Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Dracula

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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ishouldbereading's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

3.5

I do not understand why this is a horror. This was not even a bit scary.

The good: Fairly good plot, fantastic characters, strong faith in God, vast knowledge of nations living in Hungary at that time, absolutely amazing use of language, probably the best book in english (language-wise) I have ever read
The bad: Slower pace, plot was repetetive, at times too much information (which we didn't really need), THE END

and the unnecessary death

Now let me divide this piece of literature into parts that I totally made up. We started off fairly strong, with what I like to call "Part I: Castle Dracula". I liked this part, it could have been a bit shorter but I appreciated that we got to know Dracula as a person (if I can call him that).
After that comes "Part II: Boring info dumping". As you can guess from the title, I did not enjoy this part at all. Again, I understand its importance to the story, but still too long.
Coming in strong is "Part III: Lucy". I almost devoured this part. Easily the best part of the book. Characters peaked here.
"Part IV: Plans and debates" did not take us on a wild ride, because it was the same plan repeated over and over again.

Although I appreciate the Mina incident.

I loved that all the characters got together to pull an Avengers move (my head litterally played an Avengers theme in the background).
Now the last part, "Part V: The conclusion". I imagined a lot of different endings. I did not imagine that after a few failed attempts which were supposed to set a tense atmosphere and make us more excited for the grand finale (what I personally found very annoying), one would expect a big finale. But one would be disappointed. This was easily one of the most disappointing endings of a book I have ever read.

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jelliestars's review against another edition

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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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leonormsousa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.5

I can recognise it as an important part of history in literature but it was not the most enjoyable read.
Very slow and long, a bit repetitive at times even. The characters were a bit dumb, they would come to the obvious conclusions too late and act like it was the smartest thing ever and not right in front of them the whole time. Although I can accept that it is representative of its time, my feminist side could not sit super well with the book. Similarly, there were sections of the book that felt prejudiced and bothered me a bit, although one could say it was once again representative of the mindset of high class people of the time.
As usual with classics though, I am nonetheless happy to have read it and looking forward to reading articles about the significance of this book and to better understanding its motives.

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idahol7221's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.25

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m_liz's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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nathanjhunt's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

1.75

My 42nd book finished in 2023.

I picked it up in Chiang Mai, Thailand and read it in Vietnam and Indonesia. I left it at my hotel in Kuta.

Uhh.. where to begin?

The first 50 pages of this book were phenomenal. There was such an amazing dark atmosphere, with tension and dreamy words. I wish so badly that the rest of the book was like the first 50 pages. If that was a short story, it would have been incredible. I would have rated this a 4.5, so that is ultimately why I didn't rate the whole book lower than I have.

The rest of the book is filled with such slow boring drivel, I had to try very hard to pay attention. It had some great, creepy ideas, but the narrative was just so dry and full of characters I didn't really care about. The exciting well-written action moments were so few and far between, I found myself far too bored to care about them in the last third of the book. I honestly ended up skimming over the last third. Just so slow and dull.

So, criticisms...
I hated the framing in the book, switching between people, newspapers and diary/journal entries etc. It meant we got repeated explanations of events and descriptions of people. It just added to the slowness and monotony of the book.

"God" and religion is laid on so thick in the last third of the book. My brain absolutely shut down every time Van Helsing spoke - constantly repeating such boring monologues. Along those lines, there is so much unnecessary sexism throughout the book! There are also hints of antisemitism, and late-Victorian psuedo sciences.

Next, the worst offender was the way that all the men are frothing at the mouth over the two women characters. Constant "poor dear Madam Mina", pet names, kissing their hands and pining over the "beauty" of dead vampires. And the women are always talking of "how amazing and brave the men are to look after me, and tell me when to go to sleep". This book was written by a man using one hand! Gross.

A major annoyance of mine, is that for a book called "Dracula", there's a disappointing lack of Dracula within. It's far, far too long a book.

Lastly, the person who died at the end is the character I cared the least about - he was only introduced half way through and had literally no personality. Who cares?!

So what actually happens in the book? Not a lot.
A man goes to Transylvania to meet Dracula, and gets trapped in the castle. His fiancée rescues him. Dracula comes to England and bites a woman. The woman turns into a vampire, and a group of men kill her.
Dracula bites another woman and escapes back to Transylvania when confronted. The group follows him, and kills him.

It sounds somewhat exciting, but it really isn't. I wouldn't recommend this book, I really had to force myself to get through it, especially the last third.

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loveisabird's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

this is no doubt a very good book and a classic for a reason but it also gave me such a deep and bone-chilling panic attack over the inevitability of death and nothingness that i was unable to finish the last chapter and a half for over five months and have been fixated on my fear of death everyday ever since. so thank you bram stoker for that i guess.

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