[4.25 rounded to 4] Modern popular culture tends to romanticize vampires to varying degrees. Take Louis de Pointe du Lac from INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, waxing melancholy poetic about his reflections and realizations living as one of the undead. Or Dracula from Castlevania, sequestered in his castle with his science and disdain for humans who are slow to learn yet quick to anger. Both of these popular culture tales depict vampires through the lens of time, blurring their fictional existence across a backdrop of history, horror, and sex curiosity into an amalgam of curiosity. In this regard, S.T. Gibson's A DOWRY OF BLOOD shares many similarities to these well-received vampire legends.

It's an incredibly atmospheric read that starts in medieval eastern Europe with the aftermath of a village raid. Constanta shares her vampire origin story, the death of her original self, both in body and mind, and her rebirth as someone beholden to her sire. Though Constanta witholds her new husband's name to diminish his importance, for legends hold sway, it's fairly evident Dracula made and married her. The opening lines of the story spell Dracula's doom. But Constana takes the reader through her evolution of obsessive love for him and how that resulted in his demise.

What begins as total admiration and supplication eventually morphs into bitter devotion. Vampires essentially have all the time in the world. And this time allows for the accrual of observations and experiences to compound into realizations. To Constanta, a young woman, brought up devout, pure, and kind, mental and emotional manipulation were not easy to recognize at first. But centuries of the denial of independence and the dissuasion of curiosity eventually yield a slow epiphany of circumstances. Gibson writes a fantastic portrayal of subtle, masterful domestic manipulation through Dracula. My dislike for him was immediate and I couldn't wait for Constanta to shake herself free of his invisible bonds.

However, the more fascinating aspect to me was the undercurrent, and sometimes obvious, comparison of Dracula to God or Jesus. Although Dracula scoffed at religion, Constanta never lost her taste for it and used it to ground her at times. But her devotion to Dracula is the equivalent of idolatry. She drank of his blood and he is her savior. My knowledge of the specifics of Christianity has waned significantly over the years. Consequently it's difficult for me to relay this imagery into review format; but this metaphor is heavily present in her worship of him, body and mind.

One aspect that puzzled me in this retelling is the blurred lines between amorous, sexual love and sibling love. I won't delve into the details. But I would hazard an analysis that this is because Dracula controls everything. Constanta's made family is also her family of lovers. They have no one else. So they each serve different roles to each other during various mental and emotional states.

There is just so much to unpack in this 300-page book. It also vividly shows that one's mind needs to be exercised to thrive; forced sequestration does the soul no good, no matter the length of one's existence. I found this point particularly interesting because Dracula holds humans in such low regard--they are only sustenance to him. Yet he and his sires still share so many similarities to them despite their immortality. The constant machinations of the mind, through hobbies of choice, are what keep their humanity intact. I am very curious as to why Dracula became such a manipulator given his humble beginnings. Was it due to survival? Did his enslavement during his former life harden him to humankind?

In summary, A DOWRY OF BLOOD is a somber realization that not all love is unconditional. It's a prosaic expose of recognizing the signs of manipulation through the haze of passion. It's about putting one's welfare first and having the courage to let shared history be history.

A polyam retelling of Dracula's Brides, this is a dark tale of coercive control and toxic love. The prose is beautiful and lingers with the reader long after finishing. This is the second time I've read it, and it just becomes more complex and layered upon rereading. Constanta, Magdalena and Alexi are those rare characters that can never be forgotten.

Thank you to Netgalley and Redhook books for providing me with this ARC.

I’m part of ST Gibsons street team so I may be a bit bias in saying this is one of the greatest books I’ve ever read. But it’s true and I believed it before becoming part of it. This book is dreamy, dark, seductive, and divine.

I requested a digital copy in order to sample the prose on my phone (since I don't have a eReader) before requesting a physical copy for review. My review will be based on the physical ARC I read (if I qualify)

Highlights
~not even a little bit Stoker’s Dracula
~vampires being hella queer
~Venetian Carnivale with your sister-wife
~pretty boys are for rescuing
~let’s be honest, we all like a little blood-play

Ornate. Delicious. Hedonistic. Bloodied and bejewelled. This isn’t a book; this is a feast.

Take a moment to savour the title. Just the title. Dowry of Blood. Doesn’t it conjure to mind rich velvets and ancient secrets, gowns and jewels and intoxicating danger? Doesn’t it make you think of lips parted as if for a kiss, or a snarl? Power, yearning, darkly delicious sensuality. Bloodstained loving and loving bloodshed.

I’m here to assure you that Dowry has all those things and more.

