The Stats
- 292 Pages
- Published 2022
- Horror
- Vampire/Dracula
- Poly Romance
- Dark Romance
- Body Horror
SYNOPSIS
S.T. Gibson takes us for a wild ride in A Dowry of Blood, the story of Constanta, Dracula’s first bride. Constanta is a peasant girl whose family was brutally murdered. Beaten and left for dead, she has nothing left when a mysterious stranger sweeps her out of the alley and turns her into his undying bride. But, soon the honeymoon period is over, and Dracula entertains a second wife, and then a husband–and all the while Constanta is the motherly figure protecting her family from her husband’s tumultuous moods. When the three consorts uncover some of Dracula’s dark secrets and realize he’s been hiding more than he’s been letting on, it will be up to Constanta to protect her family and break the bond holding them all together.
REVIEW
The last vampire book I read was House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson (which was a pretty good one, actually) so naturally I was itching to get my hands on A Dowry of Blood, which made it to the Goodreads Choice Awards this year for their horror nominees. That being said, I wasn’t really impressed with this novel.
I do think that the formatting of A Dowry of Blood is intriguing. The novel is set up like a diary, so Constanta is talking to “you,” which the reader presumes is Dracula. She never directly uses his name, and neither do any of the other characters, actually. Yet, that doesn’t make this novel any less intimate. The book is filled with abusive and controlling scenes where her husband overpowers her in such an authoritative way that the reader can’t help but cringe while reading. Anyone with a history of trauma should take the trigger warnings on the first page seriously–this book does include multiple scenarios of gaslighting and narcissistic abuse, including both physical and emotional domestic violence.
Something I did find interesting about this book was the poly partnership. There was a specific scene where Constanta first meets Magdalena, Dracula’s second wife that really resonated for me. I don’t have much experience with poly partnerships and I don’t know many people that are poly, actually, but I thought Gibson did a great job expressing Constanta’s concern about sharing her husband and the utter anxiety and unease of being blindsided by a new partner. In this scene, Dracula has been communicating with Magdelana unbeknownst to Constanta and she has no choice but to be okay with it. It’s Magdelana that really soothes the bond and makes Constanta feel comforted–not Dracula (which…come on, man) and I did think that scene really expressed a lot to the reader about the relationship.
However, there’s something about A Dowry of Blood that I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s tough to explain, but despite the epistolary nature of the book, it’s very difficult to connect with the story. Simone and Her Books explains in her review that perhaps it’s the second POV that makes the story feel too second-hand. Or, maybe it’s that the reader has to view a hundred years over less than three hundred pages. Personally, I agree with her assessment that we never really understand what Dracula’s character was like before Constanta and what he was researching. I was frustrated that the house burned, and we never got to explore what he was doing with all of his spare time–it felt like a waste.
OVERALL
While I do love a good Vamp book, I’m not sure A Dowry of Blood was my favorite that I’ve read. It has some great reviews by well-known authors like Mary McMyne (You can read my review of The Book of Gothel here), but I wasn’t sure that I got the hype over it. There are other vampire books that are both character and plot driven that have better story-lines. That being said, I did enjoy the representation of polyamory–we don’t often see that in novels, and as far as a dark romance goes, there were a lot of pivotal emotional scenes that readers of romance would devour.
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