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A review by eggcatsreads
Lucy Undying by Kiersten White
5.0
Compelling, bloody, and intricate - Lucy Undying mixes up the standard Dracula story and will keep you guessing until the end about who will come out of this story alive.
“My name is Lucy Westenra, and this is my story.”
Told through three distinct timelines - Lucy’s diary, her own retelling of her story after her death, and current day - we slowly begin to piece together the story of Lucy Westenra, and what actually happened after her death in the story of Dracula. As we begin to unfold Lucy’s bloody history, we are introduced to another character - Iris Goldaming - who is the unfortunate CEO of a sinister MLM, and seemingly cannot escape her calling. When these two collide it’s an instant romance, but with both of them hiding deadly secrets from the other it seems doomed to fail. As we learn more about Lucy’s life after death, Iris and Lucy are ever drawn to each other and might be the one thing able to keep this story from becoming a tragedy.
I loved how this story was written, with it being interspersed by journal entries, therapist discussions, and even some internal monologue from Dracula himself. I found this writing style to brilliantly bring all the moving pieces in this story together like a well-oiled machine, and there were multiple times I had to pause to register what was going on when one of these pieces were cleverly inserted into the current-day storyline.
I was enthralled from the beginning, and this book was excellent at bread-crumbing more and more information at the end of a chapter right before a timeline or POV switch - making it extremely difficult to put this book down and constantly needing to find out what happens next. I also loved the inclusion of a sinister MLM lurking in the background, and the bits and pieces we (as the reader) are fed about it, until we can finally understand why Iris is so desperate to escape their clutches - and why they are so desperate to hold onto her by any means necessary.
While I, personally, love introspective stories with heavy inner dialogue, I can see this story not working for you if you don’t find a writing style compelling. A great deal of this novel is told through either Lucy or Iris’ internal monologue, as well as journal entries and a conversation/confessional with a therapist, and only the parts with more action feature direct dialogue and action between characters. While the plot in this story is compelling in itself, a great deal of this novel I would classify as more of a character study of a character who was cheated out of life in the original Dracula story, and is then forced to adjust to her afterlife as an undead vampire.
In my opinion, the only weak point in this novel was some parts of the romance between Iris and Lucy. It was never unbelievable, but the timeline of this novel is relatively very short and they very quickly fall into each other and become one another’s confidants, which I found to be a bit unbelievable. In the same way, Iris very quickly becomes friends with a cab driver she had met for only 30 minutes, and while I greatly enjoyed his character I felt he might have jumped just a bit too quickly into helping this woman he doesn’t know. However, neither of these things took enjoyment away from the story and were distracting enough to make this book any less than a 5 star read to me.
I loved this novel, but I could see how someone who loves all the characters within Dracula - and not just Lucy - might have some issues with this book. However, with this being a re-imagining and a retelling, I think you should absolutely give this book a chance to wow you with its story, like it did to me. Lucy Westenra truly grows from the hunted young woman who died in Dracula into a hunter herself, finding herself along the way and forging her own path.
A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine/Del Rey for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
“My name is Lucy Westenra, and this is my story.”
Told through three distinct timelines - Lucy’s diary, her own retelling of her story after her death, and current day - we slowly begin to piece together the story of Lucy Westenra, and what actually happened after her death in the story of Dracula. As we begin to unfold Lucy’s bloody history, we are introduced to another character - Iris Goldaming - who is the unfortunate CEO of a sinister MLM, and seemingly cannot escape her calling. When these two collide it’s an instant romance, but with both of them hiding deadly secrets from the other it seems doomed to fail. As we learn more about Lucy’s life after death, Iris and Lucy are ever drawn to each other and might be the one thing able to keep this story from becoming a tragedy.
I loved how this story was written, with it being interspersed by journal entries, therapist discussions, and even some internal monologue from Dracula himself. I found this writing style to brilliantly bring all the moving pieces in this story together like a well-oiled machine, and there were multiple times I had to pause to register what was going on when one of these pieces were cleverly inserted into the current-day storyline.
I was enthralled from the beginning, and this book was excellent at bread-crumbing more and more information at the end of a chapter right before a timeline or POV switch - making it extremely difficult to put this book down and constantly needing to find out what happens next. I also loved the inclusion of a sinister MLM lurking in the background, and the bits and pieces we (as the reader) are fed about it, until we can finally understand why Iris is so desperate to escape their clutches - and why they are so desperate to hold onto her by any means necessary.
While I, personally, love introspective stories with heavy inner dialogue, I can see this story not working for you if you don’t find a writing style compelling. A great deal of this novel is told through either Lucy or Iris’ internal monologue, as well as journal entries and a conversation/confessional with a therapist, and only the parts with more action feature direct dialogue and action between characters. While the plot in this story is compelling in itself, a great deal of this novel I would classify as more of a character study of a character who was cheated out of life in the original Dracula story, and is then forced to adjust to her afterlife as an undead vampire.
In my opinion, the only weak point in this novel was some parts of the romance between Iris and Lucy. It was never unbelievable, but the timeline of this novel is relatively very short and they very quickly fall into each other and become one another’s confidants, which I found to be a bit unbelievable. In the same way, Iris very quickly becomes friends with a cab driver she had met for only 30 minutes, and while I greatly enjoyed his character I felt he might have jumped just a bit too quickly into helping this woman he doesn’t know. However, neither of these things took enjoyment away from the story and were distracting enough to make this book any less than a 5 star read to me.
I loved this novel, but I could see how someone who loves all the characters within Dracula - and not just Lucy - might have some issues with this book. However, with this being a re-imagining and a retelling, I think you should absolutely give this book a chance to wow you with its story, like it did to me. Lucy Westenra truly grows from the hunted young woman who died in Dracula into a hunter herself, finding herself along the way and forging her own path.
A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine/Del Rey for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.