And yet, from the start this book subverts your expectations. To start with, Gibson has taken characters who had no voice at all – Dracula’s wives – and decided to tell their story, to give them the stage for once. So even the premise of the book flips the narrative around, bares sharp, bloody teeth at the establishment that thinks this is a man’s story.

And then, we have this–

<I never dreamed it would end like this, my lord: your blood splashing hot flecks onto my nightgown and pouring in rivulets onto our bedchamber floor.>

This is the first line of the book. That lord, whose name is inextricably tied to the idea of vampire, who defined the modern mythology of the monster? The great and powerful vampire prince who struck terror into generations of those who learned his story?

Oh, he’s dead.

Constanta, our narrator – her story begins where the stories of so many women have ended throughout history; beaten down in the dirt, her loved ones dead, her village afire. And when offered the choice, she chooses what women, what good girls are not supposed to choose: to become a monster rather than die quietly. She wreaks her vengeance on the men who destroyed her human life with a fiercely joyful savagery, as if she has become the avatar of female rage, acting for all the women who have ever been unable to fight back.

<I wanted to break them, even more slowly and painfully than they had broken me, leave them bleeding out and begging for mercy.>

It’s a powerful moment.

But Constanta doesn’t quite hold on to her power. Once her almost-murderers are dead she surrenders, happily, to the man who made her a vampire.

<In that moment, my life was not my own any longer. I felt it slipping away from me the way girlhoods must slip from women who are given proper church marriages and cups of communion wine, not bruising kisses and battlefields full of blood.>

And maybe that would give the book a very different feel – if we didn’t already know that she is writing this story after having murdered him.

But we do know.

So.

<In this world, you are what I say you are, and I say you are a ghost, a long night’s fever dream that I have finally woken up from. I say you are the smoke-wisp memory of a flame, thawing ice suffering under an early spring sun, a chalk ledger of debts being wiped clean.

I say you do not have a name.>

The story Constanta tells us paints her as someone to be pitied; a young woman who was swept up into a toxic relationship, too naive to know better. A victim. And she is a victim – or was – but reading about how her lord manipulates her, gaslights her, emotionally abuses her – all along, we know how it ends. We know she doesn’t stay this way. We know the tables are going to turn.

<My lord. My liege. Beloved. King. My darling. My defender.

I had so many names for you in those days, my cup of devotion overflowing with titles worthy of your station.>

But those days are over, and the reader knows it.

That knowing colours the ‘main’ story; the recounting, the record of what has passed. We can feel immense sympathy for Constanta; we can despise what her husband does to her; but we cannot see her as weak. And really, we shouldn’t need to know that she overcomes him to believe in her strength; in a perfect world, we wouldn’t attach any kind of stigma to victimhood. We would understand that surviving is strength, too. And I think that’s what Gibson manages to get across, manages to teach us without ever once putting it into words; we read Constanta’s story knowing that she will pay back everything done to her, and therefore we see her strength even during her victimhood, her abuse. On a quiet, unconscious level, we absorb the fact that being a victim does not make you weak. Because we know she survived – and survived to turn the tables.

I hope I’m putting this into words well.

This makes Dowry of Blood sound terribly depressing and grim, which misrepresents it terribly. It’s not depressing. It’s the opposite of depressing; it’s full of the hunger for life, for experiences, for living. It is jewel-tones, it is velvet, it is opera music and gloried-in sexuality and stringing the cities of the world on a string like pearls. It’s monstrous. It’s glorious.

<You taught us to never feel guilty, to revel when the world demands mourning.>

Dowry of Blood is not a polite, conventional vampire story. This isn’t a book where a dewy-eyed virgin makes a man out of a monster, taming and gentling him as she might a heraldic unicorn. It is not a human fantasy, the oft-repeated, slightly illicit daydream of being adored so wholly that a monster will give up monstrousness for you.

This is a fantasy for those who want to be the monster. It’s a dream for those who hunger. Every page is imbued in a rich, dark sensuality that hearkens back to an older generation of the vampire mythos – and celebrates something fanged and fierce and primal within ourselves.

<“Water your mother’s flowers with their blood.”

I nodded, my breath coming shallow and hot. “Yes, my lord.”>

Better essayists than I have written at length about how the myth of the vampire is all tangled up with human sexuality, and sexual freedom is definitely one of the many ways in which Gibson’s vampires are free – no longer human, no longer bound by human laws, so does Constanta’s lord encourage her to also cast off human convention. Constanta blithely tells the reader of the human lovers – at least some of whom likely didn’t survive the experience – she and her husband share over the centuries, and there’s no drama about the fact that plenty of them are women. Constanta’s queerness is treated so blithely by her own narrative that a reader who only skims could be forgiven for missing it – at least until Constanta’s husband takes another wife, one who immediately becomes wife and lover to Constanta too.

