My FIve Word TL:DR Review: Started Well, Went Off Track

I was really excited to pick up Lucy Undying for various reasons.  I seem to be enjoying the recent resurgence of vampire novels, I love Bram Stoker’s Dracula and I was so looking forward to a retelling from Lucy’s point of view.  She’s such an undervalued character, the spoilt rich girl who becomes a victim of Dracula as he attempts to get to Mina.

To be fair this gets off to a really good start.  We have a few different POVs.  Primarily Iris, a young heiress who is trying to break free from the clutches of her overbearing family and Lucy – who has a number of different storylines.  One that is told in journal format and covers the years before she falls victim. One that takes us back to her long haul through history as a vampire.  And finally, Lucy in the current modern day world.

Iris has arrived in London, with her family’s approval (although they are still observing her not so surreptitiously), she is visiting on the pretext that she’s going through family property.  As such she spends time in a dilapidated mansion where she is putting things in to order – or more to the point searching for anything small and valuable that she can sell for quick cash to help her finally disappear.  She requests help from a museum in relation to the valuation of certain items and the next day a young, beautiful and elusive woman turns up on her doorstep.

Anyway, let’s take a look at what did and didn’t work for me.

Firstly, I didn’t mind the different POVs and quickly got into the groove.  I enjoyed that we had Lucy’s journal to take a look back at her life prior to becoming one of Dracula’s victims, this is a great reflection of the original novel and was a good way to get an insight into Lucy’s true inner thoughts.

I loved the way the story started and the time spent in the old mansion, this had such great gothic vibes.

The writing was good, it was easy to read and in actual fact I had no problems completing this.  I was curious and always keen to get back to the story.  BUT.

Well, firstly, as a reimagining White turns a lot of the characters on their heads. To be honest, I have mixed feelings about this, I don’t really mind the characters having different and new motivations, just that it all felt very flimsy.

Then, the hidden agenda with Iris’s family and the connections to other elements of the story felt so over the top and convoluted. For me, I was rather hoping that this was a new chance for Lucy, perhaps she’d meet Iris and help her to disappear and it would be this exciting relationship between the two as they forge their own story. As it was, I didn’t feel any chemistry between Iris and Lucy, their instalove was a little cliched and the whole inclusion of trips to haunts from the original work, plus the inclusion of Dracula just felt unnecessary. I wanted the story to become its own ‘entity’ but that never really happened.  I never felt fear or dread for the characters and I couldn’t help wondering when did vampires become so dull.

I don’t know, on the face of it this book kept me entertained and it might work really well for others, but, it didn’t quite work its magic on me.  I was hoping for more and I thought this was Lucy’s real chance to shine.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinioin.

My rating 3 of 5 fangless stars