Thank you NetGalley , and the publishers for this E-ARC !

I’ve been on a vampire kick recently and I feel like that fulfilled me . If you are someone who loved ,
“ Dowery Of Blood” and “ Interview With A Vampire” you will definitely enjoy this !

This is a twist on a classic tale that I found to be very appealing , and omg .. look at that beautiful cover !

I found the parallels between Lucy and Iris to be fascinating and heart worming , given the time and essentially the history that separates them ! Everything was so well developed , and I did find myself glued to my kindle screen ! I loved how this story was told through therapy sessions, it felt as I was in the room with them !

While I did enjoy it , I definitely think it was a tad bit too long for what it really was ! Some parts definitely fell short .

All in all I am so happy I got to read this , it’s been on my list and I can’t wait to get a physical copy !

Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with an arc in return for a fair review.

I loved this book so much that I’ll buy a copy when it comes out. When I can, I’ll tell all my bookish friends how fantastic this book is and that they must pick it up as soon as possible.

Lucy Undying is a book that rewards patience and paying attention. It’s slow initially, but it’s impossible to put down once it gets going.

The strength of this book is its characters. Lucy gets the development she deserves. Watching her grow and change is a pleasure to read. We see versions of Lucy
from different times in her life. All of them are worth spending time with. She's just that charming.

For me, the most significant transformation in this book belongs to Iris. Although I could not stand her at the beginning, I rooted for her to succeed by the end. Give her time to warm up, and she’ll win you over.

One of the minor characters stole my heart; I’d love to see her again in the future.

The writing is solid, giving each character a distinctive voice. White has a natural talent for building a gothic atmosphere. Her descriptions of the places Lucy goes make you feel like you’re walking alongside her.

Without spoilers, I have to say there is a love story that’s deeply moving and engaging. There are twists aplenty—one of them made me yell,”What?” at my phone. It was that good.

Read the book. You wont be disappointed you did.

Kiersten White’s *Lucy Undying* offers a modern twist on the classic *Dracula* tale, centering on a passionate sapphic relationship between Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray. Set across two timelines—the 19th century through the present day—the novel explores themes of identity, love, and empowerment through Lucy’s transformation into a vampire.

The novel shines in its fresh take on the Dracula mythos, infusing it with modern elements and a nuanced exploration of love and immortality.

However, the book's conclusion feels convoluted, as it transitions to a modern setting involving a multi-level marketing scheme. This twist, while unique, feels slightly out of place compared to the rest of the narrative.

Despite its slightly tangled ending, *Lucy Undying* stands out for its portrayal of a sapphic love story. Fans of gothic horror and romance will find this a compelling coming of age thriller.

Composed in a pseudo-epistolary style, Lucy Undying is told mainly in three perspectives: the secret diary of Lucy Westenra before and during the events of Dracula in the 1890s, recordings of the vampire Lucy in 2024 made by a Boston therapist, and a first-person narrative by a young woman named Iris who arrives in London at the start of the novel. Iris’s narratives take place a few days after the recordings, which are all done on the same day.

Some spoilers regarding Iris’s identity and midpoints of the plot will be discussed later in this review. This review also contains discussion of the plot of Dracula, including heavy spoilers for the ending.

Kiersten White is one of the contemporary masters of books in conversation with cultural history. While current trends place heavy emphasis on feminist retellings of Greek mythology (thanks in large part to Madeleine Miller’s Song of Achilles and Circe), White’s bibliography is filled with feminist takes on everything from historical figures like Vlad the Impaler to the children’s TV figures of the 90s.

Lucy Undying is a return to one of my favorite areas of White’s work: literary classics approached with a modern sense of progressive and feminist ideals, much like this month’s book club selection of her 2018 young adult novel The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein. Her next novel tackles one of the greats in monster storytelling: Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

But this isn’t a novel about Dracula, the vampire himself. It’s about the “main” victim of the novel, Lucy Westenra, who is turned into a vampire by Dracula and subsequently starts attacking and feeding on young children.

