Kiersten White on her Dracula retelling, Lucy Undying

Classics retellings are now our new favourite thing and Kiersten White is here to add to the list with Lucy Undying, her retelling of Dracula.

Lucy Undying follows Dracula’s victim Lucy Westenra as she navigates her undead life as a vampire, and her love life in the 21st century. To celebrate the release, we are honoured to have Kiersten White here to chat about her new book:

Was it daunting to retell a classic? Were you worried that readers would not agree with your interpretation?

At this point I’ve kind of given up on worrying about what readers will agree with. (Victor Frankenstein is absolutely the monster in Frankenstein, and my personal conspiracy theory about what was actually happening during Dracula is supported by the text!) I do all the research I can when using a beloved classic, but at a certain point I have to just focus on telling a good story. I love Dracula, and also its treatment of Lucy is horrendous. That intersection of love and frustration is what I hold onto when I start to doubt myself or worry.

Actually this has been more of a trend in recent years, why do you think this is the case? 

Retellings have a long, rich tradition! My favorite example is Arthuriana. Community storytelling from the very beginning, with every new author or poet adding their own storylines, characters, and twists.

The great thing about retellings is you’re building on an existing foundation. Everyone knows who Dracula is, even if they haven’t read the novel recently (or ever), so there’s more room to subvert and play with expectations. It also makes for an easy hook to get readers interested!

With Lucy being such a strong character with an in-depth back story, what was it like crafting Iris, a whole new character? 

Lucy Undying really didn’t come together for me until I realized I needed another point of view to anchor the modern-day timeline. It made sense to have a character fall in love with Lucy, because that’s what I wanted the reader to do, too. And Iris’s deeply sarcastic inner voice let me be playful and funny, which the original Dracula often is, too.

Vampires being a MLM cult is so funny. How did you come up with that? 

I mean, isn’t vampirism the ultimate pyramid scheme? And aren’t all pyramid schemes inherently vampiric? So much of what we idealize about vampires is what predatory wellness companies are selling: eternal youth, flawless beauty, and self-generating wealth. I also grew up in Utah, which is the MLM capital of the United States, so it’s a type of scheme I’m very familiar with—and deeply angry about.

We are a sucker for stories told through other media – why did you pick diary entries and therapist session transcripts to tell Lucy’s story? 

Dracula is an epistolary novel, told in a collection of journal entries, letters, transcribed notes, and exhaustively planned travel routes. (EXHAUSTIVELY planned. The travel routes! So many travel routes!) Using multiple points of view and playing with different formats was my homage to Stoker’s original. The first draft had even more media, including internal documents, memos, and emails from the Goldaming Life company. Someday I’ll release them, and you can all join my vampiric wellness cult!

And if you can be the therapist of any character, who would you pick? And who would you hate to be the therapist of? 

If I could be therapist to anyone in this book, I’d probably choose Iris. She’s got a lot of trauma and mommy issues. Love conquers all, but PTSD still needs to be processed! As far as who I’d hate to be therapist to, that would be Dracula himself. I don’t think he’d hear a word I said. He’d probably bite me, too, only to discover my blood is so caffeinated it’s undrinkable. A waste of both our time.

Finally, having written Lucy Undying, do you see yourself retelling any other classics? 

I’ve already tackled Frankenstein and Dracula, my two favorites. But Shakespeare’s always lurking in the corner, trying to lure me with his witches and prophecies of doom…