Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Dracula by Bram Stoker

112 reviews

decafdirtychai's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense slow-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: Yes

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Dracula is an incredible time capsule of thoughts and opinions of the day. Some of those opinions include homophobia, sexism, anti-semitism, and new sciences of mesmerism and blood transfusions. Anyone interested in the Gothic, or horror, ought to read this source material. Dracula is an amazing villain, his evilness is overwhelming; the innocence and rage of the humans makes sense. The earth is fertile here for literary criticism, especially regarding gender roles and religion. 

I highly recommend Bloody FM's audio presentation, "Re: Dracula," which brings the story to life with voice actors, sound effects, content warnings, additional context provided, and a chronological timeline. I cried listening to things I had read before ("Oh, John, it was butcher work").

CONTENT WARNING that there is a graphic description of a terrifying and horrible assault about mid-way through the book. I don't often see this content warning given, and it came as a shock to me. 
There is also SO MUCH medical malpractice that was standard at the time. The asylum is especially harrowing, but it is manageable.

Don't let the slow pace of the beginning of this book hold you back. The suspense builds and bursts in a wonderful bubble, it's so worth it, I promise.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail

Dracula forces a woman to drink his blood, in a way very clearly reminiscent of rape. She mourns that she is "unclean," and is terrified. While no one victim blames her, they notably do not tell her that it isn't her fault...

moppyy's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Minor: Xenophobia

herelieshenry's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism

Moderate: Mental illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent

Minor: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol

gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

4.0

mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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A great reread - this audiobook version had great voice actions that have a lot of life to the novel. It definitely surprised me how much I remember from reading this many years ago. It definitely deserves its classical literature status with how vibrant and unique each character is, how imaginative the world of Transylvania and the castle's unease

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Medical content

Minor: Racial slurs, Sexism, Xenophobia

1890s era bias present

fogbrainfrog's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Murder

botanicpanic's review against another edition

4.0

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Misogyny, Xenophobia

Minor: Child death

andmingmingtoo's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

---

I had never read dracula prior to doing dracula daily! The first year I tried it, it was difficult to keep up the motivation. Once you get far enough into it, though, it really takes off, and the pauses and pacing accentuate the experience by drawing out some of the tension, as well as really highlighting when the book gets action-packed.
All in all, this book has changed who I am as a person and how I will consume all subsequent vampire media. I fully recommend to anyone who wants to check it out, but I also acknowledge that this is not everyone's cup of tea. While some characters were really easy to understand

like Mina

, others

Van Helsing

can get difficult if you struggle with older english. There's also a really vibrant online community, as well as several related works and interpretations (like the re:Dracula podcast).
I'm already looking forward to rereading (and crying my eyes out again) next year!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Misogyny, Torture, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Colonisation

Minor: Child death, Alcohol

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark hopeful tense medium-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: Complicated

---

Genuinely enjoyed this MUCH more than I expected. I would kill and die for Mina Harker.
Reading it via Dracula Daily really builds an attachment to the characters, 10/10 recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Religious bigotry

Minor: War, Injury/Injury detail

emmagreenwood's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

braincircus's review against another edition

4.25

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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very proud of myself for finishing this!!! very quintessentially victorian in its treatment of death and religion. the first act with jonathan is genuinely some fantastic horror (there's a lot of weird things that happen and go totally unexplained, and it's really creepy imo. bersicker's whole ordeal, for example), and i didn't mind the second part with lucy's illness either. the third act slows down a *lot* and is probably the weakest part of the novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Xenophobia