Reviews with content warning for Gore - A Dowry of Blood

This was good. I’ve always lamented that modern Dracula adaptations squander the concept of “vampire wives” by making them oversexualized, Uber-hetero, and/or catty; im looking at you The Invitation (kinda), Van Helsing, Dracula: 2000, etc. this book takes the concept and runs in a different, much cooler direction. The sexy bits of this book weren’t very sexy (for good reason imo), but they spoke of an intimacy and connection between the spouses I’ve always wanted to see.

this book was a really nice exploration of the inherent queerness in vampirism; if you live forever, completely transgressing any & all rules of humanity, what’s stopping you from swinging any way the wind blows??? nothing! there’s no quibbling about what kind of person any of the chars are sucking & fucking, and im living for it. it probably would’ve made the book too clunky, but i would have loved it if the author tackled gender identity in vampirism too. maybe something for next time! my only real complaint here is that there were no strap-ons or whatever the ancient equivalent would be. ye olde inventors could make intricate torture devices, but not a way for women to fuck men? I can’t believe that. where was the pegging! u can’t tell me Magdalena wouldn’t have been into that

on a serious note, this book was also a very real depiction of control and abusive power dynamics. the vampire spouses are inhumanly strong, never die, never tire, but their relative strength doesn’t preclude them from being gaslit and abused. information on their vampire anatomy, wealth, independence: “dracula” holds these over Constanta, Alexi, and Magdalena as someone older and more experienced in vampire life; he whittles them down to beings who can’t fathom how they’d survive without him as a guide, and puts them to work to keep each other content in his clutches. Constanta can’t even remember her real name; just the one he gave her at “birth”. a twisted, evil man to his core, empowered by his ability to “grant” eternal life to vulnerable, isolated people he handpicks. a serial abuser given the power to give and take life as he sees fit; now THATS what I call horror.

this take on the monster that is dracula is refreshing; in media he is almost always monstrous and manipulative, but this is the first time I’ve seen that reflected in his “family life”; usually he is just Bad Because Bloodsucking. Here his murder and bloodlust takes a backseat to the interpersonal violence he commits. incredibly well done

The best thing about this book, to me, was that it wasn’t really a dracula adaptation at all. He takes only a nameless villain role in the story of love and perseverance that is Constanta/Magdalena/Alexi. I loved Constanta, she was so earnest, so honest in her retelling of her history, nearly to the point of being unkind to her past self. she laments, she foreshadows, she rages, and I felt immense compassion and empathy for her and her spouses. I could read about her discovering pants and mp3 players for 100+ more pages; she is just that charming. She writes this “letter” to help herself process; dracula is a ghost on the page of a chapter she is ready to close. loved it!!!

That being said, I did not like the “you” POV or the near-epistolary style; it was jarring and a bit distracting. i found myself getting confused between “you” meaning the dead Dracula the letter was addressed to, and “you” meaning the person being spoken to in the actual dialogue. I’ve never liked epistolary novels, so i came in with that expectation, but the pov threw me for a loop. I much preferred the style in An Education in Malice. (I liked that book more than this one, and a good bit of the reason is style). just not my cup of tea, but the characters and story were enough to outweigh my dislike of the storytelling method.

I’ve rambled enough but I really liked this, and would be thrilled to read more from this author. I really fuck with her frank interpretation of what eternal life and preternatural power would mean for relationships, and the simultaneous love and harm that would inhabit vampiric spaces. fantasy often glosses over the unsavory parts of love & sex to get to romance, but Gibson instead respectfully hones in on those elements while still managing a love story in the end. bravo

Content Warnings

fink1129's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

boredarchivist's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

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