Oh my goodness this was a wild ride!! It’s so interesting because looking back through all the adaptations I’ve seen / read, I don’t think I’ve ever cared about Lucy. Much like our Lucy in this book, Mina was the one I had the hots for (or Dracula depending on which version you’re watching 👀) and Lucy was there just to get to something else? But I am so glad we have this fab, if yet insane, story!

I loved the three different perspectives / timelines and how all the pieces of the puzzle slowly started to fit together. It was super interesting hearing Lucy’s story pre vampire and comparing it to what’s written in her journal told through Iris’s eyes. Though my favourite parts had to be Lucy telling her life story to the therapist!

I had very strong suspicions where this was going, and while I did correctly work out about 2 things, this went even further than I could have imagined and I was hooked! A true whirlwind of a book, reimagining one of my favourite story’s ever into the dream sapphic yearning romance / weird mlm takedown / vampire adventure time book!

Prefacing this by saying that I haven’t read Dracula, nor watched any adaptations, so I was venturing into this book with pretty little knowledge of the story outside of just…media osmosis, and the average vampire ‘facts’. I was fully drawn in by THAT cover, what can I say.

I really enjoyed Lucy Undying. It jumps between timelines and story telling devices - we have Iris in the present day, trying to escape from her family’s blood obsessed cult, a journal from the late 1800’s detailing Lucy’s life before she’s turned by Dracula (and her love for her school teacher, Mina), and a transcript with a therapist where Lucy opens up about her long vampire life.

There’s so many different levels to this story, and I loved seeing how they all ended up tying together. There was almost a mystery element to the book, in that way, trying to fit together all the different moving pieces of the story.

This novel really looks into what it meant to be a women over the past 150 years, albeit it through a fantasy lens - how little agency most women were allowed, and the different dangers they were subjected to (although a lot of that sadly persists even to this day and age). Lucy’s story is quite heartbreaking, and it’s beyond powerful to see her slowly reclaim it as the novel progresses.

Iris is also such a great character. She takes no nonsense, and truly cares for the people around her who show her kindness (but her dead mum, and the cult that she led, can get stuffed). Her story was fascinating, especially as she’ll just throw out a line that makes you go ‘wait, WHAT?!’ as we discover more about the MLM cult that she grew up in, and the strange condition that she has.

This book has a great balance between the horrors of Dracula, people in general, and the controlling nature of the world when it comes to women, alongside just…very sexy sapphic vampires. Like this book is filled with lust, longing, and it’s genuinely quite enticing. Like people can be awful! Cults are terrifying! Being hunted by vampires is also terrifying! But love, romance, and longing still exist, even in times of strife. It was really well balanced, and I’m here for it.

Delving into Lucy’s past was so interesting too - her time spent as a vampire crosses many decades, continents, and world events, and it was fascinating (and quite devastating) to see how she spent that time, and her various relationships with fellow vampires over the years, and how they each dealt with being turned, and their own immortal life, differently.

I loved the writing style, the unfolding romance, the quest for knowledge (and revenge) on both Lucy and Iris’s parts. I just loved this book a lot overall, and the way it was all laid out kept me gripped throughout. Highly recommend if you’re craving a gothic sapphic vampire tale this autumn/winter, with quite a lot of depth and bite to it.

Thank you to the publishers, and Netgalley, for the copy to review.

This book started off really having my attention. I loved the why the book was written. It truly gave that gothic feel. I really like Lucy's character. Her character exploration was fascinating along with her relationship with Iris. Also, the cover is just stunning. There is a lot going on between the different POVs as well as the journal/transcripts as well. I found myself getting a bit frustrated with it. Also, I didn't feel like this book didn't need to be as long as it was. Around the turning point I just lost interest.

This was beautiful and lyrical and just such a different writing style. It follows Lucy from the original Dracula novel, if she got to live an afterlife as a vampire. It has several different narratives woven into each other, it should be confusing following the same person through three different time periods concurrently but somehow it just works. And it’s delightfully queer in a way that just works along with the original text. The modern day main plot is quite out there and weird, but thoroughly entertaining. A surprising hit for me.

