Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Lucy Undying is not quite what I expected when I picked this up, for both good and bad reasons. Initially, the 3 main plotlines/POVs seem disjointed; they take place in 3 different times and places in history. There's Iris's plotline, mostly taking place in 2024 England; Lucy's plotline, taking place in the 1890s alongside and a little after the timeline of the original Dracula novel; and then finally a second timeline with Lucy, slightly in the future of 2025 as she talks with her therapist Vanessa about what she did after the end of the Dracula novel. At first, I didn't think Iris belonged here, no matter how funny, dry, and charming she is. It wasn't until about 25-30% through that it clicked in my head, “oooohhh okay, that's why she's in this book.” Iris started to grow on me at about the halfway point. Lucy's diary entries in the 1890s were by far the most interesting parts, building upon the bones of Bram Stoker's beloved dark darling of a novel. These diary entries were what I was really here for.

Lucy and Iris are parallels to each other within the narrative; both are victims of their circumstances. Both have abusive mothers, ridiculous amounts of money and privilege for their respective eras in history, and both are queer. However this novel doesn't really do subtle? it bludgeons you to death with a meat mallet and screams about Sapphic unrequited love and the burdens of womanhood. Iris and Lucy BOTH comment on their common traits in several different chapters. The big plot twists were predictable about 200 pages before they were ever relevant. That's fine, I guess, but I prefer a little bit more left to the imagination??

I will absolutely admit though there's some good here. Alicia del Toro's chapter was my personal highlight of the entire novel, and she was a criminally underutilized character. The author tried some unique things with the Dracula mythos and with vampires in general that were fun and I won't spoil. The modern day vampire cult angle was a fantastic idea, and definitely a pleasant surprise! It's such a shame we didn't get to see more of WHY they're bad instead of being told that they, well......suck. Because well....

This is a romance novel.

It's insta-love, head over heels, obsessive levels of love on Iris's part for Ellie, the super attractive British local who's here to help catalog antiques for the museum. When we get Ellie's thoughts on their relationship later, it's mutually insta-love and that makes no sense for reasons I can't talk about without spoiling one of the twists. Any real plot or character development is sacrificed at the altar of “True Love,” and it's....not worthy of that sacrifice. It doesn't feel real, I mean yes this is a book about vampires and trustfund babies, but I had so much trouble suspending my disbelief when it came to this romance. Other side characters in the novel exist to orbit around Iris, and don't seem to have any existence once she's out of their range.

Even though the romance itself didn't really click for me, I really really appreciate Sapphic representation so much. Someone younger than me struggling with their identity needs books like these to remind them that it's ok to be who you are. Having not just one but TWO main characters who are lgbt, and then a good 6 or so side characters who are ALSO LGBT is super super nice and rare to see in mainstream fantasy. I loved that. If this book had come out when I was a teen, I would've rated it higher just for this fact. Good representation does in fact, matter, and having a diverse cast is one of this novel's strong points.

Teens and booktokers will love this one because it's pretty easy to read, LGBT friendly, and has beautiful cover art that I wouldn't be sad to have a framed print of. I am a bit disappointed to say that it takes more than a vampire's glamor to seduce me. I need substance, I need bite, and this book never fully managed to sink its teeth into me.