Reviews with content warning for Blood - Dracula

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Dracula by Bram Stoker

300 reviews

nomatophobia's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.0

Going into this, I did not expect it to be so metaphorical. I truly appreciate how blood is representative of all things surrounding love and lust. It represents whatever the scene needs it to, leading into more intricate things like abuse, innocence, and infidelity. It is a heartbreaking study that many people can relate to in diverse ways.

That being said, THIS SHIT TOOK ME SIX MONTHS TO READ! IT'S BORING AS HELL. FUCK VAN HELSING. ALL HE DOES IS CAUSE PROBLEMS. THE BOOK WOULD BE 200 PAGES SHORTER WITHOUT HIM. SCREW THIS BOOK. I LOVED ALL IT REPRESENTS BUT I HATE IT IN ITSELF. Also, Lucy Westerna, will you marry me?

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reiven's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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erdbeerlaucheis's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

4.0

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avie_j's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

2.25

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bloupibloupreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

4.5 - The story was great, maybe a tad bit too long? I’m not gonna lie, I kinda got bored in the middle of the book but it was still very interesting. I was just disappointed by the lack of “vampire lore” and just Dracula himself throughout the story (this mf is never here wtf). I think Twilight mention vampires more in a single chapter than this book in 500 pages which is crazy because it’s DRACULA?

I think my vision of what this book was going to be about got blinded by the modernized version of vampires I have in my head, does that even make sense??? I was just expecting this story to be very scary, full of blood and murder and hot vampires biting necks in a haunted castle but it was more “me and my friends that I love so so much are going to defeat this evil creature with the power of God, love and friendship” but it was good nonetheless.

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alex_blackveil's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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

3.75

It was a heavy read for me. I mostly read one chapter per day (≈20–30 pages/day).

It is a collection of journal entries, mostly, describing the first of Jonathan Harker's encounter with the Count, the latter's “invasion” in UK, Lucy's sickness and death and the hunt for his head by Dr Van Helsing and his new friends that the Count had hurt so much.

It's written, mainly, from Jonathan Harker, Dr Steward and Mina Harker's point of view. Count Dracula isn't as present as the title makes you think, but what is present is the pain and grief he's inflicting to the main characters, as well as the traits, characteristics and weaknesses of vampirism.

Much to my surprise, the hunt was only in the much later chapters and the fight lasted only a few pages.

My favourite character was Quincey Morris… I should see the ending coming, it's always the same with the characters I like…

Masterpiece for its time.

Be warned, he Vampire race described in this book has nothing to do with pop culture vampires. It's more on the superstitious and traditional side than the today's aesthetic one.

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vinsoo03's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? No

5.0

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adiloretto's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

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

5.0

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heatherb's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

Content Warnings

chalkletters's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? No

3.0

After last year’s successful Dad-goes-walking & I-go-singing holiday, this year we’re trying a Dad-goes-walking & I-go-reading weekend. I’m booked to discuss three books: Dracula, Shadowplay and The Deathless Girls as well as walk around Whitby, where much of Dracula is set. At this point, I have really no idea what the holiday itself will be like, but I’d read Draculabefore, so I decided to refresh my memory. I was hoping to read the ‘Dracula Daily’ edition, but it doesn’t come out until November.

Dracula is very much a novel of its time: the attitudes towards women and religion and people from countries other than Britain are entirely 19th-century, as are the long speeches. Some of Bram Stoker’s long passages of description work really well as scene setting for a horror novel, but others are a little tedious if you’re reading purely for enjoyment and with 21st-century eyes.

That said, it’s not completely possible to read Dracula purely as a horror novel; there are too many things that don’t really make any sense. Why are all Dracula’s victims women, when he does away with plenty of men and has Jonathan Harker at his mercy? What, exactly, does Dracula want in coming to London? Not to mention, there are some pretty huge coincidences which stretch credulity if you’re not looking at Dracula as a metaphor for something.

The essays in the Norton Critical Edition did a good job exploring the many, many different fin-de-siècle fears that Dracula could be read to represent. These are somewhat long and dry if you’re not actually studying Dracula, but still worthwhile in the long-run. (That said, the ones relating to the various cinematic and theatrical adaptations of Dracula aren’t particularly necessary as background information on the novel.)

Bram Stoker’s characters fall into two camps: vampires (and Renfield) vs non-vampires. As there’s plenty of conflict between the two groups, it doesn’t really feel as though conflict between the non-vampires is missing, but it is a little unlikely that fully fleshed-out people would agree quite so completely about everything. Nonetheless, the characters are distinct with very little chance of muddling them up with one another, which is definitely an achievement.

Overall, it was fun to read a horror novel which really felt like a horror novel, and the Norton Critical Edition has hopefully prepared me for interesting discussions on my holiday!

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