A review by purrson
Love Immortal by Kit Vincent

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

4.0

I’m new to Kit Vincent’s work, and enjoyed Love Immortal. I found it a satisfying read—I had difficulty putting it down at one point. It’s a spooky, dark yet hopeful fantasy-horror romance. Great for the start of October, reflective and generally well-paced, with compelling mystery and satisfying romance. Spice level is 3/5 IMO.

Full review and critique below with mild spoilers of the general plot & characters (spoiler tags used)

Love Immortal focuses on the young Jonathan Evergreen, a queer college student in 1987 Vermont trying to focus on the present—and his future—in a subject he loves. Yet his psyche and heart are still largely submerged in the past, in the heartbreaking pain and loneliness of being completely disowned and abandoned upon discovery of his sexuality two years earlier in a forced outing. Jonathan’s trauma over being outed, shunned, and heartbroken leaves him wary of seeking out other queer students or living more openly. Although we’re told early on that he’s now largely safe from homophobia (the state’s got a liberal reputation, and his campus hosts an active, thriving Gay & Lesbian Alliance), he balks at breaking out of his shell, with only one close friend with similar outsider status who makes a regular appearance throughout the book but largely stays out of the fantasy plot line.

To get my main critique out of the way:
I found it curious (and disappointing) that author Kit Vincent didn’t ground this very queer horror-romance more firmly in the time period—especially given the AIDS crisis. By the late 1980s AIDS was still an enormous threat to public health and queer activists were still working hard for attention, and gaining it—the AIDS Memorial Quilt was first displayed in October of 1987 in DC. I would have loved for this story to have felt more grounded in its time—what would its main characters feel about that outpouring of queer anguish, grief, death, and societal condemnation amidst so much discussion of gothic literature? Instead we get a few descriptions of 1980s fashion & cars, and an idealistic active Gay and Lesbian Alliance on a largely accepting, safe campus. The only open homophobes are the privileged & wealthy straight legacy students, acting along predictable lines. The story could have been set 15 years earlier or 10 years later without any substantial changes.

That aside, Love Immortal does a good job establishing Jonathan in his world—much attention is paid to his self-driven academic focus; his solitary nature and love for books all felt genuine, and while actual conservation never really shows up, his passions feel real, and the setting of the school’s famous rare books collection made me want to visit my local library. Jonathan’s inner life, though, is tormented. Night after night Jonathan’s dreams are haunted
relentlessly by his former lover, making him relive his anguish, keeping him from recovering or moving on.
When Dacian Bathory shows up on campus, hauntingly beautiful, dark but intense and alive, he and Jonathan seem to have an instant, intense connection. Much of the book focuses on
their mutual appreciation of gothic literature, which Bathory has shown up suddenly to teach—potentially disrupting Jonathan’s studies and academic future. Soon disruption is everywhere—the school library is missing a rare book, the campus’ safety is shattered, and as Jonathan’s dreamscape is slowly disrupted too, he begins to feel the fantastical threatening to creep into his waking life.


There are some obvious villains tinted with an edge of fantasy too—
the small friend group of privileged, extremely wealthy young men deemed ‘the legacies’ for their  admission status, who don’t have to follow the rules of university life like everyone else. They’re a mash up of several 1980s movie stereotypes together in one small group: a preppy one who has bleached hair & an earring, a rock n roll one with a mullet, and a jock one, all three bathed in toxic masculinity, anger issues, and something a little bit more menacing.


Love Immortal doesn’t spend too much time in the mundane before delving into its fantasy elements and mysteries unfolding around Jonathan. Some (or most) mysteries are solved fairly quickly and easily, with clear enough foreshadowing that you can guess what may happen next, but the novel stays committed to developing its gothic vibes and chemistry between Jonathan and Dacian, and its strongest and most interesting points come when the two of them are together, interacting. For me, the weakest point in the novel hit about midpoint, when Jonathan privately lays out his theories on who the vampire is and what has been going on, and it gets a little too hammy for my taste. But the story doesn’t linger there, and Vincent does a good job making something unique and tragic out of popular Dracula lore. 

The romance was developed well, for all the fantastical elements it doesn’t feel too rushed, and the stakes are high enough that when the Big Bad of the story is confronted, it isn’t a walk in the park for our protagonists. 

While the story wraps up well, the ending felt a bit rushed to me, as I would have liked to see more connection between our love interests at the very end. Vincent gives us queer joy though, and that is enough for me. 

Thank you to Kit Vincent and NetGalley for this ARC of Love Immortal.
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