Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Dracula by Bram Stoker

112 reviews

botanicpanic's review against another edition

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Xenophobia, and Misogyny

Minor: Child death

june_t_michael's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Ich fand das Konzept "Dracula Daily" interessant und als ich mitbekommen habe, dass es dieses Jahr erneut läuft, dachte ich: Da mache ich jetzt doch mal mit. Das ist interessant.

Und ich finde, dass es ein unglaublich interessantes Experiment war. Ich habe "Dracula" in der Vergangenheit schon etliche Male gelesen, das letzte Mal allerdings ist über zehn Jahre her. Vieles habe ich vergessen. Vieles fiel mir vielleicht einfach noch nicht auf, weil ich nicht dafür sensibilisiert war oder mir nicht viel dabei dachte.

Woran ich mich überhaupt nicht mehr erinnern konnte:
- Dass im Grunde genommen die Katastrophe, die die Handlung signifikant vorantreibt, durch Sexismus verursacht wurde. 

Nachdem Mina die Drecksarbeit als Sekretärin für die ganze Crew macht, beschließen die Männer, sie von der ganzen Action auszuschließen und lassen sie die ganze Zeit allein. In der Folge kann Dracula sie ähnlich aufsuchen, wie er Lucy mehrfach aufgesucht hat und es kommt zur "Blutstaufe" Minas, infolge derer sie Dracula aufhalten müssen, ehe Mina zu einer Vampirin wird.

Dass das so thematisiert und auch kritisiert wurde, fand ich dann schon erstaunlich für ein viktorianisches Buch.
- Wie lange Lucys Verwandlung gedauert hat. 

Ich erinnerte mich noch an die Episode dessen, dass jewesen aus Naivität den Knoblauch bzw. die Knoblauchblüten aus Lucys Zimmer entfernt hat und sie darum erneut/weiterhin ausgesaugt werden konnte. Aber ich erinnerte mich nicht daran, wie viele Transfusionen sie bekommen hat oder daran, dass im Laufe der Handlung ihre Mutter stirbt und dies unmittelbar mit Draculas Eindringen zu tun hat.

- Wie lange im Allgemeinen die ganze Lucy-Handlung gedauert hat.
- Wie unfassbar viele Ismen das Buch enthält. Mal eben dahingeworfene rassistische Vorstellungen, das Propagieren von Eugenik durch Van Helsing. Wann immer Mina gelobt wird, passiert dies in Form von "not like other girls" - seltsamen Vergleichnissen von einem männlichen Gehirn in einem weiblichen Körper (Transfeindlichkeit, anyone?) Und Gadje-Rassismus. Wenn ich nun außerdem an einen Artikel in der Jüdischen Allgemeinen über den Roman denke und mich an die Stelle erinnere, an der Dracula mit einem Beutel voller Gold durch die Gegend springt... Autsch.

Ich will nicht sagen, dass ich überhaupt keinen Spaß hatte. Das Konzept eines Romans ausschließlich aus zusammengetragenen Medien (Zeitungsartikel, Tagebücher, Briefe, Telegramme) finde ich immer noch charmant und es wäre was, das ich selbst mal ausprobieren könnte.
Die diversen englischen Dialekte, wenn auch teilweise mühsam zu lesen, fand ich interessant eingebunden und es ist ein sehr ... globalsiiertes Buch? Eine wichtige Nebenfigur ist ein Amerikaner, Van Helsing kommt extra aus Amsterdam und Sewart ist sein Schüler. Jonathan macht eine Dienstreise nach Transsilvanien, was aus England heraus zumindest gefühlt eine halbe Weltreise ist. Aber ähnlich wie in anderen Romanen aus dieser Epoche hirschen die Figuren durch die halbe Welt und das ist gefühlt sogar normaler als es für uns wäre.

Und auch sonst ist es historisch interessant, ein so altes Buch über ein so zeitlos gewordenes Thema wie "Vampirismus" zu lesen.
Aber meine Güte, ist das schlecht gealtert ^^

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Medical content, and Misogyny

Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism

Minor: Antisemitism and Rape

spookfish's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

While reading along with the dates had some downsides (pacing, forgetting some of the story from earlier), I really think it helped to build up the atmosphere and anticipation for me. From May~November I've had little passages to read, and each day that I had in my calendar was an absolute joy.
Despite its sexism by today's standards, our main two, Mina and Jonathan, are decidedly queer characters. Mina in particular fascinates me.
Time to watch many video essays haha.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Confinement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death of parent, Gore, Child death, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, War, Antisemitism, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racial slurs

emmagreenwood's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Xenophobia, Animal death, Child death, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Stalking, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence

emilywemily6's review against another edition

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? No

3.75

I can definitely see why this is a classic and how it has shaped literature and pop culture from its time period and onward. While more approachable than other books of the era, it still sometimes lost me in its phrasings and meanings. Some parts were utterly horrific and eerie while large portions of the book were very slow and repetitive. I enjoyed this cast of characters and feel that if this book was written in 2023 I would adore them even more; their faults were mostly in the gender stereotypes of the era. I liked the various perspectives of the characters and enjoyed the audiobook narration a lot! Often the perspectives felt redundant though. The ending happened way too quick after so much build up (the last 15 minutes of listening to a 15 hour audiobook) and I wish this climax was drawn out. Overall, I’m glad I’ve read it and feel educated in both vampires and classic horror, and I look forward to seeing how this book has influenced later horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexism

Moderate: Racism, Animal death, Stalking, and Grief

Minor: Cursing

seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Slavery, Murder, Violence, Animal death, and Classism

Moderate: War, Sexism, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content and Suicidal thoughts

bloupibloupreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-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

4.5

4.5 - The story was great, maybe a tad bit too long? I’m not gonna lie, I kinda got bored in the middle of the book but it was still very interesting. I was just disappointed by the lack of “vampire lore” and just Dracula himself throughout the story (this mf is never here wtf). I think Twilight mention vampires more in a single chapter than this book in 500 pages which is crazy because it’s DRACULA?

I think my vision of what this book was going to be about got blinded by the modernized version of vampires I have in my head, does that even make sense??? I was just expecting this story to be very scary, full of blood and murder and hot vampires biting necks in a haunted castle but it was more “me and my friends that I love so so much are going to defeat this evil creature with the power of God, love and friendship” but it was good nonetheless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

Moderate: Animal death

eyebrightt_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.25

very proud of myself for finishing this!!! very quintessentially victorian in its treatment of death and religion. the first act with jonathan is genuinely some fantastic horror (there's a lot of weird things that happen and go totally unexplained, and it's really creepy imo. bersicker's whole ordeal, for example), and i didn't mind the second part with lucy's illness either. the third act slows down a *lot* and is probably the weakest part of the novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Xenophobia

adiloretto's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Animal death, and Murder

heatherb's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Blood, Animal death, Grief, Gun violence, Death, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Classism, and Child death