I am a huge fan of this author and her works but I will be honest and say that this took me a little longer to get into and I was quite lost to begin with. HOWEVER, once I got my head around the different narratives, this was again fantastic and everything I wanted from it. Honestly, if you are not sold on a queer Dracula retelling I don't think I could convince you (because why not???) but the writing is quick and easy with some very cool and memorable characters!

4.5 stars. This was such an intriguing book, I loved the different styles of writing. Some read like a journal or mysterious third person. Each pov knitted together as the book went on and there were twists I did not expect.. I loved the that it was a different take on Dracula and the cult MLM at the centre of it was so interesting. I loved the queer and sapphic rep in this, it felt genuine and I connected so much to the character emotions. I think this book is perfect for lovers of gothic style vampire stories with a modern twist.

I read this as an advanced copy from Netgalley

Firstly - I loved it. However - I wasnt a fan of every POV being a different tense, it made it feel messy & inconsistent to read.

The writing is stunning - this had all the vibes I wanted An Education in Malice to have. I also wasn't expecting Dracula to be a character, so that was a fun surprise.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance copy. I really loved the book and its characters. I can see that the author spent a long time on worldbuilding and forming 3 dimensional characters. This was already on my wish-list for the year, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy. The writing is lush and atmospheric, perfect for a spooky read. I loved the read and can’t wait to see what the author comes up with next!

Lucy Undying
Fantasy
Kiersten White
⭐️⭐️⭐️

• vampires • sapphic • gothic •

I liked the multiple POVs but the shifting timelines made it hard for me to keep track, sometimes.

The characters were ok but they felt a little flat and actually kind of boring.

I found the pacing to be very slow, which made the plot drag too.

While there were parts I did like, I didn't really enjoy this book as much as I wanted to but I'm sure other readers would like it.

Brilliantly woven story. Beatiful prose and gripping narrative. Can't wait to recommend and have more people read this one!

Absolutely adored this. Especially the reason it exists - "because Lucy deserved a girlfriend."

The mixed media is a little hard to get into at first, but it all feeds into the bigger picture. I loved that we as the reader didn't understand how the narratives would join. I think my only real comment would be that I think it should have been split into two parts. This is purely because everything seemed wrapped up at one point and then went in a different direction with the narration style and plot.

I enjoyed every single one of the characters and the world is beautiful. I loved the feminist vibes, and the changing villains.

I'm a sucker for a retelling and I couldn't get enough of this.

I didn’t really know what to expect when I started reading Lucy Undying, other than it was a Dracula story. I loved it. Perfect for spooky season, the story follows multiple POVs, in different formats, and in places, jumping between past and present. At first, it took me a minute to get onboard with what was happening, but when the penny dropped, it all made sense!

The story follows Lucy Westenra, one of Dracula’s victims, her life before being changed, her life after being changed, historic events scattered throughout, the vibrant characters she comes across and choices she makes.

I loved Lucy, I love that Kiersten gave Lucy a voice and control over her own story. It definitely made me reflect on Bram Stokers “Dracula”.

If you are a fan of Dracula, Vampires, and gothic writing, this one if definitely one for you!

Thank you NetGalley, Del Rey, and author Kiersten White for an eARC of Lucy Undying in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me this ARC. This review was posted on goodreads on september 16th.

I was so happy to get this book because I really like the author and ended sad because it didn't work for me. I'm always really sad to leave a bad review, specially for an arc.
It had everything I liked : sapphic vampires. Sadly it wasn't enough for me. I was soooo long and the three povs didn't worked out for me, it was sooo heavy and slow paced. This book was dragging on. When I saw I was at half of the book, I was just thinking about how far of the end I was and had no idea where this was going.

I do think this was more a me problem rather than the book mostly, I can't with books that are really long and heavy. Still I liked the writing and the character of Iris, I liked her pov the most.
But one thing I really didn't appreciate is the old immortal and quite young mortal (I really don't like this trope and there was so many old immortal vampires around why not choose one of them as a love interest) and the way it was written to not feel weird : it was weird. Trying to explain it and making it seems like it's not weird never work in my experience. And like the 150 + vampire saying she's still 19 even though she lived for all that time? This is not serious really. I was really surprise to find that kind of tropes in this book.

This book didn't work for me but I think it can work for someone else and I'll be reading Kiersten next book (which hopefully will work better for me)

𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐯𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐈’𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞. 𝐌𝐲 𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐡 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐭. 𝐍𝐨, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐧𝐨 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐞.


▪︎

It pains to say and do this to another novel that arc I manifested so bad. Not to also mention, the very first novel from the author I read.

The idea and concept are there. I have to acknowledge that a supposed to be gothic, dark, seductive, sapphic vampire story that features these elements alongside Dracula is something that die-hard vampire readers like me really want to read.

The first few chapters left me intrigued after that strong prologue, so of course, I had my expectations. However, the execution is just something that didn't work on this, nor the writing.

Not to mention the characters that I would say were so boring. There's nothing seductive about them nor the writing at all. It doesn't even feel like a vampire novel, nor anything Dracula like inspired story at all.

It honestly just feels like it's written just to be written, and the content here isn't something that's been thought well.

Long story short, I was disappointed. I wanted to DNF this many times, but I relented because who knows, it might even be a little decent past 60-ish?

Thank you, Del Rey, for publishing for the e-arc opportunity.

–-----

Date Released: September 10, 2024
Date Read: September 5- September 15, 2024
Ratings: 2⭐️

It really seems like Vampires are so back this year. And I certainly don't mind that.

Lucy Undying takes Lucy Westenra from Dracula and gives her more depth, more story and kinder treatment.

This book is mostly set in current times with two points of flashbacks. The current PoV is mostly told from perspective of Iris, a character who we don't know much about but there's plenty of hints that she's deeply mixed into the story of Dracula, Lucy and vampires in general. Then we have a PoV that's just Lucy's diary entries and another PoV that's Lucy in her "therapy session" telling a story of her life after Dracula.

This book was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I really enjoyed Lucy telling her story of travelling through world trying to find herself but I thought the bits of her diaries felt like a waste of time. Especially when we had Iris retelling some of those parts in her PoV and then giving us a whole chapter of the concussions we were supposed to reach from the diaries. It made me feel like the author didn't think the reader was smart enough to reach those conclusions on my own. I think it could have been done in a more cohesive way that didn't require so much repetition.

I really loved vampirism as a pyramid scheme and I wish the book spent more time on that aspect of the story. Actually I wish that was just a seperate book in itself since there really wasn't enough space in this book to tell that story properly.

At the end of the day this story was about Lucy finding herself and finding love and forgiving the lost, queer girl that she was for being blinded by love. And I appreciate that story too. The twists and turns were fun if slightly uneven addition.

DNF @ 23%

I really wanted to love this book because let's be honest, sapphic vampires? Sign me the hell up! And while I thought that I was going to enjoy it based off my initial reaction, the more I read, the more I was struggling to actually get through it. So I admitted defeat. The flow of the pace was all over the place and the three narratives made it hard to follow, I think it would've been much easier and better to only have the one narrative. Maybe I'll try again sometime in the near feature but with my reading slump, I don't think I'll be reaching for this anytime soon.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for a honest review.

2.5 Stars.

Thank you to Del Rey for sending me an ARC of this.

I'm truly gutted to be writing this review. I had every intention of finishing this before release day (only 3 days late) but I struggled so hard to get through it. I got 50% in and had to wait till release day for the audiobook just to help me finish this one.

The book started off well, I was confused but the different timelines and POV's but overall, I was very intrigued to know what was going on and find out what was happening and how everything linked together. However, it was really slow going, which may work for some people but just didn't for me. I also have to admit that I haven't actually read Dracula before (I intend on doing so now) so therefore am not familiar with Lucy Westenra which I feel is to my disadvantage going into this book.

