Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

Dracula by Bram Stoker, Sparknotes

49 reviews

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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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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

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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adventurous 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: Yes

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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

good god i love this book

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
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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intertsellaerose's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 74%

I found the first half very interesting, particularly Jonathan’s stay with the Count as well as the letters between Lucy and Mina and the business with the wrecked ship was exciting. 
However, after Lucy’s death I think it just became really quite boring for me.

I do enjoy the old style of writing (it’s very satisfying to read) but it does reallyyyy go round the houses. I also sorely disliked Van Helsing with his self righteous explanations and just ughhh.
But whatever. I did actually mainly enjoy Dr Seward’s chapters about Renfield, and his relationship with Mina was sweet. 
Overall I think it’s a good one to read as a classic and some of the characters make it worth it, but I just couldn’t stick it out anymore lol

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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

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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dark mysterious tense slow-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: Yes

Dracula is an incredible time capsule of thoughts and opinions of the day. Some of those opinions include homophobia, sexism, anti-semitism, and new sciences of mesmerism and blood transfusions. Anyone interested in the Gothic, or horror, ought to read this source material. Dracula is an amazing villain, his evilness is overwhelming; the innocence and rage of the humans makes sense. The earth is fertile here for literary criticism, especially regarding gender roles and religion. 

I highly recommend Bloody FM's audio presentation, "Re: Dracula," which brings the story to life with voice actors, sound effects, content warnings, additional context provided, and a chronological timeline. I cried listening to things I had read before ("Oh, John, it was butcher work").

CONTENT WARNING that there is a graphic description of a terrifying and horrible assault about mid-way through the book. I don't often see this content warning given, and it came as a shock to me. 
There is also SO MUCH medical malpractice that was standard at the time. The asylum is especially harrowing, but it is manageable.

Don't let the slow pace of the beginning of this book hold you back. The suspense builds and bursts in a wonderful bubble, it's so worth it, I promise.

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No

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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