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Thrall
Dating Sucks & Love Bites
Happy couple Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra have begun to garner national attention for their quirky New Orleans true-crime podcast, Shadowcast. When Lucy's brother Harker disappears while researching the popular new dating app Thrall, they're thrown into a real-life mystery. Aided by their social media expert, Arthur, and Harker's professor, Van Helsing, they follow the trail, hoping to find Harker before it's too late.
When their investigation crosses the path of a possible serial killer, the line between fantasy and reality begins to blur. And as they race against the app's countdown clock, so does the line between friendship and love. What starts as a flirtatious rivalry between computer-savvy Arthur and techno-averse Van Helsing becomes much more, and Mina and Lucy's relationship is tested in the fires of social media.
As they get down to the wire, the group discovers that nothing on their screens is as it seems—including their enemy.
A modern retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Happy couple Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra have begun to garner national attention for their quirky New Orleans true-crime podcast, Shadowcast. When Lucy's brother Harker disappears while researching the popular new dating app Thrall, they're thrown into a real-life mystery. Aided by their social media expert, Arthur, and Harker's professor, Van Helsing, they follow the trail, hoping to find Harker before it's too late.
When their investigation crosses the path of a possible serial killer, the line between fantasy and reality begins to blur. And as they race against the app's countdown clock, so does the line between friendship and love. What starts as a flirtatious rivalry between computer-savvy Arthur and techno-averse Van Helsing becomes much more, and Mina and Lucy's relationship is tested in the fires of social media.
As they get down to the wire, the group discovers that nothing on their screens is as it seems—including their enemy.
A modern retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
440 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 27, 2018
46 people are currently reading
414 people want to read
About the author
Avon Gale
29 books1,341 followersAvon Gale lives in a liberal Midwestern college town, where she spends her days getting heavily invested in everything from craft projects to video games. She likes road trips by car, rock concerts, thunderstorms, IPAs, Kentucky bourbon and tattoos. As a queer author, Avon is committed to providing happy endings for all and loves to tell stories that focus on found families, strong and open communication, and friendship. She loves writing about quirky people who might not be perfect, but always find a place where they belong. In her former life, Avon wrote fanfiction at her desk while ostensibly doing work in non-profit fundraising for public radio and women’s liberal arts education, and worked on her books in between haircuts and highlights as a stylist. Now she’s a full-time writer, delighted to be able to tell stories for a living.
Avon is represented by Courtney Miller-Callihan of Handspun Literary Agency.
Enjoy fantasy with a bit of a kinky, darker edge? Check out Avon's fantasy books, co-written with author Fae Loxley, under the pen name Iris Foxglove!
Avon is represented by Courtney Miller-Callihan of Handspun Literary Agency.
Enjoy fantasy with a bit of a kinky, darker edge? Check out Avon's fantasy books, co-written with author Fae Loxley, under the pen name Iris Foxglove!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
September 23, 2018
Where to begin? Ok, when I wrote my review I started with this being a new and different style of writing to me and I realized as soon as I started typing this that isn’t necessarily true and I might just scrap that beginning even though I am starting with it anyway.
Ok, I think I am going to start with this: A modern retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Is it??
I felt like maybe I was going to be at a disadvantage here. I felt like my knowledge was very limited so I did a little research, a little refresher so to speak and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I actually did know a bit and had a good memory in regards to the original story. In case you don’t, here:
Ok, this story did not read as a retelling of Dracula to me. I really think this aspect of the story obviously went over my head. Aside from how the story was told and the characters names I don’t see it. This could be where the disadvantage comes and maybe regardless of what I feel I remember maybe I am not as well versed on the original as I thought.
Since I can’t focus on the Dracula part I can focus on the writing style. At first, I liked this quite a bit. I enjoy communicating via email or chat or text myself, I feel I can get my point across much better and if that person also knows me and is versed in this form of communication, well, I think sometimes the conversations are way better. So at first I was into this but then it became too much and all that it was and I felt it was actually preventing me from getting a full emotional connection with either couple.
I really wanted to see Arthur from Van Helsing’s POV and vice versa. I mean really see. I wanted to see the touch and just actually be with them. There is no real on page interaction. Every sexual encounter is either a fantasy that did not really happen or happens off page and is only a mention or just a memory.
I think the chats and texts and tweets etc. were awesome and totally fit with the mystery but having the entire story told this way just left me feeling pretty emotionally empty at times. I get why they did this, Dracula and all, I just needed more since this is trying to also have a new and established relationship foundation.
While, Lucy, Mina and Arthur were better at expressing themselves this way because they normally did communicate this way, Van Helsing did not. It made his feelings difficult to navigate because he was written to show it was new and different to him and since his relationship with Arthur was new, and well, seems hot and romantic, I needed more from them that wasn’t just this type of communication.
So, anyway, I was invested and excited about the main mystery of Lucy’s missing brother Harker and just as invested in the little sides going on but think by the time we got to the conclusion of the main mystery I was exhausted and totally let down. Not to mention that is the only thing that got resolved.
The end did not fit with the tone of the rest of the book. It felt scattered and just not the same feel as everything else going on. It felt like an agenda that had nothing to really do with the rest.
I can’t even with my disappointment.
And, as I mentioned up there, the rest of what was going on through the book? Nada. It’s like it didn’t even happen.
So yeah, it was fun until it wasn’t and it ended up being just a little bit better than ok for me. It was interesting and I did not hate it, I am just not really sure who this book is for.
It’s not really a romance and the parts that are romancey are just as much F/F as M/M so I don’t know how well received that part is going to be either. Like, who is this really for?
I’m a huge Roan Parrish fan and am glad I gave this a shot, I just don’t think it as a whole worked for me and am not exactly sure I was the right audience but I was completely all in when they said Dracula .
**ARC provided by the author via A Novel Take Promotions in exchange for an honest review.**
-------
This is 529 pages guys and it comes out in 8 days. I better get started. Wish me luck, this is a long one.
Ok, I think I am going to start with this: A modern retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Is it??
I felt like maybe I was going to be at a disadvantage here. I felt like my knowledge was very limited so I did a little research, a little refresher so to speak and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I actually did know a bit and had a good memory in regards to the original story. In case you don’t, here:
Dracula is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. It introduced Count Dracula, and established many conventions of subsequent vampire fantasy. The novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so that he may find new blood and spread the undead curse, and of the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and a woman led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.
The story is told in epistolary format, as a series of letters, diary entries, newspaper articles, and ships' log entries, whose narrators are the novel's protagonists, and occasionally supplemented with newspaper clippings relating events not directly witnessed.
Ok, this story did not read as a retelling of Dracula to me. I really think this aspect of the story obviously went over my head. Aside from how the story was told and the characters names I don’t see it. This could be where the disadvantage comes and maybe regardless of what I feel I remember maybe I am not as well versed on the original as I thought.
Since I can’t focus on the Dracula part I can focus on the writing style. At first, I liked this quite a bit. I enjoy communicating via email or chat or text myself, I feel I can get my point across much better and if that person also knows me and is versed in this form of communication, well, I think sometimes the conversations are way better. So at first I was into this but then it became too much and all that it was and I felt it was actually preventing me from getting a full emotional connection with either couple.
I really wanted to see Arthur from Van Helsing’s POV and vice versa. I mean really see. I wanted to see the touch and just actually be with them. There is no real on page interaction. Every sexual encounter is either a fantasy that did not really happen or happens off page and is only a mention or just a memory.
I think the chats and texts and tweets etc. were awesome and totally fit with the mystery but having the entire story told this way just left me feeling pretty emotionally empty at times. I get why they did this, Dracula and all, I just needed more since this is trying to also have a new and established relationship foundation.
While, Lucy, Mina and Arthur were better at expressing themselves this way because they normally did communicate this way, Van Helsing did not. It made his feelings difficult to navigate because he was written to show it was new and different to him and since his relationship with Arthur was new, and well, seems hot and romantic, I needed more from them that wasn’t just this type of communication.
So, anyway, I was invested and excited about the main mystery of Lucy’s missing brother Harker and just as invested in the little sides going on but think by the time we got to the conclusion of the main mystery I was exhausted and totally let down. Not to mention that is the only thing that got resolved.
The end did not fit with the tone of the rest of the book. It felt scattered and just not the same feel as everything else going on. It felt like an agenda that had nothing to really do with the rest.
I can’t even with my disappointment.
And, as I mentioned up there, the rest of what was going on through the book? Nada. It’s like it didn’t even happen.
So yeah, it was fun until it wasn’t and it ended up being just a little bit better than ok for me. It was interesting and I did not hate it, I am just not really sure who this book is for.
It’s not really a romance and the parts that are romancey are just as much F/F as M/M so I don’t know how well received that part is going to be either. Like, who is this really for?
I’m a huge Roan Parrish fan and am glad I gave this a shot, I just don’t think it as a whole worked for me and am not exactly sure I was the right audience but I was completely all in when they said Dracula .
**ARC provided by the author via A Novel Take Promotions in exchange for an honest review.**
-------
This is 529 pages guys and it comes out in 8 days. I better get started. Wish me luck, this is a long one.
October 3, 2018
I was sent this book as an advanced copy for reviewing purposes, but all opinions are my own.
✨Updated review because I had more things to say
2.5 stars, rounding up for the gay.
Thrall is a novel that tries to be many things. Modern Dracula retelling, queer romance(s), thriller, mystery, all told in an unique format. Some things worked better than others, but while the attempt at being a multi-genre novel was certainly admirable, it didn’t completely succeed at it.
