Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Dracula Illustrated

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Dracula Illustrated by Bram Stoker

72 reviews

oddduck's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark funny tense slow-paced

As much as I enjoyed the actual book, I do feel I have to acknowledge that the experience of reading this book influenced my rating. I read this as Dracula Daily, which is a format I highly recommend. The entire story was put in chronological order (helpful for my brain), sent through email (very convenient), and was (mostly) small chunks of text (very manageable for me to tackle in one sitting). Sure, it took six months to read, there were a lot of dead spots with no Dracula (book) action whatsoever, and some days you'd get one sentence while others you'd get 50 pages (October 3 is an outlier and should not be counted), but man if I didn't have a blast. I genuinely can’t remember the last time I had this much fun reading a book.

Looking at the criticisms I have of it, this book would normally be rated lower, but I do tend to give classics a bit more leeway and there’s one aspect that was done so well that I feel it makes up for some of the deficiencies: this is a horror novel - a classic of the genre and foundational in vampire literature - and despite knowing the major plot point going in (vampires), it still manages to be scary.

Good news: unless you are a die-hard vampire fan before reading this, you’re probably going to learn new things about vampires! Personally, I am extremely disappointed in vampire writers for letting the ability to crawl on the wall like a lizard fall out of fashion as a vampire skill. This is clearly the coolest vampire ability and our society has made a grave oversight by ignoring it.

But back to the horrors. Going in, I kind of thought this wouldn’t be that scary, since I already know that Count Dracula is a vampire. That’s where all the shock comes from, right? Wrong. I would actually argue that knowing Dracula is a vampire going into this book makes it scarier, which I know sounds odd.

Take one of my favorite sequences: the log from the Demeter. For the 19th century reader, every part of this sequence is terrifying. They have no idea what’s happening. All they know is that something is very wrong. For the modern day reader, we either know immediately or very quickly figure out that Dracula is on the ship and we know he’s a vampire, so we have an explanation for what’s happening. And yet it’s still terrifying, because we know that everyone on that ship is going to die. They’re being hunted and they know it, but they can’t save themselves.

The horror of Dracula is supposed to come from the Count and what he does. Knowing that he’s a vampire and that he’s defeated at the end makes him less terrifying, but it doesn’t reduce the overall horror of the book. Whether or not you know the Count is a vampire, he’s still scary, and also the situation itself is terrifying.

We make fun of people in horror movies for making stupid decisions - don’t split up! Don’t go investigate the weird noise! Don’t open the locked door! - and sure, some of them are genuinely lacking in common sense. And it would be easy to apply that thinking to Jonathan. But when you think about his job and financial situation, it becomes harder to say those things, and that’s what is so good about this story. It doesn’t hinge on one aspect of horror to succeed, giving the reader a more well rounded sense of dread the further in they get. Not only is this smart storytelling, it’s also part of why this book has endured as a classic, I think.

But despite how much I enjoyed this novel, I do have some criticisms as well.

To start, I feel that Dracula’s sexy vampire lady roommates were underutilized. They don’t even have names. They showed up to menace Jonathan and they were there to tempt Mina at the end, but otherwise we don’t even think about them. Very disappointing.

On a related note, I Really Dislike how Stoker describes lady vampires. There is a reason I call Dracula’s roommates “sexy vampire women”. It becomes especially obvious after Lucy is turned. Prior to this, she’s described as beautiful, but in an innocent way (which feels infantilizing, which is also gross, but not the point right now). After her death, she’s still beautiful, but now it’s in a sexy temptress kind of way. Stoker gets a frankly uncomfortable amount of use out of the word “voluptuous”. Mina later gets a similar treatment, and it enrages me. Period typical sexism and misogyny sure, but holy crap I was ready to learn necromancy over this.

Same feelings for the period-typical racism, religious bigotry, and other assorted Nonsense. The Nonsense (encompassing everything listed and everything I forgot) is what makes old books hard to read, for me. Understanding the language isn’t usually that hard (though let me tell you, reading some of what Quincey Morris said, especially early on, was a Challenge in the most baffling way and I flat out gave up on Mr. Swales), but dealing with what is said, and how they think they’re right, is infuriating.

Dr. Seward and Van Helsing made me scream into a pillow a lot, for the above reasons, but also just for being themselves. Dr. Seward was probably my least favorite character. I found him very annoying and anytime he talked about his patient, Renfield, I wanted to stab him in the spleen. He talks about Renfield like he’s an animal in a zoo and he genuinely sounds like an evil scientist at times. I struggle to think that he cares about helping Renfield for his sake and not to further his own career. So glad Lucy did not pick this guy.

I wanted to strangle Van Helsing pretty much any time he appeared, because he is apparently incapable of just speaking plainly. One of the few times I liked Seward was when he called Van Helsing out on this (but it only happened once). Every conversation with Van Helsing involved went on at least twice as long as it needed to. And they had probably three times as many conversations as they needed to because Van Helsing just. Wouldn’t give them all the information at once??? So many of my notes are just things like “Van Helsing, I am begging you, stop being cryptic. You literally sound so suspicious.” and “Okay, I swear, if Van Helsing doesn’t fess up to Mina by the end of this conversation I’m going to scream.” and of course “Van Helsing what the hell dude. Use more words.” Someone on tumblr said Van Helsing thinks he’s the brave hero of this story, and they were so right.

Related to the issue of Van Helsing, but not necessarily a criticism, I will not be swayed from the belief that if Mina had been given all of the information from the start, she would have solved all of the problems before we even reached the halfway point of the book. I recognize that this would have been a much harder story to pull off successfully, but you will not convince me that this isn’t the reason that Mina gets so sidelined in the final chase sequence (or, perhaps more accurately, why the count has to bite Mina before he flees England). Mina was my favorite character, so anytime Jonathan talked about how much he loves his wife I was right there with him, and this is why I’m so disappointed that she did not get a bigger role in the end.

This was an Experience for sure and I had a fantastic time. Highly recommend this format and story for anyone interested in vampires or thinking about reading Dracula.

As a bonus, because I had a great time keeping a reading journal for this book and because so many objectively bonkers things happen in it, please enjoy a (very) brief selection from my notes, without context:

ART promising the hot goss!!
Jonathan that is a terrible plan, but also it is one that I cannot believe you didn't try sooner???
Everything about this was disturbing. No thanks.
We stan Mina, the only one with any kind of sense in this book.
Literally the only thing preventing Lucy and Mina from being a couple is that Bram Stoker lived in an era of homophobia. And also cowardice.
Oh I know what this is reminding me of. Rabies.
GIRL THAT IS NOT A DREAM
Wow okay no more Mr. Nice Vampire
This book is about the power of friendship and a really good nap
I am once again asking why women who become vampires remain young and beautiful, but Dracula, a man, became old and decrepit.
All the talk of snow is making me think: They survived Dracula, but can they survive. . . Mother Nature? And then this becomes a survival story lol

Content Warnings

meganpbennett's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I read Dracula many many years ago, and thought it was interesting. Didn't give it much thought except for a few school assignments, or considering a reread along with some other classics. Then, in 2022, people started sharing a link to a substack, where someone was emailing the novel to readers, in real time. I signed up.

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.

Content Warnings

tmickey's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

aardwyrm's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous mysterious reflective tense 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: Yes

It's. The one with Dracula.

Content Warnings

mmefish's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

Terrifying in the best way possible, “Dracula” is an iconic piece of literature for a reason.
If only the lengthy dramatic exclamations by the characters were cut by half…

Content Warnings

samsonian's review against another edition

4.5

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

i love this book so much its so gay

Content Warnings

emmalouisereads's review against another edition

4.5

dark mysterious 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: No

This book is written as a series of letters and diary entries, which I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy. However it was a lot of fun!

There’s a lot of different abilities that Dracula has compared to what I thought. The book is also much slower paced than I expected.

Negatives: There’s a few old fashioned views and expressions about those with mental health difficulties, women in general and foreign people. Also, occasionally there is a long-winded speech I don’t think is entirely necessary.

Content Warnings

1quillb's review against another edition

1.0

challenging dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

First of all, I’m very disappointed that Dracula only showed up on probably 40 pages out of the 400 in my book. But to be fair, on most of those other pages absolutely nothing happened. And second of all, that ending? Did he run out of pages and just word-vomit onto the page to meet the deadline?
So, with full and complete offence meant to Abraham “Bram” Stoker: this book sucked. Horribly.

I’m not entirely sure what happened in it, to be honest. Jonathan goes to Dracula’s castle and gets trapped there. A man called Renfield eats spiders but really wants to eat a cat. Mina sits in a churchyard with her girlfriend Lucy. Lucy gets proposed to three times by men she’d literally spoken to one time… it was just random plot point after random plot point, none of which made sense in any sort of context.
And the entire second-half of the book was devoted to… you guess it, absolutely nothing! They decide that vampires are indeed real (though it takes them some time to come to that conclusion even after they see one), and then they go to Dracula’s castle. Why? I don’t know. Dracula wasn’t even there.
Then, for about the last ten pages of the novel, they have a metaphorical snowball fight and start stabbing random Romanians. Obviously the Romanians lost, because they were exhausted from spending the last dozen hours carrying Dracula’s coffin up the mountainside because the Count was too lazy to walk. But luckily “he” dies!
Who is “he”, you may ask? Apparently, it’s Dracula, because later on the characters rejoice in the fact that they killed the vampire, but Bram literally didn’t even write that it was Dracula who died. Nor did he specify if it was Jonathan or Morris who was stabbed by a Romanian. Only in the epilogue is it made clear (a dead man can’t have children, I don’t think).

Overall, this was terrible. I’ve not read anything else by Stoker, so I don’t know if this hideous novel was just a one-off or if it’s actually how he writes, but it sucked regardless. Highly don’t recommend.

Content Warnings