A lesser writer could easily have made a sordid mess out of all of this, or at least left the reader with the impression that the polyamory is a manifestation of the vampires’ monstrousness, not something good and decent people should ever seriously consider. But Gibson is better than that; even as other aspects of their lives break down or are made questionable, the love at the heart of the novel shines darkly and perfect. Constanta’s husband is controlling and emotionally abusive, but the love is still very real, as is the love Constanta and her sister-wife feel for each other. If the marriage breaks down, it’s not because there’s something intrinsically flawed in the idea of a polyamorous relationship; it’s because one member of it is intrinsically flawed as a person. Gibson never leaves the reader in any doubt about that.

<I craved you like maidens crave the grave, the way Death burns for human touch: inconsolably, unrelentingly, aching for the annihilation in your kiss.>

And as must be clear from all the quotes I’ve included in this review, Gibson’s prose is simply breathtaking. The passion and exhilaration emanates from every page like physical heat, and the joys and sorrows alike make the reader’s heart ache. I can’t imagine anyone else doing this tale justice; nor have I ever seen the complex and yet primally simple motivations and emotions and story of it all executed so well. Gibson wields her pen like a sword and runs you through with it – but oh, you’ll thank her for it.

Constanta’s story is not one of redemption, because she doesn’t need it. Instead, Dowry of Blood is a story about claiming, embracing, and celebrating your own power, your own strength. It’s about the beauty that can be found everywhere, even when things get very dark indeed. It’s about how small we can make ourselves before we break. It’s about choosing to be monstrous rather than be made less, and in that, it’s a story for so many of us.

Dowry of Blood is unique in being a story no one else would think to tell – or tell so well – but it’s also unique in who it’s being told to. This is a book for those of us who have monsters inside us; for those of us who need or want to let those monsters out… And it’s a book that is a celebration of those parts of us.

If you embrace those shadows inside you, this is the book for you. And if you are searching for a way to step out of a different kind of shadow and into your own strength, Dowry of Blood is for you too.

Or if you’re just looking for an exquisitely beautiful story about queer vampires. That’s more than reason enough to pick up this book.

Preorder your copy, drink deep, and enjoy.

Before reading this, all I had heard was it was about Dracula’s brides and the writing was beautiful. After reading this, I can agree that the writing is exceptionally beautiful, and I have so many highlights! Normally, writing this beautiful can be difficult for me to focus on to really understand the story but that’s not the case with this book. It was so easy to read and didn’t take away my enjoyment of reading the story, and in fact, it enhanced it.

I loved the way this was set up as these letters written by Constanta showing her life and everything that led up to her decision to murder Dracula. I loved how this book explored abusive relationships and how you can easily see abuse as a form of love, and as the characters are vampires you get to see how over their long lives they slowly realize all the little things they’ve forgiven and brushed off really took a toll on them and their relationships with each other.

While I know that this is categorized as horror, I don’t really think that truly fits, despite all the trigger warnings and the fact that this is about vampires there wasn’t anything that was really horrific (at least, to me as someone who has read some extreme horror lately). I think as I was reading it I felt like it was more a discussion on finding your true self and learning to stand up for you and those you love while finding your way out of an abusive situation.

I also adored Constanta, Magdalena and Alexi as characters, and they way that they all fit together and support each other. This ARC also included A Dowry of Blood #1.5 which is called An Encore of Roses and is the epilogue short story from Alexi’s POV, and it made me fall in love with these characters so much more. They’re all so supportive of one another and you can really tell that they care deeply for one another, and the contrast between the three of them together versus their relationship with Dracula just highlights even more how toxic that relationship was.

I highly recommend this book, but definitely take some time to look through the trigger warnings before giving it a go. I can’t wait to get my hands on my own copy!

Thank you to Redhook Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

First off, what a gorgeous cover! A Dowry of Blood by S. T. Gibson is a Dracula retelling that blends horror, romance, fantasy, and historical fiction. The story revolves around Constanta, who begged for life in her dying moments. Unexpectedly, she is saved by Dracula, and she agrees to give him blood in exchange for immortality. The two become lovers. But soon, Dracula begins to take other consorts - Magdalena and Alexi. Can Constanta find happiness in this polyamorous relationship with such a controlling husband?

Here is a captivating excerpt from an opening chapter:

"I know you loved us all, in your own way. Magdalena for her brilliance, Alexi for his loveliness. But I was your war bride, your faithful Constanta, and you loved me for my will to survive. You coaxed that tenacity out of me and broke it down in your hands, leaving me on your work table like a desiccated doll until you were ready to repair me.
You filled me with your loving guidance, stitched up my seams with thread in your favorite color, taught me how to walk and talk and smile in whatever way pleased you best. I was so happy to be your marionette, at first. So happy to be chosen."

Overall, A Dowry of Blood is an adult horror Dracula retelling that will appeal to fans of Alexis Henderson's House of Hunger or Catherynne M. Valente's Comfort Me with Apples. One highlight of this book is how it is written in the second person POV. I thought this was a very interesting stylistic choice and one that is not often seen in books of any genre. I did take off 1 star, because near the middle, I wished that there had been more action and less sex. There were still plenty of terrifying moments though, especially near the end. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of Dracula retellings in general, I recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in October!

I really meant to save this book until closer to October for spooky season reasons, but uh, I’ve been desperately waiting for the opportunity to read it that it just sort of…opened itself on my Kindle. And before I knew it, I was like…50% of the way through it, and well, why stop now when it’s so good? And it is, it really, really is. A Dowry of Blood is a dark, sumptuous retelling of Dracula’s wives, and how their lives fully revolve around a monster of a man. It’s not a very long book, but by the end of it, you are fully rooting for the wives.

Despite not mentioning Dracula by name, there is no way this book is about anyone other than him. He is the vampire, so who else could it possibly be? The whole of the book is told in first person by Constanta, in a sort of diary/letter format. Constanta tells the story of her life with Dracula, and how it started out wonderful, and gradually (or not so gradually) it turned into a nightmare. Magdalena, Alexi, and Constanta are Dracula’s wives (and husband). All four of them are in a poly relationship with one another. It was lovely, reading about how much they cared for one another. As time passes (and oh it does, hundreds and hundreds of years), Magdalena, Alexi, and Constanta all come to realize they are no longer in a relationship, but a dictatorship.

And then, things change. Suddenly, everything is bitter, and they find it hard to live their lives without showing their resentment for Dracula. It’s hard not to resent him, as a reader. He keeps them locked away, not allowed to mingle with humans, not allowed to participate in the world. How could anyone live like that? Especially people who have been around for hundreds and thousands of years.

The writing in A Dowry of Blood reminds me of the darkest, deepest chocolate. Delicious, bitter, and sweet all at once. It is gorgeous, dripping from the pages like the blood the vampires must survive on. This book will leave you wanting more, so much more, but it ends on a perfect, perfect note. Five stars. Highly, highly recommend this one, especially if you love vampires at their best, and most classic form.

⭐️ 4/5 ⭐️

ARC provided by the publisher, Orbit Books, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“I will render you as you really were, neither cast in pristine stained glass or unholy fire. I will make you nothing more than a man, tender and brutal in equal measure, and perhaps in doing so I will justify myself to you. To my own haunted conscience.”

It started with a letter written by a devoted bride about her life with her lustrous saviour turned abuser and her fight to end the bloody cycle. A Dowry of Blood is a seductive gothic horror debut novella that explores toxic relationships in all its darkness and the emancipation of three partners from a bloody cycle.

If you are on book tweet you’ve probably seen a couple of people on there tweeting about this novella. Since it’s release in January this book has acquired a following in the community. Blurbed as “.. a reimagining of Dracula’s brides..” sure can peak ones interest.

A few of my friends have read it as well screaming how good it is and how it depicts a queer poly-relationship with that I was tempted. I read this book not knowing anything about it with the intention of cleansing my brain from all the thick fantasy books I’ve been reading. My expectations were wrong because it is not at all a light vampire romance story. I would like to remind future readers of this book to read the trigger warnings before reading.

Before I jump into my review, can we appreciate how enticingly beautiful the cover art for this book is ? Done by the ultra talented Marlowe Lune, please check out their works and follow them on Twitter. Marlowe truly captured the essence of the book perfectly. Constanta looks flipping gorgeous on the cover with the details of the rosary and the knife! And HER VEIL! TO DIE FOR! No pun intended.

A Dowry of Blood is a gothic fantasy horror novella and debut by S. T. Gibson. A queer reimagining story about Dracula’s brides, a bloody tale about a vampire that saves a girl from her imminent death by turning her into a vampire. Naming her Constanta as she is “reborn” with a taste for blood and claimed by him to be his wife. Throughout the centuries of their undead life, Constanta discovers a horrible toxic pattern to his love and realizes that her new life is just an eternal prison. As he took on new partners into their tainted relationship, Constanta takes it upon herself to end the bloody cycle of abuse and emancipate herself and the people she loves.

