Reluctant Immortals

Reluctant Immortals is an absolutely mesmerizing novel that is impossible to put down. If I could give this book an extra star, I would! Gwendolyn Kiste sets the stage in 1960s Hollywood with Lucy, one of Dracula’s many victims, and Bertha (now called Bee), Mr. Rochester’s erstwhile attic-bound wife from Jane Eyre.

The two unlikely roommates are trying to make the most of immortality while avoiding the villainous men who put them there in the first place. But when a familiar face from Bee’s past brings news of Rochester’s arrival in San Francisco, everything they’ve come to love and rely on is thrown into danger.

This isn’t so much a feminist retelling, but rather a story of women reclaiming the story that was always theirs to begin with. Kiste provides such engrossing character depth for what were supposed to be background characters in their original stories, as well as vivid setting descriptions for the Haight at its height and New Hollywood noir that the novel takes on a hazy dream-like quality. Fans of gothic horror and feminist fiction will eat this book up!