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adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
Surprisingly good! And surprisingly scary! I really enjoyed this, and really enjoyed each and every character. It was well paced and each perspective felt distinct. I love the way the story is told, and that Stoker uses and resolves everything that he sets up. There were a few plot points that I thought were slightly odd (the vampires relationship to sunset and sunrise, as well as Dracula traveling by box), but at least they're consistant all the way through. I would have loved to see certain characters doing certain things as to give the story a sense of arc, but overall it is very cohesive, and a really fun read. It does not feel wordy which I was worried about given the age of the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood
Minor: Animal death
dark
mysterious
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Murder
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Animal death
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Overall, I enjoyed this much more than I expected I would. The last ~100 pages were such a slog for me to get through.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Stalking, Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Xenophobia, Classism
Minor: Racism, Antisemitism
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-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
This was a decently fun read! Since it was an edition with larger text, lots of pictures, and a simplified level of writing it was easy to get through and the writing style wasn't too awkward. I did feel like the story felt pretty rushed with this edition which made it hard to get into, so I had to keep reminding myself to read it. But overall I enjoyed it! I'll definitely have to read a full edition.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder
Moderate: Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, Medical content
Minor: Animal death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Death & Murder (various people are killed by Dracula and his wives) | Medical Content (Seward and Helsing are both doctors; depictions of medical assessments and blood transfusions) | Racial Slurs (consistent use of the word "gypsy" throughout the book) | Violence (Dracula and his wives attack a number of people; the men and Mina confront the group of Romani people transporting Dracula's coffin and fight them) | Animal Death (Renfield collects various bugs and small animals to feed them to slightly larger ones) | Death of Parent (Lucy's mother passes away from shock; Andrew tends to his dying father throughout the story) | Grief (various mentions of funerals; Lucy grieves the loss of her mother a bit before passing away herself) | Gun Violence (the men use guns in the fight to get to Dracula's coffin) | Injury/Injury Detail (some minor discussion of the bite marks; one character receives a stab wound in a fight) | Mental Illness (Seward is a doctor at an asylum; Renfield goes back and forth through various depictions of mental illness) | Suicidal Thoughts (Jonathan decides that if they don't succeed at saving Mina from vampirism then he'll become a vampire with her to stay together as un-dead)
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
When I read one of "the classics," I pause and remind myself that I'm about to step into a different time with different people who held different and sometimes/often offensive beliefs. A "classic" may not be a good story with good characters, but instead may be a good window into the time and place it was written and set in. And "classics" are also saddled with the moniker of being "over-hyped." With this in mind, I can firmly say that I thoroughly enjoyed Dracula! I didn't feel like I was stepping into a totally unfamiliar world because Stoker is descriptive without making the reader feel bogged down with details or flowery descriptions. I think the characters, while quite overwrought, were fully fleshed out *rim shot* people, and I'm pleased to say that this includes the women! Dracula is very much worth the hype. I can see why it's maintained cultural relevance and why its tropes and themes remain popular after 127 years. I was waiting for the mythical "right" time to read this book, and I'm glad I got to enjoy it during spooky season!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Stalking
Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Animal death, Child death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Antisemitism
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I would've liked and it's the lowest gothic classic I've read.
Reading it alongside the audiobook definitely helped getting through it and added to my enjoyment. But I do think this was too long. There are about 100 pages that could've been cut, mostly after the situation with Lucy (which was my favorite). I also will never forgive Bram Stoker for having only two female characters and both of them spend 90% of the sections talking about how brave the men were and how fragile women were and how much women needed men. Mina Harker has an entire journal entry where all she talks about is how brave the men are and how frail she is. Like girl, huh??? I also want to erase "man-brain" out of my head or how the Doctor said that Mina was so smart that she had the same brain as a man - implying heavily that it is an uncommon thing for women to have thoughts and opinions.
Obviously, I am aware of the time that this book was written. This type of narrative - and the Christian fiction that was present on the last 70 pages - is a given. What makes his book iconic is the re-introduction of vampires in pop culture and how it became a catalyst for the vampire stories we have today. Bram Stoker brought vampires back to the mainstream basically. And he delivered in creating a villain. Dracula is appalling and without morals. The heroes felt flat for me for the most part but I still enjoyed their arc.
Overall, it delivered on what it promised but took time to do so.
Reading it alongside the audiobook definitely helped getting through it and added to my enjoyment. But I do think this was too long. There are about 100 pages that could've been cut, mostly after the situation with Lucy (which was my favorite). I also will never forgive Bram Stoker for having only two female characters and both of them spend 90% of the sections talking about how brave the men were and how fragile women were and how much women needed men. Mina Harker has an entire journal entry where all she talks about is how brave the men are and how frail she is. Like girl, huh??? I also want to erase "man-brain" out of my head or how the Doctor said that Mina was so smart that she had the same brain as a man - implying heavily that it is an uncommon thing for women to have thoughts and opinions.
Obviously, I am aware of the time that this book was written. This type of narrative - and the Christian fiction that was present on the last 70 pages - is a given. What makes his book iconic is the re-introduction of vampires in pop culture and how it became a catalyst for the vampire stories we have today. Bram Stoker brought vampires back to the mainstream basically. And he delivered in creating a villain. Dracula is appalling and without morals. The heroes felt flat for me for the most part but I still enjoyed their arc.
Overall, it delivered on what it promised but took time to do so.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood
Moderate: Animal cruelty
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Medical content
adventurous
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Sexism
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Gore, Mental illness, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Suicidal thoughts
Note: Since this is a gothic horror novel, I tried to add content warnings but may have missed some.
I finally read this and went into it, not really knowing what the “original” vampire folklore is because our society has been so saturated with undead fantasy. It was great to read this (and I knew that Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla was one of Stoker’s inspirations for this) going in fairly blindly. The story was suspenseful and I loved that it was told strictly from journal entries, so quite a few different POVs. Poor old Van Helsing droned on and on. I think that’s probably the only complaint I have other than the way women were still thought to not be as smart as men (but that was a product of the time). Because, let’s be honest—Mina was the real MVP. I wasn’t sure if the good guys would win in the end, so it was suspenseful for me until the last page.
dark
mysterious
tense
It's a classic and it stands the test of time. However, the characters were a bit one dimensional for me, I didn't enjoy all the religious and conservative aspects, and the ending was a bit rushed and underwhelming in my opinion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Blood, Murder
Moderate: Violence, Forced institutionalization