Kiersten White, the writer you are.

Every chapter of this book is the perfect combination of female rage and sapphic longing. I love the prose, the suspense, and that ending? This is such a perfect spooky season book.


I see some hatred for this book, and I gotta say, maybe vampire books are not for you? Also, if you went in expecting a dracula retelling and were upset when it simply contained a book from Dracula, maybe read synopsis of books more?

Yas, queens!

The newest novel from Kiersten White focuses on the story of Lucy Westenra from Dracula. It is told through alternating timelines and POVs. For the first two thirds or so these primarily consist of excerpts from the journal Lucy kept before being turned into a vampire at age 19 in the year 1890, transcripts from current day Lucy's talks with a therapist as she explains everything that has happened to her since then (a la Interview with the Vampire), and a narrative following a woman named Iris, who is trying to escape her abusive and controlling family and its company/MLM empire. Her connection to the rest of the story becomes apparent over time as hints are dropped like a trail bread crumbs. Later, we get several chapters from the POV of the Transylvanian count himself.

This is the story of women who are expected, by their families and by society, to be a certain way, fit into a certain mold. These women may try to please these others so much that they are unable to even recognize who they truly are behind the act. They play at being meek and cooperative, but then no one pleased by their resultant vulnerability bothers to protect them when called for. The damage wrought by this kind of trauma can ultimately be cured by being wholly loved for exactly the people they are, nothing less and nothing more.

In that way, this winds up being a really sweet and inspirational sapphic romance story. It also has mysterious and Gothic elements, and the tension and dread of being constantly watched by those who believe they own you. Lucy's story takes us from England to China to Istanbul, and through two World Wars. Eventually we are brought to the States to take on the horrifying company that will never willingly let Iris go, and even Dracula himself.

Speaking of...the character of Dracula was the least compelling here. Maybe that's intentional as he thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread and everyone should worship him, but after centuries of growth some of the women he's screwed with realize he isn't worth taking up any more space in their thoughts. These women, though - by the end of the story, I loved them so much! Over the course of her Unlife, Lucy met and...sure, "befriended", a handful of other women turned into vampires by Dracula, and they wind up all being quite delightful in their own ways! Girl power!

Not just doom and gloom, there are some quite funny moments in this book as well. These are often provided by snarky and irreverent Iris, but not always. I got a real kick out of one of the vampires only just trying to learn about cell phones, sending a blurry picture of a squirrel. The recipient sends "Who is this?", and the dear, sweet, insane vampire replies "You mean what is this it's a squirrel".

The main reason I decided not to go with 5 stars for this book was because it did seem overly long and dragged a bit in the middle. But when it did pick back up once the three timelines converged, I loved all of the ass-kicking, and the healing of trauma through being loved for one's true self. Great stuff!

Thank you so very much to NetGalley and Del Rey for the eArc in exchange for my honest review.

Neutral 3 stars
——————

DNF @ 45%. I think I liked the idea better than the execution.

When I saw Dracula Novel in the title, I was expecting a gothic setting and lyrical writing. But I didn’t get it. The writing was pretty boring and the way the novel is formatted into different journal/client session/modern first person was too much. I didn’t need two perspectives of Lucy, even if it was before and after death. Plus the blurb kind of spoils what I imagine is the “plot twist” I found the characters boring, I couldn’t connect with them at all.

Neural stars because I DNFed.

This isn't horrible but honestly I could not get into such a modern vampire story.I loved Lucy's old journals in the story but vampiric cults, pyramid schemes and the very idea that Mina was bad didn't go over too well with me.There was too much back and forth with the characters until you couldn't keep track of whose viewpoint you were reading from and even if you did you just didn't care anymore.I only gave it three stars because I think Twilight fans would enjoy and the writing was okay.

4.0. I enjoyed this! The plot made sense with the original story and was very compelling, it almost read like a thriller. The vampire lore/worldbuilding was really cool and the nods to Dracula canon were really fun to read and well interspersed through the story. It’s definitely an alternate version of the story, but I think people who liked the original will like this too. My issues with this book were fairly minor. It honestly felt like I was reading two different books that split right at the halfway point. When Iris learns who Lucy is, the story shifted into a very different vibe. I still enjoyed it, but it really shifted the reading experience for me. The first half was definitely my favorite: Lucy’s diary entries, interspersed with modern day Iris, interspersed with Lucy in therapy was like. Amazing? So when two of those ended, the story progressed as it needed to, but I was sad for the loss. The Dracula in 2nd person sections were… weird? As they were supposed to be I think. His character was very well done for what this book was doing. As were all the other villains!! The reveal(s) at the end had me gasping! Overall, would recommend if you want a sapphic gothic vampire story to read, and especially if you want more historical queer women and you support women’s wrongs.

