I’ve been a fan and Patreon supporter of My Life As A Background Slytherin for years, so I jumped mat the opportunity to review Emily’s first graphic novel. Full of vampire intrigue, desperate longing and Lord Byron, this is a delightful romp through Britain’s high society. I highly recommend it!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was not paid for this review.

This was a lot of fun and I loved all the characters.
The art style and a lot of the general sense of humour wasn't really to my taste but it had a few really funny moments that I enjoyed.

I really liked this graphic novel parody of classics and regency era fiction! I've bookmarked several parts because they were so damn funny and I found the simplistic, but very dynamic, art style added to the 'punch' in the punchline.

I think it's best to consume it in small doses, like I did from halfway through bec the running gags will have a tendency to go flat when read quickly all throughout. But that's just what worked for me, and it might only be a personal reading preference.

I also loved the diverse characters and their representations, which I thought were handled lightheartedly and funny at times, but still respectful and not unnecessarily cruel for the sake of comedy. There 's also parts that could've been gory (there's vamp blood everywhere, LOL) but the cutesy art made it easier to handle for a squeamish adult like me. And speaking of 'adult', despite the cartoonish presentation, this is definitely not for kids! LOL. (which is all the more reason to pick this up, tbh)

Get this if you need some laughs and are into period pieces and fiction that do not take itself too seriously. It's a gem. :)

*I received this eARC from the publisher thru NetGalley for an honest review.

Lucy is an excellent type of woman; when confronted with the reality of the life as a debutant and dealing with pathetic suitors, she takes matters into her own hands... by equipping herself with a sword, and laying waste to them all.

Luckily it just so happens they were all vampires, so she's praised for her quick thinking. By none other than Lord Byron, (“from books!”), who is quite handsome and as romantic as he seems in said books, but also turns out to be sadly self-obsessed and dismissive of Lucy's real talents.

Lucy also catches the attention of Lady Violet Travesty, the leader of a local vampire cult. She sees something in Lucy no one else can, but Lucy has always felt. All chosen one type of trope.

However, Lord Byron 'saves' her from Lady Violet Travesty, which actually discorporates her (rather than kills) as Sham (a mysterious vampire-hunter) soon explains. Sham is kinder to Lucy than Lord Byron is, and soon we can add love triangle to this book of tropes that does an excellent job at poking fun at them at the same time. (I mean, the answer is definitely Sham. She gets Lucy's jokes and is all dark and mysterious. It's easy, duh.) 

We have a rollicking tale that has amusing humour and throw-away lines that is quite a lot of fun, as can be expected from McGovern's excellent comics 'My Life as a Background Slytherin'. The artwork is simple yet effective, and while at times there is a lot of text they are known as graphic novels for a reason.

Before reading this, I assumed that this will be another adaption of Pride and Prejudice and Vampires but its so much better (and yet worst at times). The illustrations and colourings are surprisingly good. It took me a while to figure out the genders of the characters, but even after knowing it, i realised that it shouldn’t even be an issue to ponder upon. However one thing which i kinda dread is how long it is.... it’s soooo loooong, roughly it can be made into 3-4 volumes of normal graphic novels. I nearly DNF, but i totally ploughed through and ‘hate panned’ it.

Considering how much I love My Life as a Background Slytherin, it's really no wonder I smashed the request button when I saw the author was coming up with an original graphic novel. Especially since LGBT+ content and vampires are two of my biggest weaknesses.

All in all I enjoyed this book. Yes, there are some times when I felt it was dragging a bit, but there's also a lot of fun stuff that's worth noting.

McGovern stuck to her parodic style, in her drawing and in her story. Bloodlust & Bonnets pokes fun at many tropes, starting with Lucy, our special snowflake protagonist caught in a love triangle when she just wants to join this vampire cult because she's bored of her ordinary life. Add to that a narcissistic flamboyant poet, an emotionally stunted vampire hunter, a Jarvis-like castle, a French telepathic eagle and dramatic vampires, shake and bake, and voilà. Hilarious misunderstandings resulting in the most ridiculous situations, everyone having hidden agendas yet nothing going according to their plans and in this nonsense, growing friendships and figuring out who you are and what you want.

However some of it did feel like extra padding, lessening the comic effect of some punchlines. That being said, it's a fun and entertaining read if you like parodies.

"From the creator of the hit webcomic My Life as a Background Slytherin comes a hilarious graphic novel pastiche of classic Romantic literature led by a trio of queer misfits - and several angry vampires.

Set in early nineteenth-century Britain, Bloodlust and Bonnets follows Lucy, an unworldly debutante who desires a life of passion and intrigue - qualities which earn her the attention of Lady Violet Travesty, the leader of a local vampire cult.

