Title: Lucy Undying
Author: Kiersten White
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication date: September 10, 2024
Length: 464 pages
Genre: Horror
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Dracula stories never seem to go out of style, and it’s a pleasure to discover a new Dracula tale that remains faithful to the original in most details while also spinning the story out into new directions, with new interpretations of familiar events and characters.

“Lying about the existence of monsters never saved anyone from falling victim to them.”

Lucy Undying is set mainly in the present day, with flashbacks told through journal entries and other recorded documents. Surprisingly, the first character we meet in the modern era is not Lucy, but Iris, daughter of a recently deceased, utterly ruthless businesswoman. Iris is in London to take possession of a family property that she’s inherited, but it’s obvious from the start that there are an infinite number of strings attached. With her mother’s death, Iris is the sole heir to her family’s billion dollar business — but all she wants is out.

Crossing a busy street, American-raised Iris looks the wrong way and is saved from being flattened by a passing taxi by a beautiful stranger. She’s young, lovely, and kind, offers helpful tips on dealing with London traffic, and then disappears into a crowd. But their paths cross again: Iris discovers that the London property is in terrible shape, and she’s determined to sell whatever antiques or valuables she can find there, then attempt to disappear for good. When Iris calls a museum to ask for a referral to an appraiser, it’s that same stranger who shows up at Iris’s door — just as beautiful as Iris remembers, and more than willing to help Iris with her project.

Meanwhile, other narrative threads provide different storylines. The journals of Lucy Westenra take us back to Dracula’s time, as Lucy provides a first-person account of her life with a sickly, controlling mother, her secret love for her former governess Mina Murray, and the unwanted courtships of three men who seem to circle Lucy — John Seward, Quincey Morris, and Arthur Holmwood. And in still another thread, we have transcripts of Lucy’s sessions with a therapist… showing that Lucy is very much alive (or at least undead) in the present day, despite the version of events we may have learned from Bram Stoker.

As the various threads weave together, what emerges is a fascinating what-if: What if Lucy Westenra rose from her grave after being turned by Dracula — not to be staked and vanquished, as we’ve been told, but to roam the earth for over a century since then? Parallel to this is Iris’s journey, as she attempts to unravel the secrets of her family’s cult-like, multi-level marketing conglomerate, which has its own weird ties to Lucy’s world.

Without giving too much away, all I can say is that author Kiersten White has created a complicated, fascinating story that pulls together the essentials of Stoker’s novel and blends these with a chilling, modern day horror tale. The corporate entanglements of Iris’s family seem bizarre at first, but as the connections become clear, it all makes a hideous sort of sense.

I loved how faithfully the author depicts the core beats of the original Dracula story, then spins them into a version whose interpretations — while certainly different — never actually contradict the source material. I would highly recommend a basic familiarity with Dracula before reading Lucy Undying — yes, it could still be enjoyable without, but I think it would lose quite a bit of its “oomph” otherwise.

I did find it curious that in the world of Lucy Undying, the cultural/literary phenomenon of Dracula seems to be an unknown. This is a modern world where the Bram Stoker novel never existed? The name Dracula does not seem to have larger cultural connotations beyond the events unfolding in Iris’s world; he’s a figure from Lucy’s past whose influence is felt across the years, but that’s it. I kept waiting for Iris to say, “Dracula?? For real? Oh, you’re THAT Lucy??” — but it never happened.

There comes a point in the story where Lucy’s past (and connection to the origin story) has been fully explored, and the narrative focus shifts primarily to the modern-day storyline. That’s the point in the book where I started feeling a little less invested. It’s still a good story, but unravelling the sinister corporate secrets behind Iris’s family fortune is slightly less compelling than learning how Lucy evolved over the many years since her transformation.

Lucy Undying is a long book, but my attention never wavered. At times, the story becomes almost too complicated… but fear not! With a bit of focus and patience, it all makes sense by the end, and answers that were hidden or withheld for much of the book are finally provided.

The writing is engaging, sometimes dwelling on the horror — lots of body parts and gore — but often with funny, sly twists or clever phrasing to offer a bit of light-hearted relief.

Then I sat and thought of Mina and had a nice, self-indulgent cry. Sometimes a girl finds herself alone at the feet of an unknown land, covered in grime, having just decapitated a stranger, and it’s all too much.

I truly enjoyed Lucy Undying, and while I strongly recommend reading Dracula first, I’m sure Lucy Undying could be enjoyed on its own as well. This is a fast-paced, deeply detailed story that skillfully weaves different timelines and narrative approaches into one cohesive, compelling whole. Fans of horror and vampire fiction should not miss this one!

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