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Venous Hum
High school reunions can be hell. But when you throw in racial and sexual tensions, extramarital affairs and cannibalistic, undead vegetarians, it’s hell times infinity.
Brash, clever and monstrously funny, Venous Hum charts the lives of Lai Fun Kugelheim and Stefanja Dumanowski, best friends who, upon hearing the news of an old high school acquaintance’s death, are gripped by an insatiable nostalgia and organize a 20-year reunion. What initially seemed like a simple task becomes increasingly complicated for Lai Fun, but the past is nothing compared to her messy present: Her marriage to a successful businesswoman is crumbling, she’s having an affair with a man (who happens to be Stefanja’s husband) and her oddly supernatural mother—an immigrant vegetarian with an unusual appetite—only wants her daughter to be happy. But in the wake of such chaos, the only constant is the hum of the blood coursing through her veins.
A satire on race, gender, sexual preference and vegetarianism, this is a magic-realist novel that will throw your assumptions of the world and the people who inhabit it out the window. It’s the exclamation mark at the end of the sentence that announces the end of literary fiction as we know it and the beginning of something entirely new.
Brash, clever and monstrously funny, Venous Hum charts the lives of Lai Fun Kugelheim and Stefanja Dumanowski, best friends who, upon hearing the news of an old high school acquaintance’s death, are gripped by an insatiable nostalgia and organize a 20-year reunion. What initially seemed like a simple task becomes increasingly complicated for Lai Fun, but the past is nothing compared to her messy present: Her marriage to a successful businesswoman is crumbling, she’s having an affair with a man (who happens to be Stefanja’s husband) and her oddly supernatural mother—an immigrant vegetarian with an unusual appetite—only wants her daughter to be happy. But in the wake of such chaos, the only constant is the hum of the blood coursing through her veins.
A satire on race, gender, sexual preference and vegetarianism, this is a magic-realist novel that will throw your assumptions of the world and the people who inhabit it out the window. It’s the exclamation mark at the end of the sentence that announces the end of literary fiction as we know it and the beginning of something entirely new.
240 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2005
2 people are currently reading
421 people want to read
About the author
Suzette Mayr
18 books157 followersSuzette Mayr is the author of five novels including her most recent, Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall. Her fourth novel, Monoceros, won the ReLit Award and the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize, was long-listed for the 2011 Giller Prize, nominated for a Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction and the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction, and included on The Globe and Mail’s 100 Best Books of 2011.
Her first novel, Moon Honey, was shortlisted for the Writers Guild of Alberta Best First Book and Best Novel prizes. The Widows, her second novel, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize for Best Book in the Canadian-Caribbean region.
Mayr is past president of the Writers' Guild of Alberta and teaches creative writing in the English Department at the University of Calgary where she was the 2002-2003 Markin-Flanagan writer-in-residence.
Her first novel, Moon Honey, was shortlisted for the Writers Guild of Alberta Best First Book and Best Novel prizes. The Widows, her second novel, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize for Best Book in the Canadian-Caribbean region.
Mayr is past president of the Writers' Guild of Alberta and teaches creative writing in the English Department at the University of Calgary where she was the 2002-2003 Markin-Flanagan writer-in-residence.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 23, 2025
4.5 stars
This was so fresh, unique and fun but so fucking confusing. Really enjoyed this one!! I think giving tiny glimpses into all these characters lives as they somewhat intersect with each other was super fascinating. The exploration of themes was deep and done really well. Live love laugh cannibalism.
This was so fresh, unique and fun but so fucking confusing. Really enjoyed this one!! I think giving tiny glimpses into all these characters lives as they somewhat intersect with each other was super fascinating. The exploration of themes was deep and done really well. Live love laugh cannibalism.
February 7, 2017
This was wacky, weird, hilarious, and inventive. High school reunions, extramarital affairs, vegetarian vampires/cannibals, and Calgary lesbians. Full review on my blog here!
September 3, 2016
This was a very interesting book it is definitely one that touches on race sexuality magical realism and high school reunions. It's hard to say if I liked it it's something I have never read before unique is how I would describe this and a little out there in a good way I think. It kind of leaves you going okay sure aaahhh
February 10, 2010
Quite possibly the best vampire book of all time. I haven't read every vampire book out there, so I'm not qualified to make that statement, but still. Vegetarian vampires, adultery, and a high school reunion. Good good times.
March 31, 2018
Suzette Mayr is honestly incredible. Her writing is so sharp, so darkly funny. Her writing deserves more attention.
March 3, 2019
Venus Hum by Canadian author Suzette Mayr incorporates many unlikely scenarios, such as a teacher who sucks the life from the students she dislikes, and a cannibalistic dinner party where couples are drifting apart and must face the difficulty of attending high school reunions, although those years were not the best. The novel entices the reader to keep turning the pages and anticipating what wild situation will occur next.
Venous Hum takes place in one of the western provinces of Canada and covers thirty years, from the time Lai Fun Kugelheim enrolls in a French immersion elementary school, to the night of her twentieth class reunion when students, living and dead, converge. Lai Fun is a married lesbian having an affair with her best friend’s husband. The biracial daughter of immigrants is pregnant with her second child while having this affair. She is also in the midst of planning her high school reunion with the best friend who suspects her husband is having an affair, but doesn’t know with whom.
While the imaginative elements of Venous Hum keep the novel going, some elements and characterizations lack exploration; for example, Lai Fun’s relationship with her wife. And the extension of Lai Fun’s difficulty in school to the middle of the book breaks the narrative thread. A more seamless transition between life events– such as marriage, pregnancy, and the high school reunion– would strengthen reader engagement.
Venous Hum does not lend itself to easy characterization, but that is part of the fun. The writing is imaginative and worth the effort it takes to see it through the end.
Venous Hum takes place in one of the western provinces of Canada and covers thirty years, from the time Lai Fun Kugelheim enrolls in a French immersion elementary school, to the night of her twentieth class reunion when students, living and dead, converge. Lai Fun is a married lesbian having an affair with her best friend’s husband. The biracial daughter of immigrants is pregnant with her second child while having this affair. She is also in the midst of planning her high school reunion with the best friend who suspects her husband is having an affair, but doesn’t know with whom.
While the imaginative elements of Venous Hum keep the novel going, some elements and characterizations lack exploration; for example, Lai Fun’s relationship with her wife. And the extension of Lai Fun’s difficulty in school to the middle of the book breaks the narrative thread. A more seamless transition between life events– such as marriage, pregnancy, and the high school reunion– would strengthen reader engagement.
Venous Hum does not lend itself to easy characterization, but that is part of the fun. The writing is imaginative and worth the effort it takes to see it through the end.
June 14, 2021
DNF could not stand the way this was written.
Lai Fun Laughed and then Lai Fun had another pretend scotch while Jennifer spoke into her phone but Lai Fun wanted real scotch...
Um no...thanks.
Lai Fun Laughed and then Lai Fun had another pretend scotch while Jennifer spoke into her phone but Lai Fun wanted real scotch...
Um no...thanks.
December 24, 2018
I liked this book progressively less as I made my way through it. In the initial chapters I found it a pretty funny satire, especially in its portrayal of the frustrations of domestic life, and the (failed) Canadian dream of a multi-lingual, multi-cultural, queer-homonormative, middle-class utopia. After a while, though, I just got really really sick of high school reunion planning, which is the centre of the plot, and lost interest. While I initially appreciated the book's quirkiness, it got a lot weirder. I felt like it went a lot of places with its satire that I didn't totally understand so the humour escaped me.
January 8, 2023
Odd and enjoyable.
March 5, 2023
I don’t know what I expected from this book but it wasnt that
April 19, 2014
I picked this up at random and decided on a purchase because the title rocks and the scary cover drew my attention. (Shopping while hungry, that old story...) Set in a Calgary suburb and involving lesbian vampires and cannibalism and a school reunion and in-laws, it's decidedly one of a kind. If a movie, the poster would call it "a stylish tour de force." It wouldn't be lying at all.
August 30, 2019
Mayr is an author who is always able to astound and amaze. This re-imagining of a horror scenario is packaged for post-modern consumers. Is there nothing that cannot be made palatable with a nice package?
October 6, 2009
Wonderful! It crosses many genres, is theoretically and culturally interesting.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews