Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Drácula by Bram Stoker

7 reviews

madi_f's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark mysterious sad 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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child death, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Cannibalism

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, War

eva_vva's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, War

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

seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review against another edition

4.25

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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Sexism, Death of parent, War

Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts

appuru01's review against another edition

2.0

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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2.75☆

A  interesting story but not at all what I expected to be entirely honest.

The concept of experiencing everything through journal and diary entries and letters was quite interesting but the story itself was pretty underwhelming for me personally. It was interesting but nothing special. It's not a bad book per se but also not a good one. In my opinion at least.

The period typical racial slurs, racism, ableist slurs concerning mental health, misogyny, sexism, classism and overly religious tones were expected but made me uncomfortable which is mainly the reason for the low rating since the book itself was interesting enough (still quite underwhelming in my opinion though).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Colonisation, Classism

linnylionheart's review against another edition

3.5

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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Mental illness

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

mars2k's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Child death, Drug use, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Alcohol

Minor: Body horror, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Vomit