Lydia is hungry. Living away from her Malaysian-British mother for the first time, Lydia is forced to navigate her hunger on her own – something of a challenge, as Lydia is half-vampire. Her human side craves the food that would connect her with her late Japanese father… but she can digest only blood. Alone in London, with plans to build a career in performance art, she lurches between human and inhuman, trying desperately to connect with her (very human) peers while her need for blood burns, and burns, and burns…

Luka really enjoyed this short novel about hunger, art, and body-hood. It’s always great to see a unique modern take on the vampire myth, and this was really fascinating! Lydia’s internal world is visceral and complicated; Kohda really captures the sensory experience of hunger, using it as an intriguing allegorical anchor in the narrative.