Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Dracula Illustrated by Bram Stoker

72 reviews

riverofhorton's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense 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: No

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Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The world-building was incredible, and all but one of the main group were fully fleshed out characters. The only things that let it down were poo Quincey, the language of Van Helsing being a slog to get through, and the repetition of a lot of the bits of lore. Four times we're told that Dracula can't cross running water, three times that killing Dracula will stop the transformation of any vampires that are somewhere between human and vampire, three times we're told that communion wafers act as a talisman against the vampires, plus a few others that I could mention. I wonder how long this book would be without these instances of repetition. I particularly enjoyed reading the letters between Mina and Lucy, and their respective journal entries about the other: Mina is definitely gay for Lucy, and I can see no other explanation for the way she talks of and to Lucy. I would like to have seen some more expression of that love, but I get that wasn't really possible when this was published, sadly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

michad's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Enjoyable but so wordy. The trope of stupid characters in horror seems to spring from this. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Slavery, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Self harm, Sexism, Trafficking, Stalking

agw622's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I genuinely enjoyed reading this. It is a very exciting tale. My only critiques are that it can be a bit wordy and the charecters prone to hysteria sometimes. This does make reading so parts a little tedious, but it does chug along. For a classic book the treatment of the female charecters were very well done. I do wish the ending paid off more.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Sexism

caro_mac's review against another edition

4.25

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Reading for the first time, I was shocked at how contemporary this book feels! In my opinion, it stands up to its reputation as a true classic.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Xenophobia, Blood

Minor: Racial slurs

ameliethemoomin's review against another edition

5.0

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

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good god i love this book

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Content Warnings

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

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

cooldudenick's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Mental illness, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis

lou_pooh's review against another edition

4.25

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Due to the time there are elements of sexisim in the book. Overall good read however poor ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Misogyny

willow1113's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood

jonwood's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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

Minor: Body horror, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide

teslis's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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This is a book we read in my bookclub. We have read allot of horror this year, something I don't normally like. But this book I quite enjoyed. I listened to the audiobook with Jake Urry while reading it and I'm 100% happy with that decition. 

It was a scary book, but I enjoyed it anyways. Its written a long time ago, but I still liked it and found it interesting. Really recommend reading it even if its not a 5 star. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Sexism

Moderate: Mental illness, Violence