**I received this arc from Netgalley and Random house in exchange for an honest review**


“Your story matters because you matter .” What a story Lucy Undying is! This is a unique spin on a Dracula retelling which is told in a dual timeline. The author weaves a character with such depth in Lucy, the FMC, through her complexity, intensity and intrigue. In 21st century London, Lucy meets up with the alluring Iris whom she shares a desire to break free from a past filled with trauma and emotionally abusive inept mothers. The plot is so unique with its historical elements, gothic vibes , betrayal, unrequited love and childhood trauma/abuse. I enjoyed every aspect of this story and the characters opened my mind to the beauty of love between females.

When describing Lucy Undying as epic, it's a great description for multiple reasons. First, this book is long as it's almost 500 pages. Trust me. this is one you'll be reading over the course of a few days but not in a bad way. Second, this book is broken down into a few different timelines and while it might seem confusing at first, you quickly find out how everything is connected. Lastly, there is an epic romance here and as a romance reader, I was living for it.

If you've never read Dracula such as myself, this plot might not make sense to you. For those who have read Dracula, this is probably familiar. We're following Lucy Westerna's life before she becomes one of Dracula's victims. That story is told through diary entries that Lucy wrote as a teenager and those were easily some of my favorite moments. Seeing how things played out for Lucy was honestly sad but not surprising in so many ways.

The other timeline is the present day with Lucy talking to her therapist and essentially giving us the account of what happened after she became a vampire. Since she is hundreds of years old, there was a lot of ground to cover. I adored that Kiersten White chose to tell that story with a therapist as I can just imagine it so vividly. It makes for a fun picture although Lucy's story is anything but fun. Our girl is riddled with trauma that seems never-ending

The third timeline follows Iris who recently lost her mother and has run away to England. While there, she ends up running into Elle, a gorgeous and mysterious museum worker. It's obvious the two have something there but Iris is determined not to have anything ruin her chances. As you can see, there is a lot going on in Lucy Undying but once you start reading, it's incredibly easy to catch on.

As you might imagine, all of the different timelines come together and Lucy Undying has everything you're looking for in a vampire novel. There is the sapphic romance between Elle and Iris, the mystery of what happened to Lucy, and if it's connected to Iris and if Dracula is really behind everything. The author did an amazing job of weaving everything together and making the reader question what they know and how it all comes together.

Since I'm not well-versed in the original text, I wasn't able to figure everything out until pretty close to the end. Even so, Kiersten White put a unique and modern twist on Dracula and it just felt right. I don't want to give too much away because once you start reading, you won't want to put this book down.

Kate’s Thoughts
I am going to preface my review with some caveats. The first is that I have genuinely enjoyed all of the books that I have read by Kiersten White. Like, not a clunker in the bunch in my experience. The next is that I have a very, very personal connection to the original story of “Dracula”, as I read it in my all time favorite college class which was taught by my very favorite professor turned friend Andy, who tragically passed away due to a brain tumor far too young, and his analysis and contextualization of the novel made for very rewarding reading. And I really liked the idea of approaching Lucy Westenra, who was basically a character to be a tragic woman victim to drive the men in her life towards justice, to get some more complexity and time to shine. After all, we know that women don’t have to just be victims there for man pain. With these things in mind, I was so, SO anticipating “Lucy Undying”, White’s newest retelling and reimagining of a classical piece of Western literature. My hopes were so high.

And man. I really didn’t like this book.