I am an avid DNF'er so anyone who knows me will be surprised when I say it took me 30 days to get through this and I wanted to put it down and never come back 50% in. But on the basis I was sent the ARC and the book did start off intriguing for me, I was determined to finish it. Unfortunately, this just didn't work for me.

The cover and after reading the blurb this book immediately drew me in. I loved Lucy’s character, before she became a vampire and after, you didn’t get bored reading her story, her self exploration in finding who she is as a person, her identity and sexuality. Iris was a bit immature and boring to read about and some times it dragged too much to my liking.
Thank you Net Galley for the arc in exchange for a honest review.

Horror, sapphic, a sort of retelling but more of a spin-off? These have my name all over them.

The opening glimpse is from Dracula dated January 2025 so we know he's still up to his usual skulking and hiding but the bulk of the story follows Lucy and a 25-year-old runaway of sorts named Iris.

To start, I thought this was a really interesting story about Lucy Westenra, who many of us know from the original Dracula, and how things went before, during and after her run in with Dracula. I liked the alternative take on Mina, Jonathan, the group of men that hunt Dracula and how their stories intertwine. These were all really positive things.

I didn't even mind that Iris is a bit insufferable. She's the rich heir of a fortune she doesn't want, in a pyramid scheme/cult she hates and has generally been plagued by it all her life. All of that very likely means sheltered and coddled so of course she's not going to be particularly worldly.

How she, and Lucy who is well over 100 by this point, came to the conclusion they were in love after three days together I'll never quite be able to explain but here we are. Also, their pet names were super cringe. Not sure I can look at butter chicken the same way. And Iris needs to keep it in her pants. Calm down, have a glass of water, take a deep breath.

I liked the shift between diary-Lucy, interview/client transcript Lucy and modern Iris. It allowed for a very full picture that pulled the timelines all together. Lucy's stories had an excellent voice and tone. You could feel the naivety in her diary and the weariness and longing in her client transcript.

My issues overall come down to a few things. As usual there is a non-UK based or experienced author telling a story set in London and getting some key things wrong. As someone living in the UK, we do not use kilometers. We don't have rabies in our wildlife (generally). We don't have Animal Care and Control. The biggest issue was it went on for too long. There were so many natural end points in the book and instead it just kept going. And as it went on, it dragged and became too much. Not in a good way. Everybody returns, everyone reunites for better or worse, Lucy attacks Dracula. He's Dracula! You can't kill him in a modern kitchen! The characters just became unbelievable, and unrealistic (as much as they could in a book about vampires). Everyone just seemed to deviate from their established personalities and not in a way that made sense. All of this highlighted the things that stood out. The unbelievable nature of Lucy and Iris' relationship, Iris' role in her family and their company, the vampires we meet through Lucy's POV, etc. If it had stopped earlier, I think this would have been a much, much stronger book.

I’m still pinching myself—Lucy Undying by Kiersten White is my first ever physical ARC, and I’m beyond grateful! A huge thank you to Random House UK and the author for giving a small account like mine the opportunity to shine. This is an experience I’ll never forget!

Without giving too much away, here’s a brief glimpse into the story: Lucy Westenra, one of Dracula’s first victims, was written into someone else’s story—but her death was only the beginning. After rising from the grave as a vampire, Lucy has spent her immortal life running from Dracula’s shadow and trying to discover her true self.

In twenty-first-century London, Lucy’s life takes an unexpected turn when she meets Iris, a woman trapped by her own family’s dark secrets. The connection between Lucy and Iris is electric, but their blossoming love is threatened by forces from both their pasts. Iris’s family will stop at nothing to maintain their power, and Dracula has returned, still holding Lucy in his grip.

Will Lucy find the strength to finally defeat Dracula, or will her heart once again be her undoing?

This thrilling and emotional tale gripped me from start to finish, and I can’t wait for everyone to experience it!