As a revisionist work, Lucy Undying takes a hefty amount of artistic license with the elements of the original story in order to line up some of the material points that the author wants to make. Dracula purists (I’m sure they exist) probably won’t love some of these changes; Dracula’s the villain of Lucy’s story, in some ways, but White’s alterations create other villains for Lucy and Iris to contend with, some of which may be unpopular for readers with attachment to the original novel.

For the rest of us, though, these changes create a story that’s much more compelling to a contemporary audience.

I started Lucy Undying with certain expectations, particularly because (fortuitously) I’d been getting ready to start my reread of The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein for the Girls in Capes Book Club. Elizabeth Frankenstein stayed with me for a long time after reading it, and I finished my reread between starting and finishing Lucy. While the books are definitely cousins of a sort—books that tackle classic novels by viewing the story through the perspective of a female character who’d been largely pushed aside by the original author—there are a lot of differences, too.

First, Lucy straddles the original novel’s era and our own. This was the first thing I didn’t expect to see, but makes sense in a story about a vampire who can live centuries as long as no one interferes. In the first quarter or so of the book, I really didn’t care for this choice; Iris felt like a self-insert or a vehicle to make a contemporary reader care about Lucy and her problems, which wasn’t my favorite thing.

But there’s a point in the book where another very unexpected thing is revealed to the reader, and this is where I understood the brilliant direction White was headed with the story. Iris is the heiress to a multibillion-dollar company that falls somewhere between a MLM and the Church of Scientology, and suddenly bringing actual, literal vampires into the situation made a hell of a lot more sense.

Very little about Lucy Undying went the way I initially suspected, which is exactly what we like to see in a book. The novel also makes Dracula actually scary again: his looming presence in Lucy’s memories are at times genuinely upsetting, and White does an amazing job at drawing in the original Victorian metaphor about the horror of vampires lying in their sexuality by transforming the original message—that vampires are bad because they Have Sex—into one about sexual assault.

There’s a lot more I want to say about this brilliant and incredibly timely novel, but that would both take up way more space than a review tends to hold and also spoil way too much of the plot. Needless to say, you’re likely to spot this book at one of our future book club meetups: it’s rich with discussion points, and it’s practically screaming for a book club or, at the very least, a buddy read.

You’ve probably guessed as much by this point, but I cannot recommend Lucy Undying more highly, especially if this is your introduction to this author. Kiersten White excels at writing books that feel like speculative fiction while they also feel as if they’re your own life:

“I never stopped being nineteen! Every feeling I have feels like the only feeling I’ll ever have.”

Over a decade past nineteen, I know exactly what this felt like. It’s a sensation that you can understand only in retrospect, when the feelings you thought would hurt you forever turned out to be feelings for only a short time. This, I think, is the greatest reason I think Lucy Undying is perfect for an adult audience: while both of the protagonists are young women just coming of age, the novel’s perspective on what can be the most difficult years of a person’s life offers insight—and maybe even closure—that will make the greatest impact on readers who stopped being nineteen quite some time ago.

This book will be reviewed and featured on my instagram account : @emily_reads_everything. In addition, my goodreads account will have a starred rating, as well as one here. My GR account is linked in the profile of my instagram.

When Dracula changes a young girl into a vampire, then abandons her, she's left to find her own way in the world. Eventually, that means revenge.

This book had a great concept, but it meandered more than I expected, and I found myself thinking, "This should be the ending" at about the 60% mark. Through Lucy's eyes, we get a tour of the ways the brides of Dracula, as they call themselves, deal with their grief over what happened to them, along with a heavy dash of madness.

Lucy's an interesting character, as she sacrificed herself to save the love of her life, her former teacher, Mina. The book has strong gothic vibes as well, with a critical scene taking place at Lucy's grave. But it all wasn't enough to save it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was worried when I picked up this book that it was about to be as convoluted in terms of the times and dates things are happening in as the original Dracula novel is. And this book does happen in three distinctly different time periods.

For one, we finally get a version of Lucy's own diary entries!!! This excites me for multiple reasons. Honestly, I think I would have been happy with that part of the novel no matter what else happened.

The second narrative strain takes form as somewhat of an Interview with the Vampire allusion, wherein Lucy is telling a psychologist about her life after being turned into a vampire and shortly after being abandoned by Dracula. She comes to meet other vampires he has turned, always women, always without the memory of a name, and she tries to find some purpose for herself.