There are many things that I didn’t like about this book and I don’t want to turn this into a long rant, so I will do my best to keep this brief. What I will say is that I started out liking it for a bit. Some of the set up was promising. But then it fell apart once we got into the nitty gritty. This book is told in multiple perspectives. The first is Iris, a woman living in the modern day who is trying to escape the clutches of the toxic MLM that her family, particularly her now dead mother, has been running and has made them powerful and dangerous. When she arrives in London to try and sort out some property that her family has, she finds the diary of Lucy Westenra, the tragic victim of vampire Dracula (but also almost everyone around her) centuries before. Iris has also met the mysterious ‘Elle’, who is quite obviously vampire Lucy. Along with the present day, we have TWO perspectives from Lucy. The first is her diary from her time shortly before becoming a vampire (which Iris has found), as well as transcripts from therapy sessions that let us know what Lucy was up to AFTER her turning and before now. It’s a hefty amount to juggle, and unfortunately it isn’t juggled very well, feeling meandering and bloated. It’s a lot of telling instead of showing when it comes to Lucy and her exploits, and it makes the pacing lag as we jump between the three. I wish that one had been cut completely to be frank. And then to make matters more convoluted, the tone does a sudden shift later in the book, and it feels like two different novels being combined into one, but shoehorned in in an awkward fashion.

But the most egregious thing to me was how in an effort to bolster Lucy up beyond the admitted victimized waif that she was in the original text BASICALLY EVERY OTHER CHARACTER FROM “DRACULA” has been turned into a devious villain who meant to do her harm. And look, I get the drive to do so. I wholly understand the way that many women were treated during the Victorian era by the men in their lives. I can understand wanting to make The Five Heroes perhaps not as gallant as the original text did, that maybe they were men of their time with all the baggage that comes with it. Hell, I can even perhaps get into the debate of trying to treat a dying Lucy with blood transfusions when she wasn’t REALLY consenting to it (though it sure wasn’t unheard of, and I know this because I once worked in a historic upper class Victorian house in St. Paul that has SO MANY medical horror stories, especially for the women). But making Dr. Seward a psychopath? Making Quincy a total dumb dumb? Making Arthur scheming for more wealth? MAKING VAN HELSING AN ‘OLD PERVERT’?! Hated it. And the biggest sin? Mina is not exempt from this. So what is supposed to be a feminist re-envisioning makes the choice to throw the only other woman from the original text under the bus to make Lucy look better and wronged and scorned and etcetera etcetera. It’s the same lazy trap that that vanity project “Maleficent” fell into, and I HATED that movie and I really disliked this book because of this. I admit that I may be too personally fond of the original story to really give this the fairest of shakes, but this kind of approach almost always sticks in my craw, beloved text or not.

I do have a positive I will share because it’s only fair to do so after this long rant of a review: I absolutely loved the predatory Utah based MLM storyline, Goldaming Life and how Iris and Lucy connect to it. In the author’s note White mentions that she’s writing a book that does more Utah MLM culture deconstruction and oh my GOD I am SO here for that. Though in another moment of ranting, Arthur’s title in “Dracula” was spelled “Godalming”, not “Goldaming”. I think this was just a misspelling as there was no indication that misspelling was intentional. I’m hoping this will be corrected in the final product.

I still intend to keep reading Kiersten White’s books, as overall I still really like her as an author. But I really disliked this book, which was such a disappointment because I had such high hopes for it.

Serena’s Thoughts
If I just type “same” and call it good, would that count for my half of this joint review? But honestly, much of what Kate expressed was my own experience as well. I want to re-emphasize truly how much of a shock this was. Like Kate, I’ve loved every book I’ve read by this author. Sure, I’ve had favorites (I particularly enjoyed her “Vlad the Impaler” trilogy), but none of them have whiffed nearly as badly as this one did. I’m honestly not sure what happened. It could be simply a case of the author having too much tied up in her own head canon regarding Lucy (as she admits in the author’s note in the end), and then the story itself was lost in the shuffle.

I’ve only read “Dracula” once, so I don’t have the same deep ties to the story as Kate does. That being the case, I was happy enough to go along with the reinterpretation of some of these characters. But very quickly, I ran into the exact problem that Kate expressed: the “reinterpretation” was the same for every single character, namely, they were all terrible people in comparison to Lucy. I really lost it, however, when this carried over to Mina. I truly dislike it when authors attempt to write “feminist” re-tellings of classic characters and the way they end up showing this is by demonizing the other women surrounding them. It’s just icky. This was made all the worse for Lucy then being written as your tried-and-true special snowflake who literally inspires every other woman around her and, yes, essentially ends WWI all on her own.

