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A review by thereadingraccoon
Lucy Undying by Kiersten White
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Lucy Undying is a vampire fiction novel about Lucy Westenra, one of the victims in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
The story is told through multiple points of view: Lucy’s journals from the late 1890s, where she’s an upper-class girl in love with her governess; an interview Lucy gives to a woman named Vanessa in the present day; and Iris, a young woman in 2024 running from her inheritance of her mother’s cult/wellness MLM.
The amount of information withheld from the reader about both Lucy and Iris makes this a confusing and difficult book to enjoy. Lucy’s story is told from both 1890 onward via her journals, but also at different points in the 20th century through her interview with Vanessa. We know very little about Iris, except that she’s inherited property she’s trying to claim in the UK while remaining cash poor and staying off the radar of her mother’s MLM goons from Utah. Iris is barely scraping by in a strange country, living in an abandoned house with no electricity, yet somehow instantly makes friends on her first day of arrival with her taxi driver, Rahul, and Elle, an attractive woman she bumps into on the street. She spends the next few days (or weeks?) dodging her mother’s people, scouring the property for valuables, and reading Lucy’s journal. Through the journals and Lucy’s interview, we learn about her years spent traveling the world, seeking her lost governess love, Mina, and her maker, Dracula.
I really wanted to enjoy this book. The cover is stunning, and vampires are always a hit. But it felt much longer than it actually was. The pacing was off, and it felt like nothing happened for long periods of time. By the time the action did pick up, I no longer cared. I didn’t feel any chemistry or romantic tension between Elle and Iris, and the entire MLM cult and the family connections went over my head. Sadly, this one was a complete miss for me.
The story is told through multiple points of view: Lucy’s journals from the late 1890s, where she’s an upper-class girl in love with her governess; an interview Lucy gives to a woman named Vanessa in the present day; and Iris, a young woman in 2024 running from her inheritance of her mother’s cult/wellness MLM.
The amount of information withheld from the reader about both Lucy and Iris makes this a confusing and difficult book to enjoy. Lucy’s story is told from both 1890 onward via her journals, but also at different points in the 20th century through her interview with Vanessa. We know very little about Iris, except that she’s inherited property she’s trying to claim in the UK while remaining cash poor and staying off the radar of her mother’s MLM goons from Utah. Iris is barely scraping by in a strange country, living in an abandoned house with no electricity, yet somehow instantly makes friends on her first day of arrival with her taxi driver, Rahul, and Elle, an attractive woman she bumps into on the street. She spends the next few days (or weeks?) dodging her mother’s people, scouring the property for valuables, and reading Lucy’s journal. Through the journals and Lucy’s interview, we learn about her years spent traveling the world, seeking her lost governess love, Mina, and her maker, Dracula.
I really wanted to enjoy this book. The cover is stunning, and vampires are always a hit. But it felt much longer than it actually was. The pacing was off, and it felt like nothing happened for long periods of time. By the time the action did pick up, I no longer cared. I didn’t feel any chemistry or romantic tension between Elle and Iris, and the entire MLM cult and the family connections went over my head. Sadly, this one was a complete miss for me.