The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Restoring agency to 2 mistreated characters
Women done wrong in ‘Dracula,’ ‘Jane Eyre’ back with a vengeance.
If you’re going to completely reimagine the stories of two famous literary characters, you might as well do it with style.
That’s what fans of “Dracula” and “Jane Eyre” can expect with “Reluctant Immortals,” the new novel from Gwendolyn Kiste. It features the Bram Stoker Award-winning author taking two women from those works of classic literature — Lucy Westenra of “Dracula” and Bertha Mason of “Jane Eyre” — and elevating them from largely overlooked victims to the heroes of their own narratives.
Kiste seems to have a genuine affection for both Lucy and Bertha and a healthy disdain for how they were treated in their source material. She makes a compelling case that Lucy deserved more than to just be written off as one of Dracula’s earliest victims and that maybe Edward Rochester locking Bertha in an attic for years was more a reflection on his sense of decency than hers.
What she ended up creating around that reexamination of their abuse is a fun, supernaturally tinged buddy adventure in which Lucy and Bertha get to finally step into the spotlight in a novel that explores their trauma and the fortitude they have displayed while attempting to establish their own agency.
In “Reluctant Immortals,” Lucy is living as a vampire and Bee (Bertha) as her fellow undead companion in 1960s Los Angeles. At this point, Bee has spent more than 100 years evading Rochester while Lucy has become the keeper of Dracula’s ever-restless ashes. They have both technically escaped the horrible men who tortured them for so long, but they also live in constant fear of being drawn back into that cycle.
Their pasts eventually do catch up with them and force Lucy and Bee to flee their shared home for San Francisco in hopes of finally freeing themselves once and for all.
Readers won’t need to be familiar with the original texts to properly appreciate “Reluctant Immortals.” Kiste does a solid job of summarizing what Lucy and Bee experienced at the hands of Dracula and Rochester, as well as the other elements from both stories that are important to know. Those with prior knowledge of those novels will probably get more out of Kiste’s twist on them, but it’s not a prerequisite by any means.
This is a timely and entertaining tale of two mistreated women reclaiming their narratives and rebelling against the men who had defined their lives for so long. Kiste wraps it all together in a package that never feels preachy and has the flair one would expect from an author of her caliber.