Bestselling horror author Caitlin Starling is back with Milkteeth, a darkly seductive new novel that sinks its teeth into vampire mythology to explore the horrors of motherhood, bodily transformation and the suffocating expectations placed on those tasked with caring for others.
Milkteeth centres on Beatrice, a broodmother responsible for nursing newly made vampires through the first years of their unlife. Living in an abandoned warren of office space beneath her patron’s skyscraper, she raises two difficult, hungry fledglings in a society governed by secrecy and rigid hierarchies. But when she takes on a third, the fragile balance of her existence begins to collapse. Her hunger grows beyond her control, her body starts to change, and the very role she has been assigned threatens to turn her into something even more monstrous.
Desperate to understand what is happening to her, Beatrice seeks help from a mortal obstetrician and gynaecologist. Yet opening herself up to an outsider could expose the secrets of her vampiric coven, placing not only her own life but also the safety of her dependent children in jeopardy. In a world where the smallest revelation could prove fatal, Beatrice must confront the price of being truly seen.
Milkteeth is a deliciously twisted piece of literary horror that takes the vampire novel somewhere far more unsettling than the usual bloodsucking business. Starling uses the broodmother’s predicament to probe the pressures of maternal duty, the alienation of living in a body that no longer feels like your own, and the power structures that demand conformity while punishing anyone who dares to step outside their prescribed role. There is a wicked streak of dark comedy, too, in the sight of an ancient creature of the night grappling with the mundane indignities of modern domestic life. A fresh bite of vampire fiction, a sharp examination of maternal expectations and a queasily compelling study of bodily transformation, Milkteeth makes familiar trappings monstrous all over again.
With Milkteeth out now in the UK and arriving in the US on 10 November, CinemaChords spoke to Caitlin Starling about using vampire mythology to explore maternal burnout, bodily alienation and the pressures of conformity. We also discussed the dangers of breaking a culture of secrecy, the cost of putting personal truth before collective safety, and why even an ancient creature of the night might need help connecting a tablet to Wi-Fi.