Reviews tagging Abandonment

A Dowry of Blood, by S.T. Gibson

16 reviews

vixenreader's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

As someone escaping a toxic polycule, this was a kick in the balls for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Sexual assault, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Mental illness, Alcohol, War, Infidelity, and Murder

Minor: Abandonment, Cursing, Genocide, and Cannibalism

Huge content warnings for anyone who has experienced an abusive, toxic polyamorous relationship and how it affects everyone in the polycule. There is also an example of healthy polyamory and great bisexual representation.

ringwraith10's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, Cannibalism, and Confinement

Minor: Abandonment

saurahsaurus's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcohol, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Child death, Physical abuse, Classism, and Medical content

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, War, and Abandonment

constellation_library's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Everything about this book was done exceedingly well, except for the fact that it did not feel or read like a Dracula retelling as Dracula's name is never directly mentioned in the story (purposely because of reasons you discover right in the beginning), so the big bad vampire could have been anyone. He didn't feel like Dracula through his descriptions, and he didn't feel like Stoker's Dracula I have read about and watched in the film. There is one small mention of the Harkers in the book, but otherwise, Stoker's universe is basically not connected to this one at all. 

Apart from that, though, I felt that the characters were well built and interesting, and I felt that the writing was beautiful. It definitely falls more into purple prose, but it works for this style of story, in my opinion. It was also short, which I've been loving lately. If you're a vampire fan at all, give this one a try. There is also a poly relationship in it, and it is quite spicy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Abandonment, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death, Infidelity, and Confinement

Minor: Sexual assault

celestriakle's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Read this book for prose alone. The language is poetic and beautiful and flows so nicely that it makes this a quick read; I finished the last two sections in one sitting. The intensity of the relationships each "wife" has to Dracula is gripping. It's fascinating to see how the dynamics slowly shift over the long timespans of the book, and how differently each character reacts to Dracula's abuse.

The main weakness of the book however is the characters relationships outside of Dracula. The book ends with

Spoiler

all 3 in a romantic relationship, and supposedly they fell in love this whole time, but they never have very much chemistry. They read far more like sister-wives trying to protect each other from Dracula than lovers with their own relationship outside him, with nothing to keep each other together once he's gone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Physical abuse, Injury/injury detail, Infidelity, Grief, Confinement, Bullying, Blood, Gore, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Classism, Domestic abuse, and Death

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Murder, Abandonment, and Incest

Minor: War, Homophobia, Death of parent, Torture, and Misogyny

I tagged for incest, but it's not true incest: all four main characters are not related, but are frequently described with family terminology, despite being in a romantic relationship. Alexi and Constanta in particular are constantly described as mother/son, with Alexi's youth compared to everyone else frequently mentioned, but they still end up romantically entangled and share a sex scene.

emilyannreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Blood, Emotional abuse, Death, Violence, and Abandonment

shea_lenore's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am screaming and crying 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, and Body horror

bonnienoire's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Abandonment, Blood, and Emotional abuse

a_libra_library's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Poetic! Dramatic! I cried the entire time... I'm weak.
Reimaging of Dracula's brides written in letter formats. It's not glamorous or sexy as vampires are usually portrayed. It shows how dangerous and seductive and abusive relationships can get. I feel weird since its an abusive  poly-relationship but the three brides find comfort in each other and are against Dracula.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Mental illness, War, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Confinement, Death, and Murder

annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

some absolutely fucked up family dynamics: characters are siblings, mother/son, father/children, yet everyone has sex with everyone. the writing was pretty but frequently over-the-top with its figurative language. it had a monumental task of pacing its story across several millennia but i felt it succeeded, focusing on single scenes or letting decades slip away to emphasize the narrator's experience (especially relevant in her description of "plague time" o.o ).

despite this, i just unfortunately was not that into it, the sex scenes made me uncomfortable lol and not that much happened, but i did appreciate the ending.
speaking of calling her "the narrator," it's interesting that it shares this unnamed-woman-narrator quality with the last book i read, The Handmaid's Tale, but a notable difference is that here the narrator only refers to her Commander-equivalent as "you" and never his name in order to strip him of his power.

cover design review: ★★★★☆. love the presentation of the author's name at the top, the decorative border, the central image; not a fan of the title's presentation. i like the typeface but i think "Dowry" could be weighted more like "Blood", the line spacing between "of" and "Blood" is wonky compared to the first three lines, really don't like the "A".

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Murder, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Abandonment, Sexual violence, Body horror, Child death, Alcohol, Incest, Infidelity, and War

Minor: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Drug use, Self harm, Sexism, Death of parent, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Genocide

no biphobia. homophobia and lesbophobia are only mentioned once as a concern of the narrator but are never realized. adult/minor relationship and incest are debatable because of the characters being immortal vampires and having an …unusual family dynamic, but there's definitely something messed up there