Virginia Ronan ♥ Herondale ♥'s Reviews > A Dowry of Blood

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”This is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession. I suppose both are a sort of gentle violence, putting down in ink what scorches the air when spoken aloud.”

Trigger warnings: (view spoiler)[domestic violence, emotional abuse, grooming, gaslighting, manipulation (hide spoiler)]

So when I started to read this book for #Rainboween I expected it to be a queer retelling of Dracula and in some way it was, but it also wasn’t?! It’s kinda hard to explain it but “A Dowry of Blood” turned out to be entirely different than I thought it would be and I think that’s mostly due to the slow story and the serious topics it addressed. If you hear the words “Queer Dracula Retelling” your first thought might be: “Oh, cool! Sounds like ‘Dracula’ met the sexiness of ‘Interview with the Vampire’ and they made a love-child.” But the interesting thing is that this story was nothing like that.

”I want to believe you weren’t just playing your part. I want to believe your kindness was not just another note in the well-rehearsed aria of your seduction, trotted out countless times for countless brides. But I have loved you too long to imagine you do anything without an ulterior motive.”

Truth be told, it was a very slow story with only a handful of characters, but for some reason it still worked? I mean this was a 320 pages book and there honestly didn’t happen a lot. You could basically sum up the plot in one sentence and say that Dracula is collecting his brides while travelling through Europe. That’s it. That’s the plot of the entire book, but of course this wouldn’t do the story justice. Fact is, the writing style is one that hooks you right from the beginning and even though not a lot of things happen, the story is playing out slowly and deliberately which causes the reader to want to read more.

"I think, my lord, that this is when you loved me best. When I was freshly made, and still as malleable as wet clay in your hands."

The entire book is told from Constanta’s POV and from the moment she got turned by Dracula. We don’t know anything about her life before, but it’s easy to assume that she was a peasant girl that ended up being a casualty of war. When Dracula finds her, she’s dying and he gives her a second chance at life and makes her his first bride. For a while they live together in harmony but Dracula’s thirst for beautiful people isn’t quite sated yet and he’s always watching out for a new bride to add to his collection.

”I wanted to crawl between whatever was blossoming between the two of you and live there. This was my home too, I wanted to shout. I had earned my right in your bed and I hadn’t been consulted on inviting somebody else in, no matter how beautiful she was.”

And this is where the book starts to go into an entirely different direction than I expected it to go. This is not a tale about Dracula and the adventures he and his brides experience, it’s a tale about a controlling and conniving man who wants to keep his beautiful collection close to him. At first he turned Constanta, then he found Magdalena and a couple of centuries later Alexi – the only man among his brides – joins them. I really loved that Alexi was a man and that not all of Dracula’s brides were women. This gave the story such a nice LGBTQIA+ spin and it caused the plot to thicken because Alexi is more demanding and not that easily intimidated by Dracula.

“He adored everything about you, good and bad, from your soft-spoken declarations of love to your flashes of foul temper. The love he had for you was the cartographer's love for the sea, trembling and all-consuming and so far beyond the reaches of right or wrong. Far from shrinking from your bad moods, he welcomed them."

You might say that Alexi joining them was the catalyst that changed it all. Or like I would put it: Dracula bit off more than he could chew. XD Still, even though the “three brides” are getting more and more aware of the toxic relationship Dracula forced them into for centuries, it’s still not easy for them to change the power dynamics. Their master isn’t just way too good at manipulating people, he’s also very strong, intimidating and powerful.

”You made it into an art form, this quiet sort of violence. You were so far into our heads your gentle suggestions often felt like our own thoughts.”

No, seriously, Dracula is one hell of a bastard and he knows every trick in the book. No matter what you say to him, he turns the words in your mouth, making them come out different than you initially intended. He’s a master at this game and he had centuries of practice. How he rationalised and justified his actions… that man is a piece of work. His brides never knew how to handle his mood swings and to please and placate him was already second nature to them. Honestly, when I picked up the book I didn’t think I was in for psychological mind games and manipulation but that’s exactly what this book turned out to be about. Dracula is the master and his brides are dependent on him.

”You're young, unschooled in the ways of love. Love is violence, my darling; it is a thunderstorm that tears apart your world. More often than not, love ends in tragedy, but we go on loving in the hope that this time, it will be different. This time, the beloved will understand us. They will not try to flee from our embrace, or become discontent with us."

Conclusion:

When I went into “A Dowry of Blood” I expected it to be a polyamorous Dracula retelling and I would have been fine with that. What I got was a much more complex story than that, though. This was a tale about manipulation and abuse, about a man who didn’t know when to stop and about his lovers that had no other choice than to go against him. It’s a tragedy in three acts. And it’s a good one. If you’re looking for something that’s not creepy and has psychological depth instead, well, then this book is for you. I, for my part, enjoyed it immensely.

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This book was so interesting!
The writing style had me hooked but there actually didn’t happen a lot? I’m confused. *lol*
But “A Dowry of Blood” made for a perfect #Rainboween read so I’m really glad I read it!

Full RTC soon! Stay tuned! ;-)
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It’s the beginning of October and this means my readathon #Rainboween has just begun!! YAY!

And of course I’m starting with a super intriguing book Beki (@Teacup the Storyteller) and I wanted to read for a while:
“A Dowry of Blood”!

A Dracula retelling from the POV of Dracula’s first bride Constanta? It sounds too good! The fact it has an f/f relationship only makes this even more interesting and I’m so here for it.
First #Rainboween book, here I come! =)

P.S: You can still join my readathon if you want to. Here's the direct link to the announcement video and all the details:Rainboweenathon aka #Rainboween Link!

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