ARC Review--The Madness by Dawn Kurtagich

 

Beware what waits in the shadows…

With one unexpected email from her estranged best friend, Lucy, Mina Murray’s carefully curated life is turned upside down. Leaving behind her psychiatric practice in London, along with her routine and the calm it brings, she returns to the windswept shores of Wales. Faced with everything she’s left behind, she soon discovers that Lucy’s symptoms mirror those of her mysterious patient with amnesia hundreds of miles away.

With nothing but an untreatable sickness connecting the two women, and with Lucy’s life on the line, Mina finds herself asking questions and being drawn ever-deeper into a web of secrets, missing girls, and the powerful, nameless force at its center—one that has been haunting her for years.

As terrible, ancient truths begin to reveal themselves, Mina prepares to confront her own darkest secrets, and with them, an evil beyond comprehension. Together with a group of smart, savvy women, Mina seizes one last, desperate chance to stop the cycle that began so long ago. But there are dangers to inviting the attentions of what might not be a man, but a monster…

 

 

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review. 

The Madness is Dawn Kurtagich’s adult debut and one I couldn’t be more excited for! I’ve had a love for vampire books ever since my youth and I enjoy reading the many different types of vampire books because no two are ever the same! I would definitely say that this one falls under the horror aspect as here the vampires are the monsters we first saw them as!

This is the most modern take on Dracula I’ve ever read and it was amazing! Sometimes we see Drac as the misunderstood immortal who is just looking for love and companionship, but here he is definitely the bloodsucking monster of olde. I love all the subtle nods to the original novel as well! It always brought a grin to my face when a new character with a familiar name popped onto the page!

In this story we follow Mina, who is a doctor that specializes in helping traumatized women. Her newest patient is a young woman who is exhibiting startling behaviors such as talking to herself, calling out to “master,” and she eats flies. Sound a little familiar?

But Mina is quick to drop her work life and go back to her childhood home when her old friend, Lucy, reaches out to her needing help. She believes she’s taking ill as she’s having lapses in memory, she’s tired, she feels weak…similar symptoms Mina’s patient has minus the fly diet.

Mina wants to help her friend so badly, but isn’t sure where to start. Things are very weird and unexplainable. But memories from the past and all her mother’s “quirks” are to starting to make a lot more sense to her now.

Then we do see Jonathan Harker! It wouldn’t be a Dracula story without a Harker! For Jonathan is Mina’s old boyfriend and there’s a painful history between the two. It does take a bit of time before all is revealed between the two but there’s still a lingering spark between them.

Keeping in fashion with Stoker’s masterpiece we do get journal entries and letters in email fashion. There are also possible interludes where we follow an unknown character. I’ll admit that this is where things get tricky. But I chalk all my confusion up to the fact that the digital ARC was not formatted well at all. I’d be reading a chapter from Mina when everything changes on the next sentence with no indication of a scene change or anything. Email threads start within the same breath as a sentence ending so it does bring about a lot of confusion. I was able to catch up with the changes eventually but it did kind of pull me out of the story before I was able to get back on track.

One minor complaint I have is that I wish we had a bit more of Drac in the story. The story is most assuredly not about him this time around but he’s still plays a key role in everything. I don’t know, I guess I just wish he was more of a concrete character. There were other vampire minions running about as well that during these other scenes with other characters I was never sure if that was Drac chasing them or a minion. Who knows really! It could’ve been him or it could’ve been another vampire. 

In some ways I guess I did think that Jonathan would’ve been on the page a little more too. Not as the hero obviously, that role is all Mina’s! But maybe as the male damsel in distress who needed saving. Maybe as her sidekick or partner to take down the Big Bad. Just something other than a cameo appearance to say “here I am!”

All in all, I did find this to be an entertaining story. It could’ve used more vampires but I digress. This was an engaging tale of powerful women who stand up to evil and cut it down. This is a story of friendship and the love that is formed by these bonds. It’s not a romantic love story nor a horror story but something in between. 

If you’re a fan of modern revivals of classic tales with a feminist twist, The Madness just might be the read for you!

Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars

The Madness releases August 27, 2024