Reviews with content warning for Blood - Reluctant Immortals

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Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste

11 reviews

amandadelbrocco's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This was just a fun story that intertwined the stories of Dracula and Jane Eyre. I really liked the 60s setting and all the nods to the original books

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thegayestghost's review against another edition

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dark fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

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natashaleighton_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

Ferociously feminist and utterly unputdownable — I literally ATE THIS UP!

Exploring the brutal (and emotionally manipulative) nature of toxic relationships, Kiste’s beautifully complex reimagining of the lives of two misunderstood (and often overlooked) characters from Jane Eyre and Dracula was phenomenal —and really had me looking at Rochester and Dracula in a newer (harsher and far more judgemental) light.

Bertha “Bee” Mason (Rochester’s attic bound first wife often dubbed “the madwoman in the attic”) and Lucy Westenra (the first of Dracula’s English victims and best friend to the much more well known Mina Harker) are always a bit of an afterthought when it comes to retellings and adaptations. So I was really intrigued to see a book told from their perspectives, and I can tell you now it definitely didn’t disappoint!

Set in 1960 California, we delve into the friendship of two morally grey (and emotionally complex) women and the lives they have ultimately made for themselves—after escaping the abusive men made famous by Bram Stoker and Charlotte Brontë.

I loved the descriptive setting and modern gothic tone with its sunny, California backdrop and Hippie aesthetics, along with the cloying and pervading spread of decay that perfectly capture an unsettling feeling of dread that doesn’t really let up until that phenomenally explosive ending.

It did give off American Horror Story vibes, especially in the Manson-esque, cult-like adoration we see for Rochester and Dracula. But it was Lucy and Bee’s reaction to their abuser’s newest victims that I enjoyed the most. Seeing them spurred into action, regaining their own agency and taking back power from the men ruined their lives was soo satisfying.

If you love feminist stories of revenge and overcoming adversity, misogyny or oppression then I highly recommend checking out this fast paced, thoroughly addictive horror.

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podanotherjessi's review against another edition

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challenging inspiring slow-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

3.75

I really loved the themes explored in this book, and the updated, fleshed-out personalities of Bertha and Lucy were fantastic. Everything else was just kind of fine for me. There's nothing specific I could point to for why I didn't love this; maybe it was that the literary characters felt underused and that Bertha and Lucy could have been easily replaced by original characters. I would still say it's a good book and broadly recommend it, but more to people interested in a literary fiction about escaping abuse than for fans of gothic novels.

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vixenreader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

A mixed bag of a novel, with great suspense and worth-building while suffering from trying to rely on the original texts in order to fill in characterizations and relationship dynamics.

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mfrisk's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful reflective 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? Yes

5.0

I absolutely adored this book. I’ll be honest I haven’t read Jane Eyre or Dracula (though I’m aware of the stories enough to get the gist) but despite that I really enjoyed getting to know Jane, Bee, Lucy, Mina, and Daisy through this new lens.

This book highlights what these stories left out through a reimagining of the stories of the women who fight monsters both in life and in death. And I mean monsters in a literal sense but also a figurative sense in terms of entitlement and manipulation by dangerous men which is a line this book leans into well. We see both these monstrous elements fully realized and in constraint we see the power of women able to fight back and reclaim who they are.

The descriptions in this book of characters, settings, and the journey itself I thought were very vivid and if you haven’t been to San Francisco or LA this is a great read to transport you there. I could picture this book easily being made into a tv series or movie and am excited to read other books by this author in the near future.

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antimony's review

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? No

3.0

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angreadseverything's review

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emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.25

I liked it, but

wish it went into more detail about Lucy and Bee's past. Especially since Lucy keeps saying how the books and movies don't accurately portray how their life was. The beginning was also a little slow, but it definitely picked up towards the end. I liked how Kiste drew parallels to the victims in horror and how they (especially women) are often a footnote in the main story of the killer/antagonist. The ending where Lucy, Bee, and Mina set all of Dracula and Rochester's victims free in the afterlife was really interesting as well. I would definitely want to see a sequel.

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grimdark_dad's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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kiaras's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.0

Review originally published here: https://waitingforfairies.com/2022/09/06/review-reluctant-immortals-by-gwendolyn-kiste/

I don’t think that this book was for me. For me, it lacked the depth that I was expecting. Possibly because, while I’ve read Dracula, I’ve never read Jane Eyre. I’m sure there’s nuance I’m missing, and as always your mileage may very. I didn’t enjoy this.

Most of the book was a repetition of how horrible these literary villains were to the women in their lives, without the women’s perspective that I was expecting. I’m not one to revel in the retelling of trauma, but this book holds the women’s emotions like an oil slick on the surface of the San Francisco Bay. I could tell that there were worlds beneath, but frustratingly, this book gave no more insight into what happened to these women than the original books do.

I wanted to hear the story from their perspectives. This book isn’t that. It also isn’t about Lucy and Bee being empowered to confront and defeat their abusers. They do that, eventually, but the confrontation is played off as their absolute last resort. They simply don’t have the resources to run anymore, and therefore defeating their villains is the only alternative. They are more exhausted than angry, ground down by their long history with no real desire to fight back. This doesn’t play as a satisfying story.

The ending is hopeful, at least, after pages and pages of despair. Yes, this is a gothic tale. I guess I should have expected it to be flat and empty and gray. I find that sort of story unsatisfying.

I’m also disturbed by the underlying narrative of the book: that men are evil or useless or simple plot devices. It wasn’t a good look when men were doing this to women in their novels, and it’s not great here, either.
Rochester and Dracula are villains through and through. Abusers with no redeeming qualities at all. That part is to be expected. But the other men in the story aren’t great either. Michael, the sweet ex-soldier just returned from Vietnam who becomes Lucy’s thrall barely has a backstory. His uncle, who owns a decrepit and failing drive-in movie theater, is one-dimensional. All we know about him is just what I’ve said.

The only other man in the book is Renfield, the original, and his narrative in the book seems to say that men will betray you 99% of the time, and can only be persuaded against that through the careful application of feminine compassion. I honestly found it kind of gross, and the sort of feminism that champions women not by elevating them, but by stomping down the men in their way.

I don’t know that this is what the author meant. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but taking the story by itself in isolation of what the author actually meant, it says things that I don’t agree with at all. That women are pure and innocent until corrupted by men, who betray and abuse as a matter of course. Maybe the author just meant these women, and those men, or maybe she didn’t mean that at all. But I found it disturbing, and the book flat and bland. It definitely wasn’t meant for me.

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