I read Dracula ages ago, but I remember getting lost in it, and that's what happened here. Loved the immersive vibe, vampire lore, characters, seamless world-building, and the bio-sci-fi angles. The pacing and humor were great, and even though the ending dragged, I'm glad I read it. 😍

 

Energy: Resilient. Playful. Wry. 

 

🐕 Howls The ending felt both dragged and rushed. It's long, and some parts felt unnecessary (mostly after the 70% mark). The vampires' aversion to tech felt forced (I know it's picky, but why adapt to other changes and not tech?).

 

🐩 Tail Wags Loved the bio-sci-fi vampirism and how vampire tropes were woven into the story. Iris's sarcastic humor. Enjoyed all perspectives without feeling pulled away from the 'good' one. The pacing (mostly) and 'Just one more chapter' feeling. Natural world-building. It left space for me to connect the dots and reminded me of the original Dracula without info-dumping. Historical but with a casual modern style (if you're a stickler for historical accuracy, this might be a flaw). Great chemistry between the main characters. Exploring lives across different eras.

 

Scene: 🇬🇧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇺🇸 🇨🇳 🇹🇷 🇳🇬 London and Whitby, England; Boston and Salt Lake City, USA; Liaoning China; Istanbul Turkey; Lagos Nigeria.

Perspectives (4): Dracula. A character turned into a vampire by Dracula while trying to protect their love-that-could-never-be through the decades, with journal entries from before they met Dracula in the 1800s. A character who just inherited the family wellness MLM but wants nothing to do with it. A character who joined the wellness MLM and works as a security guard there.

Timeline: Sept 2024-Oct 2025. 1890s leading up to 2024. 

🔥 Fuel: Will Iris escape the family business? What's with that MLM? What's Lucy's backstory? How does her life turn out? Will Iris's crush turn into something more? Will the romance fizzle out or are they fated to be together?

📖 Cred: Supernatural realism

 

Wood panel. Look right. Mausoleum. Thirst. Moonlight. 

 

Content Heads-Up: Dementia, hallucinations (brief; parent). Abusive, controlling, distant parent. Culty organization (bigoted, homophobic, racist). Sexual content (behind closed doors). Unrequited love, betrayal. Murder. Blood. Body horror, gore (brief, on page). Sleep paralysis. Sexual harassment, assault (unwanted advances). War (WWI; brief on page; battlefields, hospitals). Involuntary hospitalization (off page recall). Stalking, violence against women. Homophobia (historical; closeted, forced into heterosexual engagement).

 

Rep: American. British. Cis. Hetero. Lesbian. Gay. Pan. Pale white, cream-coloured, warm brown, rich dark brown, rich black, and honey skin tones. Autoimmune condition (kind of like cold agglutinin disease). 

📚 Format: Library Digital