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kaiyakaiyo'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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Drug use and Alcohol
maddiereadswords's review against another edition
5.0
I loved quite literally everything about this book. The writing is poetic and beautiful, I enjoyed both Laura and Carmilla as characters, and frankly I too would risk it all for a hot older vampire with too much of her own shit going on. The atmosphere was simply incredible, and even though it took me longer to read than I expected, I found myself savoring every second of the experience. There were some minor details that I could nit pick, and I do wish that this book was like a hundred pages longer so that the actual plot portion of the third act could have been a little more fleshed out, but my enjoyment and love for it as a whole won out. I'm literally never going to stop thinking about this book, and I know I'll be revisiting it time and again in the future.
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Alcohol and Injury/Injury detail
breakingbudd's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
Moderate: Death
skypotion's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Also, if you're worried about homophobia, don't be. It's in the background, as this is set in the 60's, but neither girl is put in a situation where they have to experience it for themselves.
If you have any concerns about the Toxic Relationship TW:
If you're curious about any potential Dowry crossovers:
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Blood
Minor: Abandonment
charleyyyyy's review against another edition
3.0
🌹I love the concept of this book, but the execution leaves something to be desired. The themes seemed underdeveloped,
I didn't love the charicters, and there was barely any plot to even be interested in. The scraps of plot that we did get felt underdeveloped and rushed. It had so much potential but none of it was used to its full extent.
🖤I did like the dynamic of their relationships.
I liked how Carmilla and Laura work as a couple, and especially how the kinkyer aspects of their interests come together. Although, that was also something I wanted more of, I did enjoy how their feelings towards dom/sub dynamics were explored on an individual level,
"I was, I knew full well, a creature composed of strange desires. They'd always been with me, these hungers."
"Love and pain grew in a thorny Grove inside me, impossible to disentangle from one another."
🥀The toxic relationship between Carmilla and De Lafontaine was written well, and I enjoyed the way that theme was explored. Along with Laura coming into that toxic mix as well.
" 'Don't you think it's wrong though? What she does to her students?'
'Right and wrong don't exist, Laura. They're fairy tales made up by priests and parents. There is only art and ugliness, and I'm willing to suffer and indignity for the sake of art. Even at the hands of Mrs D.' "
🍷I wouldn't normally read a retelling of a classic I love, but I needn't have worried because this book barely has anything in common with Carmilla. The only similarities are the charicters names and the presence of vampires. Its a retelling of Carmilla in the same way The Love Hypothesis is a retelling of Star Wars: it felt like fanfic.
So what was the point of writing a retelling of a book when you aren't going to add anything or say anything or have anything in common with the original??
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Blood
shadowspinner'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
4.5
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Blood
Moderate: Toxic relationship
summermorning's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Alcohol
Moderate: Death
Minor: Vomit
briij's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Death, Blood, and Murder
bookameme's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Dark, Gripping, & Stimulating
Quote:📖
In the end, I stayed. I had the awful, yawning feeling inside myself that for her, I would always stay.
Thoughts: 💡
The first chapter had a slightly slow and meandering feel to it, but as soon as the story dove into the rivals to lovers vibes I was hooked. There is this moment of intense attraction that quickly burns into rivals that grabbed all of my attention in a sharp flash and from that point on the story had a fast and dark vibe, and I adored every minute of it. The imagery and poetry that permeated everything was spectacular. It was very LGBT positive but still recognized the struggle of marginalized people in the time period. I can’t sing enough praises for this story.
Writing Mechanics: ✍️
The plot is inspired and the language used and structure of it all is brilliant. All the characters were beautifully developed with rich backstories and deep motivations. There were points of the story that were so eloquently written that I had to reread and ruminate on the context and beauty of it. And the poetry! Gah! I can’t sing the praises of it enough! Everything in this book was spectacular!
Fun Bits:
⚜️ Sapphic Vampires
⚜️ Academic Rivals
⚜️ Needing to Please The Teacher
⚜️ Beautiful Poetry
⚜️ Sizzling Romance
⚜️ Plus Size Heroine
Important Note:✨
Standalone companion novel to A Dowery of Blood.
Full Content Warning:⚠️
Uneven Power Dynamics, Inappropriate Relationships Between Professor & Students, Toxic Academic Environments, Blood, Gore, and Murder, Alcohol and Drug Use, Smoking, Racist Political Policies, Homophobia, Religious Discrimination Against Women
Stats:📊
🌶️🌶️🌶️
Characters: 💙💙💙💙💙
Dark Historical Fantasy: Dark Academia, Sapphic Romance, Academic Rivals to Lovers, Vampires, Mystery Vibes
First Person, Present Tense, Dual POV
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Moderate: Death of parent
jems_'s review against another edition
4.75
I had heard about this book before, as well as the author’s other work, though I had not read or otherwise consumed any of it myself so far. This was thus my first encounter with S.T. Gibson.
That said, listening to this was a very pleasant experience. The narrator, Stephanie Cannon, did an amazing job of the voices and has a beautiful voice. Multiple times I went back in the audiobook to hear her narrate professor De Lafontaine because it sounded like an entirely different person. It greatly helped immerse me in the story.
Going into this, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect of the story, especially the relationship between the professor and her students. On that, I am still not entirely certain what I think, though although strange, technically nothing too damnable happened in that aspect which I appreciate. (By damnable I‘m mostly referring to anything explicit since I don’t know how I would’ve felt about that. That aside the relationship was still really toxic! However, I don’t think the book acknowledged it as anything but if I‘m not mistaken which is important.)
I did really enjoy the relationship between Carmilla and Laura. As a very loyal and faithful person myself, unfaithfulness is generally something I can’t tolerate and there was at least one instance in this book that tested me in that regard. However, surprisingly it didn’t make me drop and dnf it like I would other books until now so that definitely says something. I think the other party‘s reaction influenced my own reaction to it as well, but that’s as much as I want to say on that to not spoiler too much!
Overall, I enjoyed the narrative style and the writing as it was read beautifully was nice and not too complicated. The characters were fleshed out with interesting, albeit a bit strange dynamics, though those were a big point of the story anyways and weren’t supposed to be the most healthy.
In my opinion it was a very nice experience and I‘m very grateful I got approved for this ARC!
Moderate: Confinement, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Blood
Minor: Death, Abandonment, and Alcohol