the expectations placed upon women and the ways those expectations influence their relationships. I appreciated how Dunn expanded upon the story through these different circumstances, exploring the various forms of control that can exist within a family and how deeply our identities can become tied to the people we love.
Her portrayal of grief is deep: in how debilitating it can be, the waves in which it comes, and the ways it changes us and our relationships with those around us. There are so many other losses that accompany the death of someone dear to us, including the family we once knew and whatever hopes we held for a different future with the person we've lost, which becomes all the more complicated when that relationship was already fraught with hurt or resentment. I also found the question of who is permitted to suffer, and who is despised for that suffering, particularly interesting through the gender reversal (Dunn mentions this in her acknowledgments, although it was something I'd already been considering throughout the novel). There's another line in those acknowledgments that affected me perhaps even more than the book itself: "We love our mothers even when they starve us." It's a sentiment I can relate to deeply, and I found it incredibly moving in its simplicity; those few words helped me better understand certain aspects of what Dunn was trying to accomplish with this story.
Dunn's prose is absolutely gorgeous, and I think her writing is largely what kept me so engaged throughout the novel, even when I was struggling with other aspects of it. There's such a lovely fluidity to her writing, and I also enjoyed the way she moves between different styles, with the epistolary passages being some of my favorites. I've always loved how intimate letters can feel in fiction, and how much they can reveal about a character through what they choose to share or leave unsaid; Dunn handles these moments beautifully, giving us a more personal understanding of people whose relationships are often complicated by what they cannot express to one another openly (especially in the case of our two sapphic lovers). I think her characterization is quite good in general, and although not everyone is as fully fleshed out as I would have liked, we do come to know many of them quite intimately. Their flaws are an enormous part of what drives the story, and I enjoyed how much of their behavior could be understood through the histories and relationships Dunn gradually reveals, even when that behavior was difficult to sympathize with.
As much as I adore Gothic fiction and have an enormous appreciation for a very slow burn, I did struggle with the pacing here, and I think the story meanders a little too much in places. I wasn't entirely convinced that the movement between perspectives and timelines always benefited the novel, particularly because each narrative was developing at a different pace and building toward something quite different. We'd be following the gradual psychological deterioration of one character or becoming increasingly invested in the mystery unfolding through another perspective, only to be pulled away just as things were becoming more compelling, and I found that those interruptions sometimes diminished the impact of the eventual revelations. (There were moments when I was completely invested in what was happening, but by the time we returned to that part of the story, some of the tension had already dissipated.) I understand the value of gradually revealing the characters' histories and allowing us to see their relationships from different perspectives, but I do wonder whether a different approach might have allowed some of these developments to have a greater impact, considering how much time we spend building toward them.
I was also dissatisfied with the resolution, and although I respect the liberties Dunn took with Shakespeare's story and understand some of what she was hoping to accomplish, I wasn't entirely convinced by the choices she made. Revenge and its consequences are such an integral part of Hamlet, and I was particularly interested in seeing how Dunn would approach that aspect of the tragedy through her own interpretation; unfortunately, I found the conclusion somewhat underwhelming, even with an appreciation for the ideas behind it. Reading her afterword, where she discusses struggling to find a way to finish the novel and some of the liberties she took in the process, was interesting because I'd already felt that something wasn't quite coming together in the narrative, even before knowing about those difficulties. There's so much potential in this retelling, and although I found it lovely in so many respects, I finished feeling that it hadn't quite reached what it could have been.
I would still recommend Rottenheart to readers who enjoy classic Gothic fiction, particularly those who appreciate its much slower pacing and complicated relationships, though I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone specifically looking for horror. Despite how frequently I've seen it described as sapphic horror, I really wouldn't categorize it that way; to me, it's much more of a Gothic romance and family drama with paranormal elements (an important distinction when considering the kind of reading experience to expect).
I also still highly recommend this to anyone who needs a dose of sapphic yearning. 🫦
June 17, 2026
This book had huge shoes to fill after Hungerstone ended up being one of my favorites books of 2025 and of all time. While I still really enjoyed this, it didn't give me quite the same feeling as Hungerstone. Kat Dunn will likely forever be an auto-buy/auto-read author for me since Hungerstone seared her into my brain (and heart). I thoroughly enjoy her writing. I think she can weave together beautiful stories and her prose is everything I could hope for.
I think what dragged my rating down a bit for this book was that I was expecting much more in terms of horror. This book ended up being more about despair, grief, and interpersonal relationships. The horror didn't come through in the way that I was expecting. Which is fine. I don't need every book to turn out the way that I was hoping, but I also wish that this book had done a bit more with Odette and Cecilia's relationship. Again, I just expected more than I ended up getting. This overall led me to a feeling of being a bit underwhelmed. It didn't take off much from my experience though as I still thought this was a solid 4/5 stars for me. It simply wasn't Hungerstone level though.
As I mentioned earlier, Dunn's writing is superb. I love how she depicts her characters and the emotions that she evokes. Dunn really knows how to write a gothic tone into her novels which gives a fantastic atmosphere. I also want to mention how Dunn is turning out another stunning cover. Her books are gorgeous works of art.
Although this didn't quite live up to Hungerstone, I would still recommend diving into this book. I've already preordered my copy and can't wait to see what books she releases in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley and Zando for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
I think what dragged my rating down a bit for this book was that I was expecting much more in terms of horror. This book ended up being more about despair, grief, and interpersonal relationships. The horror didn't come through in the way that I was expecting. Which is fine. I don't need every book to turn out the way that I was hoping, but I also wish that this book had done a bit more with Odette and Cecilia's relationship. Again, I just expected more than I ended up getting. This overall led me to a feeling of being a bit underwhelmed. It didn't take off much from my experience though as I still thought this was a solid 4/5 stars for me. It simply wasn't Hungerstone level though.
As I mentioned earlier, Dunn's writing is superb. I love how she depicts her characters and the emotions that she evokes. Dunn really knows how to write a gothic tone into her novels which gives a fantastic atmosphere. I also want to mention how Dunn is turning out another stunning cover. Her books are gorgeous works of art.
Although this didn't quite live up to Hungerstone, I would still recommend diving into this book. I've already preordered my copy and can't wait to see what books she releases in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley and Zando for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
July 11, 2026
all that build up for the most unsatisfying pay off i have ever had the displeasure of reading ???
i want a refund on the hours i wasted reading this eurgh.
i want a refund on the hours i wasted reading this eurgh.
October 14, 2026
🖤 Hamlet Reimagining
🫀 Grief & Love
🖤 LUSH Prose
🫀 Sapphic
🖤 Slow Burn Gothic
Okay, so a sapphic, gender-flipped Hamlet set during the Victorian era? Smash.
Also, there is just something about Kat Dunn's writing that claws its way into my skin and makes me want to absolutely SHIVER with delight. Her prose is like pure poetry, and it makes me want to melt every single time.
•
Set during the Victorian era, Odette and Cecilia take centre stage. Growing up in proximity to one another, they dream of being able to be together—until Odette's mother (Lydia) dies of illness, and Odette's father marries her wicked aunt, the overbearing Claudine. Odette soon finds herself haunted by her mother, and, in her grief, she draws away from Cecilia, her father, and her new stepmother on a quest for vengeance.
•
This was a delicious slow burn. Told in parts, the story shows both the beginning and aftermath of Lydia's death, giving us a broad character study of our FMC and her beloved. This story is absolutely dripping with conflict, grief, love, complicated feelings of abandonment, familial pressure, suspicion, vengeance, and toxic parental relationships. It's a ride. There are so many profound statements on the human condition that bleed through the pages, while it is simultaneously a captivating and entertaining read. There isn't a lot of action-oriented plot, but the reflections and character interactions are riveting.
Honestly, I am biased. I will read anything Kat Dunn writes, and I will savour every single morsel. There is just something about her writing—the poetry, the way the words flow seamlessly—that feels like an exhale, even through the scenes of grief and tension. I loved Odette and her darkness; I loved Cecilia and her light. The contrast between the two lovers is scrumptious. I love how the author brings so much depth into every character, with raw expressions of human emotion. This book is just a complete vibe, and every little piece left me yearning for more.
Beautiful, raw, and atmospheric: I basically loved everything about this.
•
Thank you to Zando for the ARC of this book. All thoughts and feedback contained within this review are my own.
🫀 Grief & Love
🖤 LUSH Prose
🫀 Sapphic
🖤 Slow Burn Gothic
Okay, so a sapphic, gender-flipped Hamlet set during the Victorian era? Smash.
Also, there is just something about Kat Dunn's writing that claws its way into my skin and makes me want to absolutely SHIVER with delight. Her prose is like pure poetry, and it makes me want to melt every single time.
•
Set during the Victorian era, Odette and Cecilia take centre stage. Growing up in proximity to one another, they dream of being able to be together—until Odette's mother (Lydia) dies of illness, and Odette's father marries her wicked aunt, the overbearing Claudine. Odette soon finds herself haunted by her mother, and, in her grief, she draws away from Cecilia, her father, and her new stepmother on a quest for vengeance.
•
This was a delicious slow burn. Told in parts, the story shows both the beginning and aftermath of Lydia's death, giving us a broad character study of our FMC and her beloved. This story is absolutely dripping with conflict, grief, love, complicated feelings of abandonment, familial pressure, suspicion, vengeance, and toxic parental relationships. It's a ride. There are so many profound statements on the human condition that bleed through the pages, while it is simultaneously a captivating and entertaining read. There isn't a lot of action-oriented plot, but the reflections and character interactions are riveting.
Honestly, I am biased. I will read anything Kat Dunn writes, and I will savour every single morsel. There is just something about her writing—the poetry, the way the words flow seamlessly—that feels like an exhale, even through the scenes of grief and tension. I loved Odette and her darkness; I loved Cecilia and her light. The contrast between the two lovers is scrumptious. I love how the author brings so much depth into every character, with raw expressions of human emotion. This book is just a complete vibe, and every little piece left me yearning for more.
Beautiful, raw, and atmospheric: I basically loved everything about this.
•
Thank you to Zando for the ARC of this book. All thoughts and feedback contained within this review are my own.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The award for most unsatisfying ending of the year
After 300 pages of a retelling where bad horrible things happen to your main character, it feels like everyone is rage baiting and gaslighting them, you keep on going despite how taxing it is to read about all of these events, because you know that the ending is gonna give you that thing you’ve been waiting for.
You know the fate of the main character will not be nice but you also know the villain is getting what they deserve… and then we don’t.
What do you mean you keep all the stuff in the middle that makes the reader miserable and then you deny us the little joy of an ending that we knew was coming and deserved?
I’m not saying you need to keep the ending of stories you’re retelling. You can do whatever you want with a retelling. But after going through all the horrors, what the fuck is this ‘’oh no, im actually gonna rise above, your know? I finally understand what I need to do; I'm gonna be the bigger person’’ bullshit?
‘’I’m gonna let the villain live, because having to live with the guilt of what they’ve done is the best punishment’’ No, it’s not. Poison her. Stab her.
Honestly, this isn’t even about this book in particular or the author, but i will say: the ‘’don’t stoop to their level! If you do, you’ll be just as bad as them’’ bullshit is… propaganda. To try and keep the masses meek. ‘’Violence doesn’t solve anything!’’ Have you read a history book? No revolution, no rights, no justice has ever been achieved by people ‘’being the bigger person’’.
A peaceful revolution, a peaceful protest can only be one thing… ignored. Bring back consequences for horrible people; no more ‘’I’m gonna be better than them by letting them go’’. Stop.
After 300 pages of a retelling where bad horrible things happen to your main character, it feels like everyone is rage baiting and gaslighting them, you keep on going despite how taxing it is to read about all of these events, because you know that the ending is gonna give you that thing you’ve been waiting for.
You know the fate of the main character will not be nice but you also know the villain is getting what they deserve… and then we don’t.
What do you mean you keep all the stuff in the middle that makes the reader miserable and then you deny us the little joy of an ending that we knew was coming and deserved?
I’m not saying you need to keep the ending of stories you’re retelling. You can do whatever you want with a retelling. But after going through all the horrors, what the fuck is this ‘’oh no, im actually gonna rise above, your know? I finally understand what I need to do; I'm gonna be the bigger person’’ bullshit?
‘’I’m gonna let the villain live, because having to live with the guilt of what they’ve done is the best punishment’’ No, it’s not. Poison her. Stab her.
Honestly, this isn’t even about this book in particular or the author, but i will say: the ‘’don’t stoop to their level! If you do, you’ll be just as bad as them’’ bullshit is… propaganda. To try and keep the masses meek. ‘’Violence doesn’t solve anything!’’ Have you read a history book? No revolution, no rights, no justice has ever been achieved by people ‘’being the bigger person’’.
A peaceful revolution, a peaceful protest can only be one thing… ignored. Bring back consequences for horrible people; no more ‘’I’m gonna be better than them by letting them go’’. Stop.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I'm not a very empathetic reader when it comes to books about the difficulties of parent-child relationships since it's a universal truth that no one is perfect. Yet, I'm all too familiar with the resentment simmering underneath a daughter's polite and dutiful surface because the foundational blocks of setting healthy boundaries and self-regulating are actually a pile of cinder dust. And there's nothing quite like having a frayed-tempered mother and a disinterested father that makes a daughter want to flee the nest. Odette is such a young woman in the 1890's, who doesn't have privileges outside what is granted to her by her family then eventually a husband. When the act of seeking autonomy is a disease among women, even the privilege of attending university is temporary.
I think it's clever that Odette and Cecilia are the most autonomous with one another because they seek pleasure out of the marriage bed. But they can only put off marriage for so long before they are coerced into an arrangement, which is why their desperation is palpable on the pages.
After some revelations, Cecilia's faith is shaken, and in spite of that, she tries to hold onto a future for both of them while Odette remains lost in grief and madness. Their dynamics are so well-written because Cecilia is the appeaser, mirroring Odette's role with her parents; a father who is extreme avoidant and a mother who is over reliant, so she tries to be the child they need rather than confronting their failures as parents.
Their communications easily break down when there is outside pressure, but I give Odette and Cecilia so much grace for their actions. They are quite literally the products of their parents and are ill-prepared to face the worst of tragedies. And I don't make a habit of bringing up other reviewers' opinions, but I think it's an unfair assessment to headline the passive aggression between women when Rottenheart is a layered story of love that is eclipsed by betrayal and revenge.
However, I do seem to be in the minority that when the plot finally picked up traction, the big emotional arc wasn't a satisfying payoff.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
1st update: I've been approved for an ARC, but this must be a mistake 🥹😵💫 So excited for this!
I think it's clever that Odette and Cecilia are the most autonomous with one another because they seek pleasure out of the marriage bed. But they can only put off marriage for so long before they are coerced into an arrangement, which is why their desperation is palpable on the pages.
After some revelations, Cecilia's faith is shaken, and in spite of that, she tries to hold onto a future for both of them while Odette remains lost in grief and madness. Their dynamics are so well-written because Cecilia is the appeaser, mirroring Odette's role with her parents; a father who is extreme avoidant and a mother who is over reliant, so she tries to be the child they need rather than confronting their failures as parents.
Their communications easily break down when there is outside pressure, but I give Odette and Cecilia so much grace for their actions. They are quite literally the products of their parents and are ill-prepared to face the worst of tragedies. And I don't make a habit of bringing up other reviewers' opinions, but I think it's an unfair assessment to headline the passive aggression between women when Rottenheart is a layered story of love that is eclipsed by betrayal and revenge.
However, I do seem to be in the minority that when the plot finally picked up traction, the big emotional arc wasn't a satisfying payoff.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
1st update: I've been approved for an ARC, but this must be a mistake 🥹😵💫 So excited for this!
Want to Read
October 14, 2025New Kat Dunn book? More sapphic Gothic horror? I can't wait!
Did Not Finish
October 7, 2026maybe im being unfair, maybe it's case of it's not you it's me, but hungerstone was a book that had a lot of praise around it that when i finally got around to reading it, i wasn't quite sure why... like it was fine, but it wasn't anywhere near as amazing as i was expecting. still, Dunn has great prose and a unique voice, and so when i saw her next book with this beautiful cover, i wanted to try it since everybody deserves a second chance... and here i am dnf'ing it.
it's really probably not a *bad* book, but from the beginning of this book i felt nothing--no curiosity, no interest, no desire to keep reading. the dual pov makes the book clunky, and it's very obvious that Dunn is a talented prose writer, but her plots suffer from convoluted and busy narrative that just doesn't work for me. i feel like even from the start i didn't know what was going on and i still don't. i can't justify spending another 8 hours listening to this when i already don't care. life is just too short and spooky season is only so long. the atmosphere of this novel is fabulous, but i can't only keep reading it for that. and after reading some other reviews saying the ending has no payoff and how unsatisfying it was.... if i'm already bored, i fear there's no hope.
thank you prh audio for the alc. i think the narrator could've also been the problem. having 1 woman read both POV's with zero voice intonation to differentiate between them, makes the book one big muddled and confusing mess.
it's really probably not a *bad* book, but from the beginning of this book i felt nothing--no curiosity, no interest, no desire to keep reading. the dual pov makes the book clunky, and it's very obvious that Dunn is a talented prose writer, but her plots suffer from convoluted and busy narrative that just doesn't work for me. i feel like even from the start i didn't know what was going on and i still don't. i can't justify spending another 8 hours listening to this when i already don't care. life is just too short and spooky season is only so long. the atmosphere of this novel is fabulous, but i can't only keep reading it for that. and after reading some other reviews saying the ending has no payoff and how unsatisfying it was.... if i'm already bored, i fear there's no hope.
thank you prh audio for the alc. i think the narrator could've also been the problem. having 1 woman read both POV's with zero voice intonation to differentiate between them, makes the book one big muddled and confusing mess.
June 20, 2026
Kat Dunn is one of my favorite authors, which is why this was such a disappointment.
I picked this up expecting the same feminine rage, wickedness, tension, and deliciously dark atmosphere that I loved in Hungerstone and Bitter Thorn. Instead, I got 430 pages of grief, misery, and characters repeating the same emotional beats over and over again.
The revenge plot which was the main reason I wanted to read this book doesn't truly happen until the last twenty pages, and the payoff wasn't nearly satisfying enough to justify the long build-up. If you're looking for a story centered on grief with occasional glimpses of horror, this may work for you. If you're looking for revenge, rage, and catharsis, you might leave feeling disappointed.
The novel felt far too long for the story it was telling. At least a hundred pages could have been cut without losing anything important. The constant timeline jumps also disrupted the flow and made it harder for me to stay invested.
I also struggled with the characters. The romance lacked chemistry, the cast felt stuck in the same emotional state for most of the book, and there was very little character development. The overwhelming focus on grief made the story feel emotionally repetitive, dense, and relentlessly bleak.
As always, Dunn's writing is gorgeous. Her prose is lush, atmospheric, and beautifully crafted. Unfortunately, beautiful writing wasn't enough to make me care about a story that felt repetitive and emotionally one-note.
I wanted to read about grief a little then dive into “The Ultimate Revenge “ , feminine rage. I wanted wicked women. I wanted tension. Instead, I got a LONG, heavy meditation on grief, and it simply wasn't what I was hoping for.
I picked this up expecting the same feminine rage, wickedness, tension, and deliciously dark atmosphere that I loved in Hungerstone and Bitter Thorn. Instead, I got 430 pages of grief, misery, and characters repeating the same emotional beats over and over again.
The revenge plot which was the main reason I wanted to read this book doesn't truly happen until the last twenty pages, and the payoff wasn't nearly satisfying enough to justify the long build-up. If you're looking for a story centered on grief with occasional glimpses of horror, this may work for you. If you're looking for revenge, rage, and catharsis, you might leave feeling disappointed.
The novel felt far too long for the story it was telling. At least a hundred pages could have been cut without losing anything important. The constant timeline jumps also disrupted the flow and made it harder for me to stay invested.
I also struggled with the characters. The romance lacked chemistry, the cast felt stuck in the same emotional state for most of the book, and there was very little character development. The overwhelming focus on grief made the story feel emotionally repetitive, dense, and relentlessly bleak.
As always, Dunn's writing is gorgeous. Her prose is lush, atmospheric, and beautifully crafted. Unfortunately, beautiful writing wasn't enough to make me care about a story that felt repetitive and emotionally one-note.
I wanted to read about grief a little then dive into “The Ultimate Revenge “ , feminine rage. I wanted wicked women. I wanted tension. Instead, I got a LONG, heavy meditation on grief, and it simply wasn't what I was hoping for.
February 28, 2026
“she loves and is loved in return” oh my sweet haunted lesbians
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Mothers and daughters. Mothers and daughters. Mothers and daughters. My God this book peeled back the layers of that relationship and played with all emotions possible.
I loved this book, loved the writing and the characters. The author gave me everything I hoped for; especially the gothic prose, it bled off the page and those haunting, ghostly moments were to die for.
My favourite part was the descriptions of grief, Odette was so broken and I thought it would consume me but then there were these moments of longing and yearning between Odette and Ceclia that balanced everything out so well. I will definitely say this book is heavy on the emotions, everything felt heightened for the characters which meant I was reeling but in a beautiful way.
Gothic, ghostly and full of grief, what more could I want. A truly stunning and visceral experience!
Release date: 4th June
*AD/Gifted @manilla_press thankyou my loves
I loved this book, loved the writing and the characters. The author gave me everything I hoped for; especially the gothic prose, it bled off the page and those haunting, ghostly moments were to die for.
My favourite part was the descriptions of grief, Odette was so broken and I thought it would consume me but then there were these moments of longing and yearning between Odette and Ceclia that balanced everything out so well. I will definitely say this book is heavy on the emotions, everything felt heightened for the characters which meant I was reeling but in a beautiful way.
Gothic, ghostly and full of grief, what more could I want. A truly stunning and visceral experience!
Release date: 4th June
*AD/Gifted @manilla_press thankyou my loves
Read
August 27, 2026This review is based on an arc, and will contain spoilers.
To say this right off the bat: I didn’t care for King Lear when I was in high school and I hated Private Rites, I didn’t care for Hamlet when I read it, and I ALSO have a few issues with this book. Area Woman Is Shocked To Learn She Doesn’t Like The Retellings Of Plays She Also Didn’t Like. This is not exactly Dunn’s fault. She has a way of getting you to sink into the mood and feeling of an era. I found myself being riveted by Cecilia’s story early in the book, and Odette’s once the story gets going. But the thing about a Hamlet retelling is that, as the tweet goes, the Hamlet figure hesitates for reasons they can’t articulate even to themselves, and, as my friend says, this inaction leads to the death of the wrong people. Though, in this book, “wrong people” is a stretch. While they may not have been directly involved in the death of Lydia, Odette’s mother, they weren’t exactly rushing to bring her justice. (They had their own reasons, and it was Fun… until….)
The structure of Rottenheart is non-linear. It opens with a scene between Odette and Lydia in the Summer of 1898, and then flashes forward to late September 1898, in the immediate aftermath of her death. The book continues to alternate between the months leading up to Lydia’s death and the main timeline which is September 1898-December 1898. I feel two ways about this. One: I think it’s very hard to do this well. Often I feel people use this structure as a way to add tension that wouldn’t exist otherwise. In this case, there wasn’t anything we learned in the Summer 1898 section that we couldn’t/didn’t learn in the aftermath of her death. Two: On the other hand, it’s a great way to contrast the personality of Living Lydia vs the personality of Ghost Lydia.
This does not work for me, however, because Dunn couldn’t decide what she wanted the ghost to be. Was it real? Was it a hallucination? Both? There’s a section during the confrontation at the end of the book where Odette thinks that her living mother wouldn’t want her to do this and wonders what’s actually pushing her on. The way it was phrased made me think that the ghost was real, but was possibly the spirit of a random person. A few sentences later, she describes it as a manifestation of her own guilt, grief, anger, etc and thinks that her mother would never want this.* But I disagree with this, this is the same woman who made her pose for a nude that she later sold without her knowledge, this is the same woman who, as described by Claudine, always made things about herself, who could not allow anyone to have something that she didn’t also want. I’m a very firm believer in “you cannot steal somebody who doesn’t want to be stolen” and the book shows that George was a weakwilled person, but the George/Lydia/Claudine/Penelope storyline also shows how vindictive Lydia could be. The book opened with Lydia basically saying to Odette “you’ll never leave me… will you?” But we’re supposed to believe that Lydia *wouldn’t* want them both to die together?
So this ghost isn’t real. It was a manifestation of Odette’s grief, but later, when she goes to see Cecilia, the ghost is looking at her “softer,” it touches a hand to her cheek, and says “You will live a happy life, won’t you? Promise me?”* Now you could say that this doesn’t mean either version of the ghost is real, and once Odette puts aside her anger, it would change how it appears to her, but another reason why this doesn’t work for me is the fact that Odette was right: Claudine DID kill Lydia. She WAS murdered. So are we supposed to believe that Lydia would want her to know this but she took it too far? Or are we supposed to believe that none of this is real and Odette only finds out on a technicality? From the way Claudine tells it, and let’s take it with a grain of salt, Lydia was possibly poisoning herself, pretending to be sick, and even though she was starting to get better, she would still need assistance for the rest of her life. And who would be that assistance? Claudine. So she “stole” George before by getting pregnant with Odette, blackmailed Penelope into taking her side against Claudine, and then once Claudine comes back years later, she makes herself sick enough that Claudine would have to be her caretaker for the rest of her life, but I’m supposed to believe she WOULDN’T want Odette to get revenge? Putting aside that the timing is suspect, it’s just not realistic. Especially because the ghost makes Odette act out the smothering which we later find out DID happen. You could say that this was just Odette taking a shot in the dark, but I don’t believe it.
This is what I mean about this ghost storyline making no sense, and the non-linear structure adding tension that doesn’t exist otherwise. But it’s a Hamlet retelling and I’m sure the things that I don’t like here were things that I didn’t like in the original.
To speak on the structure, another thing I didn’t like was when we would find out something in the past timeline and suddenly the POV character is thinking about it in the next chapter even though it hadn’t been mentioned before, or when something would happen in the main timeline and then in the next flashback they’ll be reacting emotionally to something that hadn’t taken place yet. It’s very tricky to tell a non-linear narrative without feelings and thoughts bleeding through where they shouldn’t.
But the biggest reason why I didn’t care for the structure was because the past timeline didn’t do enough to build up the tension/relationship between Claudine/Odette, Claudine/Lydia, and Claudine/Lydia/Odette. I don’t think the book had a single on-page scene between the sisters. In Claudine’s intro scene, when Odette mentions them being estranged, Claudine replies “is that what Lydia says?” On first read, I got the impression that Lydia was the one who refused to speak to Claudine, but when Odette goes to her mother’s studio and mentions that she didn’t know they were speaking, Lydia says “I have always been willing to speak to her.” Okay, so it’s ambiguous. We never actually find out how Lydia feels about it. Again, we never see the sisters speak to each other on-page. Odette and Claudine, themselves, only have a few scenes together in the past timeline before they stop interacting with each other, at all. When I read the sentence: “there has been no further conversation between them since her father took her into the orchard and explained her flaws to her*,” I started throwing bricks. Obviously, Claudine was never going to like Odette because of who she was, but my philosophy is that you can always get more toxic, so show Odette growing to dislike Claudine as well and then Lydia dies and makes it WORSE.
I’m most likely asking for a different book, but there was so much here that could have been interesting and just didn’t follow through. I have thoughts on the ending (BAD!) and, as I said in my Hungerstone review, the last line was ATROCIOUS.
*Line in the finalized book may be different.
To say this right off the bat: I didn’t care for King Lear when I was in high school and I hated Private Rites, I didn’t care for Hamlet when I read it, and I ALSO have a few issues with this book. Area Woman Is Shocked To Learn She Doesn’t Like The Retellings Of Plays She Also Didn’t Like. This is not exactly Dunn’s fault. She has a way of getting you to sink into the mood and feeling of an era. I found myself being riveted by Cecilia’s story early in the book, and Odette’s once the story gets going. But the thing about a Hamlet retelling is that, as the tweet goes, the Hamlet figure hesitates for reasons they can’t articulate even to themselves, and, as my friend says, this inaction leads to the death of the wrong people. Though, in this book, “wrong people” is a stretch. While they may not have been directly involved in the death of Lydia, Odette’s mother, they weren’t exactly rushing to bring her justice. (They had their own reasons, and it was Fun… until….)
The structure of Rottenheart is non-linear. It opens with a scene between Odette and Lydia in the Summer of 1898, and then flashes forward to late September 1898, in the immediate aftermath of her death. The book continues to alternate between the months leading up to Lydia’s death and the main timeline which is September 1898-December 1898. I feel two ways about this. One: I think it’s very hard to do this well. Often I feel people use this structure as a way to add tension that wouldn’t exist otherwise. In this case, there wasn’t anything we learned in the Summer 1898 section that we couldn’t/didn’t learn in the aftermath of her death. Two: On the other hand, it’s a great way to contrast the personality of Living Lydia vs the personality of Ghost Lydia.
This does not work for me, however, because Dunn couldn’t decide what she wanted the ghost to be. Was it real? Was it a hallucination? Both? There’s a section during the confrontation at the end of the book where Odette thinks that her living mother wouldn’t want her to do this and wonders what’s actually pushing her on. The way it was phrased made me think that the ghost was real, but was possibly the spirit of a random person. A few sentences later, she describes it as a manifestation of her own guilt, grief, anger, etc and thinks that her mother would never want this.* But I disagree with this, this is the same woman who made her pose for a nude that she later sold without her knowledge, this is the same woman who, as described by Claudine, always made things about herself, who could not allow anyone to have something that she didn’t also want. I’m a very firm believer in “you cannot steal somebody who doesn’t want to be stolen” and the book shows that George was a weakwilled person, but the George/Lydia/Claudine/Penelope storyline also shows how vindictive Lydia could be. The book opened with Lydia basically saying to Odette “you’ll never leave me… will you?” But we’re supposed to believe that Lydia *wouldn’t* want them both to die together?
So this ghost isn’t real. It was a manifestation of Odette’s grief, but later, when she goes to see Cecilia, the ghost is looking at her “softer,” it touches a hand to her cheek, and says “You will live a happy life, won’t you? Promise me?”* Now you could say that this doesn’t mean either version of the ghost is real, and once Odette puts aside her anger, it would change how it appears to her, but another reason why this doesn’t work for me is the fact that Odette was right: Claudine DID kill Lydia. She WAS murdered. So are we supposed to believe that Lydia would want her to know this but she took it too far? Or are we supposed to believe that none of this is real and Odette only finds out on a technicality? From the way Claudine tells it, and let’s take it with a grain of salt, Lydia was possibly poisoning herself, pretending to be sick, and even though she was starting to get better, she would still need assistance for the rest of her life. And who would be that assistance? Claudine. So she “stole” George before by getting pregnant with Odette, blackmailed Penelope into taking her side against Claudine, and then once Claudine comes back years later, she makes herself sick enough that Claudine would have to be her caretaker for the rest of her life, but I’m supposed to believe she WOULDN’T want Odette to get revenge? Putting aside that the timing is suspect, it’s just not realistic. Especially because the ghost makes Odette act out the smothering which we later find out DID happen. You could say that this was just Odette taking a shot in the dark, but I don’t believe it.
This is what I mean about this ghost storyline making no sense, and the non-linear structure adding tension that doesn’t exist otherwise. But it’s a Hamlet retelling and I’m sure the things that I don’t like here were things that I didn’t like in the original.
To speak on the structure, another thing I didn’t like was when we would find out something in the past timeline and suddenly the POV character is thinking about it in the next chapter even though it hadn’t been mentioned before, or when something would happen in the main timeline and then in the next flashback they’ll be reacting emotionally to something that hadn’t taken place yet. It’s very tricky to tell a non-linear narrative without feelings and thoughts bleeding through where they shouldn’t.
But the biggest reason why I didn’t care for the structure was because the past timeline didn’t do enough to build up the tension/relationship between Claudine/Odette, Claudine/Lydia, and Claudine/Lydia/Odette. I don’t think the book had a single on-page scene between the sisters. In Claudine’s intro scene, when Odette mentions them being estranged, Claudine replies “is that what Lydia says?” On first read, I got the impression that Lydia was the one who refused to speak to Claudine, but when Odette goes to her mother’s studio and mentions that she didn’t know they were speaking, Lydia says “I have always been willing to speak to her.” Okay, so it’s ambiguous. We never actually find out how Lydia feels about it. Again, we never see the sisters speak to each other on-page. Odette and Claudine, themselves, only have a few scenes together in the past timeline before they stop interacting with each other, at all. When I read the sentence: “there has been no further conversation between them since her father took her into the orchard and explained her flaws to her*,” I started throwing bricks. Obviously, Claudine was never going to like Odette because of who she was, but my philosophy is that you can always get more toxic, so show Odette growing to dislike Claudine as well and then Lydia dies and makes it WORSE.
I’m most likely asking for a different book, but there was so much here that could have been interesting and just didn’t follow through. I have thoughts on the ending (BAD!) and, as I said in my Hungerstone review, the last line was ATROCIOUS.
*Line in the finalized book may be different.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
📖 Title: Rottenheart
🖋️ Author: Kat Dunn
📅 Pub Day: October 13, 2026
💌 Publisher: Zando
📚 Format: Digital
🏷️ ISBN: 9781638934660
⏱️ Length: 433 pages
📌 Genre(s): Gothic Horror, Historical Fiction, LGBTQ+ Fiction
⭐ Star Rating: 4
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
I really enjoyed this one! I've been reading a lot of Hamlet retellings lately, and Rottenheart is easily in my top three.
This book felt so gothic, with plenty of mystery and tension. I was really enjoying the atmosphere and the way the story kept pulling me further in.
I'll admit, the beginning took me a little while to get into. We open with a scene that actually happens later in the story, so I was a bit confused at first while I tried to figure out where I was in the timeline. Once things started clicking, though, I was very much along for the ride!
My favorite part early on was the relationship between Cecilia and Odette. I loved getting to see their romance develop, and their relationship gave me even more reason to care about them. And then there's Claudine. Odette's aunt moves into the family home after Odette's mother, Lydia, dies. And f*ck Claudine. What an absolutely unlikeable character. Every time she was involved, I had something to say about it (or just an eyeroll).
Honestly, I loved this book. Between the gothic atmosphere, the mystery, the tension, and the characters, this was exactly the kind of Hamlet retelling I wanted. My only real regret is not getting the audiobook! I would have loved to experience this story that way, and I'm definitely planning to listen to it so I can catch any little details or nuances I might have missed the first time around.
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
If you like:
✔️ Gothic atmosphere
✔️ Sapphic romance
✔️ Hamlet retellings
✔️ Vengeful ghosts
✔️ Family secrets
✔️ Female rage
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
Thank you to NetGalley, Kat Dunn, and Zando for gifting this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.
This review is cross‑posted across multiple platforms.
🖋️ Author: Kat Dunn
📅 Pub Day: October 13, 2026
💌 Publisher: Zando
📚 Format: Digital
🏷️ ISBN: 9781638934660
⏱️ Length: 433 pages
📌 Genre(s): Gothic Horror, Historical Fiction, LGBTQ+ Fiction
⭐ Star Rating: 4
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
I really enjoyed this one! I've been reading a lot of Hamlet retellings lately, and Rottenheart is easily in my top three.
This book felt so gothic, with plenty of mystery and tension. I was really enjoying the atmosphere and the way the story kept pulling me further in.
I'll admit, the beginning took me a little while to get into. We open with a scene that actually happens later in the story, so I was a bit confused at first while I tried to figure out where I was in the timeline. Once things started clicking, though, I was very much along for the ride!
My favorite part early on was the relationship between Cecilia and Odette. I loved getting to see their romance develop, and their relationship gave me even more reason to care about them. And then there's Claudine. Odette's aunt moves into the family home after Odette's mother, Lydia, dies. And f*ck Claudine. What an absolutely unlikeable character. Every time she was involved, I had something to say about it (or just an eyeroll).
Honestly, I loved this book. Between the gothic atmosphere, the mystery, the tension, and the characters, this was exactly the kind of Hamlet retelling I wanted. My only real regret is not getting the audiobook! I would have loved to experience this story that way, and I'm definitely planning to listen to it so I can catch any little details or nuances I might have missed the first time around.
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
If you like:
✔️ Gothic atmosphere
✔️ Sapphic romance
✔️ Hamlet retellings
✔️ Vengeful ghosts
✔️ Family secrets
✔️ Female rage
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
Thank you to NetGalley, Kat Dunn, and Zando for gifting this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.
This review is cross‑posted across multiple platforms.
October 3, 2026
Rating: 4.75 stars
This book is dreadful in a beautiful and literal sort of way. It truly filled me with so much dread, that sense of always waiting for the next terrible thing and still not knowing if more is on the way. Kat Dunn does a brilliant job of evoking that feeling without high drama thrill and suspense. Gothic with a capital G. This is a story about the shocking madness and loneliness of grief. The characters and their relationships to each other are complex webs and I was thoroughly trapped.
This book is dreadful in a beautiful and literal sort of way. It truly filled me with so much dread, that sense of always waiting for the next terrible thing and still not knowing if more is on the way. Kat Dunn does a brilliant job of evoking that feeling without high drama thrill and suspense. Gothic with a capital G. This is a story about the shocking madness and loneliness of grief. The characters and their relationships to each other are complex webs and I was thoroughly trapped.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
First off thank you to author Kat Dunn and NetGalley for a copy of this in an exchange for an honest review.
Oh, I really struggled to rate this one and I had to let this marinate in my thoughts before I could review it. This is a re-imagined version of the Shakespeare classic Hamlet set in Victorian England. Odette ( love that name since Swan Lake) is mourning the death of her mother who dies suddenly leaving Odette consumed by grief and unanswered questions. Lydia, Odette's mother is a frail and tortured artist of sorts who often uses her daughter and her daughter's friend Cecelia as models for her much sought after paintings. When Lydia's sister Claudine appears for a visit the two women's relationship is fraught with tension and resentment a fact that does not go unnoticed by Odette and Cecelia. Odette's father George is an emotionally distant man who prefers not to take sides when Claudine takes charge of the household after Lydia's death and proves rather useless in comforting his daughter as she struggles to cope with her profound sadness and Claudine's decisions. When her mother's ghost appears to Odette seeking revenge and uncovering the truth about her death Odette has one task and that is to fulfill her mother's request but will her quest affect her relationship with Cecelia and her sanity? At the risk of not detailing anymore of the plot here is where I begin to have a conflict in rating this, the book has the dark, gothic feel that I relish in a good book. The storyline is laid out nicely and I could feel Odette's deep despair so consumed with grief as she was, perhaps I could get a good feel of it since I recently lost my own mother a few months ago and could relate to the pain and sadness she felt. The conclusion here did not leave me satisfied maybe for another reader they will feel differently about it but for me it's a 3 star rating.
Oh, I really struggled to rate this one and I had to let this marinate in my thoughts before I could review it. This is a re-imagined version of the Shakespeare classic Hamlet set in Victorian England. Odette ( love that name since Swan Lake) is mourning the death of her mother who dies suddenly leaving Odette consumed by grief and unanswered questions. Lydia, Odette's mother is a frail and tortured artist of sorts who often uses her daughter and her daughter's friend Cecelia as models for her much sought after paintings. When Lydia's sister Claudine appears for a visit the two women's relationship is fraught with tension and resentment a fact that does not go unnoticed by Odette and Cecelia. Odette's father George is an emotionally distant man who prefers not to take sides when Claudine takes charge of the household after Lydia's death and proves rather useless in comforting his daughter as she struggles to cope with her profound sadness and Claudine's decisions. When her mother's ghost appears to Odette seeking revenge and uncovering the truth about her death Odette has one task and that is to fulfill her mother's request but will her quest affect her relationship with Cecelia and her sanity? At the risk of not detailing anymore of the plot here is where I begin to have a conflict in rating this, the book has the dark, gothic feel that I relish in a good book. The storyline is laid out nicely and I could feel Odette's deep despair so consumed with grief as she was, perhaps I could get a good feel of it since I recently lost my own mother a few months ago and could relate to the pain and sadness she felt. The conclusion here did not leave me satisfied maybe for another reader they will feel differently about it but for me it's a 3 star rating.
June 17, 2026
Rottenheart is sapphic and gothic, I enjoyed it so so much. The plot is a slow pace and draws you in slowly, the underlying horror and emotion comes through beautifully creating atmospheric scenes. I loved the unique take on a Shakespeare classic and the prose lived up to him in my eyes. It’s haunting and covers every human emotion. What more can you ask for in a read? Saying that the time transitions at times brought me out of the flow but I shouldn’t complain as this created more tension and kept me interested. This is definitely a book for the gothic lovers and those looking for complex characters. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader audio. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.
June 13, 2026
Just a bunch of women complaining and being passive aggressive. DNFed around 50% point because absolutely nothing was happening.
Enjoy Dunn’s prose. Just find some whingy sapphic tales a bit boring and this is one of those tales.
Enjoy Dunn’s prose. Just find some whingy sapphic tales a bit boring and this is one of those tales.
October 19, 2026
SAPPHIC MOMMY ISSUES HAMLET RETELLING. need i say more?
characters: i thought all the characters were well written and developed. as a hamlet enjoyer i was happy with the similar but different names of the characters (not including main 3: odette, cecelia, and lydia). Dunn really padded the backstories of lydia, claudine, george, and penelope (king hamlet, claudius, gertrude, and polonius) which i thought served the story well. the relation between odette and her mother was gut wrenching and heartfelt at the same time, and flipping to a mother/daughter relationship reveals a whole new world of possibilities within a hamlet story. poor odette struggles with the weight of being the perfect daughter and takes responsibility of keeping her parents both together and her family happy, so her being abruptly thrust from that makes her mental breakdown an almost certain outcome.
my favorite, and most anticipated, part of the novel, is cecelia. i was so eager to see what role she would take- horatio or ophelia. as a firm believer that hamlet and horatio were in love (or, at the very least, horatio was in love with hamlet), i was admittedly hoping that she would take horatio’s spot as odette’s closest friend, intelligent ally, and confidant. not only did cecelia fill this, but she ALSO takes ophelia’s romantic worldview and unshakable yearning. combining these characters into cecelia was a choice i never would have thought of before, it is so brilliant. cecelia is incredibly well written and Dunn created a wonderful arch for her to fulfill.
i could talk about all of them for so long so i’ll leave it here but. yeah. so good.
setting: bringing the story to london made sense to me, but i particularly enjoyed shifting the timeline to the late 1800s. this allowed the women in the story to have so much more autonomy, and while maybe not entirely historically accurate, it was believable that they could travel, work, and act the way the did. shifting between summer and fall/winter was a great choice as well, to suit the contrasting tones of before and after lydia’s death.
writing style: gorgina. poetic without being forced or overly flowery. draws you in and wraps you up in the story.
plot: basically hamlet, so if you know, you know. but i love hamlet so i loved this hehe. however, Dunn adds some more drama, backstory, and relationship dynamics that build the story out even more. of course the addition of a sapphic romance is amazing and i loved that so much. my only drawback was the ending, but i know that’s because i love hamlet a little too much lol, and it’s good to not have a bury your gays moment in 2026 i guess (i would’ve allowed it though). odette’s choice with claudine at the end also is a good showcase of her growth of self as well as her grief journey. sooo just the odette/georde/claudine at the end i was like…. that’s not the ending tho. BUT i understand why and its a valid choice and a good ending but i was expecting tragedy so i was craving a tragedy- but probably normal people aren’t. GOOD READ THIS BOOK I LOVE IT!!!!
characters: i thought all the characters were well written and developed. as a hamlet enjoyer i was happy with the similar but different names of the characters (not including main 3: odette, cecelia, and lydia). Dunn really padded the backstories of lydia, claudine, george, and penelope (king hamlet, claudius, gertrude, and polonius) which i thought served the story well. the relation between odette and her mother was gut wrenching and heartfelt at the same time, and flipping to a mother/daughter relationship reveals a whole new world of possibilities within a hamlet story. poor odette struggles with the weight of being the perfect daughter and takes responsibility of keeping her parents both together and her family happy, so her being abruptly thrust from that makes her mental breakdown an almost certain outcome.
my favorite, and most anticipated, part of the novel, is cecelia. i was so eager to see what role she would take- horatio or ophelia. as a firm believer that hamlet and horatio were in love (or, at the very least, horatio was in love with hamlet), i was admittedly hoping that she would take horatio’s spot as odette’s closest friend, intelligent ally, and confidant. not only did cecelia fill this, but she ALSO takes ophelia’s romantic worldview and unshakable yearning. combining these characters into cecelia was a choice i never would have thought of before, it is so brilliant. cecelia is incredibly well written and Dunn created a wonderful arch for her to fulfill.
i could talk about all of them for so long so i’ll leave it here but. yeah. so good.
setting: bringing the story to london made sense to me, but i particularly enjoyed shifting the timeline to the late 1800s. this allowed the women in the story to have so much more autonomy, and while maybe not entirely historically accurate, it was believable that they could travel, work, and act the way the did. shifting between summer and fall/winter was a great choice as well, to suit the contrasting tones of before and after lydia’s death.
writing style: gorgina. poetic without being forced or overly flowery. draws you in and wraps you up in the story.
plot: basically hamlet, so if you know, you know. but i love hamlet so i loved this hehe. however, Dunn adds some more drama, backstory, and relationship dynamics that build the story out even more. of course the addition of a sapphic romance is amazing and i loved that so much. my only drawback was the ending, but i know that’s because i love hamlet a little too much lol, and it’s good to not have a bury your gays moment in 2026 i guess (i would’ve allowed it though). odette’s choice with claudine at the end also is a good showcase of her growth of self as well as her grief journey. sooo just the odette/georde/claudine at the end i was like…. that’s not the ending tho. BUT i understand why and its a valid choice and a good ending but i was expecting tragedy so i was craving a tragedy- but probably normal people aren’t. GOOD READ THIS BOOK I LOVE IT!!!!
October 23, 2026
Kat Dunn is back with yet another BEAUTIFULLY written sapphic horror novel! Heart-wrenching from the start, Rottenheart pulls you in immediately with its gothic atmosphere, stunning imagery, & profoundly-written characters. If you loved Hungerstone, this book will be perfect for you; whereas Hungerstone was a Carmilla retelling, Rottenheart is a Hamlet retelling chock-full of grief & trauma. Readers of Lethal Kiss by Taylor Grothe OR She Haunts Me Still by De Elizabeth will also no doubt be a fan of this book!
