Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
My BC review from 2010:
I took this one away with me on my holidays for reading. And it was quite an epic, at 700 pages! but I have managed to get it finished.It was an interesting take on the whole Dracula story (Bram Stoker), and if you go with the basic presumptions of the book, as you have to with all books I guess, it's a good story, albeit it slow moving and sometimes feeling like a guidebook to south and central continental Europe. There's a lot of info and history in this, so you feel like she's really researched her book... to a point. It stopped with Bram Stoker, but as this is another take on the story, I suppose she had to use it heavily. Just disappointing that she didn't research vampire folklore from the middle ages more because then she would have realised that the elegent gentlemen with pointy teeth who vant to bite your neck only turned up first in gothic literature in the 1800s such as Bram Stokers Dracula, and not actually when Vlad Tepes was alive. There were vampires around then, just a bit different. ha ha, I'm saying there were vampires around then as if I believe in vampires.
Anyway, here's to archivists and historians as this book goes into in great depth. Apart from the evil librarian. Who is more than frequently referred to as the evil librarian. That got a bit silly. The basic story covers three generations of vampire hunters - Vlad Tepes (the original Dracula) specifically. Who likes a good book himself apparently. All these people mysteriously recieve an old book with nothing but a print of an angry dragon in (and despite them all being academics and historians, none of them ever seem to question who put the book in their path or why) which prompts them to research Dracula history to the point (ha ha!) of obsession. And when you research Dracula, bad things happen, and your nearest and dearest sometimes get bitten.
On the whole an entertaining read.
I took this one away with me on my holidays for reading. And it was quite an epic, at 700 pages! but I have managed to get it finished.It was an interesting take on the whole Dracula story (Bram Stoker), and if you go with the basic presumptions of the book, as you have to with all books I guess, it's a good story, albeit it slow moving and sometimes feeling like a guidebook to south and central continental Europe. There's a lot of info and history in this, so you feel like she's really researched her book... to a point. It stopped with Bram Stoker, but as this is another take on the story, I suppose she had to use it heavily. Just disappointing that she didn't research vampire folklore from the middle ages more because then she would have realised that the elegent gentlemen with pointy teeth who vant to bite your neck only turned up first in gothic literature in the 1800s such as Bram Stokers Dracula, and not actually when Vlad Tepes was alive. There were vampires around then, just a bit different. ha ha, I'm saying there were vampires around then as if I believe in vampires.
Anyway, here's to archivists and historians as this book goes into in great depth. Apart from the evil librarian. Who is more than frequently referred to as the evil librarian. That got a bit silly. The basic story covers three generations of vampire hunters - Vlad Tepes (the original Dracula) specifically. Who likes a good book himself apparently. All these people mysteriously recieve an old book with nothing but a print of an angry dragon in (and despite them all being academics and historians, none of them ever seem to question who put the book in their path or why) which prompts them to research Dracula history to the point (ha ha!) of obsession. And when you research Dracula, bad things happen, and your nearest and dearest sometimes get bitten.
On the whole an entertaining read.
Idek where to begin. I became friends with this book! I loved the historical context of Dracula’s past + the feelings of loss and love that came with it. The descriptions of locations made me feel I was in Europe. Perfectly scary + romantic. Must read for vampire lovers
If one is looking for Vampire pulp, this does provide driving suspense and some interesting historical details. I found it frustratingly structured, however--sometimes difficult to follow--and sometimes the prose is a bit clunky, tripping up the exciting story. It is composed of various "genres": letters, journals, stories and repeated stories. The result is a nice texture but again a jumble of sense.
Will probably reread this one far off in the future bc there's definitely some things I missed. Very dark Academia Donna Tartt The Secret History core. So long and for what
Wow. What a journey. This book took me a very long time to read. But it was so worth it. I loved all the stories within stories. It was not hard to follow along although sometimes I forgot who was reading the story being told.
It was beautifully written. So many twists and turns. Characters that were forgotten for aeons showing up again in splendor and terror. And the idea that, here we are, there is something left, that isn’t quite answered. That isn’t definite. Or is it? I almost felt bad for Dracula. Like he maybe wanted to be doing the right thing. I got so drawn up in him and his historian need. I feel that. When I want to know, I need to know, and I fixate hard.
The question I am most left with though is how did Dracula become a vampire? Why? When? Was he always one? Who did it? And how mad is that vampire when Drac took all the glory?
It was beautifully written. So many twists and turns. Characters that were forgotten for aeons showing up again in splendor and terror. And the idea that, here we are, there is something left, that isn’t quite answered. That isn’t definite. Or is it? I almost felt bad for Dracula. Like he maybe wanted to be doing the right thing. I got so drawn up in him and his historian need. I feel that. When I want to know, I need to know, and I fixate hard.
The question I am most left with though is how did Dracula become a vampire? Why? When? Was he always one? Who did it? And how mad is that vampire when Drac took all the glory?
I'm glad I read this but found some aspects of the story unnecessary. I think it could have been shortened and the story tightened up. Some use of description was ill-timed and the dramatic effect was lost. I think there was too much detail, I really don't want to know every little thing and full description of meals etc. which loses the pace of the story. I also spotted some continuity errors, a character going from grey hair to black, a character putting everything down to suddenly holding the item again. I enjoyed the story, but think it could have been paced better and to be honest, made Dracula more frightening than a glorified librarian.
Way too pretentious. It's not horror. It's literary! Whatever. More like a lame ripoff of The Da Vinci Code.
A book with some charms and very fine qualities, which you'll probably love if you're interested in travelogues among the capitals of old Europe, and dusty books stacked in libraries and obscure archives. This was for long stretches a bit vanilla for me, thus the rating of 4 stars rather than 5, though it's well crafted and engaging.
642 pages. I'm on 470 and getting bored. It might be time to start skipping ahead since I want to know what happens! Unfortunately when I start skipping, I tend to lose interest and give up. I'll continue to slog along for a little longer. Maybe.
ugh. glad that's over.
ugh. glad that's over.