A review by eggcatsreads
Bitter Waters by Vivian Shaw

5.0

A perfect little story to connect the events of Grave Importance to move towards Strange New World, this novella gave me everything I love in this series in a small bite-sized portion. I, unfortunately, wound up reading Strange New World before this novella, and while there were some references to this in the book, it was all explained through the text where you wouldn’t lose any understanding. 

However! Why would you want to miss this? We are given a glimpse into how Greta has been living at Dark Heart along with a closer look at Dracula, as well as those creatures living on the land. Lucy is a delightful child and we feel for her circumstances, and it was fun to see the foreboding and untouchable Count Dracul and his wife be suddenly inundated with questions from an inquisitive 10 year old - as well as how the wider vampiric society works. We get a closer look into Ruthven and Grisaille’s lives, as well as a glimpse into Ruthven’s inner thoughts and how he became the vampire he is today. 

All in all, I think anyone who enjoys these novels will have a blast revisiting these characters in this novella, and be excited to see where the story continues from this point in the next novel. 

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Orbit for providing this digital copy.