Review of Milkteeth by Caitlin Starling
Title: Milkteeth
Author: Caitlin Starling
Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Vampires, Gothic
Year Published: 2026
My Rating: 4.5/5
Blurb:
From the bestselling author of The Death of Jane Lawrence comes a new, genre-bending supernatural horror about a vampire broodmother fighting against her own monstrous descent.
Beatrice is a a vampire responsible for nursing newly made fledglings through the first years of their unlife. She nests in an abandoned, isolated warren of office space beneath her patron's skyscraper, raising two fractious Gorgeous—once a heartthrob, now to all appearances a living corpse—who longs for the return of the lover who made him immortal with all the fervor of a rebellious teen, and Fortunata, the scion of Beatrice's mistress, alien and ambitious in her desires.
But when Beatrice decides to take on a third fledgling, the product of an attempted siring gone wrong, teetering between vampiric purity and ghoulish depravity, Beatrice finds herself strained to breaking between the societal and physical demands of her position, her own ravenous hunger, and an obsessive need to discover what’s happening to her—because her body is changing too, transforming her into something even more monstrous. She begins to crave the taste of flesh, something anathema to all vampires, and to swing between desperate hunger and vicious power.
Desperate to master herself once more, Beatrice courts a mortal OBGYN who might be able to unravel the secrets of her unnatural anatomy. But soon their connection threatens the secrecy of her vampiric coven as well as the safety and development of her dependent nurslings… and the humans they stand to slaughter if left to their own devices.
Review
Milkteeth is a strange, heart-breaking and disquieting novel that burrowed itself quickly into my heart. It serves as a dark and gory mirror that we, as a society, should look upon.
Firstly, the novel is a fresh and innovative example of literature on vampirism; it first asserts that vampirism is on a spectrum that depends on the undead creature's behaviour. If such creature restrains themselves and does not feast upon the flesh of a human, they become refined and self-restrained: culminating in your typical blood-drinking vampire. However, if the same creature feasts upon other parts of the human (marrow, organs, muscle, etc.), they become an unbridled consumer of flesh. This is more akin to the ravenous and fast-moving ghouls of Warhammer: The Age of Sigmar rather than your archetypical zombie.
This requires certain vampires called broodmothers to serve as a wet nurse to newly-turned undead for the first three years of their new un-life, as human blood will render them mindless ghouls. This spectrum suggests that power demands willpower and self-discipline, with the danger of becoming a cruel and dangerous monster if one does not practice such restraint.
Another novel aspect of vampirism is explored in Milkteeth; when a new vampire is created, they lose all sense of self: executive function is reset and memories expunged, essentially becoming infants again. This poses a question: does one lose themselves after gaining power?
Milkteeth is narrated by Beatrice who is one of the few but much-needed broodmothers. The novel focuses on her and her undead charges; Fortunata, Gorgeous and Luisa. The 'children' had unique and compelling stories of their own and I felt so empathetic towards them, despite them growing to be killers, due to their newfound innocence.
Beatrice is constantly looked down upon by her fellow vampires, given a dirty basement to live in and shamed for it and her soiled clothing. I was sympathetic towards Beatrice - despite her less desirable methods of looking after her children - because of how her situation seems to reflect that of human mothers.
The novel is a commentary on how we rely on mothers both individually and as a society, contrasting with how important they actually are to us. They are frequently denied help, as Beatrice had, and are blamed and shunned when they seem to do poorly. Mothers deserve so much more than what the world gives them. Because of this, I enjoyed witnessing Beatrice's rise to power, although I was sad to see it come at such a high cost, but the world would not allow it any other way.
Milkteeth was an enthralling and unsettling novel that I thoroughly enjoyed, my only complaints are that I would have liked to see more of Beatrice and Doctor Bajracharya's relationship and been given more information on the big reveal at the end.
Thank you to NetGalley and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for allowing me to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.