First off, I liked the main characters. Lucy is a bisexual Black woman and co-host of Shadowcast, a true-crime podcast. She’s also the sister of Harker, who goes presumably missing at the beginning of the novel. Mina is the second co-host of Shadowcast and Lucy’s girlfriend. Arthur is their social media manager and is later instructed to keep in touch with Van Helsing, Harker’s anthropology professor, in order to find out anything relevant that might give them a clue about Harker’s disappearance. Van Helsing (VH) is an older character (I don’t think it was specified how old is he really is, I imagined him around 45 or 50 year old, while Arthur is 28) and is new to technology and chats, which was both fun and a little repetitive to see.
I found the beginning of the book rather slow, pacing-wise. This was kind of counterbalanced by the fact that the book is entirely told in chat logs, emails, podcast transcripts, tweets, etc., which made it easier and faster to read. Other times the pacing was faster, but overall I can’t say that it was consistent. It mainly depended on how much page time was given to the romance(s) at any given point, because the plot basically paused a few times to allow for the romance to develop instead of organically integrating the romance in the plot, if that makes sense.
The main relationship was between Arthur (bi) and VH (gay). Despite the pacing issues I just mentioned, I found their romance interesting even though I don’t care much for that age gap, and I liked the way the authors managed to use the format to their advantage. I think it wasn’t easy but it definitely worked well for me as a romance.
Something I loved is how this wasn’t purely about a M/M romance but also about an (established) F/F one. Although it wasn’t given as much page time as the M/M one, it had a few both cute and steamy moments. Not only seeing that on page, but also thinking about all the people who exclusively read M/M and imagining how mad they’re gonna be about the F/F sex scenes? Oh, that is truly priceless.
Err, anyway.
I actually want to talk about the bi rep and give a little warning that some might find Arthur's history to be the slutty bi stereotype. I wasn't bothered by it because whenever his history was mentioned it was always heavily implied that it's his character and insecurities that made him act the way he did, so there was never an in-text correlation between his bi-ness and that. There was another scene that actually did bother me and it was the sex scene between Lucy and Mina where Mina (who is a lesbian) is basically writing a story from Lucy's POV and at the beginning it focuses a lot on male gaze. They're in a club and Lucy's dancing with a guy and then Mina steps in and they dance and she keeps mentioning how none of those guys will have her and then they go to a bathroom where they know they'll be heard (by the men outside) if they have sex. It made me feel icky because it added a male gaze even though there was absolutely no need for it, and I didn't like how that seemed to have some sort of correlation with Lucy being bisexual. The scene turned out great and hot but I can't shake the feeling of wrongness at the beginning where there was too much talk of men for it to feel safe to read as a queer woman.
Moving on, I usually love things that defy a genre or are multiple genres at once. With this novel, I feel like that could’ve worked much better with some more consistency in the way the narrative worked. It was mostly fine, hence the 3 stars, but there were a few things I really couldn’t let myself care about.
First of all, since a lot of the book takes place in chat format, I hated when they were talking about the actual plot and like, being scared about the things that were happening and then they were flirting with heavy innuendos in the next message. That made me roll my eyes so hard and it happened too often. If you’re scared for your life or your brother’s life or whatever, I don’t think you feel like thinking about sex in the next line. It was just too much.
Then, I know I haven’t talked much about the actual plot because it’s best to actually read it but I found the ending very anticlimactic and not really like it fit the rest of the novel. It kind of… changed the whole genre of the novel? Or maybe not really, but look, there’s not much else I can say without spoiling things. Just, the ending actually made me drop the rating from 4 to 3 stars, and the more I think about it the more plot holes I find that just don't make any sense.
To add another point, since this is marketed as a modern retelling of Dracula: I've read Dracula probably like... 10 years ago and I don't remember anything about it, but there was still very little Dracula-y about it if you look at it from the perspective of the legacy that Bram Stoker left to the literary world. I really don't want to drop spoilers but let's just say that there are no actual vampires in Thrall, and the bridge that was used to further connect it to Dracula was ridiculous in my opinion.
I’ve talked about the format but let me reiterate that I thought it was brilliant and cleverly used and probably the only way it was sort of a retelling of Dracula. I hope to see more novels told like this in the future, in any genre, because it’s a lot of fun.
As you can see from my review, there were things that worked and didn't work for me. I have to 100% admit that if this hadn't had a lot of queer rep I would probably have given it an even lower rating. Overall I would recommend it if you’re curious about reading a very queer romance/mystery with a format you probably haven’t seen used before (at least for this type of book).
____
Buddy read with Laura!
✨Updated review because I had more things to say
2.5 stars, rounding up for the gay.
Thrall is a novel that tries to be many things. Modern Dracula retelling, queer romance(s), thriller, mystery, all told in an unique format. Some things worked better than others, but while the attempt at being a multi-genre novel was certainly admirable, it didn’t completely succeed at it.
First off, I liked the main characters. Lucy is a bisexual Black woman and co-host of Shadowcast, a true-crime podcast. She’s also the sister of Harker, who goes presumably missing at the beginning of the novel. Mina is the second co-host of Shadowcast and Lucy’s girlfriend. Arthur is their social media manager and is later instructed to keep in touch with Van Helsing, Harker’s anthropology professor, in order to find out anything relevant that might give them a clue about Harker’s disappearance. Van Helsing (VH) is an older character (I don’t think it was specified how old is he really is, I imagined him around 45 or 50 year old, while Arthur is 28) and is new to technology and chats, which was both fun and a little repetitive to see.
I found the beginning of the book rather slow, pacing-wise. This was kind of counterbalanced by the fact that the book is entirely told in chat logs, emails, podcast transcripts, tweets, etc., which made it easier and faster to read. Other times the pacing was faster, but overall I can’t say that it was consistent. It mainly depended on how much page time was given to the romance(s) at any given point, because the plot basically paused a few times to allow for the romance to develop instead of organically integrating the romance in the plot, if that makes sense.
The main relationship was between Arthur (bi) and VH (gay). Despite the pacing issues I just mentioned, I found their romance interesting even though I don’t care much for that age gap, and I liked the way the authors managed to use the format to their advantage. I think it wasn’t easy but it definitely worked well for me as a romance.
Something I loved is how this wasn’t purely about a M/M romance but also about an (established) F/F one. Although it wasn’t given as much page time as the M/M one, it had a few both cute and steamy moments. Not only seeing that on page, but also thinking about all the people who exclusively read M/M and imagining how mad they’re gonna be about the F/F sex scenes? Oh, that is truly priceless.
Err, anyway.
I actually want to talk about the bi rep and give a little warning that some might find Arthur's history to be the slutty bi stereotype. I wasn't bothered by it because whenever his history was mentioned it was always heavily implied that it's his character and insecurities that made him act the way he did, so there was never an in-text correlation between his bi-ness and that. There was another scene that actually did bother me and it was the sex scene between Lucy and Mina where Mina (who is a lesbian) is basically writing a story from Lucy's POV and at the beginning it focuses a lot on male gaze. They're in a club and Lucy's dancing with a guy and then Mina steps in and they dance and she keeps mentioning how none of those guys will have her and then they go to a bathroom where they know they'll be heard (by the men outside) if they have sex. It made me feel icky because it added a male gaze even though there was absolutely no need for it, and I didn't like how that seemed to have some sort of correlation with Lucy being bisexual. The scene turned out great and hot but I can't shake the feeling of wrongness at the beginning where there was too much talk of men for it to feel safe to read as a queer woman.
Moving on, I usually love things that defy a genre or are multiple genres at once. With this novel, I feel like that could’ve worked much better with some more consistency in the way the narrative worked. It was mostly fine, hence the 3 stars, but there were a few things I really couldn’t let myself care about.
First of all, since a lot of the book takes place in chat format, I hated when they were talking about the actual plot and like, being scared about the things that were happening and then they were flirting with heavy innuendos in the next message. That made me roll my eyes so hard and it happened too often. If you’re scared for your life or your brother’s life or whatever, I don’t think you feel like thinking about sex in the next line. It was just too much.
Then, I know I haven’t talked much about the actual plot because it’s best to actually read it but I found the ending very anticlimactic and not really like it fit the rest of the novel. It kind of… changed the whole genre of the novel? Or maybe not really, but look, there’s not much else I can say without spoiling things. Just, the ending actually made me drop the rating from 4 to 3 stars, and the more I think about it the more plot holes I find that just don't make any sense.
To add another point, since this is marketed as a modern retelling of Dracula: I've read Dracula probably like... 10 years ago and I don't remember anything about it, but there was still very little Dracula-y about it if you look at it from the perspective of the legacy that Bram Stoker left to the literary world. I really don't want to drop spoilers but let's just say that there are no actual vampires in Thrall, and the bridge that was used to further connect it to Dracula was ridiculous in my opinion.
I’ve talked about the format but let me reiterate that I thought it was brilliant and cleverly used and probably the only way it was sort of a retelling of Dracula. I hope to see more novels told like this in the future, in any genre, because it’s a lot of fun.
As you can see from my review, there were things that worked and didn't work for me. I have to 100% admit that if this hadn't had a lot of queer rep I would probably have given it an even lower rating. Overall I would recommend it if you’re curious about reading a very queer romance/mystery with a format you probably haven’t seen used before (at least for this type of book).
____
Buddy read with Laura!
August 4, 2022
Thank you very much to A Novel Take PR for providing a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Thrall by Avon Gale and Roan Parrish is a fun modern retelling of the original horror novel Dracula. But Gale and Parrish's take is queer -- super, super queer, and almost every character is a person of colour.
This novel is set in an epistolary format, which means the book is made up of emails, diary entries, texts, tweets, podcast transcripts and more. This book is over 500-pages long, but set in this format, the book flies past -- and the tension and suspense of the plot keep you glued to the page.
You also wouldn't think that a novel set in this format would allow you to relate to the characters in any way, but then you'd be wrong. Lucy, Mina, Van and Arthur and all amazing characters. Lucy is a bisexual Black woman, and is in an already established relationship with Mina, who is a lesbian Black woman. They've been best friends since high school, and Mina wants to take their relationship to the next level: moving in together, but she's also frightened that Lucy isn't ready for that ... especially when Lucy's brother, Harker, goes missing. I thought the women were very sweet together, and the progression of their relationship was lovely to see.
I absolutely adored Arthur and Van Helsing. Arthur is Lucy and Mina's social media manager, as the women run a true crime podcast, and Van is Harker's professor -- he's older than the rest of the characters, perhaps in his late forties, although his age is never specified. The romance between Arthur and Van developed slowly through flirtation and G-chats, but it was an authentic relationship. I loved that Van is a social media newbie and didn't really know how to behave over texting and chats, which lead to some hilarious interactions, but all in all, they were absolutely delightful together.
With all the good parts of the novel I mentioned, there were some bits that disappointed me a little, which led to a lower rating than I initially wanted to give this book. I was not a fan of the "slutty bisexual" trope that was given to Arthur's character. I can see that it felt as though the writers wanted to portray this aspect as him simply discovering himself and his sexuality, but personally, I didn't see it as such. It ... upset me a little, to be honest -- but if another bi reader liked this portrayal, I'm happy for them and won't argue against them. Aside from this issue, I quite liked Arthur.
However, I really, really didn't like the ending of the novel ... at all. It honestly came out of nowhere, with no lead up whatsoever. It was random, to say the least, and sort of changed the entire genre of the book?? If you have read this book, you'll know what I'm talking about. Aside for the last perhaps 20%, Thrall was a wonderful novel but I felt like the ending was not only anticlimactic, but very disappointing. It brought down the novel from me; before, Thrall was cresting on 4.5 stars, but after my personal issues with Arthur's sexuality and the book's strange ending, my rating has dropped to 3 stars.
I quite liked Thrall ... for the most part. It wasn't the book I was expecting -- I was actually expecting vampires -- but it was an interesting take that might have worked better if the modern "vampires" were suggested at the beginning of the novel, instead of thrown in at the end.
________________________
Buddy read with Silvia!
Thrall by Avon Gale and Roan Parrish is a fun modern retelling of the original horror novel Dracula. But Gale and Parrish's take is queer -- super, super queer, and almost every character is a person of colour.
This novel is set in an epistolary format, which means the book is made up of emails, diary entries, texts, tweets, podcast transcripts and more. This book is over 500-pages long, but set in this format, the book flies past -- and the tension and suspense of the plot keep you glued to the page.
You also wouldn't think that a novel set in this format would allow you to relate to the characters in any way, but then you'd be wrong. Lucy, Mina, Van and Arthur and all amazing characters. Lucy is a bisexual Black woman, and is in an already established relationship with Mina, who is a lesbian Black woman. They've been best friends since high school, and Mina wants to take their relationship to the next level: moving in together, but she's also frightened that Lucy isn't ready for that ... especially when Lucy's brother, Harker, goes missing. I thought the women were very sweet together, and the progression of their relationship was lovely to see.
I absolutely adored Arthur and Van Helsing. Arthur is Lucy and Mina's social media manager, as the women run a true crime podcast, and Van is Harker's professor -- he's older than the rest of the characters, perhaps in his late forties, although his age is never specified. The romance between Arthur and Van developed slowly through flirtation and G-chats, but it was an authentic relationship. I loved that Van is a social media newbie and didn't really know how to behave over texting and chats, which lead to some hilarious interactions, but all in all, they were absolutely delightful together.
With all the good parts of the novel I mentioned, there were some bits that disappointed me a little, which led to a lower rating than I initially wanted to give this book. I was not a fan of the "slutty bisexual" trope that was given to Arthur's character. I can see that it felt as though the writers wanted to portray this aspect as him simply discovering himself and his sexuality, but personally, I didn't see it as such. It ... upset me a little, to be honest -- but if another bi reader liked this portrayal, I'm happy for them and won't argue against them. Aside from this issue, I quite liked Arthur.
However, I really, really didn't like the ending of the novel ... at all. It honestly came out of nowhere, with no lead up whatsoever. It was random, to say the least, and sort of changed the entire genre of the book?? If you have read this book, you'll know what I'm talking about. Aside for the last perhaps 20%, Thrall was a wonderful novel but I felt like the ending was not only anticlimactic, but very disappointing. It brought down the novel from me; before, Thrall was cresting on 4.5 stars, but after my personal issues with Arthur's sexuality and the book's strange ending, my rating has dropped to 3 stars.
I quite liked Thrall ... for the most part. It wasn't the book I was expecting -- I was actually expecting vampires -- but it was an interesting take that might have worked better if the modern "vampires" were suggested at the beginning of the novel, instead of thrown in at the end.
________________________
Buddy read with Silvia!
June 21, 2020
I didn't know I wanted to read a millennial, queer retelling of Dracula told entirely through emails and IMs. But then this book crept up on me, and what fun I had.
September 29, 2018
3.5 stars
This was a very interesting and unique read!
Content warnings:
Thrall is about friends Mina, Lucy and Arthur along with new acquaintance Van. Mina and Lucy have been a couple for a while and best friends for even longer, and they cohost a true crime podcast with Arthur as their social media manager. When Lucy's brother suddenly disappears, they involve the brother's professor, August Van Helsing, and start looking for clues, which lead them to a dating app called Thrall.
What makes Thrall unique is the format. It's written entirely as social media interactions, emails, journal entries, text messages, forum threads, news articles, podcast transcripts, descriptions of images, and so on. I guess this falls under the epistolary format, and I at least am not very familiar with those, especially not to such an extreme and with such a wide variety of different formats.
I do enjoy the use of social media in books, and naturally Thrall had a lot of that, and it was so much fun!
It made the book very interesting to read and I did enjoy it for that, but it also had its drawbacks. I felt like the formats created a distance to the characters - I had a hard time getting a feel for them, and at times I felt almost like an observer of strangers' online interactions rather than a reader, which made me very uncomfortable.
It made me wish for there to be at least a little bit of typical book format in between.
The transions between scenes felt very aprupt. I often had a hard time telling how much times has passed or who was talking now or how it tied in with the story, but my main problem were the transistions between the.... moods and plots?
The book is both thriller/mystery and romance, and the switch between these felt very off to me. Especially the sex scenes felt out of place for me, though they were very creative as they were all online as well!
There was also a lot of social commentary about a lot of things: misogyny, racism, data privacy, fandom and the interactions and boundaries of creators and fans on social media, to name a few. I enjoyed that a lot.
I liked the characters, though as mentioned above, I always felt a little distanced from them through the format. Nevertheless I enjoyed reading about them, and especially Arthur's and Van Helsing's interactions and their banter were great to read and very refreshing as in I have never seen a dynamic quite like theirs before (and I'm not talking about the whole professor kink thing, which wasn't that big of a deal anyways - Van Helsing IS a professor, and Arthur is younger than him, but he is not his student or a student at all.)
The ending felt sort of anticlimatic. Many things seemed pointless in hindsight or were just never mentioned again after a certain point with felt weird.
The story definitely had a creep factor, and made me feel quite queasy at times but it was never unbearable, even for a scaredy cat like me ;)
Thrall is technically a retelling - this is were I admit I have never read Dracula and I'm not really familiar with the story (I watched that one movie with Hugh Jackman that is vaguely Dracula-ish I believe... but even that was years ago) so I can't judge it on that, aside from mentioning that this retelling doesn't have vampires.
Overall I enjoyed reading Thrall, and it was definitely an exciting new experience for me.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This was a very interesting and unique read!
Content warnings:
Thrall is about friends Mina, Lucy and Arthur along with new acquaintance Van. Mina and Lucy have been a couple for a while and best friends for even longer, and they cohost a true crime podcast with Arthur as their social media manager. When Lucy's brother suddenly disappears, they involve the brother's professor, August Van Helsing, and start looking for clues, which lead them to a dating app called Thrall.
What makes Thrall unique is the format. It's written entirely as social media interactions, emails, journal entries, text messages, forum threads, news articles, podcast transcripts, descriptions of images, and so on. I guess this falls under the epistolary format, and I at least am not very familiar with those, especially not to such an extreme and with such a wide variety of different formats.
I do enjoy the use of social media in books, and naturally Thrall had a lot of that, and it was so much fun!
It made the book very interesting to read and I did enjoy it for that, but it also had its drawbacks. I felt like the formats created a distance to the characters - I had a hard time getting a feel for them, and at times I felt almost like an observer of strangers' online interactions rather than a reader, which made me very uncomfortable.
It made me wish for there to be at least a little bit of typical book format in between.
The transions between scenes felt very aprupt. I often had a hard time telling how much times has passed or who was talking now or how it tied in with the story, but my main problem were the transistions between the.... moods and plots?
The book is both thriller/mystery and romance, and the switch between these felt very off to me. Especially the sex scenes felt out of place for me, though they were very creative as they were all online as well!
There was also a lot of social commentary about a lot of things: misogyny, racism, data privacy, fandom and the interactions and boundaries of creators and fans on social media, to name a few. I enjoyed that a lot.
I liked the characters, though as mentioned above, I always felt a little distanced from them through the format. Nevertheless I enjoyed reading about them, and especially Arthur's and Van Helsing's interactions and their banter were great to read and very refreshing as in I have never seen a dynamic quite like theirs before (and I'm not talking about the whole professor kink thing, which wasn't that big of a deal anyways - Van Helsing IS a professor, and Arthur is younger than him, but he is not his student or a student at all.)
The ending felt sort of anticlimatic. Many things seemed pointless in hindsight or were just never mentioned again after a certain point with felt weird.
The story definitely had a creep factor, and made me feel quite queasy at times but it was never unbearable, even for a scaredy cat like me ;)
Thrall is technically a retelling - this is were I admit I have never read Dracula and I'm not really familiar with the story (I watched that one movie with Hugh Jackman that is vaguely Dracula-ish I believe... but even that was years ago) so I can't judge it on that, aside from mentioning that this retelling doesn't have vampires.
Overall I enjoyed reading Thrall, and it was definitely an exciting new experience for me.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 9, 2018
I’m so disappointed.
I went into the book because I like the mixed media format. If the story is told via text messages, tweets, podcast scripts etc I’m all here for it. And this format worked here as well, no complains about it.
I saw most of my goodreads pals rating the book 3 and I thought perhaps it’s because of the format? I decided to give the book a shot anyways.
And I was loving it so much, I sent those excited-puppy whatsup messages to Iam saying how the book was cool and I might give it 5 stars.
Things went downhill in the second half of the book.
My biggest complain is that the book doesn’t know what it’s doing. Is it a adventure quest with friends? Is it a murder mystery? Are we goofing around, sexting and solving puzzles? Or are we desperately trying to find a brother WHO IS MISSING FOR A MONTH?
The book tried to do both and I believe it failed.
I am deeply unsatisfied by the progression of the second half and the conclusion of the book. The characters motivation was off. How can I feel compassionate about a sister lowkey looking for her brother but not really trying?
Okay, maybe I’m just too serious and I have read a lot of murder mysteries lately and I can’t chill.
But the escalating narration led me to believe the stake are high.
When in fact, the resolution was very anticlimactic. Not to go into a spoiler territory. But I’m upset.
While we are on the topic, I’m also very upset on behalf of PoV characters because of the actions of a non-PoV character.
To conclude this verbose monstrosity, I’m am upset because I feel tricked, I’m not satisfied with the ending, the more I think about the more upset I get. The book failed to create a cohesive narrative and even though I’ll be listing things I like in the next paragraph, I won’t recommend reading the book. I might even give it a 2 star rating...
Things I liked
- Mix media format. The style of different mediums of communication as well as the personalities of the speaker were spot on.
- The characters. The main cast consists of four people. Lucy and Mina (establishes f/f couple), Van Helsing and Arthur (started dating during the book events). Lucy and Mina are women of color, Lucy is bi, Mina is lesbian, both of them are podcasters. Arthur is bi, Van Helsing is gay. Arthur works in social media, Van Helsing is anthropology professor.
- The discussions on data mining, privacy on the web, unhealthy aspects of the being on the Internet.
- The first half of the book was genuinely fun.
CW: explicit sexual content, harmful comments on twitter (challenged), threats, gaslighting
2.5 stars
I went into the book because I like the mixed media format. If the story is told via text messages, tweets, podcast scripts etc I’m all here for it. And this format worked here as well, no complains about it.
I saw most of my goodreads pals rating the book 3 and I thought perhaps it’s because of the format? I decided to give the book a shot anyways.
And I was loving it so much, I sent those excited-puppy whatsup messages to Iam saying how the book was cool and I might give it 5 stars.
Things went downhill in the second half of the book.
My biggest complain is that the book doesn’t know what it’s doing. Is it a adventure quest with friends? Is it a murder mystery? Are we goofing around, sexting and solving puzzles? Or are we desperately trying to find a brother WHO IS MISSING FOR A MONTH?
The book tried to do both and I believe it failed.
I am deeply unsatisfied by the progression of the second half and the conclusion of the book. The characters motivation was off. How can I feel compassionate about a sister lowkey looking for her brother but not really trying?
Okay, maybe I’m just too serious and I have read a lot of murder mysteries lately and I can’t chill.
But the escalating narration led me to believe the stake are high.
When in fact, the resolution was very anticlimactic. Not to go into a spoiler territory. But I’m upset.
While we are on the topic, I’m also very upset on behalf of PoV characters because of the actions of a non-PoV character.
To conclude this verbose monstrosity, I’m am upset because I feel tricked, I’m not satisfied with the ending, the more I think about the more upset I get. The book failed to create a cohesive narrative and even though I’ll be listing things I like in the next paragraph, I won’t recommend reading the book. I might even give it a 2 star rating...
Things I liked
- Mix media format. The style of different mediums of communication as well as the personalities of the speaker were spot on.
- The characters. The main cast consists of four people. Lucy and Mina (establishes f/f couple), Van Helsing and Arthur (started dating during the book events). Lucy and Mina are women of color, Lucy is bi, Mina is lesbian, both of them are podcasters. Arthur is bi, Van Helsing is gay. Arthur works in social media, Van Helsing is anthropology professor.
- The discussions on data mining, privacy on the web, unhealthy aspects of the being on the Internet.
- The first half of the book was genuinely fun.
CW: explicit sexual content, harmful comments on twitter (challenged), threats, gaslighting
2.5 stars
October 8, 2018
A Joyfully Jay review.
3 stars
Thrall is intended as a modern retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Honestly, I didn’t like the book for the first half. It’s told in a combination of blog posts, group texts, Google hangouts, IMs, and journal entries. It was really not my bag. It took me a long time to sink into, and that isn’t a vampire pun. The THRALL app seems to become a virtual vampire, sucking the life and times from our main characters. While the writing style was jarring, I dug the meta-ness of that premise. The pacing was a bit too slow, but in the second half it improved, especially as the clues are coming fast and furious and Harker’s still missing.
I liked how Arthur and Van develop an actual relationship, though this is revealed to the reader via journals and sexting. That muted the passion, and might be a little frustrating to some readers. I liked the dirty talk and sexy scenarios, but feeling so removed damped the ardor for me. The second half of the book had fewer distracting cut-aways to Twitter comments and built the tension better regarding the mystery.
Read Veronica’s review in its entirety here.
3 stars
Thrall is intended as a modern retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Honestly, I didn’t like the book for the first half. It’s told in a combination of blog posts, group texts, Google hangouts, IMs, and journal entries. It was really not my bag. It took me a long time to sink into, and that isn’t a vampire pun. The THRALL app seems to become a virtual vampire, sucking the life and times from our main characters. While the writing style was jarring, I dug the meta-ness of that premise. The pacing was a bit too slow, but in the second half it improved, especially as the clues are coming fast and furious and Harker’s still missing.
I liked how Arthur and Van develop an actual relationship, though this is revealed to the reader via journals and sexting. That muted the passion, and might be a little frustrating to some readers. I liked the dirty talk and sexy scenarios, but feeling so removed damped the ardor for me. The second half of the book had fewer distracting cut-aways to Twitter comments and built the tension better regarding the mystery.
Read Veronica’s review in its entirety here.
September 28, 2018
This is a really difficult book for me to review because it took me everywhere from 2 to 5 stars. I'm glad I love Roan Parrish so much because otherwise I might have put it down early and would have missed the best parts that came later in the book.
I think the main reason why I had so much trouble with this books is not the story itself but the presentation. It just frustrated me to no end that I had to dig through the words to get to the actual story. That's probably a very subjective criticism but that's what book reviews are about, right? It has a lot to do with the way I actually read tweets IRL, for example. I always perceive the person visually rather than read through their name and tag line. I go right to the essence of the tweet. Because this was in book form, I could not do that, hence my frustration.
That being said, the parts where there was actual text or dialogue was awesome. Some of them made the book so worth reading. Not just the story but also the thoughts and considerations of the characters. There are so many contemporary problems addressed - which I LOVED!
So, would I recommend that you read this book? Yes.
Would I let you read it without warning you that some people might find it difficult to read? No.
Will I read it again (which would equal a 4 star rating)? Not likely. BUT I might skip to the end and read that again because, yeah, that absolutely rocked!
I think the main reason why I had so much trouble with this books is not the story itself but the presentation. It just frustrated me to no end that I had to dig through the words to get to the actual story. That's probably a very subjective criticism but that's what book reviews are about, right? It has a lot to do with the way I actually read tweets IRL, for example. I always perceive the person visually rather than read through their name and tag line. I go right to the essence of the tweet. Because this was in book form, I could not do that, hence my frustration.
That being said, the parts where there was actual text or dialogue was awesome. Some of them made the book so worth reading. Not just the story but also the thoughts and considerations of the characters. There are so many contemporary problems addressed - which I LOVED!
So, would I recommend that you read this book? Yes.
Would I let you read it without warning you that some people might find it difficult to read? No.
Will I read it again (which would equal a 4 star rating)? Not likely. BUT I might skip to the end and read that again because, yeah, that absolutely rocked!
September 25, 2018
unfortunately, thrall didn't do it for me. i loved parrish and gale's previous collab but this one is definitely different. the style of writing was different as it's done through texts, emails, podcast transcript and the rare "fanfic" the couples wrote for one another. i think it's the mystery that fell short for me. i didn't get very intrigued by anything. also, the jarring negative comments mina and lucy got on twitter made me so anxious. i usually read books to ESCAPE reality's hellish comments, not to face them. arthur and the professor's relationship...also didn't do much for me. it was nice that they got along so nicely and i liked the professor's emails to his best friend. i don't know. maybe the fact that it just felt like a nonstop book of "telling" that didn't do it for me.
April 18, 2024
Enjoyable and clever Dracula retelling. It took me a few chapters to get into the mixed media format and I probably could have done without most of the podcast boards/twitter feed sections. However, the chats, texts, and emails were masterfully done and really allowed me to get a feel for the characters. Van and Arthur in particular were hot and sweet and funny. The ending was kind of clever I guess but ultimately, a bit disappointing.
November 19, 2018
This book was provided for free by the author and Love Bytes in exchange for an honest review.
