Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Dracula

Dracula is told from the diary entries of the different characters throughout the story, and it was so refreshing to get different point of views, especially because I liked all the characters. Normally in classics it's told from one point of view, which can become quite monotonous, so it really helped the pace of the story. However, the book had slow pacing, especially at the beginning, but once I passed the 150 page mark the story really developed, and it became exciting and thrilling.

I loved all the different gothic/horror elements Dracula included, as I was only expecting the vampire element. There was asylums with mentally ill people, hypnosis, sleepwalking, missing children, cemeteries, breaking into graves, castles and of course Vampires.

I liked all the characters, and the relationships that grew between them, especially Mina and Lucy, Van Helsing and John Seward, and Van Helsing and Mina. Mina is so smart and cute and Van Helsing and Seward were all my favourite characters. Jonathan Harker's journals at the beginning were so funny and fun to read, and I like how they were the foundation for the rest of the story. It's so cute how they all read each other's diaries, and I liked how they all became a sort of found family in the second half of the book.

Overall, it was a good book, and I would recommend to anyone who is up for a 400 page classic, and who likes Vampires and books with a gothic setting.

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ohmymrmelancholy's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

the way bram stoker writes the women in the book makes me wanna rip my hair out. he never talked to a lady in his life.

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brnineworms's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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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oversensitive_reader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.5

Great story, lovable characters. Disappointing execution of he ending, seemed rush and that kinda ruined the payoff

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bambidew's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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