Kiersten White has proven to be very hit-or-miss for me, and unfortunately, this one was a miss.

I enjoy a nice dual-timeline story, but this one was all over the place.
The beginning felt incredibly jarring with basically every page being a new chapter with a new date and location and some jumping between them. I like books that use non-traditional storytelling, but you have to know what you're doing and personally, I don't think the author did.
I also did not enjoy the writing style at all, it was too colloquial and modern for my personal taste.

Sadly, I ended up DNFing as I just couldn't get into the story.

Lucy Undying is an intriguing retelling of Dracula from the point of view of one of his victims. The book is split into three parts and the narrative weaves between them. First is the retelling of Dracula, but from Lucy’s perspective. Of course, the men who lived to tell the tell didn’t get everything quite right, and I think Kiersten White did an excellent job reading between the lines and creating a new story for Lucy.

With Lucy’s father no longer in the picture, she is set to be a very wealthy woman when her mother dies. The suitors crowd round her while her mother ails, and then Dracula enters the picture. Looking back with modern knowledge, it’s kind of horrifying that they perform a blood transfusion on her before they know about blood types. She talks later of the horrible experience, in the sections from her therapist transcripts.

The transcripts make up one of the narratives, the time between when she was last seen in Dracula (her demise in the original book is explained away by a case of mistaken identity) and the modern day. She has had quite a life, searching for the one who made her, but instead finding others like her.

The third narrative is in the modern day and told from Iris’s point of view. She says from the start that her mother ran a creepy blood cult, although the specifics don’t come out until later. If you’re familiar with Dracula, you might recognize her surname (although the spelling is changed slightly, maybe to stress the gold part, or maybe it’s just an error that never got picked up).

It was quite obvious who Elle was, but I was still interested to know how it all fit together. The pacing was a bit odd though, almost the opposite of a saggy middle. There’s a point where it’s all wrapping up, but it was at about 70%. The rest felt like it could have been a prologue. It was heavy with exposition, and had quite boring sections from Dracula’s perspective. I’m sure some of the necessary parts to discovering the secret behind the multi-level marketing blood cult could have been fed in throughout the story.

I did also learn about another weird autoimmune condition I’ve never heard of before. Cold agglutinin disease is a real disease, albeit with nothing to do with vampirism.

This is my third Kiersten White novel, and I just adore the way that she crafts her worlds. They always add so much dimension to the story and help the characters grow and adapt. I really enjoyed ‘Lucy Undying’, with its gothic atmosphere and its vampiric core. Each POV was fresh and engaging, and White was able to make it as dark as it was full of love and desire. A really fun and modern twist on the ‘Dracula’ story! If you watched Castlevania and wanted more of a romance between the female vampires, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this. 4.25/5!

This book was deliciously sapphic and a beautiful retelling. I adored Iris and Lucy and was so moved by the way the author adds to Lucy’s story. Every female character was empowering in the way they overcame the abuse the world subjected them to.
I have to say that if I had not been listening to the audiobook, I might have struggled with the pacing of the book, which would have made me give up on it because Lucy’s storyline didn’t fully grab me until later in the book; even though retrospectively, I’m glad we went through all this with her part of the narration because it was essential to see her grow, I admit I was a bit bored with her tale at times. Iris, now, captured my attention from the start.
I was so glad I stuck with it because it was such a beautiful and deserving story.

Unfortunately this one didn't really work for me, and it was mainly down to the multiple povs and timelines which left me feeling very pushed out of the storylines, all the time. It's all a bit of a jumble, Add in the complete character assassination of several rather classic Dracula characters (Van Helsing in particular springs to mind) and I just couldn't get behind the story.

I particularly didn't like Iris's story, which is set in a modern day, where she meets a rather glamorous and seemingly immortal woman who just so happens to be Lucy (not a spoiler, it's really obvious). And for some reason she's running away from a weird multilevel marketing cult type situation. It was just bizarre. And not in a good way.

