Amateur Amalgam

June 9, 2025

I know this will offend some people, but I think the original Dracula is a bit boring tbh. I have an interactive (abridged) digital version and that made it seem really interesting – so did the way everyone talked about it. When I actually read it, it was… lackluster? I suppose is the word I would use to describe my feelings about it. I gave it another shot via Dracula Daily and that made it a little more fun, but I still didn’t like it much. Which is why when reading this one I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book – I assumed it would be the same for whatever reason. Granted I did read Dracula ages ago, and my tastes have changed/matured since, so maybe that’s why, but I really loved this book.

The premise is simple – letters from Dracula’s first bride to him, now deceased. The man does not treat them kindly, I’ll tell you that for free. You don’t need to have read Dracula before, as his story is part of pop culture now so you already know everything you need to, and anything you don’t we get told in the book.

Trigger Warnings:

Blood – Abuse – Violence – Murder – Self Harm – Depression – Sexual Assault – Drugs

This was such a beautifully written book. I wish I could accurately describe to you the level of beauty but that would be a disservice to it honestly. The descriptions are so vivid, and evolve through the relationship and her feelings about him, beginning by describing him as a saviour with reverent words and ending with much harsher language, describing rotting things.

“War is the whetstone that grinds down all sense, all humanity.”

“What is more lovely, after all, than a monster undone with wanting.”

There are soooo many more lines that were worthy of being quoted, but I would end up with the whole book if did that. I will definitely be getting this one at some point and re-reading it

Spoilers Ahead!

Part 1

Part one begins as a record being written by the first wife of who we (as the audience) know to be Dracula, but the reader never knows his name as she does not give it – and refuses to. (good for her)

Constanta was dying after watching her family and village burn when he found her. He turned her and let her get vengeance on the raiders, and since then she has chosen to feast on the same type of men. She describes how she let herself fall into being his wife, and how he really only thought of her as a kind of trophy or accessory.

His behaviour is soo abusive narcissist coded (it’s not talked about that way directly, but we know), in the way he controls her everything. Eventually the plague comes to Romania and they move to Vienna in the 1400’s. She loves it there and really comes into her own, which pisses him off 🙄. When the ottomans attack, they take their leave and head for Spain.

Part 2

We meet the second wife, Magdalena. She is some sort of high ranking Spanish noblewoman (a duchess maybe?) and she and he have been corresponding for some time. He springs on Constanta the idea of having her as a sister wife and in the way of abuse victims, she agrees (she very much does not like the idea). She and Magdalena do end up falling in love with each other, separate from him.

He is very controlling and Constanta is used to this. The honeymoon period has him indulging Magdalena, but only as a means to further his control of her. Eventually she lives the way he wants and it saps the life out of her. As the ruler of wherever she was in Spain she was brilliant and effervescent and full of life and energy, but after years in a gilded cage with him, that fades. Constanta tries to – half halfheartedly run away once, but he finds her and brings her back.

She sneaks into his office and finds letters to other lovers over the centuries, using the same words and promises he uses with them and it devastates her. The whole reason she tried to run that time was she thought he didn’t care for her anymore since he had another wife now, this confirms he’s had many. During one of Magdalena’s depressive episodes she confronts him about it, and he tells her that he had to put them down because they went mad, or they risked the secret, or they betrayed him. Always their fault, and never his.

She realizes then that she is trapped with him, and even if she could leave, Magdalena would be at his mercy. He made himself the centre of their world so they would be wholly dependent on him alone. They leave Berlin (where they had settled in the 19th century) and make way to Russia.

Part 3

We meet our final bride – or rather our final husband. Alexi is an actor in Russia, a year after the Czar has been killed and revolution begins. Once again, he frames it as a gift to his wives but it’s really something he wants. It’s here that the rose coloured glasses fully break for Constanta (they were just cracked before).

At first she insists that he can’t do this to them again, but she gets caught up in it and they turn him too. Unlike the ladies, and despite his youth, Alexi fights back when pushed. Eventually he invites friends over (they live in Paris now) and he kills them and hits Alexi. They run away to the countryside to hide out and are kept under lock and key. Constanta comes up with a plan, and she and Alexi sneak into the basement and read his journals.

They find out how he killed his own sire and hatch a plan to do the same. An angry mob comes to their house – he’s been hunting the local girls against the advice of his spouses and got seen – and they use the opportunity to lure him to bed and stab him. They drink from him, which increases their abilities, and offer his body to the mob.

They get what they can and run, looking back only to see the house go up in flames. Alexi goes to America to peruse acting, Magdalena signs up for uni in Italy, and Constanta decides to go back to Romania, and is writing this account of her second life.

An Encore of Roses

This is told from Alexi’s point of view. 30 years later (more than that really but that’s since they last met), they meet up again after one of his performances and we get to see what they’ve all been up to and how they are coping with everything.

Alexi is an actor, Magdalena runs Italy from behind the scenes, and Constanta has made 2 lovers and is showing them her home in Romania. Alexi feels that they are no longer in love with him because they haven’t seen each other in so long, and the girls deny that immediately and show him he is loved. They agree to stay with him for a while and then take him back with them to Europe.