Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Dracula by Bram Stoker

12 reviews

ameliethemoomin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-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? No

5.0

good god i love this book

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Murder, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Death, Blood, Xenophobia, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Medical content

Minor: Antisemitism, Animal cruelty, Ableism, Animal death, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

jonwood's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

This is really good, I was surprised, but 'Dracula' reads surprisingly modern and I really enjoy the prose of the journal entries. I'll say the book does fall flat a bit when characters, especially Van Helsing, deliver dialogue in a rather purple-ly prose sort of way that is hard to take seriously at times, does undercut serious moments. Most of the suspense is undercut by popular knowledge that Dracula  is a vampire, but despite back, this enjoyable like any well-crafted story, and as Dracula is more of a tertiary character, that doesn't impact the experience too much (at least for me) as the book is more about these characters reacting to his presence than Dracula himself. Highly recommend, and if you aren't one for horror, I still think this is rather readable and enjoyable, it's not that scary, more a supernatural adventure.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Blood, Medical content, Animal death, Violence, Animal cruelty, and Mental illness

Minor: Body horror, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

jelliestars's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, Medical content, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Animal death, Blood, and Classism

Minor: Sexism, Alcohol, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Grief, Xenophobia, Violence, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Cursing

carina_dreamer's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

• Primeiro livro desde que andava na escola que eu sublinhei e ainda coloquei post-its com a timeline (desliza o carrossel).
Pois, isto foi assim de confuso para mim em termos cronológicos. Eu queria perceber a história e os planos do Drácula, por isso, precisava de me organizar e ficava difícil com todos os saltos temporais e geográficos.

• O que é de criativo e inovador neste livro em comparação com outros clássicos que li foi também o que me incomodou e me impediu um pouco de me conectar com ele.
Toda a história é contada por meio de: diários, cartas e telegramas. Todas as personagens humanas têm direito a expressar-se um pouco.
Se juntarmos saltos cronológicos + cartas como meio de narração + vários narradores = muitas características grandiosas para eu gostar do mix.
Só ficou melhor quando todos se juntaram no mesmo espaço.

• Em termos de facilidade de leitura, pareceu-me ser um clássico com um passing rápido com ação constante e o vocabulário acessível.

• "Drácula" não é a história original de vampiros, aliás, conseguimos ver as semelhanças e diferenças entre este e "Carmilla". Eu queria muito ler ambos por causa do lore vampírico e comparar com o que conheço de séries modernas.
No meu Buddy Read com a bestie estava sempre a dar comparações entre o livro e as séries. Diverti-me com isso!
Ótimo manual para criar vampiros e exterminadores. O que não gostei? Os vampiros eram uns fracotes - queria luta!

• É um livro do séc. XIX e escrito por um homem branco, claro que tem aqueles elementos de: mulheres desejosas de casar; elas têm de ser protegidas e salvas; temos uma mulher inteligente, mas comparam-na a um homem, etc.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Grief, Confinement, and Child death

Minor: Blood and Suicide

fjordpingvin's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Death, and Medical content

Moderate: Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Mental illness, Animal death, Blood, Animal cruelty, and Xenophobia

Minor: Antisemitism, Gore, Suicide, Grief, Murder, and Terminal illness

thomasdj's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Murder, Violence, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Xenophobia, Torture, Blood, Sexism, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Gore, Death, and Misogyny

Minor: Suicide

linnylionheart's review against another edition

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Mental illness

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

mhhmm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

rory_john14's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Blood, Body horror, Child death, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Animal death, Cannibalism, Classism, Kidnapping, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Gun violence, and Torture

Minor: Racism, Alcohol, Dementia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and War

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

challenging 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

2.5

 2.5 ⭐ CW: suicide, blood drinking (obviously)

Dracula by Bram Stoker was a buddy read with a friend. This was...not an enjoyable read. I understand it is a classic and written in a time where long winded descriptions were expected, but damn it made hard to get through.

Dracula is told in a series of letters and personal journal entries with news articles and telegrams interspersed between. We follow Jonathan Harker, a solicitor who has come to Castle Dracula to help Dracula in purchasing a property in London. Jonathon experiences some weird stuff that ends up making him ill.

We also follow Mina, fiancee of Jonathon, worrying over her friend Lucy, who has begun sleep walking and becoming pale and sickly for seemingly no reason. After Lucy's death, all of her suitors come together with Mina and Jonathan to figure out what is going on and to stop the Count.

Mina deserves way more credit than she gets in this book. Mina is clever and is solely responsible for rallying the men to her cause and is the one to put together all the information in order to come to the conclusion of vampires. Dracula's death (spoiler alert lol) was very anticlimactic. Stoker does a lot of telling instead of showing.

We see themes on superstition and how important it is to consider the grain of truth within as well as the ever present theme of humans being afraid of their souls becoming damned.

I skimmed most of this book, since most of the information could have been cut back. Glad to have read it, even more glad to be done with it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Blood