I received a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review

CW’s: blood, violence, gore, body horror, death, depictions of mental illness and health issues resulting in long-term care, sex (the most SAPPHIC kind), various types of abuse, various types of emotional manipulation, cults and MLMs, historic setting comes with queerphobia.

My Rating: 5 stars

I loved this book from the jump. I mean, Sapphic vampires? Win is a win. Both Iris and Lucy felt like real people right off of the bat. They were already dynamic from the jump and it felt like they were already people, Kiersten White didn’t have to do all this work to set them up, she managed to do so within 10% of the book.

Also, gay pining? Absolutely a win. Their meet cute? Adorable and swash buckling at the same time. The classic “stop-you-from-getting-hit-by-a-car” trope done with two women is so much nicer than when it’s done by a woman and a man.

The way the story was fleshed out and the world was built was really natural and organic. It wasn’t info-dumpy, it wasn’t flat, it wasn’t boring, and it wasn’t confusing. I liked the take on vampires, and the inclusion of Dracula and Mina, and villains that felt realistic. The villains felt true to not only the time periods they were from, and the ones they lived in, but their circumstances. The men didn’t feel cartoonishly evil, they felt like real men that women worry about being alone in a room with.

I loved the parallel timelines too, especially with the parallel love stories between Mina and Lucy then Elle and Iris. I loved the representation of queerness/sapphicness in this era. The depiction of marriage as a political match was well done, better done than A Rose By Any Other Name. The way that a woman’s place, and how she gains power, in the 19th century was done really well. Lucy was used by her mother but she knew how to use that to her advantage still.

I was also invested in the plot enough to make guesses about the connections between the timelines/points of view. I wanted to guess who was related to who, who Iris’ mother was, and who Lucy became when she’s meeting with the therapist. Is the girl she references either Elle or Iris?

I’m so invested.

It just kept getting better and better. I loved Elle and Iris developing relationship. I loved the way Iris’ story was told as it intertwined with Lucy’s, and how the romance developed.

I also loved the portrayal of flawed queer characters, it allowed them to be human and realistic but didn’t demonize them or force them into tropes that were harmful stereotypes. They were allowed to love and feel attraction and lust and it wasn’t treated as bad or brave. It was just…there. It was normalized and the narrative didn’t focus on queer phobia but rather love triangles and the danger that men posed to women throughout different time periods. Iris’ journey in terms of romantic relationships wasn’t focused on her queerness, the roadblocks were related to her MLM mother and the cult-like environment she grew up in. It was about her going back into that world and not being involved with outsiders rather than her being queer. Which I thought was a really refreshing spin.

Kiersten White also writes really well, not just beautiful writing, but writing that is compulsively readable. Her chapter lengths also do a lot for the pacing of the book. It didn’t feel like it lagged at any parts and it was character driven without losing in the plot.

I was absolute addicted to the book, the plot was fast paced and the individual timelines were interwoven really well together and done in a way that paces out reveals and world building really well. I think the way they cut the chapters did a service to its pacing,

I do feel like this was kind of two books in one. But it wasn’t disjointed or anything, I just felt like this, for another author, could’ve been one long book and another novella or drawn out novel. But Kiersten White kept it all in one book, which I liked. Dracula’s chapters were really cool too, Kiersten White does a good job with horror/villains and makes them really terrifying. But once the Lucy/Elle and Iris relationship got to a developed stage, it was interesting seeing it along with the plot line of Iris’ mother’s cult/MLM and Dracula and this “we have our own issues to deal with but we’re still together” plotline.

I thought the pacing and excitement was kept up throughout the novel. I didn’t ever feel like it lagged or slowed down too much.

And oh myyyy goooodddd the gay pining. The amount of moments where Wait for Me from Hadestown could’ve been used were numerous. In that lovely, lovely way. I adored this book so much for Lucy and Iris’ relationship. The “touch-her-and-you’ll-die” trope is so intense here too for both Lucy and Iris.

The ending was my favorite by far. Oh. My. God. The last bit was a combination of stomach dropping and heart pounding and soul souring. The unapologetic queerness of this book was something that made me feel something so beautiful. I loved it so much.

One of my favorite books of the year.

Loved getting the perspective of Lucy. This is a great book for fans of gothic, vampires, etc. Great read for autumn and Halloween.

