Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Dracula

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Dracula by Bram Stoker

129 reviews

tokenkobold's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

Renfield is my ride and die
Beginning was best, middle was slow burn, ending dragged on way too long

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annawndr's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny 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

5.0

This book has everything! A count with a funny accent who lives in an spooky old castle, a girl and her three suitors who coincidentally all have the same bloodtype (and one of them is a cowboy), a madman who regulary breaks out of the asylum, a woman who‘s not only smarter than every other character in this book, but also has the sweetest marriage ever and a dutch professor who‘s a part time vampire hunter. And as a bonus you get atmospheric descriptions of the scenery and various natural events.
It’s funny, only a little creepy and definitely worth a read!

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seanml's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad 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

4.0

I have finally finished one of the pillars of terror. I am always delighted to find out how original so many “classics” really are. The note-taking narrative was unexpected and very well done, and I love how little we actually saw of the Count himself. But of course, this praise has already been said thousands of times since the late 1800s.

Literary Quality: 9/10.

Spook Factor: 6/10.

Overall: 8/10.

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chrisljm's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

I started this last year and DNF-ed it but picked it up again with the audiobook this time around and honestly if it wasn’t for that I probably would’ve DNF-ed it again. The events move along so quickly but you physically move through the book in such a slow trudge that it was hard to stay interested the whole time.

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hot_water's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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lillythebluepaladin's review against another edition

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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? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

This was a great, BUT LOOONG, read! I did really enjoy most of the book, even though I skipped a certain zoo scene, you can too, it's not that important.
It is a very old book, so the treatment of its female characters were... interesting. Definetly don't expect some Mulan type of badass female characters, because those poor women weren't allowed to do so, but expect to love them none the less!
It's definetly not a very scary story, but a fun one to read, and I can definetly recommend for others who want to read the classics like me <3

OKAY, MINA AND VAN HELSING WERE THE BEST CHARACTERS OF THIS BOOK! I loved them so much! Mina and her clever brain and her trains, and Van Helsing and his serious "vampire stuff is happening" face", I loved them a lot. The main men and their "oh no, you soft tiny woman thing, we most protect you from the TERROR of KNOWING THINGS oh nOOO" attitude towards Mina AND Lucy was extremely annoying at times, but I guess it was understandable.
Morris was cleeeaaarlyyy written by a man who has never met an American in his life, but the human manifestation of Texas was a fun character, and I was so sad when he died :(
One thing I'm not sure about are the Romani, the romanians, and the hebrew character... I AM WHITE, SO I HAVE NO WORD IN SAYING IF THEY'RE APPROPRIATE OR NOT, but I got some feelings, so definetly check up on that before reading, just in case <3

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san_dra's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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graybat's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

3.75

mina i love you

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littlegretty's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

3.5

This is one of those classics that I'd always heard about but had never read. READ IT. The narrative structure alone makes it such a fun read. The best part is the main twist that

Dracula is a vampire

is already known by today's audience, thanks to pop culture. The establishment of much of modern vampire lore also makes it a really fun, spooky read. Biggest turn off was the pacing was a little slow and some of the arcs never get fully filled out, leaving me slightly unfulfilled. But in a relatively short book, I understand!

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thevampiremars's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

If Dracula had ended after chapter four, I might have given it a full five stars. The first fifty-odd pages are undoubtedly the best part of the book. Jonathan Harker is trapped in Dracula’s castle, and slowly realising that he is trapped. The atmosphere is tense and eerie. Both Harker and Dracula are interesting and well-developed characters, and the interactions between them are great.

I want to talk for a moment about Count Dracula specifically. In the first four chapters he is depicted as (seemingly) kind, hospitable, careful, and emotionally intelligent, but there’s something sinister about him too. There’s also quite a bit of queer subtext. Dracula is a complicated and sympathetic character at this point, but later his characterisation changes drastically and he ends up being reduced to a cartoonish villain with very little depth. He also becomes a much less prominent part of the narrative – he’s not entirely absent, but he takes on more of a peripheral role. I wish we’d seen more of him. (Interestingly, this is the exact reverse of my view regarding Frankenstein’s monster)

Of course, I must address the elephant in the room – the bigotry. Dracula is a character crafted from several antisemitic tropes. His hooked nose is emphasised many times, and there are parallels between his vampirism (specifically his preying on children) and blood libel. Something else that stands out when viewing the character through this lens is the way he is presented as both an immensely powerful mastermind and a weakling with a “child-brain” – proto-fascist rhetoric, perhaps? The book as a whole is riddled with xenophobia, racism, ableism, and sexism. In many ways it’s a product of its time. Its age doesn’t excuse these problematic elements, but it does offer some context at least.

I was led to believe that Dracula is slow-paced but for a gothic horror story it’s actually very quick. It’s relatively well-written, and the epistolary format is executed well. Excellent build-up to an anticlimactic ending. There’s so much more I could say about the characters and the story (both praise and criticism) but I think I’ll wrap things up here.

Overall I did enjoy Dracula and I’m glad I finally sat down and read it. It’s certainly not without its flaws but I think it’s worth reading if you haven’t already.

“The last I saw of Count Dracula was his kissing his hand to me, with a red light of triumph in his eyes, and with a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of.”

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