Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Dracula by Bram Stoker

138 reviews

mithren'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

3.5

I did find the novel fun, but man, what a slog it was to get through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism

r_bridie_e's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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? N/A

3.5

I’m left really conflicted on this book. It’s great from a horror perspective, and I was completely captured for the first third of the book. Unfortunately, there is very clear xenophobia from the start of the book, and I found the Victorian Values of women (which involves extreme passivity to the point of complete uselessness) to be an oppressive and constant presence throughout the book. Stroker does an amazing job at creating horror and suspense; however, the book has aged poorly due to gross subtexts. On a completely unrelated note, I was pleasantly suprised to find out that Count Dracula is a sex icon! Suddenly, vampires being sexualized in media makes so much more sense now.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Sexism, and Xenophobia

Minor: Child abuse

bujo_bellel's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? No

2.0

I personally dislike this book a lot. This was really slow-paced and the plot became rather draggy. Although there were moments where it got interesting, it died down a really quickly. I was already in a reading slump and this book made it worse. It could be because it's a classic or the content of the book but I was genuinely uninterested. I liked reading about Jonathan Harker in Dracula's Castle but the I ddint really care about the mission at the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Misogyny, and Sexism

lara_bk's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Violence

Minor: Sexism

forgetfulreader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

It's considered a classic for a reason. The pace is slow in the beginning but once it gets going the story is everything you'd want in a book. The story is told through a collection of journal entries from different characters pov. I usually find stories like this confusing to read but this time it had me feeling more involved. It's like I was helping the characters piece the puzzle together to figure out what the hell the count was. I really enjoyed it and Bram Stroker created the blueprint for every other vampire story we have now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Xenophobia, Grief, and Body horror

Minor: Sexism

szel_zsofi's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Animal death

Moderate: Sexism, Animal cruelty, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Misogyny

fjordpingvin's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Death, and Medical content

Moderate: Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Mental illness, Animal death, Blood, Animal cruelty, and Xenophobia

Minor: Antisemitism, Gore, Suicide, Grief, Murder, and Terminal illness

foxclcves's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Death, Xenophobia, Murder, Racism, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Racial slurs, and Blood

Minor: Sexism, Stalking, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Body horror, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Child abuse, and Forced institutionalization

goldfishtangerine's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Racism, Xenophobia, and Sexism

emmaward55's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

average person eats 3 flies a year" factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 flies per year. Flies Renfield, who lives in an asylum & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

Okay now that that's out of my system, I have to confess, I read this book is a rather unorthodox fashion, as part of the Dracula Daily emails, whereby the letters in the book are emailed out to readers on the corresponding dates. It's a fun idea for an epistolary novel and I found that it suited the format well. However, did I manage to keep up with those emails? Heck no! In fact, I only managed to finish it now, a month after the book has ended, because I started copying the emails into a text-to-speech bot and listening to months at a time. 

The above being said, I really enjoyed my first experience with Dracula! I especially loved the characters of Mina and Van Helsing, and Jonathan "wifeguy" Harker gets a mention too. Although the book some times suffered for it's period typical Christianity and sexism, it was refreshing how Stoker broke free of that at times and allowed Mina to be more than just the wife in jeopardy. Like every man in this book, I too would give my life for Mina Harker at the drop of a hat.

In term of the ending, it did feel somewhat anti-climatic. I understand that an outright fight between Dracula and the party would have ended in Dracula's survival, but I was expecting more than just a quick brawl with a group of unnamed (and unimportant) men and them stabbing the Count as he slept.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gore, Mental illness, Medical content, Kidnapping, Confinement, Racial slurs, Murder, and Sexism

Moderate: Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Terminal illness

Minor: Alcohol and Cursing