This review was first posted to Love Bytes: LGBTQ Book Reviews. It has been slightly edited here for content.
I’ve been a consistent fan of Gale and Parrish’s writing for a couple years now, and they rarely disappoint. Their stories span genres and publishers and heat levels, but they all have an easygoing flow and distinct character voices that make each read completely accessible. This is one of their more adventurous and ambitious works, and though it won’t be a hit for everyone, it totally is for me.
Before you read any further—this is a completely epistolary work. So if that turns you off, then you may want to skip it. But I absolutely love epistolary works, from classics like Frankenstein to silly modern stories like Lauren Myracle’s TTYL. The possibilities for epistolary storytelling have tripled with the internet age, making books out of anything from chat room logs to text messages to Twitter feeds. All of those things make appearances, along with straightforward diary entries, flirty fantasy scenarios, and long-form e-mails between main characters Lucy, Mina, Arthur, and Van Helsing. It feels incredibly intimate, like we’re part of the mystery-solving crew as well. When I checked a text while reading this book, a part of me almost expected it to be from one of the characters!
The main plot of the book involving Lucy’s missing brother, Harker, and a mysterious dating app called Thrall unfolds slowly, with building worry and subtle thrills. All of the characters feel modern and even-keeled. Nobody is freaking out or making rash decisions. So when things start getting really weird, they have to reexamine their relationship with their town, their beliefs, and with each other. It’s generally a lighthearted read with a lot of romance and smut, but moments of darkness will surprise you. It’s definitely a successful mystery that will keep you guessing.
As a reader of both F/F and M/M works, I really enjoyed both romantic pairings. Lucy and Mina, girlfriends and co-hosts of a New Orleans true crime podcast, have that more comfortable established-couple vibe. They can be both silly and passionate with each other, and their personalities mingle so easily. And introverted, fact-driven Mina gets a little stern with her bouncy, social butterfly girlfriend once in a while, which is always delicious. I like seeing a committed and loving F/F couple at the hear of a queer story rather than being reduced to sideline characters who chastely kiss and offer supportive words once in a while.
For M/M readers, Arthur and Van Helsing’s sweet, playful, smoldering courtship will definitely be a winner. Arthur feels like a lot of Gale/Parrish main characters—an outgoing, slightly flighty bisexual who finally finds “the one”—but he’s never a stereotype. And the older, scholarly, slightly dorky Van Helsing is absolutely smitten with him. His e-mails to his best friend about how enamored he is of Arthur are absolutely swoon-worthy. Van Helsing’s structured, formal way of “speaking” in his texts and Google Hangout messages might be tedious to some, but it really sets him apart from the younger characters, making it easy to distinguish each person’s voice.
I don’t know if “retelling” is the proper term for this book. I’d almost call it, in fanfiction terms, a “remix.” Characters, storytelling tropes, and the mysticism of what lurks in the shadows all make appearances in both works, but if you’re thinking of the classic Dracula plot, you won’t get that modern version in this book. It also keeps you guessing right up until the end—is this a missing person mystery, or is something supernatural lurking beneath the surface? I suppose you’ll just have to read to find out.
This is a perfect Halloween read. It builds a slow mystery with a lot of missteps and little clues, and we’re left wondering if something sinister is brewing beneath the surface. It won’t work for all readers, but it works for me.
This review was first posted to Love Bytes: LGBTQ Book Reviews. It has been slightly edited here for content.
I’ve been a consistent fan of Gale and Parrish’s writing for a couple years now, and they rarely disappoint. Their stories span genres and publishers and heat levels, but they all have an easygoing flow and distinct character voices that make each read completely accessible. This is one of their more adventurous and ambitious works, and though it won’t be a hit for everyone, it totally is for me.
Before you read any further—this is a completely epistolary work. So if that turns you off, then you may want to skip it. But I absolutely love epistolary works, from classics like Frankenstein to silly modern stories like Lauren Myracle’s TTYL. The possibilities for epistolary storytelling have tripled with the internet age, making books out of anything from chat room logs to text messages to Twitter feeds. All of those things make appearances, along with straightforward diary entries, flirty fantasy scenarios, and long-form e-mails between main characters Lucy, Mina, Arthur, and Van Helsing. It feels incredibly intimate, like we’re part of the mystery-solving crew as well. When I checked a text while reading this book, a part of me almost expected it to be from one of the characters!
The main plot of the book involving Lucy’s missing brother, Harker, and a mysterious dating app called Thrall unfolds slowly, with building worry and subtle thrills. All of the characters feel modern and even-keeled. Nobody is freaking out or making rash decisions. So when things start getting really weird, they have to reexamine their relationship with their town, their beliefs, and with each other. It’s generally a lighthearted read with a lot of romance and smut, but moments of darkness will surprise you. It’s definitely a successful mystery that will keep you guessing.
As a reader of both F/F and M/M works, I really enjoyed both romantic pairings. Lucy and Mina, girlfriends and co-hosts of a New Orleans true crime podcast, have that more comfortable established-couple vibe. They can be both silly and passionate with each other, and their personalities mingle so easily. And introverted, fact-driven Mina gets a little stern with her bouncy, social butterfly girlfriend once in a while, which is always delicious. I like seeing a committed and loving F/F couple at the hear of a queer story rather than being reduced to sideline characters who chastely kiss and offer supportive words once in a while.
For M/M readers, Arthur and Van Helsing’s sweet, playful, smoldering courtship will definitely be a winner. Arthur feels like a lot of Gale/Parrish main characters—an outgoing, slightly flighty bisexual who finally finds “the one”—but he’s never a stereotype. And the older, scholarly, slightly dorky Van Helsing is absolutely smitten with him. His e-mails to his best friend about how enamored he is of Arthur are absolutely swoon-worthy. Van Helsing’s structured, formal way of “speaking” in his texts and Google Hangout messages might be tedious to some, but it really sets him apart from the younger characters, making it easy to distinguish each person’s voice.
I don’t know if “retelling” is the proper term for this book. I’d almost call it, in fanfiction terms, a “remix.” Characters, storytelling tropes, and the mysticism of what lurks in the shadows all make appearances in both works, but if you’re thinking of the classic Dracula plot, you won’t get that modern version in this book. It also keeps you guessing right up until the end—is this a missing person mystery, or is something supernatural lurking beneath the surface? I suppose you’ll just have to read to find out.
This is a perfect Halloween read. It builds a slow mystery with a lot of missteps and little clues, and we’re left wondering if something sinister is brewing beneath the surface. It won’t work for all readers, but it works for me.
November 1, 2021
An epistolary Dracula retelling that didn’t quite deliver on the ending. The author’s note at the end described it as a “meditation on what vampirism looks like in the twenty-first century”. I’m not sure if it would have worked better had I known that going in because it felt like I was reading an entirely different book at that point. Admittedly, epistolary lit is a mixed bag for me but I love both of these authors and wanted to give it a fair shot. As interesting as it was to read through chat histories, podcast transcripts, diaries entries, etc., at a certain point I wanted to simply see Mina, Lucy, Van Helsing, and Arthur and be shown the story instead of gleaning it through those exchanges. However, I really enjoyed the characters and how distinct their personalities were, despite only experiencing them at a remove. Van Helsing in particular: he was the hot buttoned up professor of my dreams. It was also interesting to have two romances: Mina and Lucy who are in an established relationship and Arthur and Van Helsing who meet through the course of the investigation. Because this is an epistolary romance, it made for A+ sexting and I throughly enjoyed the creative inclusion of self-insert fic. Those were some hot scenes!
Lucy’s continued refusal to involve the police in Harker’s disappearance and her wild assumptions confused me and I didn’t understand the ways they both did and did not involve their podcast audience. The ARG took over the story in a way that made me forget Harker was actually missing—maybe that was the point and another part of the meditation on vampirism. However, it made the story feel unbalanced. Still, I applaud the authors for trying something different, even if it didn’t quite hold up for me.
Character notes: Mina is a 25 year old white lesbian true crime podcast co-host and after-school program coordinator. She has cats named Cleo and Sparrow. Lucy is a 25 year old Black bisexual true crime podcast co-host and hotel manager. Lucy and Mina have been best friends for 15 years and dating for 2. Lucy’s brother Harker is a Black (possibly bi?) anthropology graduate student. Arthur is a 28 year old white bisexual social media manager. Van Helsing is a buttoned up white Dutch gay anthropology professor, likely in his 40s. He has a 14 year old son named Harry (sperm donor for his best friend) and a dog named Jack. This is set in New Orleans.
Content notes: missing person, homophobia (mostly tweets about the podcast), discussion of systemic racism, mentions of dead animals, brief concern of necromancy, MMC refers to “seducing” two of his professors while he was a student (major lapse in professional ethics on their part), alcohol, inebriation, vomit, on page sex, sexting, orgasm control, masturbation, bondage, gendered insults, genitalia-related insult, ableist language, Van Helsing donated sperm to his best friend when she wanted to get pregnant (past), Van Helsing’s parents died while he was in college, reference to nightmares
Lucy’s continued refusal to involve the police in Harker’s disappearance and her wild assumptions confused me and I didn’t understand the ways they both did and did not involve their podcast audience. The ARG took over the story in a way that made me forget Harker was actually missing—maybe that was the point and another part of the meditation on vampirism. However, it made the story feel unbalanced. Still, I applaud the authors for trying something different, even if it didn’t quite hold up for me.
Character notes: Mina is a 25 year old white lesbian true crime podcast co-host and after-school program coordinator. She has cats named Cleo and Sparrow. Lucy is a 25 year old Black bisexual true crime podcast co-host and hotel manager. Lucy and Mina have been best friends for 15 years and dating for 2. Lucy’s brother Harker is a Black (possibly bi?) anthropology graduate student. Arthur is a 28 year old white bisexual social media manager. Van Helsing is a buttoned up white Dutch gay anthropology professor, likely in his 40s. He has a 14 year old son named Harry (sperm donor for his best friend) and a dog named Jack. This is set in New Orleans.
Content notes: missing person, homophobia (mostly tweets about the podcast), discussion of systemic racism, mentions of dead animals, brief concern of necromancy, MMC refers to “seducing” two of his professors while he was a student (major lapse in professional ethics on their part), alcohol, inebriation, vomit, on page sex, sexting, orgasm control, masturbation, bondage, gendered insults, genitalia-related insult, ableist language, Van Helsing donated sperm to his best friend when she wanted to get pregnant (past), Van Helsing’s parents died while he was in college, reference to nightmares
September 27, 2018
3.5
"Thrall" is a mixed bag for me, that in the hands of less talented writers would have just fallen flat on its face. As a fan of Bram Stoker’s "Dracula", I was stoked to hear about Roan Parrish and Avon Gail’s modern take on vampirism with nary a vamp and written in the same epistolary format. For sheer scope of vision alone, Parrish and Gail deserve credit; moreover, they took this letter-writing, episodic format and enthusiastically ran with it into the modern age, incorporating tweets, texts and chats among other formats. I found the idea of Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra being hosts of a true-crime podcast a wonderful way to not only incorporate another new avenue for presenting information, but as a way to illustrate the connection, engagement and sometimes soul (blood)-sucking and intrusive “nearness” social media creates.
There is a lot to like about "Thrall" . . . and a few things that left me feeling a bit “meh”. The first part of the blurb is spot on: Mina and Lucy, who went from friends to lovers before the time period in the book, become worried about Lucy’s brother, Harker Westenra, when he seems to vanish. As Harker has no real life outside of his dissertation, as far as Lucy knows, his absence, his browser-search history and his complete lack of response to her texts sends her spiraling and latching on to the one person in Harker’s life that she knows of, his advisor August Van Helsing, and the one clue she has—the dating app Thrall. As for the rest of the blurb. . . that seems to be a bit of what Van Helsing deems “strategic presentation”. For me, there was no real rivalry between Arthur and Van Helsing (yes, I just like using that name ;)). There was flirting from the first email, lots of blunt and awkward honesty and sometimes, “hey, aren’t we supposed to be worried about Lucy’s missing brother?” comments to assure readers they weren’t completely self-involved a-holes, flirting when they should be finding a missing person, but rivalry, not so much. Van Helsing’s lack of tech-savvy is actually attractive to Arthur, among MANY things, and he admittedly plays up his luddite persona for him.
Additionally, Lucy and Mina’s relationship wasn’t really “tested in the fires of social media” as far as I could tell. As tweets are used and they are public figures, there were of course examples of misogyny, general nastiness and trolling, but nothing that actually put a strain on them/affected them as a couple. There were some extremely ugly SM interactions late in the story that were horrible and scary for them, but existed outside of their relationship. That being said, I did enjoy all the relationships in the book; the characters were interesting in their own ways and worked well together; I just went in expecting something a little bit different in terms of relationship development, based on the blurb.
In general, there were a few instances where the writing/tone didn’t click for me. While I do like the epistolary format, one of its shortcomings is that there are a few instances where a phone call may have been warranted. Especially times in which Van Helsing, who is new to chatting and texting with such regularity, would have DEFINITELY picked up the phone to call Arthur because of the importance of the moment, so, for me, I was pulled out of the story in those moments because it seemed incongruous to the character and made me focus on the format rather than the scene. Additionally, as someone who likes social/historical/political or other societal angles in books I read, I have a high tolerance for current affairs or social issue discussions in my romance, but even for me, "Thrall" came across a bit too in your face with it. It makes sense given the context of the story as a “meditation on what vampirism looks like in the twenty-first century” and the SM environment in which the MCs interact, but the book was pretty heavy-handed in its incorporation. On the one hand, I enjoy when books shine a light on important issues; on the other, it became its own presence in the story.
Another issue for me was how often a seemingly important element/topic was established, but then the authors did nothing with it; this was done with a supernatural aspect, something in Lucy/Harker’s history and a storyline incorporated into and related to the search for Harker. The screen/page time these topics took up just to be dropped, especially since they were written so well and captured my attention, was somewhat of a letdown. These components when combined with the ending, was when my general sense of “meh, okay” arose. To keep it short and only slightly spoiler-y, let’s just say my take-aways were: “People are assholes” and “Everyone should read ‘Weapons of Math Destruction’”.
All that being said, the book was enjoyable. Mina and Lucy are adorable and flirty together, and I would totally listen to their podcast. I also liked how Van Helsing’s honesty and the letter-writing format was used to strip out the elements of Arthur’s persona that he hid behind to get to the man beneath more quickly, something that usually takes more time because of the level of vulnerability it involves, the increased distractions from interactions in social settings, and the greater ability to hide under superficiality. Moreover, I particularly liked how Van Helsing’s character is so formal because his manner of speech is the only one similar to that found in "Dracula", so it was nice to have a character voice that channeled an aspect I adored from the source material. My personal beef with the ending and what amounted to a supernatural cocktease in the earlier parts of the book aside, overall "Thrall" can be a fun read and deserves kudos for how well it tackled the epistolary format of "Dracula" in a modern way.
Reviewed for The Novel Approach Reviews
"Thrall" is a mixed bag for me, that in the hands of less talented writers would have just fallen flat on its face. As a fan of Bram Stoker’s "Dracula", I was stoked to hear about Roan Parrish and Avon Gail’s modern take on vampirism with nary a vamp and written in the same epistolary format. For sheer scope of vision alone, Parrish and Gail deserve credit; moreover, they took this letter-writing, episodic format and enthusiastically ran with it into the modern age, incorporating tweets, texts and chats among other formats. I found the idea of Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra being hosts of a true-crime podcast a wonderful way to not only incorporate another new avenue for presenting information, but as a way to illustrate the connection, engagement and sometimes soul (blood)-sucking and intrusive “nearness” social media creates.
There is a lot to like about "Thrall" . . . and a few things that left me feeling a bit “meh”. The first part of the blurb is spot on: Mina and Lucy, who went from friends to lovers before the time period in the book, become worried about Lucy’s brother, Harker Westenra, when he seems to vanish. As Harker has no real life outside of his dissertation, as far as Lucy knows, his absence, his browser-search history and his complete lack of response to her texts sends her spiraling and latching on to the one person in Harker’s life that she knows of, his advisor August Van Helsing, and the one clue she has—the dating app Thrall. As for the rest of the blurb. . . that seems to be a bit of what Van Helsing deems “strategic presentation”. For me, there was no real rivalry between Arthur and Van Helsing (yes, I just like using that name ;)). There was flirting from the first email, lots of blunt and awkward honesty and sometimes, “hey, aren’t we supposed to be worried about Lucy’s missing brother?” comments to assure readers they weren’t completely self-involved a-holes, flirting when they should be finding a missing person, but rivalry, not so much. Van Helsing’s lack of tech-savvy is actually attractive to Arthur, among MANY things, and he admittedly plays up his luddite persona for him.
Additionally, Lucy and Mina’s relationship wasn’t really “tested in the fires of social media” as far as I could tell. As tweets are used and they are public figures, there were of course examples of misogyny, general nastiness and trolling, but nothing that actually put a strain on them/affected them as a couple. There were some extremely ugly SM interactions late in the story that were horrible and scary for them, but existed outside of their relationship. That being said, I did enjoy all the relationships in the book; the characters were interesting in their own ways and worked well together; I just went in expecting something a little bit different in terms of relationship development, based on the blurb.
In general, there were a few instances where the writing/tone didn’t click for me. While I do like the epistolary format, one of its shortcomings is that there are a few instances where a phone call may have been warranted. Especially times in which Van Helsing, who is new to chatting and texting with such regularity, would have DEFINITELY picked up the phone to call Arthur because of the importance of the moment, so, for me, I was pulled out of the story in those moments because it seemed incongruous to the character and made me focus on the format rather than the scene. Additionally, as someone who likes social/historical/political or other societal angles in books I read, I have a high tolerance for current affairs or social issue discussions in my romance, but even for me, "Thrall" came across a bit too in your face with it. It makes sense given the context of the story as a “meditation on what vampirism looks like in the twenty-first century” and the SM environment in which the MCs interact, but the book was pretty heavy-handed in its incorporation. On the one hand, I enjoy when books shine a light on important issues; on the other, it became its own presence in the story.
Another issue for me was how often a seemingly important element/topic was established, but then the authors did nothing with it; this was done with a supernatural aspect, something in Lucy/Harker’s history and a storyline incorporated into and related to the search for Harker. The screen/page time these topics took up just to be dropped, especially since they were written so well and captured my attention, was somewhat of a letdown. These components when combined with the ending, was when my general sense of “meh, okay” arose. To keep it short and only slightly spoiler-y, let’s just say my take-aways were: “People are assholes” and “Everyone should read ‘Weapons of Math Destruction’”.
All that being said, the book was enjoyable. Mina and Lucy are adorable and flirty together, and I would totally listen to their podcast. I also liked how Van Helsing’s honesty and the letter-writing format was used to strip out the elements of Arthur’s persona that he hid behind to get to the man beneath more quickly, something that usually takes more time because of the level of vulnerability it involves, the increased distractions from interactions in social settings, and the greater ability to hide under superficiality. Moreover, I particularly liked how Van Helsing’s character is so formal because his manner of speech is the only one similar to that found in "Dracula", so it was nice to have a character voice that channeled an aspect I adored from the source material. My personal beef with the ending and what amounted to a supernatural cocktease in the earlier parts of the book aside, overall "Thrall" can be a fun read and deserves kudos for how well it tackled the epistolary format of "Dracula" in a modern way.
Reviewed for The Novel Approach Reviews
March 1, 2019
I really liked some parts of this and I was really disappointed by other parts.
I REALLY loved the format: The entire story is told "digitally" - mostly the social media accounts of the main characters, along with emails, texts, diaries, excerpts from Twitter hashtag searches, browser histories, private fanfic, video transcripts, podcast transcripts, etc. The way the story was told using these was very well-crafted and entertaining.
I also really liked the characters. Mina and Van Helsing stood out as A. very well-characterized and B. very similar to their counterparts from Dracula. I also adored Renfield, which is not something I ever in a hundred years would expect. The whole main crew was really great though, and I loved their podcast and their friendships and relationships with each other.
The plot was a disappointment. I don't know how to say this without making it sound like I'm ragging on the romance genre. Here's the thing. I respect the romance genre, I just don't usually read it. I wasn't quite expecting this to be as romance-y as it was (although I should have been clued in by the authors). The plot here was mostly focused on the romantic relationships, and while those were really great and fun to read about, I was VERY interested in the missing-person plot and the murder-mystery plot and the dating-app plot. The non-character-plots were VERY thin, and often were set on the back-burner while Mina and Lucy or Arthur and VH discussed their relationships yet again. And then the ending? Oh gosh. I hated it so much. I see what they were going for, but I hated it. I really really wanted this to be more like the novel Dracula, and really it was an AU for the romantic ships. So. A fun AU, but not what I wanted. I guess this review says a LOT about my wants and needs! xD
CW for a lot of sexting and a few erotic fanfics (I don't enjoy reading about sex and found myself skipping these for the most part).
Overall a very entertaining read but not very satisfying for me personally.
I REALLY loved the format: The entire story is told "digitally" - mostly the social media accounts of the main characters, along with emails, texts, diaries, excerpts from Twitter hashtag searches, browser histories, private fanfic, video transcripts, podcast transcripts, etc. The way the story was told using these was very well-crafted and entertaining.
I also really liked the characters. Mina and Van Helsing stood out as A. very well-characterized and B. very similar to their counterparts from Dracula. I also adored Renfield, which is not something I ever in a hundred years would expect. The whole main crew was really great though, and I loved their podcast and their friendships and relationships with each other.
The plot was a disappointment. I don't know how to say this without making it sound like I'm ragging on the romance genre. Here's the thing. I respect the romance genre, I just don't usually read it. I wasn't quite expecting this to be as romance-y as it was (although I should have been clued in by the authors). The plot here was mostly focused on the romantic relationships, and while those were really great and fun to read about, I was VERY interested in the missing-person plot and the murder-mystery plot and the dating-app plot. The non-character-plots were VERY thin, and often were set on the back-burner while Mina and Lucy or Arthur and VH discussed their relationships yet again. And then the ending? Oh gosh. I hated it so much. I see what they were going for, but I hated it. I really really wanted this to be more like the novel Dracula, and really it was an AU for the romantic ships. So. A fun AU, but not what I wanted. I guess this review says a LOT about my wants and needs! xD
CW for a lot of sexting and a few erotic fanfics (I don't enjoy reading about sex and found myself skipping these for the most part).
Overall a very entertaining read but not very satisfying for me personally.
October 4, 2018
the ending was so anticlimatic and the sex scenes written by the characters turned me off so bad lol which is a pity bc i liked the characters well enough
December 12, 2018
Actually 4 1/2 stars!
I have to admit I had to sneak a peek at the end because the story was getting so stressful, but I wound up enjoying this very much. I especially enjoying the way the authors played with the names from Dracula.
So go read it and see for yourself!
I have to admit I had to sneak a peek at the end because the story was getting so stressful, but I wound up enjoying this very much. I especially enjoying the way the authors played with the names from Dracula.
So go read it and see for yourself!
October 3, 2018
3.5 Stars
Thrall is a retelling of Dracula. There are four main characters. Mina and Lucy are a couple and together, they have a true crime podcast. Arthur is their friend as well as the guy who handles their social media. When Lucy's brother, Harker, suddenly goes missing—not responding to calls, texts or emails—the three reach out to Harker's professor, Van Helsing, asking him whether he's heard from Harker.
Before he went missing/off the grid, Harker was writing a dissertation and it involved a new dating app called Thrall. Arthur makes an account on Thrall trying to figure it out and hoping maybe it would give a clue as to what happened to Harker. And it leads them on a quest full of mystery and a possible serial killer.
The book is entirely in the format of emails, chats, texts, blog posts, tweets and more. And I wasn't a fan of it. It's not just because I prefer my books to be written in ordinary prose, because I've enjoyed epistolary novels before; it's about this book and story specifically. There were good things that came out of the format, yes, but for the most part, I think I would have liked the story more were the format different. In fact, I would like to reread the same story, just written the good ol' fashioned way.
That said, there are good things about it. My favourite thing is, undoubtedly, how well social media has been represented. Not just in the tweets-are-proper-length way but the way it shows how people interact on social media.
Lucy and Mina love reading and talking about true crime. That's what their podcast is about, after all. And there was an article tweeted to them which talked about how it wasn't right that women were taking interest in such things. There were also assholes who were offended any time they did anything that so much as hinted at the fact that they're together, people saying they didn't care what the two did as long as they didn't rub it in their face. Calling your girlfriend cute is apparently too much for people's delicate sensibilities.
What I'm saying is, this the kind of stuff that people really say on the internet and I loved that the authors did such a great job with it. It added authenticity to the novel.
But this is just one part of the book. Arthur and Van Helsing's relationship is another. I liked it and I liked them, individually and together. There were some really cute parts and some really hot ones. I loved the understanding they had of each other. But I wanted more. And by that I mean I wanted to read their story like a story, instead of chats and emails. I feel like I missed out on a great romance.
Another part of the book is the mystery. Harker's gone AWOL and Lucy, Mina, Arthur and Van Helsing are looking for him. They're trying to find clues as to what he was doing before and where he might have gone. It was interesting, the puzzles, and the authors did manage to create tension. But I didn't like how it ended. The answer to what happened to Harker didn't work for me. And not because it was bad, necessarily, but because it was disjointed from the rest of the book. I couldn't help but wonder what it had to do with the story we were reading. Answer is, I'm not sure.
Overall, this was a book trying to juggle multiple things at once and did a pretty good job of it. We got Lucy and Mina's relationship, their podcast, Arthur and Van Helsing's relationship, a good representation of social media and a decent mystery. But the resolution and format didn't work for me so I'm not if this is a book I'd recommend. If it sounds interesting to you, go for it.
Thrall is a retelling of Dracula. There are four main characters. Mina and Lucy are a couple and together, they have a true crime podcast. Arthur is their friend as well as the guy who handles their social media. When Lucy's brother, Harker, suddenly goes missing—not responding to calls, texts or emails—the three reach out to Harker's professor, Van Helsing, asking him whether he's heard from Harker.
Before he went missing/off the grid, Harker was writing a dissertation and it involved a new dating app called Thrall. Arthur makes an account on Thrall trying to figure it out and hoping maybe it would give a clue as to what happened to Harker. And it leads them on a quest full of mystery and a possible serial killer.
The book is entirely in the format of emails, chats, texts, blog posts, tweets and more. And I wasn't a fan of it. It's not just because I prefer my books to be written in ordinary prose, because I've enjoyed epistolary novels before; it's about this book and story specifically. There were good things that came out of the format, yes, but for the most part, I think I would have liked the story more were the format different. In fact, I would like to reread the same story, just written the good ol' fashioned way.
That said, there are good things about it. My favourite thing is, undoubtedly, how well social media has been represented. Not just in the tweets-are-proper-length way but the way it shows how people interact on social media.
Lucy and Mina love reading and talking about true crime. That's what their podcast is about, after all. And there was an article tweeted to them which talked about how it wasn't right that women were taking interest in such things. There were also assholes who were offended any time they did anything that so much as hinted at the fact that they're together, people saying they didn't care what the two did as long as they didn't rub it in their face. Calling your girlfriend cute is apparently too much for people's delicate sensibilities.
What I'm saying is, this the kind of stuff that people really say on the internet and I loved that the authors did such a great job with it. It added authenticity to the novel.
But this is just one part of the book. Arthur and Van Helsing's relationship is another. I liked it and I liked them, individually and together. There were some really cute parts and some really hot ones. I loved the understanding they had of each other. But I wanted more. And by that I mean I wanted to read their story like a story, instead of chats and emails. I feel like I missed out on a great romance.
Another part of the book is the mystery. Harker's gone AWOL and Lucy, Mina, Arthur and Van Helsing are looking for him. They're trying to find clues as to what he was doing before and where he might have gone. It was interesting, the puzzles, and the authors did manage to create tension. But I didn't like how it ended. The answer to what happened to Harker didn't work for me. And not because it was bad, necessarily, but because it was disjointed from the rest of the book. I couldn't help but wonder what it had to do with the story we were reading. Answer is, I'm not sure.
Overall, this was a book trying to juggle multiple things at once and did a pretty good job of it. We got Lucy and Mina's relationship, their podcast, Arthur and Van Helsing's relationship, a good representation of social media and a decent mystery. But the resolution and format didn't work for me so I'm not if this is a book I'd recommend. If it sounds interesting to you, go for it.
October 1, 2018
Actual Rating; 3.5
Trigger Warnings; graphic sex scenes, slight descriptions of blood and gore.
