Lucy Westenra gets the spotlight she deserves in this unique and powerful take on Dracula from Kiersten White.
Spanning three timelines, the novel interweaves Lucy’s journey of self-discovery as she travels the world after Dracula changes her into a vampire, with the story of Iris Goldaming, a young woman on the run from her family’s multilevel marketing scheme.
Lucy’s journals from 1890 chronicle her relationships with her mother, the men in her sphere (all of whom want something from her), and, most importantly, her dear friend Mina. A contemporary glimpse of Lucy’s life comes in the form of transcripts from her 2024 therapy sessions. In October of that same year, Iris arrives in London from the U.S. to evaluate her family’s property after her mother’s death and is immediately saved from a nasty fall by a beautiful woman named “Elle”.
When Iris finds Lucy’s diary hidden in the floorboards of the house, she reads a story very similar to her own and begins to fall in love with the girl in the journal—even as she falls in love with Elle in real life.
White paints familiar characters in a new light, and her enchanting prose will keep readers enthralled. This is a must-read for Bram Stoker fans who believe Lucy deserved better.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780593724408
The Bookfever Review: Lucy Undying
As one of Dracula’s first victims, Lucy Westenra was just a supporting character in a story known by so many. But in Lucy Undying, Kiersten White retells her story in an exquisite gothic fantasy with a sapphic romance, engaging writing and memorable characters. It was a total page-turner that I couldn’t get enough of, with never a dull moment in any of the chapters. I really can’t recommend it highly enough!
Most of the story is told in the point of view of Iris Goldaming, who is trying to run away from her family’s legacy and corporation that is worth millions and millions of dollars. In various chapters, the book applies an epistolary style in the shape of journal entries from Lucy in the late 19th century and client transcripts from a therapist in 2024. I’m a sucker for epistolary novels so this was a really nice surprise for me when I started reading this book.
In the journal entries we meet a nineteen-year-old, wide-eyed Lucy who’s stuck in a world that’s ruled by the men in her life, in her case these are her various suitors. No one knows that she’s feeling a unrequited love for her former governess Mina Murray, who doesn’t seem to notice her beyond a friendship. Through her journal entries we slowly find out what happened to her and how she tragically died and rose anew as a vampire. These entries felt powerful - Lucy could be honest in her writing about her love for Mina and her contempt for some of the suitors she had to deal with.
In the client transcripts we meet Lucy again but this time it’s in 2024 and she has been a vampire for more than 130 years. She meets a therapist who Lucy tells her story to. I also loved these transcripts because we get to see this new Lucy as a vampire traveling the world searching for Dracula and meeting all kinds of interesting characters along the way. She wanted to find Dracula because he just left her as a newborn vampire with no purpose and no answers
With Iris’ POV we find out that that her mother has just died, leaving the family company all to Iris herself. However, she wants nothing to do with the evil and corruption of the corporation, which really is a malicious multi-level marketing scheme. So, Iris runs off to London to sell the houses, get some quick cash, and disappear. Along the way she collides with a mysterious woman calling herself “Elle”, and finds Lucy’s journal hidden in one of the houses, getting to know her through writing. I’ve got to say that I absolutely adored Iris. She definitely was one of my favorite characters, alongside Lucy herself, of course.
This book contained some much-needed female rage, which I absolutely loved and that I cheered the characters on for. The romance was also just beautiful. I don’t want to say too much about it all because I would hate to spoil this aspect of the story for anyone, but they might be my new favorite couple of the year. There were a few plot twists as well, some I saw coming and others I didn’t see coming at all. I really liked this because it gave me some gasp-out-loud moments. I also enjoyed the gothic feel of the book, the descriptions were lush and delicious and stunning. In short, what’s not to love about this story? Lucy Undying was just the perfect book for me and Kiersten White absolutely knocked it out of the park with her latest novel!
https://bookfever11.com/2024/07/29/review-lucy-undying-by-kiersten-white/
Sometimes Ideas Are Worth Waiting For
In this interview, author Kiersten White discusses her desire to reimagine a classic character in her new adult fantasy novel, Lucy Undying.
What prompted you to write this book?
Like all my books inspired by existing stories, this one was rooted in both love for and annoyance with the original tale. In the case of Dracula, my anger revolves around the treatment of Lucy Westenra. Everyone in her life takes away agency and power from her, and then her transformation equates feminine desire with evil. That never sat right with me. Plus, despite her abundance of suitors, I’ve always read her as queer. Lucy Undying isn’t a direct retelling so much as using Dracula as a springboard to give Lucy a new narrative tackling those issues.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
I’ve wanted to write Lucy’s story since The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein in 2017. I kept trying to find my way into it, but I couldn’t make an idea work until I realized it wasn’t a young adult novel.
Once I opened it up past the limits of YA, the story at last started seeping into my brain. After that, it took me a couple of years of taking notes and sketching out plotlines to finally start writing. Iris, one of the POV characters, was a very late addition in my brainstorming. But her voice, insight into Lucy, and connection to the vampiric multi-level marketing cult plaguing the modern-day sections were the final puzzle pieces I needed to at last start drafting. I usually get an idea and begin drafting immediately, but Lucy demanded—and rewarded—patience at every step.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
Sometimes ideas are worth waiting for! If I’d tried to pursue this concept when it first occurred to me, I’m sure I could have written a perfectly fine young adult novel about Lucy. But I’m glad I gave myself the space to grow as a writer until I was ready to tell this story. I was fortunate, too, in that my editor—the brilliant Tricia Narwani at Del Rey—loved the idea from the moment I pitched it to her but was willing to wait until it was done simmering.
During the revision process, I realized that I needed to simplify the structure. I tried to do way too many things with the original draft—make it epistolary as an homage to Dracula (which killed a lot of the flow), write an entire section as transcripts (which removed the reader from the action), trick the reader by telling a whole section out of order (which ended up just being frustrating and confusing rather than clever)—and every single revision pass was about streamlining. The question I kept asking is What’s the heart of the story? And each time I revised I got closer to it. Some of the sections were hard to let go, but if they didn’t serve Lucy’s story, they couldn’t stay.
If I had tried to write Lucy Undying before I was ready, I wouldn’t have been willing to engage so deeply with it, and it would have been a much lesser book.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I’ve drafted over 30 novels, and each one was written the same way: start to finish. Even my stories that are nonlinear were drafted in a straight line from the first page to the last page. However, I started Lucy Undying with an exercise—writing all of teen Lucy’s journal entries, even though at the time I didn’t plan on including them and just wanted them for reference—and from there I wrote each storyline in the first half of the novel separately before stitching them all together and then writing the second half of the book. It was exhilarating and a little terrifying to draft in an entirely new way after so long, but a good reminder that every book needs its own process.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I hope they get swept away by Lucy, fall in love with and alongside her, and—regardless of whether they love the novel Dracula or have never read it—engage with narratives of bodily autonomy and what makes women monstrous in more thoughtful ways. Also, I hope they have fun. I had so much fun writing it!
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
No writing is ever a waste. Sometimes sections of a book—or entire books—don’t work out. That doesn’t mean you wasted your time or work. You created something and grew as a writer, and that’s always valuable.
Kiersten White is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Camelot Rising, And I Darken, and Paranormalcy series and many more novels. She is also the author of the Sinister Summer series for middle grade readers. She lives with her family near the ocean in San Diego, which, in spite of its perfection, spurs her to dream of faraway places and even further-away times.
