The Blood Countess by Andrei Codrescu [Horror Book Review]
The Blood Countess is a lurid erotic horror novel by Andrei Codrescu. It is described in one review as a dark fairytale combined with the Marquis de Sade, which is apt. The writing style, very ornate and theatrical at times, reflects the morbid, larger-than-life spectacle of the story.
Elizabeth Bathory was a Hungarian Countess who allegedly murdered several hundred virgins to bathe in their blood to regain her youth. The literal bloodbaths are the stuff of legend, though there are inquiries about how many women Bathory killed, or even if she was framed. I won't speculate on the matter. Codrescu, as many adapters of Bathory's story do, goes for the most dramatic flair. It's much like my favorite Cradle of Filth album, Cruelty and the Beast, which spins an elaborate narrative about the Countess. Admittedly, The Blood Countess has been on my radar for awhile, and it was only recently I could get a physical copy.
As I mentioned before, the prose fits the morbid, dream-like story well, and though the story meanders, I had no trouble getting through the novel. It's rare I don't put down a book frequently because of my poor attention span. That being said, I may've skimmed through the parts where Bathory's ancestor speaks to a judge about a young woman's murder. It's a nifty idea, paralleling Bathory and her descendant, but this part of the story felt clunky and meandering; I would've preferred that the story remain in Elizabeth Bathory's timeline rather than jumping back and forth between then and now.
It isn't that this couldn't work, but it didn't feel as well-executed as it could be since Drake's story is told in retrospect with some emotional distance. I get the sense that Codrescu's reporting instincts took over in some section, which took me out of more visceral parts. When Codrescu wants to set a scene, he does it well and with extravagant lushness; though his vision of Bathory differs from mine, I enjoyed his introspection into her thoughts, particularly how she disagreed with the powerful Catholics as a lone Protestant. This really gave a sense of a strong (yet, of course, terrible) character amid a turbulent time.
The book did make me squeamish in parts, though it is not the most explicit thing I've read, though it's definitely not recommended if you are triggered by rape or sexual abuse of any kind. If you're not deterred from horror that also contains sexual violence, and you're not deterred by anything I've said so far, you can find a link to the book in the image to the left.