If you’re going to completely reimagine the stories of two famous literary characters, you might as well do it with style.
That’s what fans of “Dracula” and “Jane Eyre” can expect with “Reluctant Immortals,” the new novel from Waynesburg resident Gwendolyn Kiste. It features the Bram Stoker Award-winning author taking two women from those works of classic literature — Lucy Westenra of “Dracula” and Bertha Mason of “Jane Eyre” — and elevating them from largely overlooked victims to the heroes of their own narratives.
Simon & Schuster ($17.99)
Kiste seems to have a genuine affection for both Lucy and Bertha and a healthy disdain for how they were treated in their source material. She makes a compelling case that Lucy deserved more than to just be written off as one of Dracula’s earliest victims and that maybe Edward Rochester locking Bertha in an attic for years was more a reflection on his sense of decency than hers.
What she ended up creating around that reexamination of their abuse is a fun, supernaturally tinged buddy adventure in which Lucy and Bertha get to finally step into the spotlight in a novel that explores their trauma and the fortitude they have displayed while attempting to establish their own agency.
In “Reluctant Immortals,” Lucy is living as a vampire and Bee (Bertha) as her fellow undead companion in 1960s Los Angeles. At this point, Bee has spent more than 100 years evading Rochester while Lucy has become the keeper of Dracula’s ever-restless ashes. They have both technically escaped the horrible men who tortured them for so long, but they also live in constant fear of being drawn back into that cycle.
Their pasts eventually do catch up with them and force Lucy and Bee to flee their shared home for San Francisco in hopes of finally freeing themselves once and for all. Along their journey, they encounter other characters from “Dracula” and “Jane Eyre” who either help or hinder their respective roads to taking charge of their own destinies.
Readers won’t need to be familiar with the original texts to properly appreciate “Reluctant Immortals.” Kiste does a solid job of summarizing what Lucy and Bee experienced at the hands of Dracula and Rochester, as well as the other elements from both stories that are important to know. Those with prior knowledge of those novels will probably get more out of Kiste’s twist on them, but it’s not a prerequisite by any means.
Though Kiste is known as a horror writer, “Reluctant Immortals” is more of a gothic thriller than an all-out fright fest. The real terror is how Dracula and Rochester treat all the women in their orbit, not just Lucy and Bee. What they continue to experience and their attempts to break free from their abusers might feel all too familiar to some. It’s a heavy premise that may justifiably be too much for certain readers to handle.
The story doesn’t get bogged down in its own darkness, though, thanks to Kiste’s smart choice to filter the action through Lucy’s perspective. She has a wry sense of humor and an over-it attitude that adds just the right amount of levity to their encounters without undermining the serious themes at play.
The author takes an equal amount of care with Bee and how she has processed her past trauma alongside but separately from Lucy. These are roommates who deeply care about each other but have not truly dived into how they became and function as, well, reluctant immortals. They have a fascinating dynamic that slowly evolves as their situation becomes more dire.
It will be interesting to see how fans of “Jane Eyre” react to Kiste’s depiction of the titular Jane, who is a much more enigmatic figure than Bee in this story. The same could be said of the “Dracula” characters who show up in “Reluctant Immortals,” particularly poor, eternally damned Mina Harker and Dracula’s loyal henchman, Renfield.
Anyone holding tight to Dracula and Rochester as romantic charmers probably won’t appreciate Kiste’s take on them. They are unquestionably the villains of “Reluctant Immortals” who want nothing more than to subjugate Lucy, Bee and any other woman they come across. While that lack of nuance may turn some off, it serves to underline how “Reluctant Immortals” is, for once, simply not about them.
This is a timely and entertaining tale of two mistreated women reclaiming their narratives and rebelling against the men who had defined their lives for so long. Kiste wraps it all together in a package that never feels preachy and has the flair one would expect from an author of her caliber.
Dracula and Rochester had more than a century at the center of their own stories. Now, it’s Lucy and Bee’s time to shine.
Joshua Axelrod: jaxelrod@post-gazette.com and Twitter @jaxelburgh.
First Published: August 23, 2022, 10:00 a.m.
Updated: August 23, 2022, 10:28 a.m.
