Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

43 reviews

ccouey's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Minor: War

vixenreader's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

As someone escaping a toxic polycule, this was a kick in the balls for me. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Murder, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Cursing, Genocide, Cannibalism, and Abandonment

Huge content warnings for anyone who has experienced an abusive, toxic polyamorous relationship and how it affects everyone in the polycule. There is also an example of healthy polyamory and great bisexual representation.

bookspaperink's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

5.0

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for sending me a digital arc of this book to read and review.

I utterly adored this book and could not put it down. 

A Dowry Of Blood is a blood soaked, queer polyamorous reimagining of Dracula’s Brides, told from the perspective of one of his brides Constanta. 

Constanta is a medieval peasant, saved from the brink of death by the strange and mysterious Dracula and whisked away to become his bride and lead an undying life of aristocratic luxury.

This novel spans centuries, narrated from Constanta’s perspective and written as an open letter to her husband and sire.

When her husband adds an aristocrat and a young Russian artist to their household and marriage bed, Constanta starts to notice a much darker side to her husband.


This book explores heavy themes and subject matters. I would recommend researching the trigger warnings.

This novella was so beautifully written and atmospheric. It’s a perfect Autumnal spooky season read. 

I am keen to read more of S.T Gibson’s work.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Gaslighting, and War

Minor: Confinement, Mental illness, Sexual content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

natashaleighton_'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Stalking

Minor: Infidelity, Misogyny, and Gaslighting

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

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

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

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.

anapthine's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Incest, Fire/Fire injury, and War

kelleykamanda's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-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

2.5

I wanted to like this but found it incredibly slow. Interesting themes but overall kind of cringey and sad. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Violence, Blood, and War

Minor: Medical trauma and Stalking

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

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

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

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

rebeccaxpaige's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Murder, and Gaslighting

obrooke1's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Gaslighting