Hunger and Thirst Summary: A Haunting Gothic Chiller
TL;DR: The Core Snapshot
In brief: The novel follows orphan Ursula Major from a 1987 squat to her life as a London sculptor.
It blends psychological suspense with supernatural dread. Themes include trauma, belonging, and contagion.
The story moves between past and present to trace the long aftermath of a single violent act.
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Characters in Hunger and Thirst
- Ursula Major (Uschi): The sixteen-year-old narrator in 1987 and fifty-two-year-old protagonist in the present frame; an orphan traumatized by her childhood in care and her mother’s death.
- Sue Whelan (Suzannah): Ursula’s eighteen-year-old friend and art school office colleague who aspires to go to Hollywood.
- Vince Goldie (Vincent): A twenty-year-old art school maintenance worker adopted at age eight with a history of alcoholism and anger outbursts.
- Raymond Whelan (Ray): Sue’s older brother who studies law and has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and epilepsy.
- Sadie Major (Sadie Hulse): Ursula’s mother, a busker who died of dengue fever in Morocco when Ursula was seven.
- Joy: Ursula’s social worker who arranges her placement in a halfway house and a job at the art school.
- Anita Whelan: Sue and Raymond’s mother, who welcomes Ursula into her home.
- Gran & Gramps: Sue and Raymond’s maternal grandparents.
- Auntie Julie: Sue and Raymond’s aunt who suspects something is wrong after Sue’s disappearance.
- Terry: Vince’s grounds maintenance co-worker who provides revelations in the Dark Descent documentary.
- Ms. Barker: A Sculpture tutor at the art school who inspires Ursula’s interest in wood carving.
- John: A tenant at the halfway house who offers Ursula companionship.
- Derek & Jennifer Bloodworth: The original 1970s owners of the Underwood whose deaths leave behind a lingering presence.
- Emma Zahini: The true-crime documentary filmmaker who produces Dark Descent.
- Claudia: Uschi Major’s London art gallerist.
Hunger and Thirst Summary: The Full Story (Spoilers)
Warning: This section contains major spoilers for the entire plot, including the ending.
Ursula Major is a sixteen-year-old orphan who has spent years in children’s homes after her mother Sadie died in Morocco.
She refuses to return to care after breaking her arm, so her social worker Joy finds her a room in a halfway house and a job in the post room of a local art school.
There she meets Sue Whelan, an eighteen-year-old office worker who dreams of filmmaking, and Vince Goldie, a twenty-year-old maintenance worker.
In Hunger and Thirst, Vince tells Ursula about the Underwood, an abandoned 1950s bungalow squat on Barrow Road where the previous owners died. Ursula moves in, and Sue becomes a frequent visitor.
At the Underwood, Ursula discovers a talent for wood carving using stolen tools.
Sue introduces Ursula to her family, including her brother Raymond, who has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and epilepsy. During a séance at the house, Raymond speaks in a strange voice and has a seizure.
Later, Sue films a horror movie at the Underwood, and Vince rapes Sue in the garden while Ursula watches from a window without understanding what is happening.
That Saturday, Sue reveals she is flying to America alone. Ursula, devastated, swings a wooden mallet and strikes Sue on the temple. Sue appears unhurt and listens to Ursula’s story about her mother. The next morning, Ursula finds Sue dead on the garden sofa.
Ursula buries Sue in a shallow grave inside the garage. Strange events begin: a record player plays without power, tapping sounds at windows, a smell of decay, and a figure asking for water. Ursula stabs fingers reaching through the letterbox. Vince returns, Ursula confesses, and they find the grave empty.
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The entity attacks the house again, and Vince is later found naked in the bathroom, covered in bites and coughing up a fly. Ursula calls 999, and Vince is sectioned. Police treat Sue as a runaway.
Ursula stays with the Whelan family briefly. In October 1987, the Great Storm causes the horse chestnut tree to fall and crush the Underwood.
Thirty-six years later, Ursula is a successful London sculptor named Uschi Major. She reunites with Raymond, and they plan to marry. A true-crime documentary called Dark Descent airs, framing Vince as Sue’s killer. Vince, recently released, appears at Ursula’s apartment, says “She’s still inside me,” swallows a fly, and jumps through a window to his death.
At Vince’s inquest, Ursula and Raymond visit his grave and find it desecrated from within. Back at Anita’s house, Raymond hums the Underwood’s piano tune, drinks water, and swallows a fly. Ursula flees to her flat, realizing the entity passes from host to host.
She hears the lift arrive, footsteps, a walking stick, and the piano tune. Ursula places her hands on the door and waits. Claire Fuller ends the novel on this unresolved threshold.
Books Like Hunger and Thirst
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters: A gothic novel set in a decaying post-war estate where an uncanny force affects the inhabitants. It shares the haunted-house atmosphere and British setting.
In the Woods by Tana French: A psychological mystery centered on childhood trauma and unreliable memory. It shares the lingering, ambiguous atmosphere and the focus on past violence.
The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller: Another novel by Claire Fuller featuring isolated environments and deep psychological study. It shares the author’s prose style and focus on female survival under duress.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson: A claustrophobic domestic suspense novel with an isolated, traumatized narrator and dark family secrets. It shares the subtle violence and unreliable narration.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson: A classic psychological horror novel about a house that feeds on human trauma and loneliness. It shares the haunted-house premise and psychological ambiguity.
Book Details
- Genre & Subgenre: Gothic Chiller / Psychological Horror / Mystery & Suspense; Psychic Suspense / Dark Domestic Horror / Frame Narrative Mystery
- Core Narrative Tropes: Haunted House / Squat, Unreliable Narrator, Cold Case / Documentary Frame, Creeping Contagion / Parasitic Possession, Found Family vs. Traumatized Isolation
- Tone & Atmosphere: Unsettling, claustrophobic, dread-infused, psychologically vivid, haunting, and melancholic
- Primary Conflict: Ursula’s struggle against childhood trauma, guilt, and fear of abandonment; the malevolent, parasitic entity inhabiting the Underwood that drives hosts to madness and violence
- Pacing Style: Dual timeline narrative structure (1987 youth vs. present-day aftermath thirty-six years later); slow-burn psychological suspense escalating into body horror and supernatural dread
- ISBN: ISBN-10 1963108728, ISBN-13 978-1963108729
- Pages: 320
- Book Structure: 42 numbered chapters; chronologically structured around Ursula’s 1987 memories, interspersed with modern-day reflections, documentary excerpts, and present-day flash-forwards
