I'm going to go INSANE out of love for this book. S.T. Gibson I owe you my life. The way grief and longing and desire and fear and anger are all intertwined just feels so raw and real. The book is short, but every character is imbued with so much life and meaning that it feels much longer. Gibson gives us a very real sense of who the core of each character is and how, exactly, our antagonist strips them each of it.

For example, Magdalena, whose desire for freedom and intellectual stimulation are stolen from her, leaving her weak and ill:

I thought that she was simply fading away the way flowers denied sunlight droop and die. Magdalena lived for her freedom, and with it taken away from her, life lost its luster.

Or Alexi, who thrives on connection with others and a love of the arts, who Dracula systematically separates from any connection or opportunities to perform outside of their own small sphere:

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one around here who remembers anything. The taste of food, the feel of warm skin, the sound of laughter.

And Constanta. As the narrator, we get the deepest sense of her character, and I just... I love her so, so much. As the oldest of Dracula's lovers at this particular time, we see how consistently she struggles to be a person of her own with the oppressive shadow of her lover looming darkly overhead. She wants so badly to be something, anything, that she is willing to take on any role to be of use: becoming a caregiver to Magdalena, an almost motherly figure to Alexi... And yet she has been stripped of any personhood outside of her use to others:

Nothing existed beyond the range of your exacting gaze, not even me. I was simply a non-entity when you weren't looking at me, an empty vessel waiting to be filled by the water of your attention.

I loved reading about this trio regaining their strength together, finding new love and renewed resilience despite the force working to break their spirits and will. It's especially refreshing to see Constanta reclaiming her own power—

You did not let me keep my name, so I will strip you of yours.

—but I like that Gibson doesn't stray away from the complexity of her relationship with Dracula, either. Even when the trio decides to murder him, Constanta shows remarkable complexity and depth of character in her reluctance to harm the man she's known and loved for so long depite all of the pain she and her loved ones have endured at her hands. I love that she doesn't ever seem eager to kill Dracula, or even harm him; she just wants to set the ones she loves free. And, for the first time in her long life, she realizes that she wants to do it for herself, too.

An Encore of Roses was also so, so sweet. I love these three so much and I love that we get to see them happy, but not without complication.

We three were made to fit together, and I am not entirely myself unless I am nestled between the two of them.