Not for me. I wanted more of the historical elements, less of the weird time jumps and even weirder modern day plot.

Not my usual pick but a Dracula novel will always pique my interest, quite enjoyed it! Lucy undying was a great spooky read to get you in the mood for Halloween!

***originally got this as an ARC from Netgalley***

BUT I ENJOYED IT SO MUCH I FINISHED IT AS A PHYSICAL AND FINISHED COPY!!!!!!!

this was so much fun to read! though it did get kinda long at the end, like i just wanted it to finish, but gosh this was so much fun!! and so refreshing!!!!
the chapters are short and go through different POVs and different time periods. they weren’t janky at all or the flow didn’t feel weird, but it was really fun to read the different POVs and learn about the characters. this was very much character driven and i really enjoyed it. iris is kinda funny but i really really enjoyed reading lucy’s and the client transcripts the most. they were so much fun to read about.
ANYWAY EVERYONE READ THIS BOOK BC GOSH WHAT A FUN READ

Lucy Undying is a solid 4 stars from me!

Imagine: sapphic vampires taking over a Dracula retelling. That’s exactly what this book aims for. I think it did quite well but just barely missed the mark for 5 stars.

To be frank, the biggest mistake this author made was the way the romance was written. Lucy and Iris pair well together. I just wish this had taken itself as seriously as it did in the beginning. It didn’t. The gothic themes were overshadowed by the juvenile style of romance between two consenting adults. It wasn’t the pet names. It was just Iris mostly. To be frank, I think if Iris has been written to be older or more adult in character, I wouldn’t have been grating my teeth every time I started a new chapter with her in it. I would’ve enjoyed their love more.

Otherwise, I think Lucy is a spectacular character. She reminded of the MC from Interview With A Vampire. She had so much time to grow. Lucy lived such an interesting life before and after death. The way the plot unfolded was just genius. I didn’t watch the twists until they were revealed for the most part.

Overall, I think a 4 out of 5 is fair and sufficient for this. I may not have liked Iris a ton personality wise but she wasn’t a bad character. For her pitfalls, Lucy herself compensated well.

This beautifully written gothic fantasy features seamless multiple timelines and POVs, with a strong focus on women and their relationships, both positive and toxic. While the big reveals were predictable, the humor, romance, and feminist reimagining of Dracula’s story made for a highly enjoyable, fresh take on sapphic vampires and modernized classic characters

This book offers a very unique and interesting look at the characters in 'Dracula'. Even to someone like me, not very familiar with the original novel, this appeared to take the events and characters of that and make it a unique examination. The strengths of the book were the character relationships and their growth. I found Lucy's young days and where she ended up interesting, but found Elle's even more compelling. Their relationship, although very intense from the get-go, was sweet and passionate. I was intrigued by Lucy's journal entries, but the book largely bored me with the recountings she shared with the therapist. I also think the third act was too long and veered away from what the story was about up to that point too much. I felt like the story was ready to be finished and then we got a whole second wind. I think making it a bit tighter would benefit the book. Overall I would recommend if you want a passionate sapphic romance or are a Dracula retellings fan.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC, all thoughts are my own.

Okay look, for a modern and gloriously queer reimagining of the classic Dracula in which Lucy survives and embarks on her own journey of love and self-discovery, Lucy Undying took an unforgivably long time to suck me in. Much like its classic source material, it's a painfully slow yet inexplicably enthralling story that just sucks you dry in all the best and worst ways.

Now, I very much agree with Kiersten White that Lucy is canonically queer and that the women in the classic story were done awfully dirty. And for the most part, I actually love how she reimagined this story, especially because it somehow simultaneously feels like a love letter and a scathing diss track about the classic. Plus, I am just a sucker for the gothic atmosphere and the emotionally evocative prose, which is exactly why I could not stop turning the pages despite some of my quibbles.