“You coaxed that tenacity out of me and broke it down in your hands, leaving me on your work table like a desiccated doll until you were ready to repair me.“

S. T. Gibson’s writing is exquisite and luscious to read, with every sentence there is longing, beauty and a developing empowerment in Constanta’s voice. The whole story is written in first person from Constanta’s perspective as she recollects all the events in a letter written to her dead husband. Gibson masterfully writes a dark and traumatic story with a lyrical flowery prose which makes the experience sad yet beautiful.

The heavy tones of abuse take many forms in the story as it gradually escalates with time. Again I would like to remind readers to check the trigger warnings. What I want to applaud Gibson is how she writes about these traumatic experiences the character goes through that is not at all romanticized.

At first I was worried about reading this book because as someone that has experienced abuse I can’t bare to see it romanticized in any way. Turns out my doubts and worries are unneeded because Gibson did a wonderful job in showing a raw realistic depiction of relationship abuse. Gibson doesn’t shy away from showing the horrible acts and manipulation done by the man. It paints a realistic picture of an abusive relationship that is clouded with betrayal, secrets, gas lighting, and emotional turmoil. The writing immediately pulls you in and engages your attention the minute you start reading.

“But now, all my carefully crafted excuses for you dissolved like sugar under absinthe, revealing a truth I had spent centuries avoiding.“

Constanta’s character is the reflection of many abuse survivors. The waves of doubt and fear she feels during her relationship with the man is realistically explored. Constanta’s character development from the obedient wife that fears her abuser to the strong willed, brave, and tenacious woman by the end of the story is truly a remarkable to witness. Readers will surely root for Constanta as she confronts her abuser and eventually kills him ending the cycle of abuse.

The other characters that became Constanta’s motivation and source of strength, Magdalena and Alexi, also experienced a varying degree of abuse and manipulation from the husband. Magdalena is the second wife, she is a head strong character that thrives from social interaction. As she is slowly isolated and held back by the man, Magdalena eventually falls into depression. The slow deterioration and the waves of depressive episodes that Magdalena endures is depicted in a realistically heartbreaking way.

“I had given you a thousand second chances, made a thousand concessions. And this wasn’t just about me anymore. It was about Magdalena, and Alexi.“

Alexi, a young aspiring actor that loves the art of theater and all it’s glory, is suffocated and beaten into obedience. That twinkle of deviance Alexi has early on slowly disappears into a dull stare of hopelessness. Together the three of them created a bond that holds each other up during the hardest years of their undead lives. Their bond blossoms into a loving polyamorous relationship that is passionate and lustful, with all of them engaging in a variety of late night bloody escapades and dark hall way rendezvous’ that will leave readers breathless.

The queer found family aspect is like a flower that grew from the cracks of a barren dessert. There is still love and support despite the trauma and pain. Gibson built up the tension marvellously between the three characters with the husband that climaxed in a bloody satisfying way.

The main antagonist of the story is nameless and we don’t get to discover his name even until the end. Which is the most bad ass decision S. T. Gibson chose to do. The man is a narcissist with an unhealthy habit of maintaining control over his partners cowing them to do his bidding. He glorifies himself as a being that is higher than humans granted with eternal life and naturally enticing features. Taking every opportunity to scavenge from the chaotic moments in humanity such as : war, revolution, coup, etc; to feast or to conduct “experiments” killing many innocent human lives.

Gibson writes this man’s character to be an oppressive figure that thrives on control and submission from his partners. The horrible tendencies he does make him a sickeningly good antagonist worthy of being hated. Through his character Gibson shows the patterns of an abuser that is methodically disgusting and believable.

“You didn’t let me keep my name, so I will strip you of yours. In this world you are what I say you are, and I say you are a ghost, a long night’s fever dream that I have finally woken up from. I say you are the smoke-wisp memory of a flame, thawing ice suffering under an early spring sun, a chalk ledger of debts being wiped clean.“

“I say you do not have a name.“


“I have one final promise to make to you, one I hope I will never break. I promise to live, richly and shamelessly and with my arms wide open to the world.”

Final thoughts, A Dowry of Blood is a sensual dark story with important themes of relationship abuse, hope, queer love, and emancipation. Gibson’s lyrical writing that is embellished with flowery yet dark undertones takes you off on an European tour throughout the century as the world evolves but life stays stagnant in the eternal cage of “love”.

The built up of frustration, anger, and disappointment felt by the the characters bleeds through the pages achieving an ending that was a feast for the imagination. It surprised me how immersive this book is and how fast I finished reading it. Normally genres that are gothic and dark isn’t something I gravitate towards but I’m glad I picked this book up. If you are a reader that’s looking for something short, very sexy, bloody, and fast paced this book is for you.

The quotes in this review were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.