The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan

The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan 

The rundown: Singapore, 1927.

Verity Edevane needs blood, craving the sweet, salty rush from a young woman’s veins. 

Gean Choo needs money. But who is her strange, alluring new mistress? And what will Gean Choo sacrifice to earn her love? 

Po Lam needs absolution. More than anything, she needs to save Gean Choo from a love that will destroy them all. 

The review: I find myself wholly uninterested in sapphics of the cute, cozy, warm-and-fuzzy variety at the moment. Instead, I’ve really been craving women-loving women who are icy, bitchy, savage, selfish, villainous. Wicked and Willing satisfies that craving nicely with three deeply flawed - in varying ways and to varying degrees - women (One of whom is butch! And wears a binder! Even during sex!). Each character is a contradiction, all sympathetic in some way and ~not~ in others. Even Verity, unequivocally the villain, is depicted as the most civilized of her kind because she refuses to turn her employees into mindless thralls as is standard in the vampire community. 

This also really worked for me from a vampire perspective. I love when vampire stories view the creature through the lens of exploitation. Wicked and Willing delivers a double whammy in this regard: the vampirism is a metaphor for an abusive intimate relationship and also of colonialism. Verity is a Londoner in exile; at the time the novel is set, Singapore was a British Crown colony. The inclusion of vamps from Southeast Asian lore (penanggalan and pontianaks) was a fun, unexpected addition that satisfied this vampire lover’s dark heart.

And perhaps my single favorite thing about this book? YOU CHOOSE YOUR OWN ENDING! You get to decide whether to save Verity or Po Lam. I have never read a book with two completely distinct endings to choose between, and it was so fun. 

Goes well with: Thematically and tonally, Wicked and Willing is an excellent companion read for A Dowry of Blood by ST Gibson.