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saurahsaurus's review against another edition
- 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
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
azrah786's review against another edition
4.25
**I received a proof copy from Orbit Books UK in exchange for an honest review**
CW: violence, blood, gore, self harm, body horror, murder, consensual sexual content, emotional and physical abuse, gaslighting, war, famine, plague, alcohol, depression, sexual assault, drug use, drowning
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So many friends have been giving this book high praise over the last year and now having read it I couldn’t agree with them all more!
Dark and heartfelt, A Dowry of Blood is a recount of the life and marriage of one of Dracula’s brides over the course of hundreds of years written as an open letter to her sire and it enthralled me from the opening chapter.
This is a gothic romance with a well-established polyamorous relationship that includes moments that are as steamy as they are bloody but more significantly it is a romance that depicts the multifaceted nature of love, from the glamourous to the ghastly.
"Love is violence, my darling; it is a thunderstorm that tears apart your world. More often than not, love ends in tragedy, but we go on loving in the hope that this time, it will be different."
If you’re not a fan of flowery prose then the writing may not be your kind of thing but I felt like the lyrical tone effortlessly captured both the gothic ambiance of the story as well as all the rich tapestry of emotions of the protagonist. The deep and personal nature to everything Constanta was putting down on page gave each chapter a diary entry like feel, thus I thought Gibson’s choice of narration style was perfect.
What is maybe the most interesting narrative decision in this alternate perspective / reinterpretation of the story of Dracula though is that for the whole book he is left nameless. A very clever detail in a story such as this one and a power move that had me warming to Constanta almost immediately.
Constanta’s reminiscence portrays her experiences, and by association those of her fellow consorts Magdalena and Alexi, as she slowly chipped away at her rose tinted view of her new life to expose the toxic and abusive relationship that they were all trapped in. From the adoration during Constanta’s early years of immortal life and all its wonder, to the conflicting shades of envy that enter the relationship along with the new additions to the household, to the fierce protectiveness that comes when her husband’s actions so laced in secrecy and manipulation more clearly threaten the family that she has found – the writing is so beautifully emotive you feel it all.
"I was no woman; I was merely a supplicant, a pilgrim who had stumbled across your dark altar and was doomed to worship it for ever."
One of the only drawbacks was that even though the overall gothic atmosphere was captured really well, the locations that the characters moved to over the years never felt specific enough to stand out and the same goes for the time period. Sometimes countries were name dropped but otherwise on the “worldbuilding” side there was much to be desired.
That aside the characters were fantastic, the vampire lore felt fresh whilst sticking to its traditional roots and as I’ve made quite clear already the storytelling was just remarkable.
I will definitely be looking to pick up Gibson’s other/ future work!
Final Rating – 4.25/5 Stars
Graphic: Violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Gore, Self harm, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Sexual content
Moderate: Alcohol and War
Minor: Sexual assault
booksofautumn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Murder, Cannibalism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence
hellodiana's review
- 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? No
3.5
Graphic: Murder, Blood, Death, Toxic relationship, Confinement, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, War, and Alcohol
kaetheluise_nckl's review against another edition
- 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
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
pedanticangel's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Alcohol and War
indigoreadingcollective's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book isn’t for the faint of heart. Manipulation isn’t a good thing to go through and a hard thing to read about especially when described in such detail. As I said to a friend while reading this, I’ve never read a book “so poetically cruel.”
I don’t think I’ll ever emotionally recover from this. The way you feel for the characters and as them is incredible and I truly wish I could experience this for the first time all over again.
Graphic: Gaslighting, Blood, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol
Moderate: War and Violence
Minor: Self harm
annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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 thereinferiorwit's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Sexism, Physical abuse, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, and Incest
queserasara's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence