This book was really really good. I’m still obsessed with Bram Stoker’s Dracula and this reimagining put a new spin on it that I wasn’t fully prepared for but that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

My pretty much only concern was that Iris was a bit too edgy millennial core for me. The plot can take place in 2024 without making the characters annoying in that regard!! The occasional cringe is what made the book lose that last 0.5 star for me. That is also one of the main reasons why I much preferred Lucy’s POV chapters. Iris also held onto the “my family has a deep dark secret…” spiel a bit too long for my liking;

it’s a reimagining of THE vampire novel,

I understood that the secret was

about vampires

way earlier than the reveal and that felt very unnecessary. Just let the reader know. 

Lucy’s chapters were really great, I loved every version of them: the journal entries from her life in the 19th century, the flashbacks in the therapist transcripts, the ‘now’. She was a very fleshed out character, partly new due to Kiersten White’s take on the character, but at the same time she felt true enough to Bram Stoker’s character. I really loved her. 

The lack of bodily autonomy (and autonomy in general) in Lucy’s life was portrayed so well, it was so terrifying. I didn’t really think of it like that while reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula,

which may be due to the fact that the characters around her weren’t evil in his work, but still!

A really good angle from Kiersten White. It pained me a bit to read about Mina in particular, because I adore her in Dracula, but I’m willing to forgive this characterisation because it was a really cool story that intrigued me all the way through. I almost missed my train stop once because I was so engrossed in the book.