Thank you so, so much to Random House Publishing Group Ballentine, Del Ray, and Netgalley for allowing me to read the advanced copy of this book!! I am forever grateful for the opportunity!

I really enjoyed this book!! I have always loved vampires and this book had the perfect mix of light and dark that I was looking for! I don’t always like when stories jump between the present and past continuously throughout the entire story, but I enjoyed how White stuck to three main POVs to tell Lucy and Iris’s stories. The choice of those three POVs to come from Lucy’s diary as a human, the recount of her vampire life to Vanessa, and the modern narrative of Iris’s perspective and thoughts gave the story an interesting take, in my opinion. Though I agree that the beginning was the slightest bit slow, I felt that it moved along smoothly, with all three POVs coming together seamlessly to fully complete the story. I had so many highlights and quotes that really stuck with me as I read. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book! It was the perfect book to begin this autumn’s spooky season with!

This is an interesting novel. I will say that for as long as the book is the first two thirds really drags, to pick up massively in the last half. This book is predictable in some ways but also has a couple of surprises. I quite loved Lucy and how her interactions with other vampires caused them to look at their lives differently. The Lover had to be one of my favorite vampires. She was just so airy and at times added humor where humor where humor was needed. Overall, this book is okay. The ending was perfection I just wish that pace had been integrated into more of the book.
Thank you so much to Random House Publishing Group Ballentine, Del Ray, and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

Lucy Undying is the collision of two very different stories—the first is a punk, new adult coming of rage plot following Iris, the reluctant heiress to a vampire multi-level marketing cult, and the other is a queer, feminist reclaiming of Lucy Westenra (which, at varying times, feels inspired by Dracula, Interview with the Vampire, and Captain America: The First Avenger—no, I’m not joking). When Iris and Lucy meet in London, romance sparks and dark secrets unwind, threatening Iris’s freedom and Lucy’s greatest wish: to be seen and truly loved.

Lucy Undying has glimpses of brilliance—Lucy’s commentary on female desire and the “neediness” so often vilified in women is moving and lovely, and Dracula’s narcissism is cruel and well-depicted. The changes White makes to Bram Stoker’s narrative are clever (if somewhat predictable), and result in an eerie and entertaining conspiracy. I don’t think one needs to have read Dracula to follow Lucy Undying, but familiarity undoubtedly improves the reading experience, and I particularly enjoyed White’s callbacks to small but memorable moments in the original text (the garlic flowers, blood transfusions, and escaped wolf, to name a few!)

Unfortunately, White’s writing struggles to find a cohesive tone—in concept, queering Lucy feels like fertile ground for feminist literary fiction, but attempts to get there are held back by the Iris narrative, which seems YA both in plot and writing style. Similarly, the vampire MLM scheme is engaging and fun on its own, but is distracted by breakaways to Lucy’s vampiric past. Lucy’s characterization suffers as a result—though elements of her narrative are poignant and striking, she lacks the gravitas one might expect from a 100+ year old vampire plucked from a literary classic, and the insta-love romance (complete with painfully quirky couple names like “my little butter chicken”) feels more immature than earth-shattering.

Ultimately, there are just better sapphic vampire stories out there. As a Dracula fan, I don’t regret reading Lucy Undying, but I’d encourage others to check out queer vampire picks like Carmilla or Dowry of Bl00d instead.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ballantine, Del Rey, and Random House Publishing Group for this advanced copy. You can pick up Lucy Undying: A Dracula Novel on September 10, 2024.

It's spooky season, so I figured this would be the perfect read to ease me into fall. And it is a good fall book... but boy does it eaaassseee you into things. I think it's more my mood/current reading behavior than any problem with the book itself, but I struggled to pick this one up and stay invested, Despite following 2-3 characters (Lucy past and present), none of these characters stuck out to me enough to care about what was happening to them. Nothing pulled me in and made me want to keep reading. I got about 14% in and realized that I could put this down and not think about it ever again. So, I'm afraid that's what I did.

Now, if you're looking for a moody, sapphic, atmospheric story about vampires with massive character studies, this is your book! But I'm afraid it wasn't for me.

See link for full review details. 3.5 rating, enjoyed the second half of the book the most. Loved all the twists

Lucy Undying by Kiersten White is a fabulous reinterpretation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I was able to read and fully enjoy the story without having read the classic text. But now that I know Lucy and the characters that surround her in life were created by Stoker, I’m eager to pick up my copy of the original novel.

We learn about Lucy’s life through a diary she wrote in 1890 at age 19, and the stories of her afterlife are shared through a transcribed therapy session in 2024. This was a very clever way of providing her full history and worked well with the present day first person narration of Iris.