Beyond that, while I think the modern day story was better written, I don’t feel that it fit comfortably alongside Lucy’s own history that was slowly unfurled through diary entries and therapist notes. It also wasn’t helped that, personally, this storyline was simply of less interest to me. I can see that it was better done, but my original draw to this story was in the original “Dracula” time period and characters (I’ll also say that I think the cover is a bit misleading, as it definitely leans towards a more historical/gothic vibe than the large chunks of contemporary horror/thriller storylines that we got here).

Overall, I have to agree with Kate in pretty much every way. This was a disappointing read, all the more so for it coming from an author who has been such a sure thing in the past.

Kate’s Rating 3: A huge misstep from an author I usually quite enjoy, “Lucy Undying” is bloated, convoluted, and relies too much on demonizing other characters in order to bolster Lucy up. Very disappointing.

Serena’s Rating 3: A bizarre missing of the mark from an author who has had great success tackling similar re-tellings in the past.

The way this book had me sobbing.
Technically is a retelling of Dracula, except viewed under the lens of abuse he inflicted on his victims.
I’m still processing all my thoughts and feelings but dang this book hit me hard.
Highly recommend and by far White’s best adult book yet!
4.5 stars

A Mike Flanagan-esque modern interpretation of a horror classic with DoTerra scented undertones.

I really enjoyed Lucy Undying though, throughout the book, I wondered how the story could have been improved if it WEREN’T a reimagining of a famous and well known story (along the lines of The God of Endings). White is a very strong writer with range — I read this book back to back with Mister Magic — and I look forward to reading more of her novels in the future.

Wow I wanted to love this so much! The cover is breathtaking and that's about all it has going for it. It has so many view-points and time jumps so much that the story gets lost. And it could have been a beautiful story had it been framed better.

4.5⭐️

<b> I’ll start at the beginning. The beginning is, as all beginnings are, soaked in blood and shrouded in darkness. The end will be, too, but we’ll get there together.

My name is Lucy Westenra, and this is my story. </b>

This book was everything that I love in a vampire book. The character development of Lucy was really great and satisfying and I enjoyed getting to know her both as a human and a vampire. The writing in this was spectacular and witty and genuinely just really funny. The female characters were all really strong. There were times where the book did feel never ending, but I still really liked it and where the story ended up and the care taken with these characters and this story.

<b>We’re going to do great and terrible things, together.</b>

What an amazing book. I am in awe of it. I’m sure I’ll be in awe of it for quite some time. The worldbuilding, weaving the story we all know with a new, original story spanning decades, was an absolute thrill to read.

The interpersonal relationships were complex: it was interesting to learn of Lucy’s encounters with others throughout her long life, especially those who should feel sympathy or understanding. It’s a powerful lesson to learn: monsters can be human, too.

For a story about vampires, it’s so deeply human.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kiersten White, and Del Rey for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Lucy is known as one of Dracula’s first victims. For over 100 years, she has been trying to keep one step ahead of him and his control. It is now 2024 and she discovers Iris, a woman with her own family secrets. They are quickly drawn to each other, but neither knows what the other is grappling with. Will Lucy and Iris find happiness? Will Dracula catch up to her after all this time?

Lucy Undying is a stand-alone supernatural story that pulls many elements of the original Dracula tale into the twenty-first century. I have always loved the original Dracula story and the many variations throughout the years, and I was looking forward to this new addition. Although I enjoyed the story overall, many places had me rolling my eyes as the story felt contrived and predictable. Lucy Undying was a good story, but not one that must be rushed to the top of a TBR list.

Wow, this booked sucked me in from the very first chapter and I could not put it down! Before this, I had never read a Kiersten White book and did not know what to expect, but can now say I’m a fan.

