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Graphic: Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Medical content
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Sexism, Xenophobia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Antisemitism, Grief, Murder
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.
Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexism, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Terminal illness, Death of parent
Minor: Cursing, Alcohol
All in all, an interesting read, but a good bit of the charm and suspense is lost to the changing principals of time.
Graphic: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Drug use, Misogyny, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Colonisation
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
I read along with the Dracula Daily crew this time around and had an absolute blast reading it this way.
From the characters to the plot and overall story it's just a fantastic book on all fronts (as well as an excellent Gothic novel).
Definitely a book I'll revisit many times again.
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Misogyny, Sexism, Alcohol
Minor: Child death
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Blood
All of the characters keep a journal of some form, and it's all dated. In the standard printing of the novel, all of Johnathon's several months at Castle Dracula would have been first, then followed up by Mina and Lucy's correspondence. In this case, it's in real time, so you only see what happens on any given day. There are long gaps between Harker's entries, as he starts to realize what is really going on and how he is trapped in the castle. Lucy's death scene, a chapter or so in the book, is stretched over the almost a month Dracula fed on her until she became a vampire, making it all the more emotional when they have kill her. Or when the group heads to Castle Dracula, and it takes the same number of days for us as it did for them. Very interesting way of reading a novel, and one that several other people are putting together.
Edit: 2023-11-07: After forgetting to unsubscribe from Dracula Daily before the novel reset, I decided to reread it. Still a fascinating way to read a novel, in chronological order.
Edit: 2024-11-07: Happened again, forgot to unsubcribe from Dracula Daily before the novel reset in May. Decided to reread it. Still a fascinating way to read the novel.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Medical content, Death of parent, Classism
Minor: Chronic illness, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Alcohol
Loved that the story only consists of letters, diary entries and newspaper articles. Loved all the atmospheric settings and the characters. And loved how all the different parts of the story came together.
I just don't know if I chose the right method to consume it for the first time. I read it through Dracula Daily (while listening to the audiobook along the way, which was a good decision btw) and although it was a great motivator to finally start the book, and it was fun to experience the story on the same days of the year it took place, I had a few issues with it.
First of all, I didn't know that the letters etc. were not always presented in chronological order in the book. So I missed the original intention of the author who chose to withhold things and present them later (for example, letters that were delayed or articles that were read later than their publication date). This didn't happen often, but I feel, some scenes would have had a different impact on me if I had read the material at the intended point in the book. They still had an impact the way I read them, knowing more than the characters sometimes. But again, for the first read I probably would have chosen otherwise if I had known this.
Then there are several weeks in between where nothing happens. And so I was forced to take these breaks before continuing with the story. Towards the end, this worked really well for me because I really wanted to know what happens next and the anticipation kept me excited. But at the beginning, especially with so much repetition (Lucy's part basically), the story was dragging. It felt like the first half of the book took forever and the pacing was off, when in reality it would probably have been much quicker if I had just continued reading without waiting for the next appropriate date. I guess we'll never know. :D
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Forced institutionalization