When we meet Iris, she has traveled to London to sort out part of her recently inherited estate. It quickly becomes clear that she is caught up in some nefarious organization and her trip to London is only meant to be a quick stop to fund her escape.

Iris discovers Lucy’s journal hidden under the floorboards of Hillingham, the old mansion owned by and long-ago abandoned by her family. She finds a kindred spirit in Lucy who, like Iris, is dominated and manipulated by her mother and feels trapped in a life she does not want.

With a supporting cast of largely all female vampires, White spins a distinctly feminist retelling with cutting commentary on the predatory male gaze. Lucy was taught to be demure, quietly appealing - a blank canvas that men could project their own desires onto. It’s what made her an easy victim, and what continues to make women targets today. Keeping women quiet, afraid to cause discomfort or raise conflict, is what still gives predators the confidence that they can take whatever they want and get away with it.

I wish I could share a sample of my favorite quotes, because White composes so many beautiful passages about time, home, femininity, and sense of self. You’ll just have to read the book to discover them for yourself, along with all the great twists and sapphic romance I’ve skipped for fear of triggering spoilers.

1890, Lucy is a young woman with no freedom in her life. Immortality gave her a new entitlement to claim her identity as a woman she never could when she was alive, to be authentic inside and out. Kiersten White’s Lucy Undying spans centuries, depicting a young woman whose real story began when she became unalive as one of Dracula’s first victims. Woven through time from the past to the modern day, where another young woman named Iris unearths a mystery after her mother’s death. Traveling to London, she discovers a secret family home tucked away like a time capsule and within the untouched walls are mysterious diaries and transcripts that tell the story of a young woman named Lucy. Kiersten White writes an absolutely rich, atomsoprehic, and breathtakingly amazing female spin on Dracula that is long overdue! The intersection of these two women’s stories illustrates the pain of love and family relationships that carries across time and generations.

Confession time: I never actually finished reading Dracula. How is such an iconic and influential book so incredibly boring? Well, Kiersten White solves that problem with a retelling that focuses on Lucy Westenra. Jumping between time frames and points of view, we get a new perspective on what could have actually happened in Stoker's novel and how that story might continue to this day. My only complaint is that it felt like two novels. At the two-thirds mark, it felt like a tidy ending was wrapping itself up, but then the book continued on. Split into two, I would have happily devoured both books. I look forward to what Kiersten White writes next.

I absolutely loved this book! I devoured it in three days and I don't think I have ever finished a book that quickly in quite a while. I loved how the author introduced twists because they were there before I could even guess as to what was going to happen. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I am looking forward to recommending the book and reading more titles from the author.

Lucy Undying: A Dracula Novel by Kiersten White is said to be a Dracula retelling but if you are Dracula purist, this book is not for you. Thankfully, I’m not a Dracula purist and quite enjoyed this sapphic retelling.

The men who stopped Lucy after Dracula turned her, and eventually destroyed Dracula to end his terror, failed. Lucy continued to live beyond 1890, traveling across continents during the World Wars, spending time with other vampires Dracula has turned. I wish I could read a book about many of the relationships Lucy had within the book to be honest (the doctor, the lover, and the queen specifically) as I was really drawn in by her attempt to make these lovers her companion.

Meanwhile, the people around Lucy continued their lives, moving to America and starting a large corporation, Goldaming Life. In 2024, Iris Goldaming returns to England and the ancestral family home and finds Lucy's diary, and Lucy herself.

Iris and Lucy are living somewhat parallel lives, surrounded by possessive mothers and dismissive men, while they're just trying to exist in the world. The two women bond over their shared experiences, and work together to find the independence they each desperately need.

Overall I would say the book pacing was good, though it is a long read. I did really enjoy this book and would highly recommend it!

Thank you netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I've been obsessed with vampires since the twilight era of my life many years ago; Because of this, I will pick up anything slightly romantic with vampires in it. The premise of this book seemed incredible. Vampires? LOVE! Multi-POV? LOVE! Romance?! LOVE! But I just could not get into the story. It felt slow to me, and if there isn't plot happening, I get bored very easily. I didn't finish this one, unfortunately.

White is becoming one of my favorite authors. I love how unique her stories are. Even with such a classic tale about everyone's favorite vampire, she somehow made it new. It's a very dark and gothic but also very witty story that might be a little slow to get going, but definitely is worth the slow burn.

"Where does love come from, and why does it feel so much like fear?"

♡ Gothic Romance
♡ Dracula Re-imagining
♡ Sapphic, all the sapphic
♡ Family Trauma & Hierarchy
♡ Revenge Plot

Keirstan White has a new fan in me. Lucy's story had me transfixed from the very first pages of her accounting, and I was eager to learn more about this girl who had her life stolen from her for the sake of love.

White's writing is compelling and evocative, enthralling and eerie while simultaneously bringing a lightness to the story with Iris' humor in dark times.

"I was looking for a higher purpose, and in my world, Dracula was both devil and god. Destroyer and creator."

After 19 years in a loveless family, Lucy becomes just another victim in a string of young women left behind by Dracula with no rhyme or reason, and no sense of direction. Her family is gone, her fiancé tried to kill her, and her beloved is a whisper on the wind. She recounts for us the next 100+ years of her hunt for her maker and her reason for existing.

Meanwhile, Iris, heiress to a soul sucking multi-billion dollar corporation, is fleeing from her inherited responsibility after her mother's recent demise. Plagued by her mother's expectations of her even after her death, she falls into Lucy's journals that she discovered at a family estate in London, becoming enraptured by a girl whose life mirrored so much of her own.

"It wasn't that my mother didn't love me. It was that her version of love was another form of violence."

This is a story of pain and rejection, survival and self-discovery. And love. So much love, though we'll have to walk through hell to find it.

"Thank you for at last answering the questions I feared I would die with - the reason, the purpose, the point of me? It was love. It was you."

This is for the daughters ( or anyone ) who has ever felt the sting of a narcissistic parent or the manipulation by someone you loved and trusted. For every one us made to feel shame with an out of context verse from the bible, twisted to make us feel small.

"...we both know innocence is weirded as a weapon against young women. A whip to wound us, ties to bind us. A commodity to be traded and sold. By the time we know what innocence truly is, it's been taken from us and we're shamed for its absence."

I didn't know a book about a forgotten victim of Dracula could alter my brain chemistry so much or bring me to the brink of weeping alone in my room, but this one did.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the advance reader copy. I will be going out and buying a physical copy to annotate and hold dear the moment it hits the shelves.

In Lucy Undying, the vampire Lucy Westenra is spared from her garish fate and given new life, new experiences and even a chance at love. In the present day, Iris travels to London to escape the clutches of her powerful family and is instantly drawn to the beautiful and enigmatic woman who unexpectedly saves her life.

Told from several point-of-views-initially from Iris and shifting to Lucy’s diary in 1890 and then her therapy transcripts in 2024-readers are given a glimpse into Lucy’s life, death and her remarkable experiences thereafter. I found the events taking place during Dracula and Lucy’s eventual attempts at seeking out a meaning to her new life to be intriguing and the various women she crosses paths with are each uniquely interesting in their own ways.

Lucy Undying is unflinchingly sapphic and it was refreshing to read about women finding love without being punished by the narrative for it. Some love is unrequited as well and there is also an emphasis upon the more toxic aspects of devotion and how damaging people pleasing and the unconscious desire to cling to familiar patterns of behavior can be.

Nevertheless I found Iris’ attachment and affections towards Lucy to be quite sudden and while her character was meant as a foil to Lucy’s own-a young woman with an overbearing and abusive mother and seeking to escape the chains of wealth and expectations-at times I felt she needed something more to be a fully-fleshed out character.

While some of the prose is quite beautiful, there are also parts of the dialogue that are somewhat awkward. Also, if you are a Dracula purist, then you may not enjoy Lucy Undying. I appreciated an attempt at a different interpretation of the events of the novel, despite not being fond of Lucy Undying’s portrayals of the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine, and Del Rey for access to this ebook. All opinions expressed are solely my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for an advanced ARC of Lucy Undying in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Lucy Undying is a Dracula retelling. In it, the men who stopped Lucy after Dracula turned her, and eventually destroyed Dracula to end his terror, failed. Lucy continued to live beyond 1890, traveling across continents during the World Wars, spending time with other vampires Dracula has turned. Meanwhile, the people around Lucy continued their lives, moving to America and starting a large corporation, Goldaming Life. In 2024, Iris Goldaming returns to England and the ancestral family home and finds Lucy's diary, and Lucy herself.

I've loved Kiersten White's writing for a long time, her 'And I Darken' trilogy is one of my favorite YA series, and she nails it again. Iris and Lucy are living somewhat parallel lives, surrounded by possessive mothers and dismissive men, while they're just trying to exist in the world. The two women bond over their shared experiences, and work together to find the independence they each desperately need.

I don't want to reveal too much of the story, but there is an additional plot focusing on Goldaming Life. It's an interesting idea, but I find learning about Lucy's life from 1890 to 2024 (which she tells through her therapy appointments, how perfect!) the most engaging parts of the book. I highly recommend Kiersten White's writing, this book definitely included.