Lucy Undying follows the lives of Lucy, an undying bride of Dracula, and Iris, an heiress trying to escape her heritage and past.
As this book opens, Lucy’s story spills out from two separate timelines, allowing us to follow her journey through her old journal entries from 1890, and from a transcript from her appointment with a therapist in the current day. The way that her past unfolded was beautifully poetic and shows how far Lucy has come in discovering herself, growing into more than she ever was allowed to be, and moving through the many adversities she faced.
We also follow Iris as she moves to London to settle her inherited properties after her mother passed and she became the sole heir of the Goldaming estate. Although, It’s clear from the beginning that something sinister is associated with the Goldaming’s, and Iris wants no part of it.

Lucy and Iris’ story are both heart-wrenching, with parallels of difficult motherly relationships and expectations to be who they are not. Their stories are beautifully intertwined and charged with desire and discovery.

I can’t recommend reading Lucy Undying enough. There are so many wonderful aspects of Lucy’s self-discovery that would be a shame to miss. I think this may even be my favourite read of the year so far.

A big thank you to Sabrina Shen, Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, and NetGalley for the advance copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I was very excited for this release. Vampire Dracula retelling, sold me immediately.

However, this book fell flat. I felt the pacing was slow and dragged. I usually like multiple POVs, but I really didn’t like Iris’ character. I kept wanting to skim most of her parts.

I think what lost me officially was the MLM. I really wanted to love this, but it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for this eARC.

What are we hoping to see when we look in a mirror?

Neither Lucy Westenra or Iris Goldaming had the pleasure of thinking for themselves what they hoped to see in a mirror while they were growing up, yoked to overbearing and exacting mothers who plucked, prodded, pinched, squeezed, and tried their best to mold their daughters into an ideal meant to uphold the family honor and name.

You can trim all the thorns and burrs off of a person, but you can’t take away their dreams if you don’t know they’re there. Or their nightmares. You can’t see what they think of while alone in bed in the middle of the night or hear the secrets they whisper to animals while on a walk. People will always have their secrets. Lucy and Iris both had their own while growing up. Perfectly polished on the outside, perfectly furious on the inside.

Lucy Undying was not only the best book Kiersten White has written yet (and I’m a big fan), but it was better than I could’ve hoped and nothing like what I thought it would be. White’s novels Hide and Mister Magic fall solidly and comfortably into the world of genre fiction, but there’s something so ethereal, even otherworldly about this book that it feels almost half literary fiction. (I had some passages highlighted but this morning the passages aren’t highlighted anymore so I’m bummed.)

This book is marketed as gothic, but I disagree with this move (this was a poor move on the part of the publisher, in my opinion). I have an opinion they wanted to use the term “gothic” because people expect books associated with Dracula to be gothic, but gothic implies isolation and darkness, and there’s very little of that here. If anything, this is a vampiric trip of self-discovery over time: Lucy Undying is not only a title for the book but the overall theme for the book. The Lucy Westenra of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is naught but a footnote in the story: she is dispatched and that’s it. She’s dead and we’re not to think of her again. In this book, Lucy Westenra is dying a little every single day until the day she wakes up in her crypt after being turned and a one of Dracula’s brides says her name. With that seemingly simple act, the bride has given Lucy back her identity and memories from her human life that otherwise would’ve been lost like Dracula’s other brides. Brides of Dracula are supposed to think of him, only him. They are supposed to always wait for him, always long for him. He is supposed to be their entire existence. But Lucy has her name back, and with that she can start fresh and find out who Lucy Westenra really is.

Lucy is Undying because there are three (plus two) Lucys in this book: The Lucy prior to turning inside a journal that Iris finds inside the mansion she’s inherited, the Lucy who’s telling her story post-turning to a psychiatrist, and two others that would be spoilers. Lucy is undying because her story never stops. Her human self dies, but is revived and she is given back her name. She travels the world, meets other people and other vampires, and tells them her name. Her name is repeated. Vampires don’t forget her. And one day Iris Goldaming finds the journal from her teenage years and reminds her of that Lucy too. That Lucy never truly died either. She’s somewhere too. The only thing both Lucys have in common is they always just wanted someone to love them for who they were. For everything they were. Without reservation.

