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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Intro
This book really set the groundwork for the vampires we know now. It didn't invent vampires, they've been a mythological creature for a long time. But it compiled a lot of the beliefs and superstitions around vampires into an adventure driven narrative, and a good one at that. Vampires are now one of the most well known "evil entities"
Plot Overview
The book starts with Jonathan Harker going to Transylvania to do business for a mysterious Count Dracula who is moving to London. As he goes to the castle all of the villagers around are warning him and blessing him. After he arrives and stays for a few days he starts to have strange encounters and eventually realizes what Dracula really is and eventually attempts a daring escape.
The story switches tones to Lucy and Mina who are staying together in a coast town in Britain. Lucy ends up having an encounter with Dracula, who recently made landfall in Britain. The Dr. Seward ends up being sent for by Lucy's fiance, Arthur, or Lord Goldaming. Dr. Seward soon realizes that this "sickness" is beyond him and sends for his good Dr. friend, Dr. Van Helsing. Van Helsing is an expert of medicine and many other things and is older than the rest of the group. Over time Van Helsing suspect a vampire is at work but doesn't tell anyone because he needs as much proof as possible before he could get anyone to realistically believe him. He uses things like garlic, crucifixes, and holy wafer to try to defend Lucy. Eventually, he is unsuccessful and Lucy ends up dying, but not completely. After Lucy dies Van Helsing takes it upon himself to convince Dr. Seward that she has turned into a vampire and is eventually successful. They then convince Arthur, and another friend of theirs, Quincy, what has become of Lucy. They eventually have to go through the task of visiting her tomb during the day and driving the stake through her heart.
While this is happening it turns out that Jonathan was able to escape the Count but was thrown into a kind of insane fit. Mina goes to him, he's her fiance, and they go back to London. After a while Van Helsing connects some dots and meets with Mina. Mina, who obtained Jonathan's diary shares it with the Dr. and his beliefs all come together. They end up all making a team hell bent on killing the Count, Mina, Jonathan, Arthur, Quincy, Dr. Seward, and Dr. Van Helsing.
While hunting the count Mina gets exposed and the count takes advantage and bites her and this causes all sorts of problems. The men over time are successful in hunting out his lairs and destroying the ground where he has to sleep during the day. Dracula isn't dumb and catches on to what is happening and tries to flee back to Transylvania. The group follow him back and through their wits, and a long journey, eventually track him down and put an end to him, wherein Mina is eventually freed of her curse.
My Opinion
I think one of my favorite things about this book is how it presents itself. Every single word written in this book is in the form of a diary, newspaper clipping, or something similar so that it seems like it's a real story being told. And this is even explained during the story when Mina consolidates all accounts of what has happened into one collection so that the whole party can understand the whole story. I think this is a really cool way to narrate the story and provide multiple points of view.
I like how suspenseful it was seeing Van Helsing slowly understand what was really happening and hoping that he would soon convince everyone else the same. It was so satisfying when all of the main characters are finally caught up on the story, I felt genuinely relived. I felt the same tension growing as they got closer and closer to killing Dracula and the relief at the end of the book when they achieve their goal. This book does a great job with the suspense.
My main complaint, and it's kind of contradictory, is the pace of the story. There are some parts that feel like they take forever to play out or for the characters to gain any real traction. Some of this is due to how the characters talk to each other. They are very expressive of their emotions and their love for each other in the book, which is great to tell how they are feeling, but sometimes these dialogues are pages long talking about the same thing. This is contradictory because this slow pace is part of what builds the suspense of this book so well, but at certain points it turns annoying. This is especially so because the vernacular and dialect that they use is really hard to read sometimes. It is very over the top and has me skimming over it because it is just repeating the same sentiment over and over again. I think this is great writing and captures the dialect of the time pretty well, it's just over done to me in some parts.
Closure
I think this is a really cool book that set the groundwork for the vampire stereotype. As I was reading there where multiple times where it was like, ah so that's where a vampire's powers come from, or at least were first commonly described. It's a good read too, an interesting presentation with a very suspenseful story. The only thing holding it back is that the pace, is at times, really slow. And some of the writing is a bit dated, which isn't necessarily bad, just not my preference. Would definitely recommend the read and can't wait to add more books of this type into my "read" list.
This book really set the groundwork for the vampires we know now. It didn't invent vampires, they've been a mythological creature for a long time. But it compiled a lot of the beliefs and superstitions around vampires into an adventure driven narrative, and a good one at that. Vampires are now one of the most well known "evil entities"
Plot Overview
The book starts with Jonathan Harker going to Transylvania to do business for a mysterious Count Dracula who is moving to London. As he goes to the castle all of the villagers around are warning him and blessing him. After he arrives and stays for a few days he starts to have strange encounters and eventually realizes what Dracula really is and eventually attempts a daring escape.
The story switches tones to Lucy and Mina who are staying together in a coast town in Britain. Lucy ends up having an encounter with Dracula, who recently made landfall in Britain. The Dr. Seward ends up being sent for by Lucy's fiance, Arthur, or Lord Goldaming. Dr. Seward soon realizes that this "sickness" is beyond him and sends for his good Dr. friend, Dr. Van Helsing. Van Helsing is an expert of medicine and many other things and is older than the rest of the group. Over time Van Helsing suspect a vampire is at work but doesn't tell anyone because he needs as much proof as possible before he could get anyone to realistically believe him. He uses things like garlic, crucifixes, and holy wafer to try to defend Lucy. Eventually, he is unsuccessful and Lucy ends up dying, but not completely. After Lucy dies Van Helsing takes it upon himself to convince Dr. Seward that she has turned into a vampire and is eventually successful. They then convince Arthur, and another friend of theirs, Quincy, what has become of Lucy. They eventually have to go through the task of visiting her tomb during the day and driving the stake through her heart.
While this is happening it turns out that Jonathan was able to escape the Count but was thrown into a kind of insane fit. Mina goes to him, he's her fiance, and they go back to London. After a while Van Helsing connects some dots and meets with Mina. Mina, who obtained Jonathan's diary shares it with the Dr. and his beliefs all come together. They end up all making a team hell bent on killing the Count, Mina, Jonathan, Arthur, Quincy, Dr. Seward, and Dr. Van Helsing.
While hunting the count Mina gets exposed and the count takes advantage and bites her and this causes all sorts of problems. The men over time are successful in hunting out his lairs and destroying the ground where he has to sleep during the day. Dracula isn't dumb and catches on to what is happening and tries to flee back to Transylvania. The group follow him back and through their wits, and a long journey, eventually track him down and put an end to him, wherein Mina is eventually freed of her curse.
My Opinion
I think one of my favorite things about this book is how it presents itself. Every single word written in this book is in the form of a diary, newspaper clipping, or something similar so that it seems like it's a real story being told. And this is even explained during the story when Mina consolidates all accounts of what has happened into one collection so that the whole party can understand the whole story. I think this is a really cool way to narrate the story and provide multiple points of view.
I like how suspenseful it was seeing Van Helsing slowly understand what was really happening and hoping that he would soon convince everyone else the same. It was so satisfying when all of the main characters are finally caught up on the story, I felt genuinely relived. I felt the same tension growing as they got closer and closer to killing Dracula and the relief at the end of the book when they achieve their goal. This book does a great job with the suspense.
My main complaint, and it's kind of contradictory, is the pace of the story. There are some parts that feel like they take forever to play out or for the characters to gain any real traction. Some of this is due to how the characters talk to each other. They are very expressive of their emotions and their love for each other in the book, which is great to tell how they are feeling, but sometimes these dialogues are pages long talking about the same thing. This is contradictory because this slow pace is part of what builds the suspense of this book so well, but at certain points it turns annoying. This is especially so because the vernacular and dialect that they use is really hard to read sometimes. It is very over the top and has me skimming over it because it is just repeating the same sentiment over and over again. I think this is great writing and captures the dialect of the time pretty well, it's just over done to me in some parts.
Closure
I think this is a really cool book that set the groundwork for the vampire stereotype. As I was reading there where multiple times where it was like, ah so that's where a vampire's powers come from, or at least were first commonly described. It's a good read too, an interesting presentation with a very suspenseful story. The only thing holding it back is that the pace, is at times, really slow. And some of the writing is a bit dated, which isn't necessarily bad, just not my preference. Would definitely recommend the read and can't wait to add more books of this type into my "read" list.
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
what started off strong with tense, scary moments got overshadowed by excessively descriptive passages and an extremely anticlimactic ending
En primer lugar debo decir que me ha gustado, pero también que ha sido un como un parto. Está estupendamente ambientado, pero es demasiado largo. Se me ha hecho eterno y creo que era porque sabía la historia y eso lo hacía todo predecible y pesado en más de una ocasión.
Sin duda en su momento tuvo que ser increíble poder leer una historia tan original de primeras!
Sin duda en su momento tuvo que ser increíble poder leer una historia tan original de primeras!
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
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
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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:
N/A
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated