Dracula (1897)

So there's a reason why Dracula is a classic horror story. Stoker created the vampire that is still a thing in 2018. Why do writers come back again and again to the tale of a creature that was all about murder and mayhem?I tend to love Stoker's look at Dracula and vampires the most. I always side eyed writers that made vampires poor tortured and sad and alone. Stoker's first look at Count Dracula shows us a cunning character who is focused on wrecking Johnathan Harker's life and those connected to him.

"Dracula" focuses on Count Dracula who travels from Transylvania to England (London specifically) in order to spread more vampires. Fighting against him is Johnathan Harker, his new wife, Mina along with friends of the couple (Doctor John Seward, Quincey Morris, and Arthur Holmwood). The latter group also comes across a vampire slayer (whatever, that is what I am calling him) Abraham Van Helsing.

I think the saddest character in this is Lucy. She's best friends with Mina and has attracted many marriage proposals. When she finally agrees to marry Arthur, it would be seem that her life is perfect. However, she seems to be growing weaker and weaker and is sleepwalking. John calls in Van Helsing who suspects what is going on, but doesn't inform all parties. The end of Lucy always made me feel bad.

We also have the character of Renfield who is creepy as all get out. Reading about him collecting bugs, spiders, sparrows, and wanting a kitten or cat and finding out what he was eating and feeding to other animals was a bit much for me.

The book cuts things up by showing us the journal or diary entries from many of the characters. I can't really argue against this style of story-telling. It allows us into the characters heads. I do wish at times that we could have gotten more dialogue between characters though. Sometimes it just reads as flat sometimes. The flow was up and down. I think switching between characters/entries takes you out of the story at times.

I do wish that more movies/tv shows had been more faithful with the original work since you do get a sense of the camaraderie that has developed by all parties in order to stop Dracula especially when he ends up cursing Mina with vampirism.

The ending shows what happens after they all confronted Dracula which I liked.
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i loved this WAY more than i thought i would. definitely a slow burn that you have to force yourself through at times, but worth it. mina harker is braver than every man in this novel and i'm glad they all seem to know it ( )

A garlic stuffed mouth
major (tasty) overkill
the stake seems enough. ( )

Ugh, why have I never read this before now? It couldn't be more up my alley if it were written just for me. Victorian writing, horror genre and plenty of perfectly noble and likeable characters to enjoy. I love the very-Gothic use of multiple accounts to tell the story and the language is just wonderful. This is one of those books that I enjoyed far too much to be able to review in any kind of coherent fashion. Suffice to say, it's now very firmly placed in my list of favourite books of all time. ( )

This novel marks my very first experience with the horror genre. I was initially impressed. Stoker shows phenomenal craftmanship, particularly in terms of suspense, foreshadowing, and a level of anticipation that is surprisingly sophisticated. However, I found that the narrative slowed tremendously toward the halfway mark and the dialogue was no longer intriguing, but dramatically fatalistic and tiresome. That being said, I think it will eventually undergo a second reading. ( )