But before Lucy can embark on her new life of vampiric debauchery, she finds herself unexpectedly thrown together with the flamboyant poet Lord Byron (“from books!”) and a mysterious bounty-hunter named Sham. The unlikely trio lie, flirt, fight, and manipulate each other as they make their way across Britain, disrupting society balls, slaying vampires, and making every effort not to betray their feelings to each other as their personal and romantic lives become increasingly entangled.

Both witty and slapstick, elegant and gory, Emily McGovern’s debut graphic novel pays tribute to and pokes fun at beloved romance tropes, delivering a joyous, action-packed world of friendship and adventure."

Firstly, if you haven't heard of My Life as a Background Slytherin, how are we friends? Secondly, this book has EVERYTHING I love, Lord Byron, Regency England, Vampires!

This debut graphic novel is witty, the characters are unique, but the plot was a bit all over the place. I felt like the characters were just doing the same thing over and over again, and it didn't seem to add to the story. I'd love to see these characters again, but with a tighter plot.

Lucy gains the attention of Lady Violet Travesty and soon finds herself on a journey to life to where she can live her life as a vampire. Soon, Lord Bryon joins her adventures and Sham. The trio's personality mesh together for an interesting adventure.

A historical graphic novel with a paranormal twist caught my attention quickly. I was excited to dive into this and then was sad as I ended up being disappointed.

One a positive note (before I get the my negatives), it did have moments that were humorous. It made me chuckle from time to time which is always a great relief. Also, it was a little gay, so yesssss.

The amount of words that filled each page felt was a lot for a graphic novel. It slowed it down and made it a little difficult to get through and slowly had me losing interest in it. I began to feel the text was taking away from the art and made me wonder if maybe this would have been better as a novella or novel with some of the art tucked in.

As for the story, it was a little messy and confusing. It didn't always seem to make sense and for some time I did forget about the main plot of Lucy wanting to met up with the vampire cult, which isn't usually a good look for anything.

From the messy plot and the overwhelming amount of words, Bloodlust & Bonnets didn't end up being for me.

Emily McGovern is pure wit and hilarious drama in her new book. She manages to take everything we love about every historical novel, adds some humor and vampires and BANG! you're laughing out loud while sitting in a coffee shop, very probably scaring the woman seated at the table behind you. This was a fantastic novel and I highly recommend it if you need a dose of adventure and snort laughter.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. The plot and the artwork was fun and colourful. I look forward to more from this author.

I was sent this book as an advance copy by the publisher via NetGalley for reviewing purposes, but all opinions are my own.

dnf at 50%

This was by no means a bad book, and I actually enjoyed it quite a lot but I had a few main issues with it.
- The art style was cute, but not for me unfortunately
- There was too much text for my liking, which made it feel quite slow
- It was much too long for a graphic novel

However I did enjoy a few things
- It was QUEER
- It was witty and funny and I loved the humour
- Vampires, ballgowns and talking castles?

I definitely could have finished this, but I wasn't enjoying quite enough and it was taking me a very long time to get just 100 pages in. I'm sure many people will love this but unfortunately I wasn't one of them.

2.5⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. This graphic novel comes out Sept 17th!

Summary:
Set in early nineteenth-century Britain, Bloodlust & Bonnets follows Lucy, an unworldly debutante who desires a life of passion and intrigue—qualities which earn her the attention of Lady Violet Travesty, the leader of a local vampire cult. But before Lucy can embark on her new life of vampiric debauchery, she finds herself unexpectedly thrown together with the flamboyant poet Lord Byron (“from books!”) and a mysterious bounty-hunter named Sham. The unlikely trio lie, flirt, fight, and manipulate each other as they make their way across Britain, disrupting society balls, slaying vampires, and making every effort not to betray their feelings to each other as their personal and romantic lives become increasingly entangled. Both witty and slapstick, elegant and gory, Emily McGovern’s debut graphic novel pays tribute to and pokes fun at beloved romance tropes, delivering a joyous, action-packed world of friendship and adventure.


My thoughts:
I really loved the sarcastic and witty nature of this. It reminded me a lot of Hyperbole and a Half, mixed with the action and adventure of Lumberjanes. There were definitely a few scenes that had me chuckling out loud. The art style in this book was simplistic but cute. However I just don’t think the plot itself really made a ton of sense to me and was hard to follow along with. I never understood why Lucy wanted to be in the vampire cult or why Sham was following them or why Lord Byron was even a character here.

All in all a fine read but nothing that’s earning a spot on my favorites shelf. However I would like to read future works from this author because I do think there’s something there, this plot just wasn’t for me.

