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niles_reads 's review for:
Dracula
by Bram Stoker
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Where do I even start with this book?
At times I can’t tell if Mr. Stoker decided to disregard grammar, or if the publishing company (Fingerprint classics) edited the book poorly.
One of the first examples was in chapter 7 (Cutting from the DailyGraph), at “Log of the ‘Demeter’”, the way that the dates are written suddenly switch to cursive, which is used for journal entries from the cast of our main characters. It confused me, since at first I thought it was Mina’s writing, but after rereading it a few times, I realized it was the captain’s.
I’m also not quite sure why in the letters the sentences start with a quotation mark, but don’t end with one.
The first problem I had with it though, was the clear difference between how female and male vampires are portrayed. The three women and Lucy are “beautiful”, even more so than when they were alive. While Dracula is just… an old man.
Continuing with the theme of female characters in this book, the way they talk about men is very, very glazy. They praise them too much and I mean too much. I understand these men are helping you, or at least trying to, to survive, but sometimes it’s all they say. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like Lucy didn’t have much of a personality. She falls in love, gets bitten and dies like a hundred pages later. All we know is that she’s trying her best to stay positive and that she has a dying mother, or well, had. Mina keeps mentioning “New Women” in Chapter 8 like she’s so much better than them. “I believe we should have shocked the ‘New Woman’ with our appetites”, and I believe you should’ve died at the end of the book.
This book would be AT LEAST 100 pages shorter if people actually communicated, like Sister Agatha in chapter 9, or every time Professor Van Helsing talks. Stop using metaphors, it’s extremely tiring. Every few pages he’d have a monologue that lasts two full pages and it’s all metaphors, sometimes I feel as though his talk turns “caveman mode”, basically avoiding all declinations.
The sentence that took me out of the world was in, again, in chapter 9. In “Letter, Lucy Westenra to Mina Harker” she says “Arthur says I’m getting fat…”. A weird thing for him to suddenly mention, isn’t it? I sure hope he won't regret saying that soon… Wink, wink.
Still, in the same chapter, in “Letter from Dr. Seward to Arthur Holmwood, Dr. Seward tells Arthur “Van Helsing would, I know, do anything for me for a personal reason”, then in “Letter, Abraham Van Helsing… to Dr. Seward”, which follows right after this one, he immediately reveals what happened! Like, leave some room for mystery!
I did a little research and found out that blood types were discovered 4 years after this book came out, so I can’t really blame Mr. Stoker for the blood transfusion scenes.
After the little group encounter with Renfield, even after hearing everything that happened, that he literally ATTACKED DR. SEWARD and DRANK THE BLOOD that dripped from the cut he made while yelling something about his Master or something like that, in chapter 19, Mr. Morris says to Dr. Seward “Say, Jack, if that man wasn’t attempting to bluff, he is about the sanest lunatic I ever saw”, then Dr. Van adds, who is supposed to be “The smart guy”, “... for I fear that if it had been to me to decide I would before that last hysterical outburst have given him free”. I’m pretty sure they suspected him to have business with Dracula at that time too, or so my memory tells me.
The fact nobody suspected that Mina was bitten as well, even though she was experiencing the same symptoms as Lucy, didn’t make sense to me. Was it supposed to be a big twist?
I don’t get Dracula’s thoughts in the last chapters. His little “visions” he gave to Mina were just leading to his demise. I think he just wanted to die at that point. And the fact Mina, even under the spell, could talk shit about him makes me think he’s some sort of masochist.
There are things I like about this book, like the fact that Mina does play an important role from around the halfway point to the end.
And honestly… I was reading this book for Renfield. He was my reason to keep pushing.
“R.I.P Renfield, you would’ve loved Twitter” or something like that.
The story is interesting, but goes on for way too long, like it’s never ending!
Overall, 3 stars… I know I complained a lot, but there were moments I enjoyed myself.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror