Reviews tagging 'Grief'

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

81 reviews

thesawyerbean's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a very enjoyable read. I loved the style of the book being written as a love letter from Constanta to her sire - it gave a more intimate feel and allowed for deeper connections with the main characters, their intentions and their emotions. 
The writing was poetic at times, beautiful, dark, obsessive and erotic - a novel of possession, in body and mind.

I did think however that overall the story was a little shallow, one track minded and by the end, a little same-y. The additions of Magdalena and Alexi occurred to spice things up but realistically it didn’t have that much of an effect on the pacing. 

In summary, an extremely fun book with fabulous queer vampire representation (which is always what we need in my opinion). Definitely worth the read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Domestic abuse, Murder, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Cannibalism, Confinement, Cursing, and Death

rachelditty's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Really enjoyed this read! The language was beautifully crafted, and the emotions were extremely potent. I thought it started to drag just a bit toward the three-quarters mark, but I think that was only because I was getting a little tired of You doing the same thing over and over--find someone else to turn, get upset with Constanza whenever she did anything, and then threaten everyone who looks at him wrong. But the beginning was extremely gripping, and I loved the ending.

It was so fitting to have Constanza kill You, and I absolutely loved the fact that she talked about never mentioning his name again when recalling her story. That was really fun. I got a bit scared toward the end that Constanza, instead of killing You, was going to kill herself, or kill all four of them. But I'm so glad it came to a happy ending. It was so lovely and heart lifting to read about three people in a toxic relationship still finding love and comfort in each other and learning to live their lives outside of that abuse. <spoiler/> What a great story. Would definitely recommend to others.


Some quotes:

"What I am trying to say is, I'm trying to tell you, even loneliness, hollow and cold, become so familiar it starts to feel like a friend."

"I will make you into nothing more than a man, tender and brutal in equal measure."

"I wonder if you would have wanted me if you found me like that, vibrant and loved and alive."

"When life fails you, spite will not."

"I had never been inclined to violence before, but then again, I had never born witness to acts so vile they demanded retribution."

"You could never resist a survivor. Or a mirror."

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Murder, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Blood, and Emotional abuse

vigil's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

this book had so many layers to it, especially in regards to the abusive relationship with constanta, magadalena, alexei, and dracula. constanta and dracula's relationship was easily the most interesting, followed by magadalena, and constanta. alexei was sweet (more innocent i suppose), but mostly window dressing to me. 

i think a stand out moment of this book was the call back to the very beginning when

dracula answers constanta's question of where the servants were with "fled or dead," the same phrase he uses when describing his past lovers, and inadvertently drawing a line between them, and the role of a servant, something he forces the three of them into during the years of their relationship. that contextualized a lot for me, and really hammered home for me (and eventually constanta) how much he needed to go. it's very fitting that she was the one who killed him. it would have been very unsatisfying to me if it were anyone else.

the prose was more dead on than it wasn't for me, though it had its fair share of questionable lines, especially in terms of dialogue which had a tendency to sound more modern than it should. i think the author gave as much information as necessary to the book they wanted to write, and that was largely enough for me, though i think it dampened alexei's introduction which felt, and stayed abrupt throughout the rest of the book. some of it was due to his naturally extroverted nature in what is, in my opinion,  a very introverted book, but a large portion of it was due to his lack of intrigue or development. contrastly, i think s.t. gibson did great with magdalena.

i like the inclusion of the sex scenes, and wouldn't have minded more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Blood, Body horror, and Physical abuse

saurahsaurus's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcohol, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Child death, Physical abuse, Classism, and Medical content

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, War, and Abandonment

kaetheluise_nckl's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

M/F/F/M relationship 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Confinement, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Minor: Alcohol

celestriakle's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Read this book for prose alone. The language is poetic and beautiful and flows so nicely that it makes this a quick read; I finished the last two sections in one sitting. The intensity of the relationships each "wife" has to Dracula is gripping. It's fascinating to see how the dynamics slowly shift over the long timespans of the book, and how differently each character reacts to Dracula's abuse.

The main weakness of the book however is the characters relationships outside of Dracula. The book ends with

all 3 in a romantic relationship, and supposedly they fell in love this whole time, but they never have very much chemistry. They read far more like sister-wives trying to protect each other from Dracula than lovers with their own relationship outside him, with nothing to keep each other together once he's gone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Grief, Confinement, Bullying, Blood, Gore, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Classism, Domestic abuse, and Death

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Murder, Abandonment, and Incest

Minor: War, Homophobia, Death of parent, Torture, and Misogyny

I tagged for incest, but it's not true incest: all four main characters are not related, but are frequently described with family terminology, despite being in a romantic relationship. Alexi and Constanta in particular are constantly described as mother/son, with Alexi's youth compared to everyone else frequently mentioned, but they still end up romantically entangled and share a sex scene.

brookey8888's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I enjoyed this, but not as much as everyone else seems to. I enjoyed the way this was told(the audiobook was really good!). I do wish we got to see more of the relationships because I feel like we hardly got to see the man be like rude, you say it in small ways which I guess it what it it, but it was just a short time period. This doesn’t make any sense I’m sorry 😭 I did like that this different sexuality representation! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gore, Violence, Sexism, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Misogyny

a_libra_library's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Poetic! Dramatic! I cried the entire time... I'm weak.
Reimaging of Dracula's brides written in letter formats. It's not glamorous or sexy as vampires are usually portrayed. It shows how dangerous and seductive and abusive relationships can get. I feel weird since its an abusive  poly-relationship but the three brides find comfort in each other and are against Dracula.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Mental illness, War, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Confinement, Death, and Murder

annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

some absolutely fucked up family dynamics: characters are siblings, mother/son, father/children, yet everyone has sex with everyone. the writing was pretty but frequently over-the-top with its figurative language. it had a monumental task of pacing its story across several millennia but i felt it succeeded, focusing on single scenes or letting decades slip away to emphasize the narrator's experience (especially relevant in her description of "plague time" o.o ).

despite this, i just unfortunately was not that into it, the sex scenes made me uncomfortable lol and not that much happened, but i did appreciate the ending.
speaking of calling her "the narrator," it's interesting that it shares this unnamed-woman-narrator quality with the last book i read, The Handmaid's Tale, but a notable difference is that here the narrator only refers to her Commander-equivalent as "you" and never his name in order to strip him of his power.

cover design review: ★★★★☆. love the presentation of the author's name at the top, the decorative border, the central image; not a fan of the title's presentation. i like the typeface but i think "Dowry" could be weighted more like "Blood", the line spacing between "of" and "Blood" is wonky compared to the first three lines, really don't like the "A".

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Murder, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Abandonment, Sexual violence, Body horror, Child death, Alcohol, Incest, Infidelity, and War

Minor: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Drug use, Self harm, Sexism, Death of parent, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Genocide

no biphobia. homophobia and lesbophobia are only mentioned once as a concern of the narrator but are never realized. adult/minor relationship and incest are debatable because of the characters being immortal vampires and having an …unusual family dynamic, but there's definitely something messed up there

lisannerietveld's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Murder, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Addiction