A review by morningtide
Dracula Daily by Bram Stoker

adventurous 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? No

4.5

I did Dracula Daily again this year, after failing to follow through in 2022 - I didn't stop reading, I actually got impatient in the June gap and finished on my own. This time, I did switch from the email format to the podcast (re:Dracula) and then back to the emails, and my "DNF reason" made me think I reviewed this already. Whoops! (Despite not sticking with the audio version, the production and narration on Re:Dracula was fantastic and I recommended it to friends, but due to general format restrictions in my life, reading became more feasible for me to maintain the schedule than listening did.)

I very much enjoyed sticking to the schedule this time - I did a bit of a binge the last year after following the email format for a month, I read the rest in maybe two days. Going through it slower had me processing it a bit more and I mainly got to really appreciate the prose and tension. My main fault originally was giving this the horror movie treatment and thinking that Johnathan was oblivious, like he should expect the monster in the dark, when actually he was pushing forward in a new situation and was showing subtle signs of fearing something ominous. 

It was now nearly the hour of high tide, but the waves were so great that in their troughs the shallows of the shore were almost visible, and the schooner, with all sails set, was rushing with such speed that, in the words of one old salt, "she must fetch up somewhere, if it was only in hell."
— Whitby, The Daily Graph,  August 8

The Demeter running around was my particular favorite scene, and came across so dramatic. Imagine the unmanned ship crashing into the shores?? It is also a cool effect of the daily factor - we get the set up of this in the two previous entries from Mina where we get to picture this scenic cliffside cemetery, then get to envision it taken over by a storm. Really a truly thrilling scene, and despite not being the type to do much mental envisioning of a story, this part came across as so very illustrated to me.

Van Helsing was my favorite this time - just a strange little man popping in, keeping his secrets and slowly leaking out his theories in the right way so that the others can accept them rather than assume he's a madman. I loved his moments of empathy and appreciation for the rest of the cast. Favorite old man doctor/folklore enthusiast.

Van Helsing was very kind to him. "Come, my child," he said; "come with me. You are sick and weak, and have had much sorrow and much mental pain, as well as that tax on your strength that we know of. You must not be alone; for to be alone is to be full of fears and alarms. Come to the drawing-room, where there is a big fire, and there are two sofas. You shall lie on one, and I on the other, and our sympathy will be comfort to each other, even though we do not speak, and even if we sleep."
— Dr. Seward's Diary, September 20

And, as in my last review, I will restate: Lucy deserved so much better.