If you’ve read Shakespeare’s Hamlet, you will know what this book is about immediately! There’s a range of differences like how Hamlet takes place in a castle setting in medieval-era Denmark & Rottenheart takes place in a large manor in 1890s England, but the core of the story is the same. The main character, Odette, loses her mother, Lydia, abruptly after Lydia’s sister, Claudine, comes to stay with them at Herne House. Soon after Lydia’s death, Odette begins to see her ghost around the grounds... Almost immediately, Lydia’s ghost delivers a haunting message, asking Odette to avenge her by seeking retribution from her murderer. As time passes on, Odette falls further into what her family sees as madness; she abandons her lover & confidante, Cecilia, and pushes every single person away in her pursuit of proof of the murder. All the while, Claudine continues to strengthen her hold on the Herne House & its occupants.
The book is written across multiple timelines with multiple points of view. It is easy to follow, yet also easy to get lost in – I found it to be quite a quick read as I got further into it. I read Rottenheart as part of an advance reader program, yet I know I will be heading to the
bookstore to purchase a physical copy I can cherish for years to come. I am so glad I picked this book up!
Thanks to NetGalley & Zando Publishing for an advance copy of Rottenheart!
If you’ve read Shakespeare’s Hamlet, you will know what this book is about immediately! There’s a range of differences like how Hamlet takes place in a castle setting in medieval-era Denmark & Rottenheart takes place in a large manor in 1890s England, but the core of the story is the same. The main character, Odette, loses her mother, Lydia, abruptly after Lydia’s sister, Claudine, comes to stay with them at Herne House. Soon after Lydia’s death, Odette begins to see her ghost around the grounds... Almost immediately, Lydia’s ghost delivers a haunting message, asking Odette to avenge her by seeking retribution from her murderer. As time passes on, Odette falls further into what her family sees as madness; she abandons her lover & confidante, Cecilia, and pushes every single person away in her pursuit of proof of the murder. All the while, Claudine continues to strengthen her hold on the Herne House & its occupants.
The book is written across multiple timelines with multiple points of view. It is easy to follow, yet also easy to get lost in – I found it to be quite a quick read as I got further into it. I read Rottenheart as part of an advance reader program, yet I know I will be heading to the
bookstore to purchase a physical copy I can cherish for years to come. I am so glad I picked this book up!
Thanks to NetGalley & Zando Publishing for an advance copy of Rottenheart!
September 1, 2026
2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars
✨I wanted to love it so bad✨
I’ll be honest I struggled reading Rottenheart a bit. The premise is intriguing, the atmosphere is great, the writing is beautiful, I felt for the characters, and the feeling of grief is palpable throughout the book.
The issues I have with this one
is that the pacing is a bit slow, the romantic chemistry wasn’t quite there, I had some issues with the structure, it felt quite long without much happening at times, a bit repetitive here and there as well, and also I wanted more tension and feminine rage.
There was a lot of buildup to most of the action being at the end, but by then I was definitely struggling to stay invested unfortunately. All that being said, I do want to be sure to state in my review that I have never read Hamlet, although I do know the story, so maybe that’s why I didn’t enjoy it as much. I’m not sure if that played a part or not honestly. Overall I liked some bits and bobs of this book, but I sadly didn’t love it like I did Hungerstone.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free ebook copy in exchange for an honest review. This book is expected to be released October 13, 2026.
July 2, 2026
« Lydia is lost at sea, and Odette is the life raft. »
The book featured very lush prose that initially drew me in, but I soon found myself feeling bored. While the themes of grief and sadness were beautifully articulated, I felt the plot itself left much to be desired. I appreciated how the toxic nature of Odette's parents, Lydia and George, was depicted in two distinct ways, showcasing the complexities of her relationship with them. It was compelling to see Odette trying to please them by shifting her own personality. Additionally, I was deeply attached to the romance between Odette and Cecilia, which added a lovely layer to the story. However, despite these strengths, the overall plot felt rather dull, and I couldn't help but think that the book might have benefited from being shorter.
Thank you Bonnier Books UK | Manilla Press for the digital arc.
The book featured very lush prose that initially drew me in, but I soon found myself feeling bored. While the themes of grief and sadness were beautifully articulated, I felt the plot itself left much to be desired. I appreciated how the toxic nature of Odette's parents, Lydia and George, was depicted in two distinct ways, showcasing the complexities of her relationship with them. It was compelling to see Odette trying to please them by shifting her own personality. Additionally, I was deeply attached to the romance between Odette and Cecilia, which added a lovely layer to the story. However, despite these strengths, the overall plot felt rather dull, and I couldn't help but think that the book might have benefited from being shorter.
Thank you Bonnier Books UK | Manilla Press for the digital arc.
Did Not Finish
October 12, 2026DNF @100 pages
The writing style isn't really sticking with me, and I'm not a fan of the meandering (if that's the right word) plot. I'm sure it's great, but not what I'm looking for right now!
Thank you to Zando for the advanced copy! This title is set to release on October 13, 2026.
The writing style isn't really sticking with me, and I'm not a fan of the meandering (if that's the right word) plot. I'm sure it's great, but not what I'm looking for right now!
Thank you to Zando for the advanced copy! This title is set to release on October 13, 2026.
October 14, 2026
After loving Hungerstone, I knew I had to pick up Rottenheart as well. Loosely inspired by Hamlet (but about mothers instead), this book is a work of art in many ways. The book tackles heavy subjects such as grief and death, but in a meaningful way that I found to be well done. Victorian art and literature are also a main fixture in this novel, and it's clear the author knows the source material well. Oftentimes, this book evokes the feelings I have while wandering an art gallery highlighting this era: feeling the intensity of the scenes and the uncertainties of the characters. The paranormal elements of this book were also engaging and interesting. I love a good haunting! Cecilia and Odette were dimensional characters who each had their own spiral and their dynamic was tragic and beautiful. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. I definitely recommend if you're in the mood for a paranormal historical fiction!
A huge thank you to Zando for the eARC in exchange for my thoughts and to Colleen for buddy reading this with me ☺️
A huge thank you to Zando for the eARC in exchange for my thoughts and to Colleen for buddy reading this with me ☺️
October 23, 2026
Kat Dunn is a no synopsis one-click author for me… I don’t need to know what her books are about, I want to read alllll her work. Rottenheart is a retelling of Hamlet which I’ve never historically loved. I would have 100% still read it had I known. This book was very slow moving with immersive gothic tone. Rottenheart is an amazing demonstration of talent but it very sadly wasn’t for me. My brain wasn’t compatible with the story’s pace.
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