A review by azrah786
A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

4.25

 [This review can also be found on my BLOG]

**I received a proof copy from Orbit Books UK in exchange for an honest review**

CW: violence, blood, gore, self harm, body horror, murder, consensual sexual content, emotional and physical abuse, gaslighting, war, famine, plague, alcohol, depression, sexual assault, drug use, drowning
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So many friends have been giving this book high praise over the last year and now having read it I couldn’t agree with them all more!

Dark and heartfelt, A Dowry of Blood is a recount of the life and marriage of one of Dracula’s brides over the course of hundreds of years written as an open letter to her sire and it enthralled me from the opening chapter.

This is a gothic romance with a well-established polyamorous relationship that includes moments that are as steamy as they are bloody but more significantly it is a romance that depicts the multifaceted nature of love, from the glamourous to the ghastly.

"Love is violence, my darling; it is a thunderstorm that tears apart your world. More often than not, love ends in tragedy, but we go on loving in the hope that this time, it will be different."


If you’re not a fan of flowery prose then the writing may not be your kind of thing but I felt like the lyrical tone effortlessly captured both the gothic ambiance of the story as well as all the rich tapestry of emotions of the protagonist. The deep and personal nature to everything Constanta was putting down on page gave each chapter a diary entry like feel, thus I thought Gibson’s choice of narration style was perfect.

What is maybe the most interesting narrative decision in this alternate perspective / reinterpretation of the story of Dracula though is that for the whole book he is left nameless. A very clever detail in a story such as this one and a power move that had me warming to Constanta almost immediately.

Constanta’s reminiscence portrays her experiences, and by association those of her fellow consorts Magdalena and Alexi, as she slowly chipped away at her rose tinted view of her new life to expose the toxic and abusive relationship that they were all trapped in. From the adoration during Constanta’s early years of immortal life and all its wonder, to the conflicting shades of envy that enter the relationship along with the new additions to the household, to the fierce protectiveness that comes when her husband’s actions so laced in secrecy and manipulation more clearly threaten the family that she has found – the writing is so beautifully emotive you feel it all.

"I was no woman; I was merely a supplicant, a pilgrim who had stumbled across your dark altar and was doomed to worship it for ever."


One of the only drawbacks was that even though the overall gothic atmosphere was captured really well, the locations that the characters moved to over the years never felt specific enough to stand out and the same goes for the time period. Sometimes countries were name dropped but otherwise on the “worldbuilding” side there was much to be desired.

That aside the characters were fantastic, the vampire lore felt fresh whilst sticking to its traditional roots and as I’ve made quite clear already the storytelling was just remarkable.
I will definitely be looking to pick up Gibson’s other/ future work!
Final Rating – 4.25/5 Stars 
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