House of Hunger Quiz: 20 Questions on Plot, Characters, and Themes

This quiz spans the full arc of Alexis Henderson's House of Hunger, from Marion Shaw's escape from the slums of Prane to her final flight south on the night train. Questions are grouped by type: plot and sequence, character motivation, theme and symbol, and synthesis. Each question is either multiple-choice (MC) or short-answer (SA). The complete answer key with brief explanations follows the quiz.

Plot and Sequence (Questions 1–8)

1. (MC) What first draws Marion Shaw to the House of Hunger?

A) A letter from her brother Raul
B) A scarlet advertisement for a bloodmaid in a stolen newspaper
C) A personal invitation from Countess Lisavet
D) A rumor spread by Agnes about northern wealth

2. (MC) Why does Marion miss the initial eight o'clock departure of the night train in Chapter 5?

A) She is arrested by constables for begging
B) She loses her ticket in a card game
C) Her brother Raul burns the ticket in the stove
D) She decides to stay with Agnes

3. (MC) What does Marion find carved into the bedframe of her new chamber in the House of Hunger?

A) The name "Cecelia"
B) The word "wretch"
C) A drawing of a tooth
D) The sigil of the House of Fog

4. (MC) During the fox hunt in Chapter 16, what does Lisavet force Marion to do?

A) Shoot a fox pup
B) Choose between shooting Sir Ivor or a fox pup
C) Eat a raw quail heart
D) Ride a stallion named Bishop without a saddle

5. (MC) What does Marion discover in the hidden cavern beneath the House in Chapter 27?

A) A cache of gold and jewels
B) The imprisoned, aged Cecelia, now called the Wretch
C) A secret library of forbidden books
D) The corpse of Tutor Geoffrey

6. (MC) How does Lisavet learn of Marion's escape plan in Chapter 30?

A) She reads Marion's diary
B) Sir Ivor betrays the plan to her
C) The House Mother overhears the bloodmaids talking
D) She tastes the plan in Marion's blood

7. (MC) What happens to Sir Ivor before the final escape attempt?

A) He flees to the Southern Isles
B) He dies of a maudlum overdose
C) He is killed by Lisavet in a duel
D) He marries a southern heiress

8. (SA) In Chapter 32, what does the teller at the night train depot do after learning the girls are bloodmaids?

Character Motivation (Questions 9–13)

9. (MC) Why does Marion initially accept Thiago's offer to become a bloodmaid?

A) She wants revenge on Lady Gertrude
B) She does not want to die in the slums and sees no other escape
C) She hopes to find her long-lost mother in the North
D) She wants to become a Taster herself

10. (MC) What motivates Raul to burn Marion's ticket in Chapter 4?

A) He wants to protect her from the dangers of the North
B) He is jealous of her opportunity and wants to control her
C) He believes the ticket is counterfeit
D) He plans to sell it for maudlum

11. (MC) Why does Cecelia attack Marion in Chapter 19?

A) She believes Marion stole her signet ring
B) She is desperate and maddened by Lisavet's rejection
C) She wants to become First Bloodmaid again
D) She suspects Marion of poisoning Lisavet

12. (MC) What is Lisavet's primary motivation for keeping bloodmaids, as revealed throughout the novel?

A) She enjoys the social prestige of a large court
B) She suffers from a hereditary blood disorder that requires consuming young blood
C) She wants to honor the memory of her mother, a bloodmaid
D) She hopes to find a worthy heir among them

13. (SA) Why does Marion decide to forge a check from Ivor's checkbook in Chapter 31, and what does she hope to accomplish?

Theme and Symbol (Questions 14–17)

14. (MC) The recurring word "wretch" carved into furniture and the choker embroidered "Wretched One" most directly symbolize:

A) The bloodmaids' pride in their service
B) The dehumanization and erasure of bloodmaid identity
C) The Countess's affection for her wards
D) The political decline of the northern Houses

15. (MC) The night train in the novel functions primarily as a symbol of:

A) Industrial progress and modernization
B) The threshold between poverty and a new, dangerous life
C) The power of the southern Parliament
D) The bond between Marion and Thiago

16. (MC) Lisavet's "hunger" is best understood as a symbol of:

A) Her physical appetite for food
B) The insatiable, consuming nature of desire and power
C) Her desire to marry and produce an heir
D) The economic hunger of the northern Houses

17. (SA) In Chapter 24, Marion dreams of a banquet where her roasted corpse is served to the court. What does this dream reveal about her understanding of her role in the House?

Synthesis (Questions 18–20)

18. (MC) Which character most directly parallels Marion's journey from victim to survivor?

A) Agnes, who remains in Prane
B) Cecelia, who is drained and imprisoned
C) Irene, who grows frail from bleeding
D) Lisavet, who escapes her father's abuse by poisoning him

19. (MC) The novel's epigraph, "In the end there are only those who eat and those who bleed," is most consistent with which theme?

A) The inevitability of class exploitation
B) The importance of romantic love
C) The value of self-sacrifice for family
D) The healing power of blood

20. (SA) How does Marion's final act of stabbing Lisavet with the House Mother's needle, after kissing her, complicate the novel's treatment of love and violence? Use evidence from the final chapters.

Answer Key

1. B — In Chapter 1, Agnes points out a scarlet advertisement seeking a bloodmaid for the House of Hunger, which Marion later pieces together and pursues.

2. C — In Chapter 4, Raul discovers the ticket and burns it in the stove, forcing Marion to seek Thiago's help at the station in Chapter 5.

3. B — In Chapter 8, Marion finds the word "wretch" carved into the bed frame, along with a molar, foreshadowing the fate of previous bloodmaids.

4. B — In Chapter 16, Lisavet trains the rifle on Sir Ivor and demands Marion choose between shooting him or a fox pup; Marion fires at Ivor but misses.

5. B — In Chapter 27, Marion descends into a cavern and finds a gaunt, elderly woman who calls herself the Wretch, realizing it is Cecelia, drained of youth by Lisavet.

6. B — In Chapter 30, Lisavet reveals she knows of the escape plot through Ivor, who has already been killed by a maudlum overdose.

7. B — In Chapter 30, Lisavet tells Marion that Ivor suffered a maudlum overdose and died that afternoon, implying she orchestrated it.

8. The teller accepts the forged check, gives them five tickets south, and says, "If asked, we never spoke," showing quiet compassion for the bloodmaids.

9. B — In Chapter 3, Marion tells Thiago she doesn't want to die in the slums; her motivation is escape from poverty and a chance at a better life.

10. B — Raul's actions throughout Chapters 2–4 show his need to control Marion and his resentment of her ambition; he burns the ticket to keep her from leaving.

11. B — In Chapter 19, Cecelia, rejected by Lisavet and desperate, attacks Marion in a fit of madness, threatening to give Lisavet Marion's blood instead.

12. B — Irene explains in Chapter 9 that Lisavet's blood is too thin and lacks properties to sustain life, so she must consume a steady diet of bloodmaids' blood due to a hereditary disease.

13. Marion forges a check from Ivor's checkbook to buy tickets south for herself, Mae, and the other bloodmaids, hoping to secure their escape from the House and start a new life in the Southern Isles.

14. B — The word "wretch" and the embroidered choker mark bloodmaids as degraded, disposable objects, stripping them of individual identity and reducing them to their function.

15. B — The night train carries Marion from the slums to the House of Hunger and later back south, serving as a threshold between her old life and the dangerous, transformative world of the North.

16. B — Lisavet's hunger is both literal (a need for blood) and metaphorical, representing the consuming nature of desire, obsession, and power that drives the novel's conflicts.

17. The dream reveals Marion's fear that she is merely a consumable resource for the House—her body and blood are meant to be devoured, and her ultimate fate is to be sacrificed for the court's pleasure, mirroring the fate of Cecelia and other bloodmaids.

18. D — Lisavet, like Marion, survived an abusive childhood by poisoning her father and nearly dying herself; both characters use violence to escape their oppressors, though their paths diverge.

19. A — The epigraph underscores the novel's critique of class exploitation: the wealthy (those who eat) consume the labor and bodies of the poor (those who bleed), a cycle that persists throughout the story.

20. Marion's kiss and simultaneous stabbing of Lisavet in Chapter 31 intertwines love and violence, showing that her desire for Lisavet coexists with her need for freedom. The act is both intimate and lethal, reflecting the novel's theme that hunger and love are inseparable, and that survival may require destroying the object of one's affection. Lisavet's final gift of the signet ring—"You've won"—acknowledges Marion's victory while also cementing the bond between them, even in death.

For further discussion, see the House of Hunger study guide, questions and answers, and the ending explained.