Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Dracula by Bram Stoker, Sparknotes

42 reviews

s3ag0at's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War

angelo_vossen's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous dark mysterious sad 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: Complicated

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What month could be better to read this book in than October? Bram Stoker’s „Dracula“, published in 1897, is a classic piece of literature that has had a lasting impact on how vampires are portrayed, but it has both strengths and weaknesses.

The novel’s greatest strength is its ability to mix modern life with old superstitions. Dracula, a creature from ancient folklore, invades the logical and scientific world of Victorian England. Stoker cleverly builds suspense using different narrative forms — diaries, letters, and newspaper articles — making the reader slowly uncover the threat Dracula poses. This structure creates a sense of growing dread that keeps the reader engaged.

However, the book struggles with pacing. The first part, set in Dracula’s castle in Transylvania, is full of tension and mystery, but once the story moves to England, it slows down. The middle sections, where the main characters try to defeat Dracula, can feel repetitive and drawn out, losing some of the initial suspense.

The characters also feel uneven. Dracula himself is a fascinating villain — mysterious and terrifying — but his human opponents are less memorable. Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray, for example, are presented as good, moral people, but they lack depth. Mina, in particular, represents the ideal Victorian woman — pure and nurturing — while Lucy Westenra’s tragic fate as the victim of Dracula reflects the era’s fears around female sexuality.

Additionally, the novel reflects 19th-century fears of foreign invasion. Dracula’s move to England can be seen as a metaphor for anxieties about foreign influences corrupting Western society. This idea, along with the novel’s conservative views on gender roles, has led to debate over whether „Dracula“ supports or critiques Victorian values.

In the end, „Dracula“ is a groundbreaking work that created an iconic figure of horror, though it’s not without its flaws. Its slow pacing, underdeveloped characters, and outdated moral views hold it back, but the novel’s dark atmosphere and exploration of deep societal fears still make it an important piece of literature. I have not read to many classic books yet, but „Dracula“ is definitely one of the better ones so far.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder

Minor: Alcohol

bearystarry's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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: No

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This was a lot different than I'd expected it to be, but I still had fun reading it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis

lethargicbat's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Terminal illness, Blood, Stalking

cyluho's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood

Minor: Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia

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

zatsu's review against another edition

5.0

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail

mysticintherain's review against another edition

3.5

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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Sexism, Blood, Murder

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, War

rehtaehwashere's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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• What I liked: The DRAMA, the characterization of Dracula, how hell-bent they were on catching him after he corrupted Lucy,
  that Lucy's mother fucked her over by not just leaving her and her flowers the hell alone and opening windows.
    The wolves and the bats. The suspicions of Dracula's neighbors and that everyone knew and just said LITERALLY NOTHING.
  Dracula throwing the mirror out the window lmao
   
• What I disliked: that they equated soft feminine virginal girls with morality and goodness implying that Lucy deserved what happened because she wasn't 'pure' enough. That women were written as such weak little things and that they only got praise when they 'thought like men'. That the story was basically men saving 'women in distress'. That the language was so flowery and annoying to parse through.
• Overall thoughts: I think I'll stick to modern adaptations because the flowery language was so annoying to get through and I loved how dramatic Dracula was but the characterization of women left a lot to be desired. It was definitely a product of its time and a good story none-the-less if you can overlook the 1 dimensional female characters but it's hard for me to do. The men are well written, rounded out characters that show emotion which is a bright spot in this.  
• Recommend to a friend? Y 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Colonisation, Classism

utopiaandmelancholy's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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I picked this up mainly as foundational text of most vampire media. There was a great deal more religious content than I was expecting, weirdly, but equally more slightly ridiculous shenanigans. Overall, it was a decent story, and I'm glad to have read it.   

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Antisemitism, Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent