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tapewormhaver 's review for:
A Dowry of Blood
by S.T. Gibson
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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
thanks public library for making this review possible 🫡
“It would be easier if he hated us,” she said. “But he loves us all terribly. And if we go on letting him love us, that love is going to kill us. Thats what makes him so dangerous.”
SPOILERS ALL THROUGH THE REVIEW
first of all BISEXUAL WIN. second of all i was definitely imagining Ellen from Nosferatu 2024 as Constanta.
okay. but actually. i have mixed feelings on this one. very mixed. i want to say i read most of it while not feeling great. but i'm not the kind of person who will table a book for when i'm feeling better, because then i would never read it. but i just bring that up to say its very possible for my review to be influenced by my mood. then again, none of us are objective readers. OK, lets get into it.
i really liked and thought this book was really realistic about the aspects of abuse. WHICH IS GOOD BECAUSE thats the main theme of the book. like if we look at the things that set Dracula off. he gets upset at Constanta and Maggie for hunting together, accusing them of 'cheating.' He gets angry when questioned, and is okay with intimidating them to get what he wants out of them. We also see him weaponize sex against Alexi in a sex scene that didn't seem entirely consensual. we also see everyone, especially Constanta, just getting "used" to the abuse. she lives for him; her whole life is regulating his moods, and eventually protecting the others from him. I really appreciated the depictions of different kinds of reactions to abuse. Constanta usually fawns, giving in to whatever he wants to avoid his ire. Maggie fawns too, but more startling she becomes depressed for long periods of time. and then Alexi represents pure unabashed anger. No matter how many times Dracula tells him off, he fights back. and it *never stops him from being abused.* this part is so important. people often look towards abused people and say, why didn't she fight back? Alexi did, and it never helped. in fact, it ended up making things much worse for all of them. and towards the end when they finally decide to kill Dracula, he's seconds away from being staked and trying all his manipulation tactics (love, anger, fake vulnerability) and Constanta STILL doesn't know which Dracula is the real him. that part is so real. like you never know what is the true face of your abuser.
so all of that was really great. but there were a few problems i had with everything. for one, i'm not sure if this needed to be told epistolary style. i do LIKE it in this style. especially as it mirrors the original dracula novel. but i felt the author didn't really play into the strengths of the style and it just kind of felt like there was no real reason to be written like this. i definitely see the utility in being able to have hindsight and say "things were good, but he would treat me badly later" only, it's only used to say little things about how bad he was. it dosen't make any interesting observations that we didn't already know. i enjoyed it in this style, but i also would have enjoyed it being a bit more subtle, getting more immersed in her mindset to the point that maybe Dracula even manipulates the reader a bit. rather than constantly hammering it down our throats and reminding us that he's abusive. just. let me read and make that decision for myself. i will say i did enjoy the second person POV, though i can't really put into words why.
another thing, i found the amount of times that the story just. STOPS. for Constanta to remind us how in love she is with Dracula, to be a bit obnoxious. i would have preferred if her love were peppered in between moments, instead of stopping the action to remind us that she was head over heels. speaking of love, I also was a bit blindsided by the love story between Constanta and Magdalena. The other two love stories felt that they made sense. her love of Dracula was trauma and fear based. her love for Alexei was motherly, protection based. but her love with Magdalena didn't really make sense to me. the way they start off, Constanta is hating and jealous of Maggie for essentially stealing Dracula's affections. Dracula decides to make her his wife, and then Constanta just eventually.... gets used to and falls in love with her. how? why? nothing had really changed for them to fall in love that way.
this novel also REALLY hammers home this incest theme for some reason. I could see it as a weird twisted mind game that Dracula is playing with them, for instance it makes sense when they refer to Dracula as father-like or a paternal figure who controls their household. but why did the book need to keep reminding us that Maggie and Connie are 'sisters' who fuck? Or that Connie sees Alexi like a child/son but can't stop herself from fucking him? these kinds of feelings come up completely without Draculas input sometimes too. at one point Maggie and Connie do a blood ritual and announce each other as sisters and then they fuck literally on the next page. along the same lines, why does every single romance scene have to end in sex? they can’t tell each other that they love one another without having sex immediately after. sex is how the book ends, too, so you can’t say its Dracula’s influence. idk, i am someone who feels that sex is very overused in media (especially movies) in place of genuine romantic connection.
i did really like the ending. Dracula trying every manipulation in the book he knows to get out of being staked is, again, very realistic for abuse survivors. he tries being angry, sad, forgiving, and fake vulnerability before we see real fear from him. it’s a realistic and satisfying conclusion, as is the part where the ladies go to visit Alexi in NY. i liked that the story allowed Alexi to be vulnerable and to feel things that don’t necessarily make sense, and to seek and be given reassurance from the others. I appreciated that, because often trauma affects our emotions in ways that don’t make any sense.
also shout out to this book for giving me inspiration for a vampire character im working on
“It would be easier if he hated us,” she said. “But he loves us all terribly. And if we go on letting him love us, that love is going to kill us. Thats what makes him so dangerous.”
SPOILERS ALL THROUGH THE REVIEW
first of all BISEXUAL WIN. second of all i was definitely imagining Ellen from Nosferatu 2024 as Constanta.
okay. but actually. i have mixed feelings on this one. very mixed. i want to say i read most of it while not feeling great. but i'm not the kind of person who will table a book for when i'm feeling better, because then i would never read it. but i just bring that up to say its very possible for my review to be influenced by my mood. then again, none of us are objective readers. OK, lets get into it.
i really liked and thought this book was really realistic about the aspects of abuse. WHICH IS GOOD BECAUSE thats the main theme of the book. like if we look at the things that set Dracula off. he gets upset at Constanta and Maggie for hunting together, accusing them of 'cheating.' He gets angry when questioned, and is okay with intimidating them to get what he wants out of them. We also see him weaponize sex against Alexi in a sex scene that didn't seem entirely consensual. we also see everyone, especially Constanta, just getting "used" to the abuse. she lives for him; her whole life is regulating his moods, and eventually protecting the others from him. I really appreciated the depictions of different kinds of reactions to abuse. Constanta usually fawns, giving in to whatever he wants to avoid his ire. Maggie fawns too, but more startling she becomes depressed for long periods of time. and then Alexi represents pure unabashed anger. No matter how many times Dracula tells him off, he fights back. and it *never stops him from being abused.* this part is so important. people often look towards abused people and say, why didn't she fight back? Alexi did, and it never helped. in fact, it ended up making things much worse for all of them. and towards the end when they finally decide to kill Dracula, he's seconds away from being staked and trying all his manipulation tactics (love, anger, fake vulnerability) and Constanta STILL doesn't know which Dracula is the real him. that part is so real. like you never know what is the true face of your abuser.
so all of that was really great. but there were a few problems i had with everything. for one, i'm not sure if this needed to be told epistolary style. i do LIKE it in this style. especially as it mirrors the original dracula novel. but i felt the author didn't really play into the strengths of the style and it just kind of felt like there was no real reason to be written like this. i definitely see the utility in being able to have hindsight and say "things were good, but he would treat me badly later" only, it's only used to say little things about how bad he was. it dosen't make any interesting observations that we didn't already know. i enjoyed it in this style, but i also would have enjoyed it being a bit more subtle, getting more immersed in her mindset to the point that maybe Dracula even manipulates the reader a bit. rather than constantly hammering it down our throats and reminding us that he's abusive. just. let me read and make that decision for myself. i will say i did enjoy the second person POV, though i can't really put into words why.
another thing, i found the amount of times that the story just. STOPS. for Constanta to remind us how in love she is with Dracula, to be a bit obnoxious. i would have preferred if her love were peppered in between moments, instead of stopping the action to remind us that she was head over heels. speaking of love, I also was a bit blindsided by the love story between Constanta and Magdalena. The other two love stories felt that they made sense. her love of Dracula was trauma and fear based. her love for Alexei was motherly, protection based. but her love with Magdalena didn't really make sense to me. the way they start off, Constanta is hating and jealous of Maggie for essentially stealing Dracula's affections. Dracula decides to make her his wife, and then Constanta just eventually.... gets used to and falls in love with her. how? why? nothing had really changed for them to fall in love that way.
this novel also REALLY hammers home this incest theme for some reason. I could see it as a weird twisted mind game that Dracula is playing with them, for instance it makes sense when they refer to Dracula as father-like or a paternal figure who controls their household. but why did the book need to keep reminding us that Maggie and Connie are 'sisters' who fuck? Or that Connie sees Alexi like a child/son but can't stop herself from fucking him? these kinds of feelings come up completely without Draculas input sometimes too. at one point Maggie and Connie do a blood ritual and announce each other as sisters and then they fuck literally on the next page. along the same lines, why does every single romance scene have to end in sex? they can’t tell each other that they love one another without having sex immediately after. sex is how the book ends, too, so you can’t say its Dracula’s influence. idk, i am someone who feels that sex is very overused in media (especially movies) in place of genuine romantic connection.
i did really like the ending. Dracula trying every manipulation in the book he knows to get out of being staked is, again, very realistic for abuse survivors. he tries being angry, sad, forgiving, and fake vulnerability before we see real fear from him. it’s a realistic and satisfying conclusion, as is the part where the ladies go to visit Alexi in NY. i liked that the story allowed Alexi to be vulnerable and to feel things that don’t necessarily make sense, and to seek and be given reassurance from the others. I appreciated that, because often trauma affects our emotions in ways that don’t make any sense.
also shout out to this book for giving me inspiration for a vampire character im working on
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse