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readthesparrow's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
2.5
I really loved the art. It's so beautifully gothic, almost ethereal--the character design, too, is wonderful. If the art had not been as stunning as it had been, I do not think I would have liked this graphic novel all that much. It really carried my experience.
I normally have an issue with the pacing of graphic novels--they either try to do too much or go too quickly, but the pacing here was something I really liked. It did just enough and didn't try to do too much. The interpretation of the vampire myth was interesting, and I did not see the twists coming at all.
The story was not to my taste. It bills itself as a sequel/reimaging of Dracula. Reimagining I agree--sequel I do not. It followed very little of the original Dracula story, merely taking the names of some of the characters and using them. I do not necessarily have an issue with that, but I do when something claims to be a sequel. It most certainly is not. "Reimagining" is a more accurate term, and even then, only barely--perhaps more elements of Dracula's original plot and characters will come in in later installments (which I do not particularly plan to read) but as-is the only thing this graphic novel takes from Dracula is the names. (And the love plotline from the movie.)
I also really hate the storyline ofMina and Dracula being together/in love. That particular storyline was not in Dracula, and it's one of those things that really rubs me the wrong way because everyone thinks it is a Dracula thing! But it is not, not at all, and was just popularized by the movie (which, if anything, was pulling the story from Nosferatu, not Dracula). It's also just a storyline I find really annoying since it ends up ignoring a lot of the *actual* implications of Dracula and Mina in the original book.
I am also not a fan of imagining Mina as a badass super athletic vampire hunter/warrior. I just like her original character too much to be on board with that sort of thing. I don't have any, like, deep reason for it or anything--just not my personal taste.
Sorry, rant barely applicable here. All I really mean is that it's a angle of interpreating Dracula I really dislike just on principle, making it hard for anything that uses those tropes to ever win me over. I probably would have loved this graphic novel had I been a fan of that particular choice but, since I am a fan of the original novel until I die, I was not. The art was really gorgeous and without it this probably would be a one star read for me.
I normally have an issue with the pacing of graphic novels--they either try to do too much or go too quickly, but the pacing here was something I really liked. It did just enough and didn't try to do too much. The interpretation of the vampire myth was interesting, and I did not see the twists coming at all.
The story was not to my taste. It bills itself as a sequel/reimaging of Dracula. Reimagining I agree--sequel I do not. It followed very little of the original Dracula story, merely taking the names of some of the characters and using them. I do not necessarily have an issue with that, but I do when something claims to be a sequel. It most certainly is not. "Reimagining" is a more accurate term, and even then, only barely--perhaps more elements of Dracula's original plot and characters will come in in later installments (which I do not particularly plan to read) but as-is the only thing this graphic novel takes from Dracula is the names. (And the love plotline from the movie.)
I also really hate the storyline of
I am also not a fan of imagining Mina as a badass super athletic vampire hunter/warrior. I just like her original character too much to be on board with that sort of thing. I don't have any, like, deep reason for it or anything--just not my personal taste.
Sorry, rant barely applicable here. All I really mean is that it's a angle of interpreating Dracula I really dislike just on principle, making it hard for anything that uses those tropes to ever win me over. I probably would have loved this graphic novel had I been a fan of that particular choice but, since I am a fan of the original novel until I die, I was not. The art was really gorgeous and without it this probably would be a one star read for me.
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