I’d like to say I thought a lot about Iris while thinking overnight about writing this review, but I didn’t. Iris is a great character, and I love her dearly, but she’s not the point of this book and I feel she’s best understood as not only a modern-day Lucy Westenra simulacrum but also as Lucy’s mirror, the one Lucy needs to look into to finally see who she really is after all these years and after all she’s been through. Also, one of the main themes in this book is Lucy’s queer identity, and we need a queer love interest for Lucy to root for. After all, vampires are about desire. After all this time, Lucy deserves to get what she’s always desired most.

I haven’t touched my favorite other themes in this book: f*ck the patriarchy, MLMs are cults that prey on desperate women just like vampires do, the wellness industry is predatory and relies on fear to get you to buy their products, some women don’t want to be or can’t be saved from their choices, and organized religion is a scam.

Did I miss anything? Because I could go on and on about how awesome this book is.

Go read it. Go go go go go go.

I was provided a copy of this title by the publishers and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/Body Horror/Dark Fantasy/Historical Fantasy/Horromance/Lesbian Romance/LGBTQ Fantasy/LGBTQ Romance/Standalone Novel

Thanks to the publisher for providing this eARC in exchange for this honest review!

Lucy Undying purports to tell the story of "Lucy Westenra" during and after the events of Dracula, as she becomes a vampire and wanders for centuries, having various gothic adventures, meeting other vampire women, and pining for her lost love, Mina. In the present day, it tells the story of Iris, a young woman attempting to flee her ultrarich family and their MLM cult, which might be hiding something more sinister than its Clean Beauty-esque lifestyle branding suggests. While trying to sell things in the old Westenra mansion for quick cash, Iris finds Lucy's old journal and also bumps into the present-day Lucy, now living under an alias. As they fall in love, they realize they may be more connected than they thought.

So there's this tumblr post, by user @marisatomay. It goes "People will claim to be a fan of some thing and then hate all of the themes and motifs and story lines and plot lines and protagonists and antagonists [...] like man I don’t think that you actually like it here." That, to me, sums up this book and everything wrong with it—whether she admits it or not, its author clearly hates the original Dracula, and goes out of her way to assassinate every single character and, essentially, reverse or undo a good deal of the major plot points. It's a reading so paranoid it's been institutionalized right next to Renfield.

A perfect example of this contempt for the source material? Main character Iris is descended from Dracula character Arthur Holmwood/Lord Godalming, but throughout the entire novel, her name is misspelled "Goldaming." Yes, the protagonist's own name is misspelled!! I haven't encountered a flub this embarrassing since the old E.L. James fanfiction where she spelled Bella Swan's name "Swann." I really hope this error gets fixed in the published version, but judging by Everything Else about this book, I doubt it will. Oh, and the recurring Dracula phrase "the blood is the life" is also misquoted repeatedly as "the blood is life," just to really drive home the sheer indifference and inattention to detail.

So if this book isn't for readers who liked Dracula, who is it for? This was the question that plagued me throughout, and which I have yet to satisfactorily answer for myself. Lesbian separatists who hated the original Dracula but enjoy shallow girlbossification and don't mind glacial pacing, maybe?

It's probably faster if I list the things I did like about this book. The prose was fine. For the most part, I liked Lucy's modern love interest, Iris, and found her voice well-developed and sometimes even funny, especially in the first half of the novel. I liked some of the vampire side characters, like the Doctor and the Lover. And I enjoyed chuckling at the obvious Twilight reference right at the beginning ("adrenaline.") And that's....pretty much it. On the whole, it was a massively bloated diatribe about how much its author loathed Dracula, followed by what felt like an entirely different story about cults, featuring a third act that took longer to wrap up than Return of the King.

