Hunting Prince Dracula Review: In Which I Almost Committed Fictional Bigamy

    

    Okay. I know we don't know each other that well yet. But if there's one thing you're going to learn about me, and fast, it's that I do not have a book boyfriend. I have a book husband, and his name is Will Herondale. He is my ideal of a man, he is the reason my standards are the geological equivalent of Everest, and he is, if I'm being honest with you and myself, at least 42% of why I am single. I have made peace with this, my mother has not. 

    I tell you this, so you understand the sheer gravity of what I'm about to confess: Thomas Cresswell got within a quarter of an inch of causing a separation between myself and Will. A quarter of an inch. I did not know my heart was capable of holding a custody battle between two fictional Victorian men, and yet here we are, and here I am, still recovering.

Quick Snapshot

Rating: 5 out of 5 ⭐, no notes, please do not ask me for notes

Spice/Swoon Level: 0 🌶️ 

Genre: YA Historical Mystery / Gothic Thriller (Stalking Jack the Ripper, Book 2)

Vibe: Autopsy tables and yearning, in equal and terrifying measures

Ideal Reader: If you loved The Infernal Devices and have never fully recovered from it (me, hi, hello), if you want your romance served with a side of forensic pathology, or if the phrase "found family trapped in a possibly-haunted Romanian castle during murder season" sounds like a personality trait you'd like to acquire, this book was written for you specifically. I don't make the rules.

What This Book Feels Like

    Reading Hunting Prince Dracula feels like being handed a lit candle and told to walk into a snowstorm, except the snowstorm is actually a 19th-century forensic academy built into Bran Castle, and the candle is your own rapidly deteriorating sense of self-preservation. It is atmospheric in the way that makes you want to light your own candles and drink tea you don't actually like just to feel closer to the vibe. It is also, and I cannot stress this enough, funny, in that specific way where you're mid-crime-scene-description and then someone delivers a line so dry it makes the white meat of a thanksgiving turkey taste moist, and you have to put the book down for a second to recover.

    Pacing-wise, this thing does not idle. Kerri Maniscalco does not believe in filler chapters, she believes in stakes (pun regrettably intended, I'm leaving it in), and the mystery unspools at exactly the rate required to keep you turning pages well past your bedtime. I know this because I did it. I stayed up so late reading this that my alarm the next morning felt like a personal attack, and I regret nothing.

    Emotionally, though? That's where this book really gets you. It's gothic dread and genuine grief braided together with banter so sharp it should require a permit, and somewhere in the middle of all that, it sneaks up and breaks your heart a little. I was not prepared. I am still not prepared, honestly.

The Story (Spoiler-Free, I Promise) 

   Picture this: Audrey Rose Wadsworth and Thomas Cresswell, my beloved disaster forensic scientists, have enrolled in an elite, isolated academy in the Carpathian Mountains to hone their death-investigating skills, because apparently that's a normal thing 19th-century teenagers did if they were built different. Naturally, before they can so much as unpack their trunks, bodies start turning up. Bodies that look suspiciously, deliberately, theatrically like the work of history's most infamous bloodsucker.

    Is it a copycat? Is it something far stranger clawing its way out of legend and into the present? Audrey Rose and Thomas have to figure it out fast, all while trapped in a snowbound castle with a roster of suspects, a whole lot of unresolved tension between the two of them, and, because nothing is ever simple in this series, reasons to actively distrust each other that go beyond "he's annoyingly smart and won't stop proving it."

    It's a locked-room mystery wearing a gothic horror costume, stuffed full of folklore, family secrets, and enough Vlad the Impaler lore to make you side-eye every castle you ever visit again.

What Worked (Everything. Genuinely. All of It.)

The characters are the whole show, and Thomas Cresswell is the main event. He is insufferable, he is brilliant, he says things with the confidence of a man who has never once doubted himself, and then, occasionally, devastatingly, he lets you see the soft, aching thing underneath all that bravado, and I simply had to sit with that for a while. Audrey Rose, meanwhile, is not a passive heroine waiting to be rescued; she's out here dissecting corpses and holding her own in rooms full of men who underestimate her, and watching her do it is deeply satisfying.

The writing style is lush without tipping into purple, atmospheric without sacrificing momentum, and the dialogue between our two leads crackles with the kind of chemistry that makes you want to throw the book across the room and also immediately pick it back up.

The themes include grief, autonomy, the cost of being taken seriously as a woman in a world built to dismiss you, sit underneath the murder mystery without ever feeling like homework. They're woven in, not tacked on. And after a book about the suffrage, it hits home.

The unique elements: forensic science as a genuine plot device, actual historical Vlad the Impaler lore treated with real reverence and research, and a setting so vivid I could practically feel the cold coming off the page. There's a scene in this book that lives so close to the glove scene in The Infernal Devices that I had to set the book down, stare at a wall, and reassess my entire emotional stability. If you know, you know. If you don't know, go find out, and then come swoon with me.

What Didn't Work

    Look, I promised you honesty, and in the spirit of ruining my credibility as a book blogger and owning that I’m a woman having a breakdown over fictional men, there’s absolutely nothing I would have changed. No notes, this book was perfection. I will not be taking questions.

Favorite Moments (No Spoilers, I Swear)

    Without giving anything away: there is a confrontation between Audrey Rose and Thomas early on that had me audibly saying "oh, ouch" to an empty room. There is banter in an autopsy setting that should not be romantic and absolutely is. And there is, as previously mentioned, A Scene, capital A, capital S, that Infernal Devices fans will recognize on sight and will not recover from. Never since Tessa have I wanted so badly to be the female main character in a book. Swoon does not begin to cover it.

    And if you want my full, spoiler fill (and slightly unhinged) review of the book, please check out my YouTube channel.

The Verdict

    I finished this book and immediately wanted to reread it. Immediately. I didn't, purely because I had the third book sitting right there and my self-control evaporated on contact, but the urge was real and it was strong. Never since The Infernal Devices have I been this thoroughly, completely enthralled with a world, the characters, the mystery, the atmosphere, all of it working in perfect, bloody harmony. All the stars. All the points. All the awards, hypothetically, if I handed out awards, which I don't, but I would for this.

    If you want a book that will keep you up way too late, make you feel things about a fictional forensic scientist you did not consent to feeling, and possibly threaten the reigning champion of your own personal book-boyfriend rankings,  this is it. This is the one.

Should You Read Hunting Prince Dracula?

Yes. Obviously yes. Yes, with my whole chest.

    If you're curious, and you want to support my ability to do this as a side hussle, you can grab a copy here. Otherwise, any book store, library or reading app probably has it available.

If you haven't started the series, do yourself a favor and pick up Stalking Jack the Ripper first, you'll want the full origin story of this chaotic, brilliant duo.

And if audiobooks are more your speed for late-night gothic murder mysteries (they absolutely should be, there's something extremely correct about being narrated to about vampires at 1am), you can check the audiobook version here.

   Now if you'll excuse me, I have some fictional couples counselling to attend with my fictional husband. Wish me luck.

— Poindexter Anonymous 🖤

Did I miss anything? Did you jump right into the second book too? Drop you thoughts in the comments, but be respectful of others, if you're going to talk about specifics, disclaim your spoilers. And if you want more posts like this landing in your inbox (plus the occasional unhinged recommendation), subscribe to the newsletter below.