Wow, I never thought I'd enjoy another vampire novel every again, much less a refreshing take on Dracula. But move over, Carmilla, there's a new Gothic Sapphic Vampire Queen in town and it's Lucy Westenra. I received an ebook from Netgalley for this ages ago, but for whatever reason I kept passing it over for more promising reads. I finally picked up the multicast audiobook and I'm ever so glad I waited because I truly believe this is a story best read TO you. Lucy is a character plucked directly from Bram Stoker's original as the first English rose to be plucked by Dracula and then summarily forgotten in favor of the remaining cast. The author's choice to lean into Lucy's pining for Mina and giving her more agency in death than in life, could have gone any number of predictable ways that we've been bombarded by in pop culture. But the story of her eternal life, told by herself over multiple mediums and timelines, all converging towards her journey towards herself, is masterfully done. The writing is just as lush as the cover, and Lucy's voice just as easy to fall in love with as Iris does in the story. At times, I was worried about the length and the various one off POVs of minor characters. However, every side character, with or without a POV chapter shone so brilliantly in this narrative, and everything came together beautifully to give the women in Dracula's orbit the glorious audacity to be as unhinged and unapologetic in their journeys towards what they seek. Their intersections with and change as a result of meeting Lucy is truly fascinating, and I could read many more books about the exploits of The Doctor, The Queen and The Lover through the ages. In the middle of all this, however, Iris kind of sticks out like a sore thumb. While she is an important connective tissue of the story, her POV chapters were kind of a frustrating change of tone and perspective. Usually I'm leery of singe POV romances but in this case, I would say their romance would be more believable if the narrative was focused solely on Lucy's journey. That said, I am in awe of how the author took this age old story, empowered a canonically fridged lesbian, and somehow created an incredible commentary about patriarchal power structures, and their abuses through history, right down to the insidious predatory nature of pyramid scheme cults. Not to mention, rendering Dracula unimportant in this own story as a pathetic distillation of cishet male hubris across time, slinking away in fear of his own discarded progeny. TL;DR: If you never read another vampire novel again, try to make an exception for this one, if for no other reason than for the sheer joy of reading about a trans woman working the magic of therapy on a vampire. Vanessa, you deserved better and I love you.

Lucy Undying is Kiersten White's best work yet.
Epic in scale and length (a bit too long, actually), but the character work is superb and dripping in classic gothic imagery. A bit slow to start, but I thoroughly enjoyed the twisty, puzzling POV-switching between Lucy Westenra and Iris Goldaming. I honestly enjoyed Lucy's story more and wanted the book to focus more on her rather than Iris. At times, I struggled to grasp how these two women were connected or why they needed to be. If you took out Iris' parts, you'd still have a solid Dracula retelling/reimagining from the POV of one of his first victims. Iris' generations-old vampire MLM legacy sometimes felt like an entirely different story - that I'd still love to read. The beginning of the third act lost me and the plot, but I was satisfied with the ending to this story. It's very sapphic, which I loved, but was too insta-lovey. Overall, the book was immersive and addictive and a great pick for fresh twists on classic vampire stories.

I really did not like this, this essentially ended with Dracula being in charge of an MLM pyramid scheme. I only liked the letter portion of the book but everything else just dragged and did not work for me

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher!
Not at ALL how I expected a continuation of Lucy’s story to go, in the best possible way. I absolutely love the way Kiersten White’s mind works!

VAMPIRES RISE. Vampire books are making a comeback and I am here for it. I absolutely adored Lucy and her journey. I could not put the book down.

I am obsessed with this book. Sapphic vampires are having their moment and I will never recover (affectionate). Taking a classic tale like this and spinning it around from a new perspective is everything I wanted.

One of Kiersten White's best. A true gothic masterpiece. Witty, playful and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through!

This book was good! I liked it but didn’t love it. I definitely see potential in it and look forward to seeing what else the author does.

dnf @ 25%

just not a book that is for me once i started reading it, nothing against the author & or publisher. the book just was not for me but i know a lot would enjoy it!

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I have tried other books by this author and I just don't seem to mesh with her writing. I was honestly just bored and I didn't care for any of the characters.

I hope others love this one.

The first half of this book is backstory, which at times was a bit to slog through. However the second half of the book is all action and made up for any boredom in the first half. Loved this book, and maybe I’ll finally read Dracula.

Vampires and this cover SOLD ME, and unfortunately that's what I get for judging a book by its cover.

I love Dracula, and I love reading different variations of it but this one was DRAGGING. It was so unnecessarily long, and the MC would not shut up about waiting to jump this girls bones who she literally just met. The plot twists were all obvious, I did like the twist at the end so I'll give it a star for that.

I feel like if 45% of this book was cut out, I would have loved it a lot more.

Thank you so much to netgalley and Del Ray for the eArc though!!

well that was disappointing.

incredibly slow-paced, unexciting characters, and writing that leaves much to be desired. three POVs are being juggled that could've been utilized much better, but instead they all drag on.

We all know the story of Dracula and his brides. But we don’t know the full story of Lucy Westenra. Lucy Undying is a gothic, sapphic fantasy romance. It’s a story of self discovery, betrayal, longing, and family secrets.

This was a beautiful, feminists retelling of Dracula. It felt truly gothic and mysterious, with some witty comedy. Thank you, Iris. Kiersten White did a wonderful job of holding true to the original story, while adding new characters and back story to Lucy. It’s filled with feminine rage and some gore. You can’t have an adult vampire novel without some gore.

Lucy Undying is told in multiple point-of-views. This style really helped tell Lucy’s story from her life before vampirism, her past vampire life, and present day. I was addicted every step of the way.

I am so sorry. I love dark gothic novels and retellings but this was just not it for me. The characters felt so one dimensional and tbh annoyed me so much. I dont think this retelling worked at all. I’m so sad because this kind of book is normally right up my alley. It wasn’t for me and that’s okay, I hope it finds its people

Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

The premise of Lucy Undying is sooooo delicious but the execution is, at best, very much not for me. Which is kind of a shame, but you win some and lose some. I think the format was interesting and the bare bones of the book were good (the transcripts are fun!), but it’s been a long time since I was so annoyed with characters and the situations they get themselves into. I understand what White was going for, but after a point I just could not bring myself to care about Lucy or Mina or Iris. I didn’t really find this to be an epic and seductive gothic fantasy (which is why I wanted to read this!!!) as much as I thought it was just sort of… fanfiction that is based on takes I don’t particularly agree with. Which is not a bad thing, and sometimes these sorts of things can change your view on a piece of media, but this was not the case. I don’t know. The cover slaps but the whole thing is muddled and there was not a single point where I believed in the romance—the plot twist makes me question Lucy’s intentions and Iris becoming attached makes zero sense, but like most things I think YMMV. I know that this is an adult book, and I think it’s pretty clear it’s aimed at adults, but Lucy reads so young and immature it sort of becomes painful after a time (for a variety of reasons, so it’s not like it fails to make sense). Ah well. Better luck next time.

I've been locked into a vampire fixation ever since I read this book and I am oh so grateful!! I've actually never read Dracula before so I have no idea whether she's featured in the original text but I do know the Bram Stoker's Dracula film and retelling her story was a brilliant, beautiful idea. Lucy is perfection, smart, beautiful, fiery, and I loved being taken into her world.

I’m all for adding a modern flair to retellings, but unfortunately this one needed more time to bake. An entirely new recipe, if you will.

LUCY UNDYING is a Dracula retelling, focusing on the one character that most versions tend to kill off or retain as the sidekick: Lucy Westenra.

I found this books difficult to read, and had to force myself to continue through to the end. From the beginning, things like the names (Dick Cox, Albert Fallis) to the attempt at pointedly hip and painfully trendy dialogue made this all too easy to want to put down. It seems like the intention was tongue-in-cheek but that consistently falls short.

Many times it felt as though the text put the characters and their motivations on the backburner for the sake of keeping the plot moving; Lucy is supposed to be some sort of femme fatale, and Iris the same, capable of dismantling her wealthy family’s cult MLM while Lucy is bringing an entire war to a halt with just…a request? If this is so, why are they both at times so daft, unable to connect the most minute and obvious clues?

None of the characters’ motivations were consistent and their decisions didn’t make sense. For a book that was meant to be a retelling, the returning characters were nothing like their originals that they were based on except for names. I’m going to check Kiersten White’s other books and see if an original story provides me with a different experience.

Rating: 1/5.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.