My main conclusion? If your reading of Dracula involves assassinating everyone from Van Helsing (here an "old Dutch pervert") to poor Mr. Swales (whose name is dragged through the mud POSTHUMOUSLY no less) to Berserker the wolf (who was a hoax, because I guess we're not allowed to have joy and fun), perhaps you shouldn't waste your energy retelling it. Food for thought.

In the last few years I've gone in pretty deep on Dracula which really enhanced my appreciation of this book! I don't think it would be nearly as enjoyable if you weren't familiar with Dracula (THE ORIGINAL BOOK SPECIFICALLY [or Dracula Daily] not the cultural osmosis Idea of Dracula).

Luckily for me, like I said, I am very familiar with Drac and the gang!! And I enjoyed this very much! I would say there are some parts of the Goldaming Living plotline that maybe don't hold up to too much scientific thought but fortunately I was too invested in the plot to worry about science. And I thought there were some really neat ~twists~ on vampire mythlogy.

Recommended to Dracula enthusiasts and/or cult enthusiasts!!

I just absolutely adored this book.

I love Dracula retellings and I couldn’t wait to read this. This story was written beautifully- there’s multiple timelines/POVs which makes this story so rich and layered. I loved the characters and I loved watching the story unfold.

This is the perfect story to add to your fall TBR.

Thank you Penguin Random House | Del Rey | Random House Worlds for the eARC of Lucy Undying.

Of the three Kiersten White books I have read to date, this one is my favorite and, in my opinion, the most clever, and best written. Although this story features characters representative of those in Dracula, I would not call this a retelling so much as a reimagining. This is the story of Lucy, a young woman turned by Dracula, and her century long quest to figure out who she is and what her role is in the world. If there is such a thing as a vampire coming of age story, Kiersten White has written one. This is also a story about women’s rights, sexual identity, and personal agency – wrapped up in mystery, adventure, revenge, and a love story.

I love a multiple timeline book and this one has three. We hear from pre-vampire Lucy as a 19-year-old girl living in late 1800s London, we hear from Lucy in modern times recounting her life to her therapist, and we hear from Iris, the unwilling heiress to a massive MLM corporation who has inherited Lucy’s childhood home. This book has so many elements of a great fall book – vampires, Dracula, family secrets, a decrepit old house in London, conspiracies, the supernatural, and an old journal.

I really liked this book. Lucy’s journey from young girl to vampire and how that impacted her on a personal level was insightful and fascinating. The side characters were delightful and endearing.

First off, don't let the 112 chapters discourage you...most of them are short, but provide the information you need to continue on. Though slower paced, it picks up halfway through. The author is a genius by taking a side character from "Dracula" and making her the main crush we didn't know we needed. Pushed aside and used by everyone around her before it could be stopped. We see through three different accounts how the actions of these key players shaped the past and still play a part in the present day. At the heart of it all is an evil corporation left to an angel who hopes to burn it all down.

Thank you so much for this arc, it did not disappoint.

I admit that I wasn't the right reader for this- I never read Dracula and I'm not a fan of vampire tales. That said, it's an interesting take on a woman trying to take back herself. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. While it wasn't for me, I'm sure this will be welcomed by White's fans as well as fans of the genre.

gripping, seductive, and lyrically stunning!

lucy undying is a story of a long-fought journey to redemption through reclamation. lucy herself is so beautifully layered whose character is progressively revealed through a clever interwoven web of timelines.
the atmosphere of this book is so cozy & moody and such a good first start to the autumn season! the prose during lucy’s narrative was so powerful and will no doubt leave a lasting impact on its readers.

Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for an e-arc of this novel!

As someone who teaches and loves gothic horror and horror classics, this new take on a classic character in Dracula was appealing to me. Unfortunately, the writing skewed a bit younger in terms of characterization and dialogue than I was expecting. It didn't work for me as a reader, but I can see it working for younger audiences bridging the gap between YA and adult novels. For example, the repetitive use of "my angel" was pretty distracting for me. I also found the different timelines to take me out of the story and distract from the overall plot. I wanted the description and atmosphere to be a bit more gothic in nature and it was not -- which is fine, it just didn't work for me.