Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

39 reviews

archaicrobin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Beautifully written retelling about Dracula’s brides (and one husband) from the perspective of his first bride Constanta. The prose in this book and the love between the brides is so well done, a perfect dark romance for February. 

I’m not much for retelling and often avoid them but I’m glad I tried Dowry of Blood because it’s an easy, quick, and beautiful read with elegant vampires and just enough horror. I also liked how this author began with a page of trigger warnings for her readers which I think should happen more! 
 
Only reasons I didn’t give this a 5 is that I had to be in the mood to read this one and it was easy for me to put down. I always save 5 stars for those books I can’t stop reading. There were also a LOT of typos in this, to the point where I wonder what the editor was doing. It’s unfortunate when such a beautifully written book with such strong prose has typos because it pulls you out of the book’s spell. 

Overall 100% recommend for anyone looking for a vampire novel, or even a dark romance!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Misogyny, Murder, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Torture, Body horror, Classism, Gaslighting, Gore, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

caseymac's review against another edition

In theory this book has everything I want: a dark, atmospheric, horrifying story with bloody, body horror, romance, and murder… but I cannot cope with the toxic relationship and gaslighting. I don’t are enough about the characters to put up with it. Also the book starts with the man vampire turning a dying peasant girl and then they’re in love… why did he turn her? Why are they in love? There’s not enough meat to this story to get me invested enough to put up with the infuriating gaslighting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual content, Body horror, War, and Death

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, and War

clairew97's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Gore, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Death, and Grief

amabel_xo's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

this has now become my favourite book . I finished it in wine sitting and i’ve never been happier. I read it on kindle but i will be rushing into waterstones to by the  physical copy . Constanta has my heart and shall have it for a while. This book got be out of a reading slump and will be rereading sooner than later. <spoiler >The  ending was sad in the sense i had i obviously wanted them to remain together but i also know that this ending was the correct. This is why i should never be a worse. Gibson has done the hard but truely remarkable job of making a book where the mc is able to regain power and control while still being lovable and not over the top . The romance is just everything especially between my new favourite sapphics <spoiler >. I highly recommend that it should be read by all who love gothic polyamory with a strong and inspiring .main character 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Blood

Moderate: Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Body horror, Death, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Confinement, Death of parent, War, and Domestic abuse

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

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

celestriakle's review

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.

poirot's review

dark emotional 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexism, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Gore, Blood, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent and Sexual assault

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and War

caties_books's review

dark medium-paced

3.0

Beautifully written, but too graphic for my taste

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

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