The way that Lucy’s story unfolds throughout the original journals, the therapy sessions, and the modern timeline in Iris’ perspective was quite brilliantly done, and I really liked her development and powerful journey of healing that we get to witness. However, there was just a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ missing in the storytelling that kept me from ever getting fully invested, and I thought especially the first 40-50% lacked some serious direction and tension.

Moreover, I personally bounced off the occasional chapters that we get from Dracula’s point of view, not because they were written in the controversial second person perspective, but just because I feel like he didn’t deserve to get that pagetime. In general, I think Lucy Undying is already needlessly long and overstays its welcome, and those extra moments with him just drained me.

All that said, I think the second half was much stronger than the first half, and I was quite impressed with how Iris and Lucy’s stories interweaved and unravelled. Even though I wasn’t immediately sold on Iris’ quirkiness and her intense family drama, I did appreciate how White tackled themes of bodily autonomy, legacy, toxic family dynamics, hurtful beauty standards, and chronic illness through that plot thread. Also, there were some glorious FUCK YOU moments in the big showdown at the end of this story, which I was all here for.

Ultimately, Lucy Undying ended up being just aggressively fine for me, though I definitely think it is a story that deserved to be told. And hey, it’s feminist and queer and full of beautiful prose, so I’d still definitely recommend it if the premise sounds even slightly intriguing to you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I was really enjoying this until the halfway mark, and then things started to get a bit... bland for me. Which is a shame because the story had a lot of promise.

Lucy Undying had some really interesting premises and with that wonderful cover it was impossible to resist but I must say that the reading didn't go as I hoped.

The author has many difficulties in managing three points of view and in the end the one that is really interesting is that of Lucy in the past. The narrative often gets lost in chatter and digressions that lengthen a story that could easily have been resolved in fewer pages with a more pressing pace and that would keep you glued to the pages.

But between banal, immature and sloppy characters, and a story that progresses piecemeal, unfortunately I never really felt involved in reading.
And it's a shame because there are really some interesting and even original ideas and ideas! I appreciated the twisting of Mina's character and everything that revolves around her figure. But unfortunately these acute insights are lost in a glass of water.

2.75⭐ Thanks to Netgalley and publishing house for the e-ARC

It started out pretty good but at 42% it went downhill for me 😭😭im not sure what was the main factor that threw me off cause the writing was pretty good and i liked how the book started but i don’t know i think i lost interest at some point

Thanks to the publisher for the arc

☆☆☆½
(rounded down due to the rating system)
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Dracula changed her. Love will transform her.
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What drew me to the book:
I think the better question is what didn’t draw me to the book? With a gorgeous cover & an interesting sounding plot / story / synopsis how could I not be drawn in?
How long it’s been on my TBR:
To be honest I don’t quite remember but according to my Netgalley since June of this year at least.
My expectations:
A good reimagining with good characters & an interesting story between them, character driven, a well-written romance & a good mix of the past & present.
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My thoughts whilst reading:
I didn’t note down a lot so some things were forgotten but for a lot of the book I felt not uninterested but tired, every time I was reading it I started to grow sleepy, I think it may have been the writing style but I couldn’t quite say for sure. Other than that I found myself enjoying certain parts of the book more than others, for example Lucy’s past explored in the transcript & through her journal were both really interesting whereas I didn’t quite love Iris’ point of view, I found her voice to read as not immature per se but younger than she was, I even struggled to figure out her age until past halfway into the book when she said she was 25, she acted / read as a little younger & very modern which contrasted (& not in the best way) to young Lucy’s voice which was obviously a lot more sophisticated, it also contrasted to
older Lucy’s voice which was more ‘mature’. I did find that the book got better as I changed how I read it which left me speeding through a large chunk as opposed to stopping every couple chapters out of something akin to boredom. After this point I pretty much just got the book finished because whilst I was enjoying it I wasn’t loving it the way I wanted it to.
How long it took me to read:
4 Days which is honestly a lot less time than I thought it would.
Overall:
I think the best way to describe this book is as oil on water. On the one hand we had the story of Lucy Westerna, human turned vampire, searching for something & on the other we had Iris & Elle, living in the present, Iris searching for a way out of her family & Elle helping her & then, later, Lucy. We watch the two stories unfold until they reached a point where they combine & are the same, continuous, ongoing story, finally joint but they felt like two separate stories to me, occuring in the same book but still not quite the same story. Maybe it was intentional, Lucy doesn’t reconcile with her past self until later in the book but that transition of the two Lucy’s isn’t really ‘seamless’ nor does it feel as if they’re merging into the same Lucy. I feel that something that doesn’t help with this is that we know that Elle is Lucy, the books synopsis tells us as much but the story could’ve been a lot more interesting if we hadn’t known who she was, if we believed Lucy to be dead & Elle just the museum appraiser who is also obviously (to us) a vampire with the reveal being hinted at & hidden rather than being the books synopsis. I get why that wasn’t the case, afterall the book is called Lucy Undying, she is the titular character & on the cover & the twist may have been slightly obvious but I do still think it would’ve given the book a little extra umph. On the note of Lucy being the titular character I did find myself surprised by the fact that the book wasn’t only in her point of view but in the present rather only Iris’. What I did enjoy about the book being told though was how the past, the present & the future all unfurled at the same time which pairs well with a quote from the book, I forgot the exact quote but it was from a classic book & was along the lines of “forever is made up of now’s” it really felt that way with the book with all the time happening ‘now’ be it the past, the present or the future yet to come.
Ultimately Lucy Undying was a tale of finding yourself & breaking free of the past, moving on & letting go, all of which had a satisfying conclusion although the execution was flawed & it was a little predictable at times.
Miscellaneous:
There were a few quotes & things that reminded me of one of my favourite books (Vicious by V.E. Schwab)
Did it meet my expectations:
It didn’t meet my expectations, it wasn’t what I was expecting at all from the titular character sharing the book with another character to the different voices of those characters. I feel part of my mislaid expectations on this story can be blamed on the cover, they say not to judge a book by its cover but as a reader & someone who understands that the cover artists & designers have a job, I know better than that, a cover can tell you a lot about a book & so I guess I expected the book to feel more like the cover when in reality it didn’t, don’t get me wrong I absolutely love the cover its gorgeous but it just misled my expectations.
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Favourite character:
Lucy.
Favourite scene:
I loved the scene that followed Iris seeing the portrait.
Favourite relationship:
Lucy’s with herself, watching her reconcile with her past, finding herself & forgiving herself was nice to read. I also have to say that a very close second was the romance between Iris & Lucy.
Favourite quote:
‘It breaks something inside me, seeing a perfect reflection of what it looks like to kill your heart before someone can do it for you.’
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Why I rounded the review up / down*:
If I had to ‘more accurately’ rate this book its rating would be somewhere between 3.5 stars & 3.75 stars as it wasn’t quite here nor there for me so I ended up deciding to round it down.
Do I regret reading it:
No but I won’t be rereading it any time soon either.
Will I be reading the sequel:
Not applicable.
Will I be keeping my copy:
Probably but only because the cover is really pretty.
Do I recommend it:
If you want something new, modern & something old, rooted in the past, two stories which are the same tale just out of order, the story of a Utah based cult & a girl who can’t escape & the story of another girl who couldn’t escape her own problems as they find their way out of the dark then this is for you.
*(for rating systems such as Goodreads)
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Thank you so much to Netgalley for the ARC.

Book Ratings
Content: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Writing Style: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Readability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Plot Development: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review
Lucy Undying was a fantastic addition to the ‘Dracula’ world. I really enjoyed the use of different mediums to tell the story, and that we got different POVs. I thought the addition of a Vampire MLM was fantastic, and actually really believable. I do think if vampires were real someone would capitalise on it in the form of a MLM/pyramid scheme. The only thing I struggled with was the pace of the book, I did find it was quite slow at points and I struggled to fully buy into the story. There were definitely some fantastic twists and turns throughout the book, I guessed a couple but I was shocked by others.

Would I read it again? Yes.

This is a fantastic read with an interesting take on the dracula story. Loved reading it from the other side ao to speak. White delivers a remarkably vivid world and characters that come alive on the page.

It is a bit slow to get into, but once you do it’s hard to put it down.

4.5 stars

LUCY UNDYING is an engaging, unexpected reimagining of DRACULA spanning the book right to the real day, and with a vampiric multi-level marketing scam for funsies.

I LOVED the MLM scam aspect of the book. It's such a fun idea (and feeds into the reframing aspect of the original tale.) These scams are like vampires, draining people to survive, so why not add actual vampires to it?

It's such a clever device woven into the reframing of DRACULA that puts the women of the book front and centre. Even Dracula himself is very much sidelined in this book, with only a few chapters towards the end that use him to explore the toxic masculinity that gives rise to a sense of entitlement to women's feelings and bodies.

I actually haven't read DRACULA - it's a classic and I struggle with them (however, it's slates to be one of Barrington Stoke's Classics Retold next year, so I'll finally get to know the story properly!) I suspect that the opening would have been full of more "ooo, that's how this book is taking X element?" moments if I knew the original. However, not knowing (beyond pop culture general knowledge) didn't affect my enjoyment of the book.

The story it told across multiple timelines. There is Lucy's diary (the happenings of her pre-vampire life), Lucy talking to her therapist (her vampire life pre-Iris), and then Iris narrating the present day (Lucy joins in with present day narration in the final act so we see both of them taking on the vampires and MLM.)

Thank you, DelRey & and NetGalley, for approving this ARC.

Omg this book was amazing! It's a Dracula retelling based on Lucy Westenra story. I found the whole story so beautifully and richly written, and it had me hooked the whole way through.

The story is mostly told from mostly 3 timelines and different POV we have Lucy's diary entries set in the 1800s, Iris POV set in 2024 and then Lucy's POV with her therapist, a little after Iris in 2024 and then the last part of ye story set end of 2024 and 2025.

I don't want to spoil too much as I genuinely think going into this a little blind is the best way.

Overall, it's a saphic, haunting, vampire story but also a story about love, understanding, and loving yourself and even has a little bit of girl power thrown in.

I'm always seated for sapphic vampires! And, I guess, Dracula retellings too, after this.

Lucy Undying was a read I thought I'd need a bit longer to get through, because the pacing seemed so slow, but I literally read 70% of it in one day because I couldn't stop reading, so how slow was it really? I can't say. What I can say though, is that this story gripped me, and kept me hanging on every single word.

I feel like most people probably found Lucy's chapters more interesting, but for me, Iris was the character I kept wanting to go back to every time I was reading about Lucy, or the secret third PoV.

That's not to say I disliked Lucy, I still found her history entertaining, and I liked the romance between her and Iris. I could feel the longing through the pages, and kept wishing for them to finally be happy.

My favourite thing about this book, is the never-ending number of twists. We get the majority of them in the second half, which is, no surprise, the half I enjoyed reading the most.

I saw only a few coming, but when Iris started putting things together in her head (and with all those pages), I was in shock. And then I kept getting surprised all the way until the end.

The gothic atmosphere was on point, I enjoyed the writing style as well. This is actually my very first book by Kiersten White, even though I've had her books on my tbr for years. Now I know I'll probably like the others too.

The plot is very well crafted (if a bit unbelievable at times), but I do think it's stretched out more than it should be. Especially in the first half where we didn't get as much action as the second.

Aside from that, I don't really have any other negatives. It was such a fun read, and I'd love to have a sequel of some sort, because there's definitely more story to tell.

*Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*