I had mixed feelings about this graphic novel. On the one hand I really wanted to love it as a fan of McGovern's webcomic, My Life as a Background Slytherin, and on the mere premise of a Regency vampire romp. On the other hand, as a complete story, it just didn't seem to live up to that premise to me. The story felt too rambling at times.. That said, I enjoyed the dry humor and the way the characters played into and against their expected roles. I especially loved the inclusion of Lord Byron (yes, that Byron) as a character. And just as much of a drunken rake as you'd hope. I'll never regret reading a graphic novel with Regency vampire humor, but I did feel like I was slogging my way through parts of it. So, overall: enjoyable, but not outstanding.

Bloodlust & Bonnets follows Lucy who has been offered the opportunity to become a vampire by Lady Travesty after she kills a few men. However, she is “rescued” by Lord Byron, a poet, who thought she was being attacked by the vampire. They then begin their trek to find Lady Travesty, meeting new friends and foes along the way.

There are many parts throughout the graphic novel that are funny and had me laughing out loud. However, there were some things that were meant to be sarcastic that just didn’t do it for me. For example, Byron, who was supposed to be a sarcastic representation of a toxic masculinity. While I do realize this, I couldn’t help but be constantly annoyed whenever he came up (which was a lot). As a representation, though, he was very well done and thought out.


While the story was entertaining, I do think it was a little all over the place. The characters bounce from one place to another and although they do have a goal in mind, it seems to get lost by the time they’re halfway to whatever that goal may be.

I did enjoy the queer relationship. I thought it was pretty representative of how lesbians act in real life LOL.

Look, either you're down to read a cartoon about a frustrated debutante teaming up with Lord Byron and a gender-indeterminate bounty hunter to kill vampires or you're not. If that sounds amazing, you'll enjoy it! The art is highly stylized and very expressive (same cartoon style as My Life as a Background Slytherin but in full color) and a potshot is taken at Lord Byron's reputation for promiscuity and titanic ego about every fifth page. The plot is basically just a bunch of unlikely contrivances strung together with gum and wire but if you're going to like this book, you're not going to be reading it for the plot.

Excellent read.
I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for giving me a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

(TO BE PUBLISHED ON LAUNCH DAY)
This book tells the story of Lucy, a young lady who becomes interested in vampires. She’s joined by Lord Byron, a flamboyant poet, and Sham, a mysterious vampire hunter, as they look for Lady Travesty, apparently the most powerful vampire who Lucy seems to have a crush on.
The way they go about this is both ridiculous and well thought out. Sometimes, they investigate and get leads on where Lady Travesty might be, but some other times information about her location literally falls from the sky.
So, as you can see, this book switches between seriousness and humour in a delicate and well thought out way, and even the art shows that.
The art looks different from most graphic novels, it’s definitely unique, and I like it very much.
That seems to sum up my thoughts about this book perfectly – it’s different and I like it a lot.

This graphic novel was super cute! I really enjoyed the outrageous plot of Lucy and Lord Byron trying to go after Lady Travesty. I wasn't a huge fan of the art style, but I enjoyed the read nonetheless. There were a lot of hilarious moments in this graphic novel. I died laughing when they "killed" Lady Travesty a second time, the exact same way as the first. There are a lot of cute and funny moments like that throughout the graphic novel, and I found myself laughing out loud a lot. The two things that held me back from enjoying this more were the art style and that there were a few times when it was hard to tell who was talking because the bubbles didn't indicate who was speaking at certain moments. But other than that I found this a really enjoyable and fun read!

I've been following Emily McGovern on Facebook for many years now, and I love her webcomic My Life as a Background Slytherin. I was excited to read her first graphic novel because nineteenth century, vampires and queer characters are my buzzwords. Unfortunately, this was not my cup of tea.

The story starts with Lucy beheading a gentleman, being offered a place in a super-secret vampire cult by Lady Travesty and teaming up with Lord Byron, who shows up out of nowhere to discover secrets of said cult. Later they are joined by Sham, respected bounty hunter, who is either misgendered throughout the whole novel or I just didn’t understand the whole thing with saying “Yes.” to the question “Are you a boy or girl?” if there is no elaboration of that later and all the other characters refer to Sham as woman after that answer anyway. There is a queer romance in the book regardless, but I was honestly confused what exactly was the author trying to convey with that.

For 200-page graphic novel, this took me way too much time to read, which in itself says something. I was struggling through 2/3 of the novel. I did not really care for the story, because even though the beginning was promising, I was confused throughout the whole book. The story is repetitive, and it doesn't flow well because of that. There are few funny one-liners and moments, but I wasn't enjoying myself and I was checking the page count way too much.

Another reason why I think the story wasn't engaging for me is the text-panel ratio. There was way too much text for a graphic novel, sometimes two or three paragraphs in a single panel. I think that graphic novels should rather show than tell, hence the "graphic". Also, I wouldn't be mad if the font was a bit bigger because it was harder to read (not sure if the final book will be bigger that the e-arc version though).

An arc was kindly provided to me by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.