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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
The story itself was gripping and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
However, the writing feels very lazy and like they haven’t bothered to do any research into 19th century Dublin at all - phrases, words, spellings, and sayings, all very American. Disappointing and so very irritating. It’s reads very modern and a little Twilight-esque in places, too much Hollywood drama. I was hoping for something that felt like a sibling companion to the original, instead it felt like an incredibly distant relative - the type of person who says “I’m 1/25th Irish #celticblood”
In short, story good and enjoyable, fell very short as a relation to the original Dracula novel and overall disappointing.
However, the writing feels very lazy and like they haven’t bothered to do any research into 19th century Dublin at all - phrases, words, spellings, and sayings, all very American. Disappointing and so very irritating. It’s reads very modern and a little Twilight-esque in places, too much Hollywood drama. I was hoping for something that felt like a sibling companion to the original, instead it felt like an incredibly distant relative - the type of person who says “I’m 1/25th Irish #celticblood”
In short, story good and enjoyable, fell very short as a relation to the original Dracula novel and overall disappointing.
I want to start by saying this exceeded my expectations. I never read Dracula, but I have to now that I read this. From start to finish, the story takes you on a ride filled with scares and questions. These questions are all answered, thankfully, so I didn't feel major plot holes burdening me. I greatly enjoyed it. It felt like a classic vampire book.
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
There are A LOT of spin offs from the original Victorian Gothic craze for nobility-style vampires, most of which fall into the god-awful or meh categories, with only a few being really good. This is.... meh. Suspend your disbelief and take it for a quick read without detailed evocative writing and it can be an entertaining adventure even if it does start to feel a bit Scooby-Doo in places. In trying to do a horror they make that old mistake of trying to show you everything ( nothing is more scary than the human imagination, and if you just have hints and ambiguity, you can take yourself to some very scary places) and doing a bit of the tell not show. Perhaps this is really aimed at teenagers, and then I think it does a good job, but I wouldn't say it's a classically gothic scary novel.
Apparently one of the writers is a distant relative of Bram Stoker. I don't know if he really is or they're saying that to create some suspense/cash in or whatever. The premise is that this is Bram Stoker's real life story, and the prequel to Dracula, which apparently is also true. So we're taken to Dublin in the late 1800s, seeing Bram and siblings as children with a rather suspcious nanny Ellen Crone who never ages, gets ill, eats etc etc... yeah, you get the picture. She also helps cure Bram of a serious illness that would have otherwise killed him. She does wierd things like disappear into bogs, keep a box of soil under her bed etc etc...They then grow up, think they catch sight of Ellen and get drawn into a mystery that has them dashing all over European and discovering that there are good-hearted vampires and well as baddies.
Then at the end there's a bit about their research into Bram Stoker's papers in order to add credibility as if this is a true story, including reference to original manuscripts purchased by insanely rich people that mere poor people like us aren't allowed to know the contents of (don't get me started on that). Which as a bit of fun to shiver the reader's timbers at the end is all well and good but if they're being serious is just a bit.... words fail me. If their elite artistocratic evil doer who never managed to get rid of the dodgy accent despite centuries of foreign travel and practice wasn't Vlad the Impaler as they suggest, why use Dracula (because it'll sell books and everyone will know what they're talking about, doh!). And if he really is that ancient, why haven't they gone beyond the Victorian gothic vampire movement, which created this aristocrat with sharp teeth? Folklore from the middle ages describes something very different.
To be honest I'm not a good audience for these types of books. I think I'm damaged from reading too much about the subject. I suppose those they are part of a trend in the continuing developement of the lore of the vampire, which these days includes a lot of angsty teenagers mooning at one another.
If you want to read a good spin off from Dracula, you couldn't go much wrong with Stephen Curran's Visitor in Lunacy.
Of course having waffled of so much, wasn't it in The Usual Suspects where they pointed out that the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince everyone that he didn't exist?
Apparently one of the writers is a distant relative of Bram Stoker. I don't know if he really is or they're saying that to create some suspense/cash in or whatever. The premise is that this is Bram Stoker's real life story, and the prequel to Dracula, which apparently is also true. So we're taken to Dublin in the late 1800s, seeing Bram and siblings as children with a rather suspcious nanny Ellen Crone who never ages, gets ill, eats etc etc... yeah, you get the picture. She also helps cure Bram of a serious illness that would have otherwise killed him. She does wierd things like disappear into bogs, keep a box of soil under her bed etc etc...They then grow up, think they catch sight of Ellen and get drawn into a mystery that has them dashing all over European and discovering that there are good-hearted vampires and well as baddies.
