adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

At times it was very very bleak and I really didn't wanted to continue it. However, as I read more of it I became more invested in the story and I cared about some of the characters which also made me enjoy the story more. Still I really didn't like the ending, it felt super rushed and I felt like even Bram Stoker himself was like "Let's finish this I'm bored".
It was like boom Dracula dies boom Quiencey also died, boom years have passed and Jonathan and Mina have a boy called Quincey now. The End.

After all that epic build up I would've wanted a lot more pay off. Also this was definitely of its time with all the racial stereotyping and gender roles. 

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Great and interesting story! I love that the entire story is from the writings of the characters, and the diverse voice cast was excellent!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I. Love. This. Book. 

I grew up loving gothic stories, especially those that included vampires. “Dracula” is truly just one of the best. For a story over a century old, it reads so easily. With lovable characters, an eerie setting, and an engaging plot, what’s there to go wrong??? 

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

 2.5 ⭐ CW: suicide, blood drinking (obviously)

Dracula by Bram Stoker was a buddy read with a friend. This was...not an enjoyable read. I understand it is a classic and written in a time where long winded descriptions were expected, but damn it made hard to get through.

Dracula is told in a series of letters and personal journal entries with news articles and telegrams interspersed between. We follow Jonathan Harker, a solicitor who has come to Castle Dracula to help Dracula in purchasing a property in London. Jonathon experiences some weird stuff that ends up making him ill.

We also follow Mina, fiancee of Jonathon, worrying over her friend Lucy, who has begun sleep walking and becoming pale and sickly for seemingly no reason. After Lucy's death, all of her suitors come together with Mina and Jonathan to figure out what is going on and to stop the Count.

Mina deserves way more credit than she gets in this book. Mina is clever and is solely responsible for rallying the men to her cause and is the one to put together all the information in order to come to the conclusion of vampires. Dracula's death (spoiler alert lol) was very anticlimactic. Stoker does a lot of telling instead of showing.

We see themes on superstition and how important it is to consider the grain of truth within as well as the ever present theme of humans being afraid of their souls becoming damned.

I skimmed most of this book, since most of the information could have been cut back. Glad to have read it, even more glad to be done with it. 

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dark mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings