Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Dracula Illustrated by Bram Stoker

72 reviews

blueteacup's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Blood

Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism

emeh's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Medical content, Murder, Alcohol

Minor: Drug use, Sexual harassment

pollydye's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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lucy definitely  listens to lana del rey on a daily basis xx

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Miscarriage, Grief

Minor: Child death, Sexual content

linnylionheart's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Infidelity, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, Antisemitism, Fire/Fire injury

mhhmm's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Blood, Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail

mme_carton's review against another edition

3.5

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cannibalism, Gaslighting

Minor: Gun violence

yavin_iv's review against another edition

3.5

mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent

Moderate: Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence

Minor: Antisemitism

ingridbergman's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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The second half was endless and boring, and then the ending seemed too rushed. Also, too many men crying about how much they love the two female characters and how much they need a woman so that they can be vulnerable as if they were babies. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Sexism, Blood

mars2k's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious sad 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: No

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If Dracula had ended after chapter four, I might have given it a full five stars. The first fifty-odd pages are undoubtedly the best part of the book. Jonathan Harker is trapped in Dracula’s castle, and slowly realising that he is trapped. The atmosphere is tense and eerie. Both Harker and Dracula are interesting and well-developed characters, and the interactions between them are great.

I want to talk for a moment about Count Dracula specifically. In the first four chapters he is depicted as (seemingly) kind, hospitable, careful, and emotionally intelligent, but there’s something sinister about him too. There’s also quite a bit of queer subtext. Dracula is a complicated and sympathetic character at this point, but later his characterisation changes drastically and he ends up being reduced to a cartoonish villain with very little depth. He also becomes a much less prominent part of the narrative – he’s not entirely absent, but he takes on more of a peripheral role. I wish we’d seen more of him. (Interestingly, this is the exact reverse of my view regarding Frankenstein’s monster)

Of course, I must address the elephant in the room – the bigotry. Dracula is a character crafted from several antisemitic tropes. His hooked nose is emphasised many times, and there are parallels between his vampirism (specifically his preying on children) and blood libel. Something else that stands out when viewing the character through this lens is the way he is presented as both an immensely powerful mastermind and a weakling with a “child-brain” – proto-fascist rhetoric, perhaps? The book as a whole is riddled with xenophobia, racism, ableism, and sexism. In many ways it’s a product of its time. Its age doesn’t excuse these problematic elements, but it does offer some context at least.

I was led to believe that Dracula is slow-paced but for a gothic horror story it’s actually very quick. It’s relatively well-written, and the epistolary format is executed well. Excellent build-up to an anticlimactic ending. There’s so much more I could say about the characters and the story (both praise and criticism) but I think I’ll wrap things up here.

Overall I did enjoy Dracula and I’m glad I finally sat down and read it. It’s certainly not without its flaws but I think it’s worth reading if you haven’t already.

“The last I saw of Count Dracula was his kissing his hand to me, with a red light of triumph in his eyes, and with a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of.” 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Child death, Drug use, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Alcohol

Minor: Body horror, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Vomit

spretnaksbitch's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious relaxing slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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They author builds suspense well

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death