Blood Countess (Lady Slayers)

Lana Popovic’s Blood Countess is a YA horror novel based on Countess Elizabeth Báthory, the infamous, real-life inspiration for Countess Dracula.

In 17th-century Hungary, Anna Darvulia has just begun working as a scullery maid for the young and glamorous Countess Elizabeth Bathory. When Elizabeth takes a liking to Anna, she’s vaulted to the dream role of chambermaid, a far cry from the filthy servants’ quarters below. She receives wages generous enough to provide for her family, and the countess begins to groom Anna as her friend and confidante.

It’s not long before Anna falls completely under the Countess’s spell—and the Countess takes full advantage. Isolated from her former friends, family, and fiancée, Anna realizes she’s not a friend but a prisoner of the increasingly cruel Elizabeth. Then come the murders, and Anna knows it’s only a matter of time before the Blood Countess turns on her.

“Popovic also touches on how a patriarchal society can drive women to extremes without letting the truly terrifying Bathory, or Anna, off the hook for their own actions . . . A lush and bloody historical thriller.” —Kirkus Reviews

Lana Popovic is the author of Wicked Like a Wildfire and Fierce Like a Firestorm. Born in Serbia, she lived in Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania before moving to the United States, where she studied psychology and literature at Yale University, law at Boston University, and publishing and writing at Emerson College.