I was so excited about this book. I was thrilled to read it, but I was a little disappointed. I read this as a queer retelling of Dracula, and hell yes! That is right up my street. Let me say that that is apt, with an established female female relationship and a developing romance between two men; two of the main characters, Lucy and Arthur, are bisexual. So rep wise it's all good. The romance between was written well, I enjoyed the contrast between Lucy and Mina's relationship and Arthur and Vans.
The story is told through messages, group chats, emails, twitter posts. I'm still unsure what I thought of this format, it made the book easy to read and added to the fast pace but I felt that I missed out on some of the details and progress of the plot and characters. It dives right in with the characters and I felt like it didn't give them chance for them to develop.
I did like the modernisation of the plot, the use of a dating app and the game. It was a cool twist. However this is the part that I’m disappointed with, I suppose with a retelling so there doesn’t have to be every element from the original, but I was expecting either serial killers or vampires. And guys! There weren’t either!! No vampires!! No serial killers! The conclusion of the game and app and what everything was leading to I didn’t like. I enjoyed that Bram Stoker was a black women, who was a computer genius that was good. But all the reasoning behind the game and app felt like a let-down.
Overall I did enjoy this, I loved the characters and the interactions between Mina, Lucy, Arthur and Van made me smile and laugh. I felt let down by the ending, that’s the reason for my rating.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 3, 2018
A Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words Review
Rating: 1.5 stars out of 5
For the full review visit https://wp.me/p220KL-ePj
From that review: "Well, what a surprising review to write. I will say upfront that this story came back to me after another reviewer who simply could not get through 11 percent of it. Looking at the authors (two favorites of mine) and the story synopsis, I decided to read it. Their take on Bram Stoker's Dracula sounded interesting and I'm always up for a new release from them.
Wow, just wow. I'm beyond astonished.
Whatever interesting themes or storyline these authors may have had is lost in a (at least for two readers here) totally indigestible format. Whether you are scrambling to gather facts and a storyline through a series of Twitter feeds to the Podcasts of Mina and Lucy or alternating Diary excerpts, the disjointed presentation on whole just loses the reader and, in fact the characters and plot"
For all our reviews, visit http://scatteredthoughtsandroguewords...
Rating: 1.5 stars out of 5
For the full review visit https://wp.me/p220KL-ePj
From that review: "Well, what a surprising review to write. I will say upfront that this story came back to me after another reviewer who simply could not get through 11 percent of it. Looking at the authors (two favorites of mine) and the story synopsis, I decided to read it. Their take on Bram Stoker's Dracula sounded interesting and I'm always up for a new release from them.
Wow, just wow. I'm beyond astonished.
Whatever interesting themes or storyline these authors may have had is lost in a (at least for two readers here) totally indigestible format. Whether you are scrambling to gather facts and a storyline through a series of Twitter feeds to the Podcasts of Mina and Lucy or alternating Diary excerpts, the disjointed presentation on whole just loses the reader and, in fact the characters and plot"
For all our reviews, visit http://scatteredthoughtsandroguewords...
November 3, 2020
This one is a bit difficult to rate because it is an "experiment" in terms of format. It blends two or three genres and I'm not sure it's fully successful. On the romance front it is nice but because we never see the characters interact in real time I felt something was missing. I wasn't a fan of the light kink between Van and Arthur but that's on me. Van reminded me a lot (maybe too much?) of Vaughn from Heart of Steal (written by the same duo of authors). The mystery: it was kind of a double mystery and the "resolution" was not really satisfying to me. It did not come out of nowhere but it was a bit of a let down. There were a few elements that felt ultimately pointless but I don't want to spoil anything. The whole thing felt scattered. The experiment kind of worked in the sense that I was able to follow the story and that's not nothing given the number of media involved and point if view included.Roan Parrish remains my favorite author but this not my favorite by her.
October 28, 2018
I had a lot of mixed feelings about this book. Mostly I loved it. I loved the style, the mystery, and all the little side love stories. However, it was the ending that bothered me. I totally got the metaphor they were going for and it was clever, but
I still really enjoyed it, and would like to see more like this. It probably helped that I didn't go into it expecting an m/m romance.
I still really enjoyed it, and would like to see more like this. It probably helped that I didn't go into it expecting an m/m romance.
September 26, 2018
Thrall,
A kind of dracula fairy tail,I had fun reading it.
The couples are fun and have Chemistry.
The way of telling the story with social media is fun and entertaining.
the ending off the story ,was not fitting by the storyline.
happy endings for the couples is fun and very sweet.
Main storyline gets his conclusion,but the other storylines are not resolved.
overall a fun and sweet romance
arc is provided by novel take pr
A kind of dracula fairy tail,I had fun reading it.
The couples are fun and have Chemistry.
The way of telling the story with social media is fun and entertaining.
the ending off the story ,was not fitting by the storyline.
happy endings for the couples is fun and very sweet.
Main storyline gets his conclusion,but the other storylines are not resolved.
overall a fun and sweet romance
arc is provided by novel take pr
September 21, 2018
I found this retelling absolutely delightful! All of the characters were engaging, the mystery was exciting and creepy, and the epistolary/social media format really worked for me.
Read the full review on my blog!
Read the full review on my blog!
October 12, 2018
I have in the past struggled with epistolary novels, but either because I spend so much time communicating online now, or because this is made up of online communication, I didn’t find this at all off putting. I adored all the characters, their different relationships to each other, their ways of relating. And it was so novel, after three years of reading exclusively romance novels and having become immersed in their rhythms, to have NO IDEA what was going to happen. Loved it.
Read
October 15, 2024
Trigger & Content Warnings
Homophobia
Alcohol consumption
Emesis
Death of parents recounted
Animal death mentioned
Homophobia
Alcohol consumption
Emesis
Death of parents recounted
Animal death mentioned
October 30, 2019
3.5 stars rounded up
I was invested in this book right up until the big reveal. So I’m going to say it’s 4 stars for 80% and 3 stars for the final 20%. Possibly even less for just the reveal portion which felt like it belonged in a different novel. The creep factor had ratcheted up just before then and I was on tenterhooks waiting to see what would happen. And then...bleh.
Still, it was good while it lasted.
I was invested in this book right up until the big reveal. So I’m going to say it’s 4 stars for 80% and 3 stars for the final 20%. Possibly even less for just the reveal portion which felt like it belonged in a different novel. The creep factor had ratcheted up just before then and I was on tenterhooks waiting to see what would happen. And then...bleh.
Still, it was good while it lasted.
September 11, 2021
I enjoyed most of this book but the ending was just meh. The mystery didn't really go anywhere and it was a bit of a letdown. The format worked really well though. I wasn't sure I'd like a modern epistolary novel but it was surprisingly engaging. Didn't expect the graphic sex scenes though - there was a strong focus on the romance, which isn't really my thing.
October 4, 2018
unappealing so far; pages of twitter shit, emails, and chat text. oh boy.. This turned out to be a good book; I do love the characters and story line. Interesting take on the classic Dracula tale.
March 9, 2023
THRALL was a unique read told through diary entries, tweets, chat messages and emails. While I really felt like I understood the "voice" of each character I also wanted more substance from them. The epistolary format isn't the best for getting deep dives into characters because you just don't see all their actions and thoughts.
Lucy and Mina are the established couple in THRALL and while they love each other they still have relationship hurdles to overcome. I liked that the reader gets to see that relationships are still work even after the “I love you's” are said. Arthur and Professor Van Helsing are the second couple and they meet through the investigation and are immediately attracted to each other. They're also a bit of an opposites attract with Arthur being young and tech savvy and Van Helsing being older and a more stuffy, professor type. I enjoyed Arthur and Van Helsing's relationship more because it was new and I love those first moments of discovery between a couple.
My favorite aspect was probably the spooky vibe that the story cultivated and I was really into the haunted overtones; that being said, the ending threw me for a loop because it wasn't the supernatural or creepy ending I expected based on the book up to that point. I felt like I got a bait and switch on the story and the ending left me really disappointed.
**Copy provided by A Novel Take PR for honest review**
Lucy and Mina are the established couple in THRALL and while they love each other they still have relationship hurdles to overcome. I liked that the reader gets to see that relationships are still work even after the “I love you's” are said. Arthur and Professor Van Helsing are the second couple and they meet through the investigation and are immediately attracted to each other. They're also a bit of an opposites attract with Arthur being young and tech savvy and Van Helsing being older and a more stuffy, professor type. I enjoyed Arthur and Van Helsing's relationship more because it was new and I love those first moments of discovery between a couple.
My favorite aspect was probably the spooky vibe that the story cultivated and I was really into the haunted overtones; that being said, the ending threw me for a loop because it wasn't the supernatural or creepy ending I expected based on the book up to that point. I felt like I got a bait and switch on the story and the ending left me really disappointed.
**Copy provided by A Novel Take PR for honest review**
May 13, 2020
1. Soo this was something of a disappointment but I absolutely think that's because I came in expecting a gay modern AU Dracula retelling and instead got three (2.5?) romances with some ominous stuff happening in the background.
2. I mean there was a lot of romance in this, you guys. So much more than I expected? And a lot of it is explicit sexual stuff which- I guess has its' place but that place should not involve it pushing aside the already sparse plot-based sections.
3. And it was a competent plot! It was well done and I was interested in the mystery. It's just that there was less of it than I would have liked and I'm not sure what I feel about the conclusion. Things ended up being very different from what I expected coming into this story.
4. It was still fun and I was invested.
2. I mean there was a lot of romance in this, you guys. So much more than I expected? And a lot of it is explicit sexual stuff which- I guess has its' place but that place should not involve it pushing aside the already sparse plot-based sections.
3. And it was a competent plot! It was well done and I was interested in the mystery. It's just that there was less of it than I would have liked and I'm not sure what I feel about the conclusion. Things ended up being very different from what I expected coming into this story.
4. It was still fun and I was invested.
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