Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Dracula

I enjoyed this wayyyyy more than I thought I would. The themes of good vs evil, salvation, fear of desire (especially women’s desire), and masculinity were very interesting to explore. The book is a giant metaphor as you might imagine. It’s slow paced, but it still held my interest the whole way through. The characterization of the two female characters was of particular interest to me (considering the fact that the men were not able to save them, at least without Mina’s extensive help). All in all a fascinating reflection of the time in which it was written.

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finn_vibing's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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rehtaehwashere's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

3.0

What I liked: The DRAMA, the characterization of Dracula, how hell-bent they were on catching him after he corrupted Lucy,
that Lucy's mother fucked her over by not just leaving her and her flowers the hell alone and opening windows.
The wolves and the bats. The suspicions of Dracula's neighbors and that everyone knew and just said LITERALLY NOTHING.
Dracula throwing the mirror out the window lmao
What I disliked: that they equated soft feminine virginal girls with morality and goodness implying that Lucy deserved what happened because she wasn't 'pure' enough. That women were written as such weak little things and that they only got praise when they 'thought like men'. That the story was basically men saving 'women in distress'. That the language was so flowery and annoying to parse through.
Overall thoughts: I think I'll stick to modern adaptations because the flowery language was so annoying to get through and I loved how dramatic Dracula was but the characterization of women left a lot to be desired. It was definitely a product of its time and a good story none-the-less if you can overlook the 1 dimensional female characters but it's hard for me to do. The men are well written, rounded out characters that show emotion which is a bright spot in this.
Recommend to a friend? Y

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rike5's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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cooldudenick's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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rosamaria's review against another edition

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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

3.5

It’s a good thing Dracula did not turn Van Helsing into a vampire, because we would have had to sit through his drawn-out monologues for all eternity.

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oceanwriter's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

4.0

I never had much interest in reading Dracula until I read Frankenstein earlier this year. Much like my experience with that book, I was braced for campiness rather than genuine source material. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I ended up enjoying it.

Told from multiple POVs as well as multiple writing mediums, the story conveys the terrors caused by Count Dracula. A large portion of the book focuses on his victim Lucy and the efforts to keep her out of Dracula’s clutches. The rest is dedicated to the study of the count and the pursuit to put an end to him altogether.

The different writing styles threw me off in the beginning. I couldn’t latch on to the story until it came to scenes with Mina and Lucy. For me, that’s when the story began. Before then I struggled to discern who each of the characters were. I could differentiate Lucy and Mina right away but the men took much longer.

I enjoyed the gothic atmosphere the most. I can’t do modern horror, but I’m finding that I have an interest in some of these classics. It’s also interesting to see the original characters who have since become commonplace in media and more often than not spoofed and made comical.

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