. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁.Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC for early review.. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁.

I wish I enjoyed this sapphic retelling of Dracula's victim, Lucy, more than I did, but the fact is that I was expecting this to be a different breed of story than it actually was.

Lucy Undying is what I would call human-based horror, where the real scare comes from the fact that humans are disgusting and abominable creatures who commit the worst kind of atrocities possible for shits and giggles. When I pick up a gay vampire book, I am really Not Interested in reading about how human capitalism is the true monster. I want to read about vampires. And this was most assuredly and definitely more about the capitalism and critique of multi level marketing schemes, cult-like beauty clubs, and bloodline purity meddling.

I think that there were a few too many POVs by the end, with Lucy, Lucy again but in the past, Lucy a third time but now she's at therapy, Iris, Dracula, and the Doctor. I especially think the therapy sessions were off-putting. Lucy comes off as such a massive airheaded lunatic in the recordings, but Iris describes her as put-together, seriously intelligent, and calm. I couldn't really mesh the two characters, especially not when we got present day non-therapy Lucy POV and she acted the same batshit crazy way as the therapy POV.

The romance didn't feel very romantic at all. With the big twist at the end that wasn't at all surprising or hidden, you have to wonder if Lucy even really liked Iris for being Iris. And Iris fell so hard and fast for Lucy that it felt like whiplash. No girl who has had to distrust the whole world her whole life is going to fall that hard that fast, sorry.

I'll end by repeating what many others have said--- this is not the Gothic, dark, romantic fantasy horror you've been led to believe. As long as you go in knowing that those merits are not applicable to this book, you'll probably enjoy it a lot more.

Lucy Undying by Kiersten White follows Lucy from Dracula where she doesn't dye like she does in Dracula. We are told the story through Lucy's diary, and interview she did with someone she saved, and the current events told by another character Iris's point of view. Iris's mother recently dies and she is trying to run away from an evil MLM her family control and comes to London to try to sell off some property/items that she has inherited for some quick cash and ends up meeting Lucy.
While I end up enjoying the story if was not what I was expecting based on the cover, title, and what little I had heard about the book. I thought we were going to get more of a Dracula retelling but from Lucy's point of view which we do get small amounts of but that is not what most of the book is about.
Personally, I don't feel like Kristen White likes the story of Dracula and if you love Dracula (the original novel) you might not like this. Mina is portrayed as a conniving bitch and Lucy's suitors are trying to steel her family’s money. Once we find out how the MLM Iris's family runs works, it’s a self-help one that allows followers to live forever by becoming vampires, I was more interested in where that story would go. I would have preferred a vampire novel focusing on the MLM concept without any connection to Dracula. However, I did like how Dracula and all the other Vampires Lucy has met show up in the end and I did enjoy how Dracula was portrayed, as to me it is fairly book accurate.

This book delivered everything I wanted when I first read the synopsis! I ended up falling in love with Lucy and Iris, and their love story. Retellings are tricky to pull off, especially when it comes to adding something to the story, but White pulls it off so well here. The MLM subplot felt a bit odd at places, and the book is very long, but honestly? Neither of these things kept me from really loving the story and characters. It left me warm and fuzzy inside, and corrected some of the things I thought could have been better in the original Dracula story.

The elements of this book might seem like they wouldn't work (a Dracula retelling + MLM schemes), but with Kiersten White's writing they do. I loved the story of Lucy, her hope and determination, her heart and her courage. Everything she has to do to survive. I also really enjoy the way the story is told through journals, transcripts, and letters like the original source material
I found myself going back and forth between the two characters of Iris and Lucy devouring their separate stories and eagerly waiting for them to come together. I enjoyed their love story and how it was more than just about them falling in love with each other, but using that love to find and forgive themselves and heal. And get a little revenge.
Maybe one of these days I'll finally actually read Dracula.

This book is probably in my top 5 of 2024. This gothic horror takes the Dracula legend and flips it on its head by giving Lucy Westenra agency over her own story. It was so satisfying watching all the pieces of the puzzle come together. Not to mention some of the reveals that literally stopped me in my tracks because I did not see them coming but once they did they made so much sense. Absolutely incredible.

Thank you for the ARC, Del Ray Books!

I really loved the uniqueness of the story and how well the author tied in the original Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It flowed almost effortlessly and the little tiny details that added up with this story mixed with the original was honestly amazing.

I really loved the representation as well and that it was forefront, powerful, and didn’t become a spot of weakness or degration. Honestly this was so much better than I even thought it could be and the authors writing is just the cherry on top. If you’re a lover of multiple POVs, a Gothic setting, and a journey to discovery with vampires this is definitely for you!

The cover is beautiful, the character of Lucy is amazing, I loved the idea but felt the book was a little long. Still worth a read knowing that the book is good. I also didn't love the character of Iris. Not quite sure why. But I did enjoy the book.

This book felt like an attempt at smashing three novels into one book: a rewrite of Dracula, a original work on vampires, and Interview with the Vampire. The author could not make up what she wanted out of this book and in the end it suffered. I loved the idea of an MLM around holistic medicine actually being a vampire coven. That is creative and the author could've done a whole story just about that. But once she added a Dracula backstory to explain why the MLM existed, it became ??????????. There were even some points where it felt like the author forgot it was suppose to be a Dracula retelling and had to shoehorn in information from that book.
Even with the Dracula retelling, I really did not like how she went with a rewriting of Dracula that ended up with terrible mischaracterization of the famous Dracula characters. She really despises Mina and even said in her acknowledgements how much she did not like her. I think if the author stuck with a story about Lucy getting revenge against Dracula and being a sapphic girlboss, it wouldn't be this messy.
Every single character in this book was super annoying and immature. The sapphic relationship was juvenile and the main lesbian was just horny and annoying the entire time.
I also can't stand how Lucy is suppose to be this long lived vampire who uses modern vernacular but does not know what a phone is or how to use it. To survive like she did, Lucy is suppose to keep up with the times!!!!
In short, very disappoint because that premise sounded interesting and that cover is stunning.

What an interesting story. I loved the plot line. I especially liked how it was divided into the three main storytellers. I really enjoyed this story and was surprised by the ending.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

I want to thank NetGalley and Random House Piblishing Group - Ballantine for the advanced reader copy. This is my honest opinion of the book.

This was an incredible book, from start to finish. I loved the varying POVs, from Lucy's journal, to her therapist transcript, to the modern POV. Kiersten did such a great job of bringing Lucy to life (or death, I suppose).

Really fun, athmospheric halloween read. Even if my review is...many months after the date, it seems like a fun book to read around that season. I enjoyed both the POV characters and the romance between them.

Damn I don’t get the lower star reviews for this at all I fucking LOVED it. GO SAPPHICS GO! This ship is so cute omfg

I love Dracula, anything sapphic, and a retelling so it is almost like this was written for me. This was an immediate hit for me! It also does not hurt that I am obsessed with this cover, it is lovely and creepy and I cannot stop looking at it! The writing was intriguing with the journal entries, the transcripts used to tie in Lucy’s and Iris’s stories. It did though me off at first that the POVs are different tenses but it is something I got over quickly. I did enjoy Lucy’s story more so than Iris’ but overall I enjoyed the entire reading experience. Lucy Undying was a joy to read and I flew through it! I have not read anything else by Kiersten White but I will definitely pick up her earlier works. I recommend picking this one up if you like vampires, Dracula, and or sapphic retellings.

I was drawn in by the intriguing premise and cover, but the execution fell short. I’m a vampire girlie so of course I had to read this. The pacing felt uneven, and I struggled to connect with the characters, who seemed more like sketches than fully developed individuals. While there were some interesting ideas and moments, they didn’t come together in a way that captured my interest.

I never have luck with Kiersten White, I don't know why I thought this would be different. I liked the initial concept and relation to Dracula, but not for me.

Gosh, I hate being disappointed but this book delivered that in spades.
It's frustrating when I can so clearly see potential. The chapters where Lucy is talking to her counselor and writing in her diary were actually pretty great. I was still missing a connection to her-- it feels so detached to read her describing her life, whether to a doctor or a person. But the chapters about Iris just bored me to tears. I did not care at all about Iris, and the information given to us by the other two POVs made it just tedious to sit around and wait for Iris to figure these things out. The instalove between Iris and Lucy also did not win me over. I think this story was intended to be reminiscent of A Dowry of Blood (or maybe that's just my wishful thinking) but it simply could not compare. There were so many cringe moments to this. A vampire MLM? Really? It feels too serious to be funny and too funny to be serious. I greatly enjoyed Kiersten White's Paranormalcy series as a teenager but I think it may be time to leave her in that stage of my life.

If theres one thing I love it's a Dracula retelling or another side to the Dracula story. I thought this was very visual, I could picture every scene and every character. It's was gory but had a romantic side to it. I will say a lot of the pov switches had me a little bit confused and I really had to focus while reading because the pov's all sounded pretty similar.

3.75 🌟

This had me worried in the beginning, but honestly ended up being such a wonderful read! It starts a bit slow for my personal tastes, but it picks up towards the 35-40% mark and there's such an engaging, mysterious and almost ominous element that carries you through all the way to the end. Could it have been a bit shorter? Probably, but oh well. As a fan of Dracula, I thought it was such an interesting twist on a well known story and it's characters.

Following two female leads, Iris and Lucy, we bounce back and forth between their two very different perspectives and lives that are unknowingly connected in unique ways. Iris is heir to the Goldening legacy, an almost cult-like health centered empire that boasts an eerie motto: "the blood is life." When her mother passes away, she's determined to do everything in her power to distance herself from that life and it's dangers. Her relationship with her mother (or lack thereof) had my heart aching for her. She was such a relatable character, trying her hardest not buckle under the weight of all that familial pressure and stay true to herself, despite the constant disapproval she received from everyone in her life. And I truly loved this version of Lucy Westenra. She's a character that all Stoker fans are familiar with, and the way she's transformed into such a powerful woman here was lovely. Her growth, from lonely and love-starved heiress with little sense of the real world, to a formidable and independent woman was displayed so well between the various written accounts we're shown.

I thought the sinister cult-like aspect of the Goldening empire was so fun, and it kept me guessing at where this story was going. Again, I do think we could have achieved the same level of depth with a slightly shorter story, but overall I really did like this! What's not love about a sapphic romance and revenge on men?

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

This book was so creepy and atmospheric! I loved this book and was pleasantly surprised by this book. The way in which the different points of view are done was amazing and how some happen at different points in time added so many layers to this story. I really enjoyed how Dracula was always lurking in the background of the story and how we ended up getting chapters from his view as those were super creepy. Overall I loved how this story was told and how there was never a dull moment in this book. This was an amazing read.

Really unique and perfect for spooky season. I really enjoyed the timeline and Lucy was such a fun character.