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laurenlanz 's review for:
A Dowry of Blood
by S.T. Gibson
This was more of a pretty painting than a story with any substance. A meandering plot with nothing exciting brought to fruition, as if the author planned around an aesthetic and not a storyline.
There was nothing definitive about any of these characters; not 'Dracula', our protagonist Constance, Magdalena or Alexei. They all felt rather hollow, as if meant to enhance the gothic finery and the beautiful halls they resided in rather than to stand on their own. I've seen so many people rave about the gorgeous writing in this book, but even that didn't live up to the hype for me, since there was hardly any world-building given the vast amount of world travelling our main characters partake in. All that was well described were the characters or the interiors of the homes they stayed in, which didn't make for a very immersive novel.
Even the romance fell flat. Constance, Magdalena and Alexei are all victims of their overbearing and emotionally abusive vampire sire, and find some solace in each other, but considering none of them had much going on outside of their entanglements with each other (and I understand that that's the point of the book), I couldn't bring myself to care for any of it. The narrative choice of having Constance recount her life in the form of a letter to her unnamed vampire keeper was in my opinion a disservice to the story; I think dual POVs would have at least given Alexei and Magdalena a little bit more of a distinct personality.
I'm honestly surprised at how much hype this novel has received, especially considering how much better her character development is in her later book Evocation. My first mistake may have been reading that first, since I know how great her character work is when she writes multiple-POVs. Either way, this was a real let down.
There was nothing definitive about any of these characters; not 'Dracula', our protagonist Constance, Magdalena or Alexei. They all felt rather hollow, as if meant to enhance the gothic finery and the beautiful halls they resided in rather than to stand on their own. I've seen so many people rave about the gorgeous writing in this book, but even that didn't live up to the hype for me, since there was hardly any world-building given the vast amount of world travelling our main characters partake in. All that was well described were the characters or the interiors of the homes they stayed in, which didn't make for a very immersive novel.
Even the romance fell flat. Constance, Magdalena and Alexei are all victims of their overbearing and emotionally abusive vampire sire, and find some solace in each other, but considering none of them had much going on outside of their entanglements with each other (and I understand that that's the point of the book), I couldn't bring myself to care for any of it. The narrative choice of having Constance recount her life in the form of a letter to her unnamed vampire keeper was in my opinion a disservice to the story; I think dual POVs would have at least given Alexei and Magdalena a little bit more of a distinct personality.
I'm honestly surprised at how much hype this novel has received, especially considering how much better her character development is in her later book Evocation. My first mistake may have been reading that first, since I know how great her character work is when she writes multiple-POVs. Either way, this was a real let down.