'The Satanic Brides of Dracula' is a love letter to Hammer Horror movies, Classic Monsters, and Gaslamp Gothic Victorian Horror. It comes from a time when vampires didn't sparkle, romance their prey, or go to High School. It is a tale of madness. Of death. Occult obsession. And blood. So much blood... --- They made a Bargain with the Devil and they're damned if they'll let him down... Dracula has fled Transylvania and his Brides are resolved to find him. At first, their adventure is exciting. A chance to explore the changing cities of Europe. To revel in the dark delights only blood-hungry vampires can enjoy. Then the Hunters came. And now the Brides seek vengeance. But first, they may have to make a new pact with the Devil himself. --- Senka nodded. “It’s all here, Vasilja. And I think we can do it. But we need defiled holy ground.” “That’s simple. We’re in Paris. There’ll be plenty of that. Won’t there, Freddy? I bet Freddy’s been using his own church for his naughty Luciferian practices, haven’t you Freddy? Of course you have. No need to open your mouth, just nod and be quiet.” “A priest to perform the rite.” Vasilja clapped her hands in delight. “Freddy again!” “And we need a child.” “Well, I’ve seen at least fifty in the street on the way here. Is that where you find them, Freddy? In the street? They’re bound to be a little smelly and undernourished, but I’m sure our master won’t mind.” “Also, a dagger which has been used in Holy Ritual.” “Oh, I’m very sure Freddy has one of those, too!” She beamed down at him. “Aren’t you suddenly more useful than we expected?” “And a virgin.” “Well, that’s nonsense, Senka. How will we find a virgin in Paris?” She took the book from the younger vampire. “You must be reading it wrong, surely.” “I’m not.” “Well, that’s just terribly inconvenient.”
I write blood-soaked fantasy, weird horror, and dark revenge stories about broken people who just won’t stay down.
If you like foul-mouthed assassins, eldritch monsters, grimy cities, or antiheroes who stab first and process emotions never — you’re probably in the right place.
I share behind-the-scenes lore, writing process breakdowns, and new fiction early on Patreon.com/lucasthorn — plus occasional rants and weird thoughts over on Discord and Facebook.
In The Satanic Brides of Dracula, Lucas Thorn set out to create an homage to Vampires. Not the effete vampires of Anne Rice, nor the morally ambiguous and angst-ridded vampires of Twilight and the romantic silliness that pervades modern literature, but proper Vampires. With a capital V. Vampires that are unashamedly evil, revelling in the further corruption of men who weren't so innocent to start with.
Lucas' trio of Dracula's brides are the horrifying Vampire "sisters" from Bram Stoker's classic work, and from the Hammer House of Horror. His story intertwines with Stoker's plot in this first book of the series, and answers the question "what did they do when Dracula left the castle in pursuit of Mina Murray?" Obviously, it considerably expands on, and diverges from the book and the movies, to the extent that it leaves you wondering how and if the disparate stories will be resolved, if at all.
Not that it really matters, because this grisly trio very much stand alone, clearly developing their own agenda.
Once again, Lucas has managed to drag the reader into an abhorrent world where you, if not sympathise with, then actively wish for, the protagonists to succeed.
Of all Lucas' books so far, this is the one I would most like Quentin Tarantino to direct.
In his goal, stated in the introduction, Lucas Thorn has achieved a spectacular, blood-soaked and enthralling success.
This book was fun enough, and it delivered on its promise of Vampire Brides (VBs). Unfortunately, I found its tone confused; firstly, the presentation of the VBs and, secondly, the overall tone of the book.
The VBs were definitely the protagonists of the book - aside from a few interludes from the perspectives of various vampire hunters / victims. However, the story alternated between presenting them as 'heroes' (or at least sympathetic figures) and cold-blooded murder monsters (with Jonathan Harker and Helsing as being the real heroes). It's a tough job trying to get readers to invest in unsympathetic murderers, and I don't think this book succeeded in doing it.
The book seemed to struggle to decide if it was horror-lite (e.g. Van Helsing, the film), proper gory, limb-tearing horror, or cosmic horror. I enjoy all three to varying extents, but the marriage of them together felt off in this instance.
The writing is solid. There were very few typos or grammatical errors. The action scenes were good. It was modern in style, and there were some enjoyable moments of wink-wink snark; although, other moments fell flat or were just unbelievable from that time in history. Similarly, the setting of Eastern and Central Europe felt like window-dressing at best.
Final comment: the greatest annoyance in this book was the number of times Senka said she wanted to "bite him" (25), "bite them" (15), "bite her" (2), "bite it" (2), or "bite" in general (104). Obviously, there's going to be biting in a vampire book, but this seems excessive. Why not try some synonyms about sucking blood?