Episode 13.4: ‘Rottenheart’ by Kat Dunn

It’s no secret that we love Kat Dunn and ‘Hungerstone’ - have you listened to our interview with Kat? - so it was inevitable that we’d have to read and discuss ‘Rottenheart’.Revenge me. For I am murdered . . .Odette and Cecilia are young women, living between their grand homes in Hampstead and the imposing, ancient Herne House in Suffolk. Though Odette's artist mother Lydia keeps a tight grasp on her, she and her beloved Cecilia are mostly left free to roam, to learn and to love.But when Lydia inexplicably sickens and dies, a dark veil falls. As the funeral rites are performed, Odette's aunt, the cold and implacable Claudine, increasingly takes charge of the household, while her father retreats to his study. Odette, lost in grief, disappears into the shadows.But as Claudine is announced as Odette's new stepmother, a sinister presence in the house makes itself known. To her horror, Odette realises that despite her death, Lydia never really left. And now she wants revenge . . .Inspired by Hamlet, the ultimate revenge tragedy, Rottenheart is the stunning new sapphic gothic horror novel from Kat Dunn, the lauded author of Hungerstone and Bitterthorn. Set in the 1890s, this a story of love and grief, mothers and daughters, death and madness.A sapphic reimagining of ‘Hamlet’? No more needs to be said, honestly.In this episode we discuss:- ‘Hamlet’, Shakespeare, the ‘Romantics’ and the power of skilful intertextuality- The men benefitting from the vilification of women- The intertwining of the Gothic and dark academia