A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson | ARC Review

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

• Publisher: Nyx Publishing, January 31st 2021
• Genre: Fantasy, Horror
• Format: Ebook (eARC)
• Page Count: 248 pages
• My Rating: ★★★★ (4/5)

Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

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Content warnings: blood, death, bones, gore, murder, loss of family, burning, plague, war, manipulation, emotional abuse, depression, sexism, cutting, confinement, isolation

What is it like to be in a relationship with the same vampire for centuries?

A Dowry of Blood read almost epistolarily, perhaps a nod to the original Dracula story. The book opens with “you” (think Dracula, but never named) bleeding to death, seemingly killed by the first-person character Constanta. Divided into three parts, each part tells the history of where “you” find each new lover—Constanta, Magdalena, Alexi—over the last few centuries.

Two wives and one husband for “you.” I love how casually queer everyone is in the story and all four of the main characters are m-spec (bi/pan). The main theme is the abusive relationship between “you” and all the lovers where “your” love is so grand and enticing it seems to drown out all the manipulations and controlling—no friends, no going out alone, etc. What the four of them have isn’t really a polyamorous relationship since the addition of lovers was never consented by all parties beforehand but accepted gradually. And yet there is so much lust and adoration between them all.

I would say that all of them are morally grey; the book opened with a murder, after all, and given that they are all vampires, they also kill a lot of humans to keep themselves from starving. “You” are charming and powerful and horrible, and the three lovers all have distinct personalities, too. It is hard for me to pinpoint Constanta’s, since she is the first-person character describing all the events, but I’d say she is the most emotionally conflicted because she has been with “you” for centuries, before there were Magdalena and Alexi. I love Magdalena the most, I think, because she craves freedom and yet plays “your” games to stay adored, a very real and tragic and cunning person. Alexi is the baby of the family and he is the most energetic and free. Each character harbors some ideologies of the time period where they were born in, too.

The dedication page of the book reads, “To those who escaped a love like death, and to those still caught in its grasp: you are the heroes of this story.” Love, death, and religion were threaded throughout this bloody story with passing mentions of European historical events. Their love, endless combinations (m/f/f/m). All possible pairs and trios of this quad love one another in their own ways and that made my heart very full. There is also some blood drinking during sex and I believe that is always the best thing in relationships between vampires.

Gibson is also a poet, and the writing in A Dowry of Blood did not disappoint. The language contributes to the deadly atmosphere of the story, too, but it did go a bit overboard in terms of analogies for me even though they were all well-written and I love analogies.

If I thought I loved Magdalena and Alexi already, the ending made me love them even more. It was so beautiful and satisfying, definitely better than what I had envisioned and expected. There was so much hope and joy.

A terrible (as in sinister) story laced with great fun and ended on a light note, A Dowry of Blood is well worth a read, and I would pick up Gibson’s future works without hesitation.

I received a digital review copy from Nyx Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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