Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Dracula by Bram Stoker

46 reviews

riverofhorton's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The world-building was incredible, and all but one of the main group were fully fleshed out characters. The only things that let it down were poo Quincey, the language of Van Helsing being a slog to get through, and the repetition of a lot of the bits of lore. Four times we're told that Dracula can't cross running water, three times that killing Dracula will stop the transformation of any vampires that are somewhere between human and vampire, three times we're told that communion wafers act as a talisman against the vampires, plus a few others that I could mention. I wonder how long this book would be without these instances of repetition. I particularly enjoyed reading the letters between Mina and Lucy, and their respective journal entries about the other: Mina is definitely gay for Lucy, and I can see no other explanation for the way she talks of and to Lucy. I would like to have seen some more expression of that love, but I get that wasn't really possible when this was published, sadly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, Body shaming, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Genocide, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, Vomit, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, War, Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Body horror, Drug use, Gore, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

renorsomethin's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

for a book about vampires this is pretty boring and drags on quite a lot as well as being full of repetitive misogynistic rants and xenophobia (just read anne rice or something instead)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Body horror, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Medical content, and Xenophobia

Minor: Animal death

decepticons's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Emotional abuse, War, Blood, Gore, Xenophobia, Medical trauma, Body horror, Death, Gaslighting, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Mental illness, Medical content, and Stalking

Minor: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Child abuse, and Classism

Vampirism used to excuse racism

“My dear Mina, why are men so noble when we women are so little worthy of them?” says enough about the book really

ameliethemoomin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

good god i love this book

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Murder, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Death, Blood, Xenophobia, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Medical content

Minor: Antisemitism, Animal cruelty, Ableism, Animal death, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

utopiaandmelancholy's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I picked this up mainly as foundational text of most vampire media. There was a great deal more religious content than I was expecting, weirdly, but equally more slightly ridiculous shenanigans. Overall, it was a decent story, and I'm glad to have read it.   

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Antisemitism, Mental illness, Self harm, Racism, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Blood, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Death of parent, Terminal illness, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Animal death, Misogyny, and Stalking

jonwood's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is really good, I was surprised, but 'Dracula' reads surprisingly modern and I really enjoy the prose of the journal entries. I'll say the book does fall flat a bit when characters, especially Van Helsing, deliver dialogue in a rather purple-ly prose sort of way that is hard to take seriously at times, does undercut serious moments. Most of the suspense is undercut by popular knowledge that Dracula  is a vampire, but despite back, this enjoyable like any well-crafted story, and as Dracula is more of a tertiary character, that doesn't impact the experience too much (at least for me) as the book is more about these characters reacting to his presence than Dracula himself. Highly recommend, and if you aren't one for horror, I still think this is rather readable and enjoyable, it's not that scary, more a supernatural adventure.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Blood, Medical content, Animal death, Violence, Animal cruelty, and Mental illness

Minor: Body horror, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

jelliestars's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, Medical content, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Animal death, Blood, and Classism

Minor: Sexism, Alcohol, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Grief, Xenophobia, Violence, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Cursing

leonormsousa's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I can recognise it as an important part of history in literature but it was not the most enjoyable read.
Very slow and long, a bit repetitive at times even. The characters were a bit dumb, they would come to the obvious conclusions too late and act like it was the smartest thing ever and not right in front of them the whole time. Although I can accept that it is representative of its time, my feminist side could not sit super well with the book. Similarly, there were sections of the book that felt prejudiced and bothered me a bit, although one could say it was once again representative of the mindset of high class people of the time.
As usual with classics though, I am nonetheless happy to have read it and looking forward to reading articles about the significance of this book and to better understanding its motives.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Classism, Gore, Misogyny, Murder, Blood, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical content, Violence, Gun violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

sarars's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

phantompansy's review against another edition

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Grief, Alcohol, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Antisemitism, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, and Racism