Finally, we are introduced to Iris, a wholly original character who's dated story begins about a month after the psychologist interview Lucy is giving.

It's unclear for a while what the tie is between Iris and Lucy but, damn, when it's revealed at about halfway through the novel, it just starts on an amazing and original story that continues the Dracula mythology, and the story of some of its characters, in a completely satisfying way that really was quite difficult to guess at ahead of time.

There were some pacing issues (this is a very long read) and that stopped me from rating it a solid 5 star read, but it was immensely enjoyable.

Torturous. Insufferable. Poor little rich girl on vampiric steroids. My third vampire book of the year and another huge disappointment.
Overly long with multiple POVs spanning centuries and barely a whiff of the dark, moody gothic one would expect from the absolutely breathtaking cover.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced reading copy

‘Lucy Undying’ was a highly anticipated read for me (mostly based on the cover) and while overall, it’s a solid read, there are some aspects that let me down. I would recommend this to fans of ‘The Invisible Life of Addie Larue,’ ‘Dowry of Blood,’ and ‘A Long Time Dead.’

Plot: I found the plot engaging- the multiple storylines are woven together well, bringing gothic, vampire tropes and vibes into a modern setting. Like most stories with multiple storylines, I do think some were more interesting than others: Lucy’s plot line is more engaging than Iris’s.

Characters: I kind of struggled with the characterization in this… I found Iris to be a little too *quirky*- snarky without actually being funny, but that’s obviously up to personal preference. Lucy was fairly solid, but the side characters were somewhat one-dimensional.

Writing: I didn’t find the writing noteworthy in either direction, not beautiful enough to point out, but not egregious either. My only qualm is that some of the themes (feminist ideals) were a little heavy-handed and on the nose- White could have let the reader extrapolate more.

Pacing: At some points I was incredibly rapt and shocked by twists, and others, it almost slogged. The story took a little time to ramp up and kind of lost me at the end, but in the middle, I was very much along for the ride.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lucy Undying by Kiersten White is a gothic romantasy retelling of Dracula, following the renowned Lucy Westenra as she escapes from Dracula in search of self-discovery and true love. It also explores the story of Iris--an heiress on the run from the ghost of her mother and the secrets surrounding her family's legacy.

I found the story to be emotionally resonant and really enjoyed the intersecting of Lucy's and Iris's storylines as they both grapple to find their purpose and make peace with their pasts. The author's storytelling was evocative and fresh with how she explores different modes of weaving her tale, ie. Lucy's diary, the client transcripts, etc.

Overall, this is a must-add read to your TBR if you are interested in romance, gorgeous writing and poetry, deeply emotional themes, and timeless retellings. I couldn't recommend it more!

Thank you to Del Rey, NetGalley, and the author for the opportunity to read an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.


I know this is a retelling, and admittedly, I haven't read Dracula or any other retelling that I remember. That being said, I really loved this book! I loved the alternating perspectives between Lucy's transformation and life as an early vampire and modern-day Iris. Iris has a mystery hanging over her head, and it's really cool to see how it intersects with Lucy's story near the end. The end of the book gets very strange and more chaotic, and I just really enjoyed this book. It was fascinating, and I loved the characters

I love Dracula and am always excited to read a retelling of Dracula regardless of how loosely based it may be. The cover of this book is pretty and, of course, the title gives insight on what to expect. The concept was a good one, but the execution of the story left something to be missed. The characters were likeable but, overall, it felt as though something was missing. The story was good but it wasn't memorable and there were times where my interest in the story wavered overall, it was an okay read but I have to be honest that I was somewhat disappointed by the story.

Thank you to Kiersten, Netgalley, and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange my honest review.

Lucy Undying by Kiersten White is a loose Dracula retelling that follows Lucy, a character who plays a critical role in the original Dracula tale. Without going too much into the plot, this novel is a story that explains how Lucy really was and what became of her.

I am a huge Kiersten White fan so I was already excited about this but once I started reading it, I was so hooked. This story is incredible sapphic and gorgeously written. This is told in a few different formats and povs. Iris is a modern day character who finds Lucy’s diary so we get Iris’ modern pov, Lucy’s diary entries, and some transcripts.

The diary entries and the transcripts were far and away my favorite part of this book but I did enjoy Iris’ pov as well. It just felt more modern where as the rest had a more poetic vibe to it.

This book has so much longing and aching in it. I found myself tearing up more than once while reading this. I just loved some of the lines so much. There is a change in tone at about the 65 percent mark where it becomes a lot more plot focused so there is this feeling have having multiple stories mashed together which I really enjoyed but may not work for everyone.

I think there are a lot of great discussions that could come from this book about identity and womanhood and love.

I cannot wait to get my hands on a physically copy of this to annotate and tab because I enjoyed this so much. This will definitely be in my top books of the year, if not my top book of the year. I just finished it and I already want to reread it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I enjoyed this book and think you will to. I love this author and she has done it again.

I really liked this sapphic Dracula retelling centering on Lucy’s character. It’s been many years since I’ve read Dracula, so I honestly don’t remember her story in the classic book, but the story told in Lucy Undying is so entertaining and enjoyable.

Lucy Undying takes place in three different time frames. Present day, the time before Lucy is changed, and the time after she’s been changed. Told in multiple POV’s, even Dracula has his POV told. Aside from Lucy, Mina plays a large role in the book. And finally, there’s Iris, a character present day Lucy knows, whose story is also a huge part of this book. How all of their stories converge is an intricate and fantastic journey.

Overall, Lucy Undying is a great read. I really enjoyed reading it, and totally recommend to any vampire/Dracula fans. Now off to reread Dracula and see how the story holds up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a little hipster about vampire fiction. I like to say I was a fan before it was trendy to be one. That being said, I never could read Dracula. I started and stopped several times, but it seemed so dry and taxing to read. I'd seen Gary Oldman play the man in my teens, why is the book the movie it was based on so BORING?!

Kiersten's telling of Lucy's version of the story was SO much more captivating and riveting. I could only only put the book down when it was time to sleep, and only because I couldn't keep my eyes open any more!

I loved the parallels between Lucy's story and Iris's, and even Lucy's and Mina's to a certain extent, trucking along, side by side to their eventual merge. There was definitely reflection amongst all the female archetypal characters regarding the ongoing misogyny of the times they all lived in, and we continue to live in. It was so relatable and understandable...the obvious treatment of the women by the men, but also the treatment of the women (Lucy) by the other women (Mina). My heart swelled at their evolution to become fully rounded people who accepted, supported, and loved each other. It gave me warm fuzzies.

But! We must not leave out the Bad Ass Heroineness of them all! They all came to kick ass and take names and it was glorious. The scene with the final confrontation of Dracula...*chef's kiss.*

I have always loved vampire stories and especially Dracula's stories. While I was extremely excited to read more about Lucy, I must admit I found the changing in language maddening. It went from such lovely prose (Lucy Wstenra's journal) to using so much of today's nuances (Iris). I even loved the client transcript more than Iris's POV, because I preferred that language. Nevertheless I loved the love story, it was amazing and so heartwarming, I was expecting the plot twist, but I enjoyed watching it develop.
For the story, the characters and the worldbuilding, this is a 5 star book, but the language switch has made it go to 4.5.

𝘈𝘳𝘤 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.

4.5 stars rounded up

𝙇𝙪𝙘𝙮 𝙐𝙣𝙙𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 delivered on its promises of an epic & seductive gothic fantasy story on self-discovery & true love.

Kiersten White very gracefully pulled off multiple POVs & timelines all while keeping the reader going back for more with each chapter. White also brilliantly created & contained several separate atmospheres according to each POV; all of which I loved.

This sapphic reimagining of Bram Stokers Dracula/Lucy Westenra was everything & more.

So gay, and vampires! I loved this book so much. White did just an amazing job taking familiar legends about vampires and giving them twist that were perfect. I gushed to so many people about the takes on Dracula lore. I have always loved vampire stories and I feel that this is a book my teenage self would made their whole personality and as an adult loved it

5 STAR BOOK! Love this book so much, everything was exactly as I'd hoped (including the ending!). Love all the different perspectives and how they eventually came together!