This is a quick read and perfect to escape to on the beach, by the pool, or at an airport during summer travel this year. It also features two women that literature has, well, ignored in exchange for their more dastardly male counterparts. Notably, Lucy Westerna and Bertha Antoinette Rochester (but Jane Eyre is thrown in there for good measure, along with 1970s portrayals of Rochester and Dracua).

One thing I found strange is the choice to set this book in the 1970s. It seemed random and unintentional and the writing style kind of sometimes made me forget we weren't in the 21st century.

But, if you like feminist re-tellings (of sort) or diving deeper into side characters, you'll likely enjoy this book.

Although it was largely a quick read, there were some 'huh, why is this here?' moments, or pacing items that felt too short or too long. I was in an airport and a little bit focused on reading, so I'm not sure if these pacing issues would have been a bigger deal if I had not been so focused.

I received an advanced reading copy of this title in return for a review. However, I had already preordered the book and will still be purchasing it.

Once again, Ms. Kiste provides us with an excellent example of why she is on my two Lists. For those not familiar with my Lists (yes, capital L), they are Authors Whose Books I Will Purchase Immediately Upon Hearing About Them and Ideas I Wish I Had Come Up With.

Lucy Westenra from Dracula and Bertha Mason have survived the horrible deeds done to them by the male characters of their book (Dracula and Rochester, respectively) to become immortal beings. Plagued by the past and hiding from forces set against them, the end up in California during the summer of love. Here they must take a stand against the men who haunt them if they have any chance of surviving.

Elements of gothic romance and horror in the time of free love -- sounds like it shouldn't work, right? In the hands of lesser authors this might be the case. However, we are talking about the author of The Rust Maidens, Pretty Marys All In A Row, and a number of other titles which got five out of five ratings. Kiste weaves elements of Dracula and Jane Eyre with the more recent late '60s America, illustrating that despite the progress of years, the progress of gender relations leaves much to be desired. Reluctant Immortals casts a light on the treatment of women that is especially important now and does it all during the telling of a gripping, tightly woven story that will readers will have a difficult time putting down.

Highest Recommendations.

Rounded up to 4.5 ⭐️

What can I say about Reluctant Immortals?

Taking place in 1967 Los Angeles, Reluctant Immortals follows Lucy Westerna and Bertha Antoinette Rochester as they combat a life of immortality thrust upon them by their tormentors. Both women were side characters in their own stories, but here they take center stage.

The book is an addictively readable, defiantly feminist take on characters in Gothic canon that have undeniably been done dirty. The two women and their friendship is the through line of the novel, and acts as a tether for the rest of the plot.

While the novel is not perfect, a few plot lines seemingly shoehorned in, some explanations not fully completed, and the setting not utilized to its fullest capabilities, the book was still a fantastic read. It was everything that I had hoped for and more.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc!

With its iconic Los Angeles and San Francisco settings and costuming, this book would make a beautiful film! I found it quick-paced and un-put-downable. I have read most of Gwendolyn Kiste's previous books and found this fit in well with her previous body of work while being perhaps a bit more accessible. Relationships between women and the importance of speaking (and fighting) back are highlighted. The character of Renfield stole the show a bit here, emotionally.

Wow. I mean, I kind of absolutely loved this book?! Does the premise require a lot of suspension of disbelief? Yes. Of course. But, if you just go with it and keep reading....it's so fun. Lucy Westenra, from Dracula and Bertha Mason (Bee), from Jane Eyre are living together in Hollywood in the late 60s, trying to stay clear of and have their revenge on Mr. Rochester and Dracula—two of the most toxic me in all of literature. I mean...!!

Oh, and they end up in SF in the Haight during their struggle, too. Renfield, Mina, and Jane Eyre show up. Plus, this novel has hippies, Mr Rochester's evil, swinging bachelor pad in the Marin Headlands, a dilapidated LA drive-in theater, howling wolves, the three weird sisters. This is just such an imaginative, engaging work. And seriously, so unique and fun. I LOVED it.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC.

I mean, the blurb for the premise is what got me to request this book. But the actual reading of this premise was just too much. Mostly because I kept thinking, “Why were these two characters from fiction chosen to meet in this book?” I just could never see them both living in the same world so it never came together for me. Thanks for the review copy, I do really appreciate women being weird in fiction.

Upcoming from three-time Bram Stoker Award®-winning author Gwendolyn Kiste, Reluctant Immortals is a stunningly spellbinding gothic horror novel featuring two of history’s most notorious, if overlooked, female characters—Dracula’s Lucy Westenra and Jane Eyre’s Bertha Rochester (née Mason), to finally give these two forgotten women the opportunity to rise from the ashes, tell their tragic truths, and fling away the trappings of their tormentors.

Still eluding the men who ruined them—Dracula (whose ashes enjoy confinement in a collection of urns) and Mr. Rochester—Lucy and Bertha (Bee, as she now prefers), exist as undead immortals joined together by shared misery and trauma. Currently residing among the heyday of late-1960s Los Angeles’ “Summer of Love,” both women are surviving in their own way—namely, by keeping their secrets to themselves as Lucy struggles to keep Dracula contained, deny her blood-thirst, and avoid Renfield, who—like she and Bee—still wanders. This is a tortured existence spent alternating between cowering in their always-decaying (thanks to the death Lucy carries with her) ramshackle home, evenings spent at a crumbling drive-in, and alternating a windows-open, curtains-closed system of sisterhood.

That is, until Jane Eyre—Bee’s long-lost love—shows up, and another layer of untold history is revealed.

As the horrors of their past collide into the present, the two women discover that they aren’t the only unlikely partnership around. Dracula—or, his ashes, always whispering from their urns—and Mr. Rochester have also found their way together, and like Lucy and Bee’s mission to avoid their former tormenters, these rotten men are eager to reclaim that once which belonged to them.

A manifesto of the forgotten, the cast aside, and the quiet, resilient strength of the female spirit, no matter how many times she’s been forced to die, Reluctant Immortals is a world unto itself. A fresh take on vampires, a look at the powers and torments of femininity, and a reminder to always hold true, Gwendolyn Kiste’s newest is one destined to be at the top of the charts for some time to come.