Then at the end there's a bit about their research into Bram Stoker's papers in order to add credibility as if this is a true story, including reference to original manuscripts purchased by insanely rich people that mere poor people like us aren't allowed to know the contents of (don't get me started on that). Which as a bit of fun to shiver the reader's timbers at the end is all well and good but if they're being serious is just a bit.... words fail me. If their elite artistocratic evil doer who never managed to get rid of the dodgy accent despite centuries of foreign travel and practice wasn't Vlad the Impaler as they suggest, why use Dracula (because it'll sell books and everyone will know what they're talking about, doh!). And if he really is that ancient, why haven't they gone beyond the Victorian gothic vampire movement, which created this aristocrat with sharp teeth? Folklore from the middle ages describes something very different.
To be honest I'm not a good audience for these types of books. I think I'm damaged from reading too much about the subject. I suppose those they are part of a trend in the continuing developement of the lore of the vampire, which these days includes a lot of angsty teenagers mooning at one another.
If you want to read a good spin off from Dracula, you couldn't go much wrong with Stephen Curran's Visitor in Lunacy.
Of course having waffled of so much, wasn't it in The Usual Suspects where they pointed out that the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince everyone that he didn't exist?
Didn't think that much of this. The good bits of plot were directly nicked from Dracula, the characters were meh, and the bit on the end going "yeah this totes happened" was very unconvincing. Not quite sure what the book was trying to achieve because I didn't find it gripping or particularly entertaining
I wasn't a huge fan of the original Dracula and I feel like this was just as mediocre for me.
I am so glad I decided to read this. It was nothing short of wonderful...in the darkest sense, of course. I've always been a lover of vampire stories, Dracula being a long favorite. I bought this when it was first released and I cannot understand how it sat on a shelf for this long.
This is a sort of prequel to the original classic. I loved the way it was written. It is in many points of view, a combination of first person through letters and journal entries, then third person in the present moments. It's split into three parts, too.
The first part focuses on Bram's childhood and his relationship with his nanny and siblings. It describes a lot of his illness, which is important to the rest of the story. The entire novel has nearly every other chapter as a "present" time in which Bram is trapped inside some room with no way to escape and trying to stay awake and vigilant in spite of the horrors he's facing. The second part focuses on the most recent events which lead up to the present moment. The final part continues in present time (1868).
I found the steady rise in suspense and overall "creep" factor to be one of the best parts of this book. We start off with some very subtle things from phantom voices to shadows, seemingly non-threatening in comparison to the rest of the novel. It moves on to animals and then to the more bloody scenes later on. The way the scenes are detailed makes this such an atmospheric read, which is my absolute favorite.
Bram is a mystery throughout, but becomes more and more fascinating the closer the end comes. It's nearly like the itch on his wrist. The closer we get to the end, the more it seeps beneath the skin and overwhelms you.
No detail felt out of place or unimportant. If you appreciate the atmospheric horror and gothic, this is a must read. Oddly enough, the feel of it reminds me a lot of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. It literally feels historical and accurate and...real.
This is a sort of prequel to the original classic. I loved the way it was written. It is in many points of view, a combination of first person through letters and journal entries, then third person in the present moments. It's split into three parts, too.
The first part focuses on Bram's childhood and his relationship with his nanny and siblings. It describes a lot of his illness, which is important to the rest of the story. The entire novel has nearly every other chapter as a "present" time in which Bram is trapped inside some room with no way to escape and trying to stay awake and vigilant in spite of the horrors he's facing. The second part focuses on the most recent events which lead up to the present moment. The final part continues in present time (1868).
I found the steady rise in suspense and overall "creep" factor to be one of the best parts of this book. We start off with some very subtle things from phantom voices to shadows, seemingly non-threatening in comparison to the rest of the novel. It moves on to animals and then to the more bloody scenes later on. The way the scenes are detailed makes this such an atmospheric read, which is my absolute favorite.
Bram is a mystery throughout, but becomes more and more fascinating the closer the end comes. It's nearly like the itch on his wrist. The closer we get to the end, the more it seeps beneath the skin and overwhelms you.
No detail felt out of place or unimportant. If you appreciate the atmospheric horror and gothic, this is a must read. Oddly enough, the feel of it reminds me a lot of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. It literally feels historical and accurate and...real.