spestock's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this book! An alternate history - what if Dracula was not defeated, but instead insinuated himself into the fabric of British government as Prince Consort to new-born vampire Queen Victoria? An exceptional premise, made even more fun by the decision to use this as a backdrop to a Jack the Ripper story. The characters original to this story mesh seamlessly with those borrowed from Victorian literature. The final chapter is genuinely horrific and disturbing, and that last confrontation is well worth the wait.
ellierichards90's review against another edition
4.0
This was the perfect seasonal read for Halloween!
Anno Dracula offers a fresh take on the vampire genre. This is one of the few vampire novels I’ve read where the focus is wider than simply horror. The book covers politics, mystery, and more.
There is a large cast of historical and fictional characters from the late 1800s. Fans of literature from that time period will certainly recognise some famous faces! However, the number of characters can feel a bit overwhelming at times as the book frequently changes it’s POV.
I’ll definitely keep reading this series as this was an intriguing introduction.
Anno Dracula offers a fresh take on the vampire genre. This is one of the few vampire novels I’ve read where the focus is wider than simply horror. The book covers politics, mystery, and more.
There is a large cast of historical and fictional characters from the late 1800s. Fans of literature from that time period will certainly recognise some famous faces! However, the number of characters can feel a bit overwhelming at times as the book frequently changes it’s POV.
I’ll definitely keep reading this series as this was an intriguing introduction.
softstarrynights's review against another edition
3.0
In Anno Dracula Kim Newman reimagines a version of the late 19th century where Queen Victoria marries Dracula, and vampires are running rampant through London. This is the setup, and then the main narrative follows the Jack-the-Ripper murders, which is the part that's not explained in the blurb. Personally, I am not a fan of using real murder victims as characters in a novel, the whole idea makes me uncomfortable. Even though these murders are over a century old, it still feels like the author is capitalising on the very real and appalling violence perpetrated against these women. Unlike the real murders, the murderer is revealed to us, but this is not quite a detective novel. The murder is revealed in the first couple of chapters, and we instantly lose any possible mystery or tension. It's quite a strange decision because all the cards are on the table so early on in the novel. The book is also weighed down by the constant stream of references that do not seem to serve a purpose other than for the author to say 'look who I know from the 19th century'. There were references that worked really well, Wilde and Swinburne come to mind, but the majority of it just feel like name dropping for the sake of it. That said this is not a bad book once you get into the swing of things, which took me quite a long time. The final chapter was very rushed and felt tacked on at the end to give some closer or some setup for the future novels. All that said I did end up quite enjoying Anno Dracula. It was not anything like what I had been expecting, and it definitely won't suit everyone, but there is something about the way the author writes about the vampire element that is compelling.
alba_marie's review against another edition
5.0
This bizarre 90s horror tale is a bloody love letter to all things Victorian, gothic, horror and vampiric. It is the king of all mashups and a very interesting alternative history, intricately intertwining fact and fiction.
This is a very weird alternative history, taking place during the reign of Queen Victoria. She has taken Vlad Tepes as her Prince Consort, and his bloodline has spawned a whole subset of vampires. London is now home to thousands of citizens both vampire and "warm," all jostling for space, position and of course blood in this metropolis, which otherwise follows Victorian life and customs. But then someone starts killing vampire prostitutes, the "silver knife" who is likely a warm citizen who has got it out for vampire prostitutes. Charles Beauregard of the Diogenes Club, and Genevieve Dieudonné, one of the few vampires who comes from another bloodline and is actually 50+ years older than Vlad, both get involved in the case.
In Newman's book, vampires are neither all evil bloodthirsty murderers like in original vampire fiction, but nor are they sexy dudes with the hots for teenagers like in more modern stories (you know...Twilight...). Like humans, Newman's vampires are both good and bad, with a mix of every range of vampire. The human populace does not hate or fear them in excess - instead, they more or less have accepted the vampire element into their society, which I find fascinating.
Anno Dracula is a careful balancing act between fact and fiction (i.e. both Bram Stoker and Dracula/Jack Seward/the Harkers are characters), between history and folklore, between dark and comedic. While definitely bloody and dark, the book also has a certain dark humour to it, and through the voice of Genevieve, we learn to respect at least some of the vampires. The Ripper's victims are given a voice - well, at least Cathy Eddowes, Liz Stride & Mary Jane Kelly are - something I really respect, as so often the focus is on Jack only. Newman also carefully weaves in some of the theories about who Jack the Ripper was that have been proposed over the years. (In the end, Newman does indeed offer his own solution).
Though a bit long, this book was wildly entertaining and perfect for the dark days of autumn. Winner of the Bram Stoker award back in the early 90s, this book does not feel dated and is perfect for any fans of the Victorian era, anyone fascinated by vampires and supernatural beings, any book lovers of the Gothic genre.
The book brings in many people, places, books, characters, and facts from a wide range of 19th-century sources, but interestingly, Anno Dracula does not feel crowded and full of needless name-dropping like some texts can sometimes feel (Matt Haig's How to Stop Time, I'm looking at you!). Instead, each reference, almost always subtle, feels essential and natural to the story. Some references are more obscure than others. I'm sure I missed plenty (esp. as I was listening to the audiobook), but these are the references I caught: Dracula, Bram Stoker & Florence Balcombe Stoker, Oscar Wilde, Vlad Tepes, Queen Victoria, Dr Jeykll & Mr Hyde, Carmilla, Varney, Sherlock & Mycroft Holmes and the Diogenes Club, Jack the Ripper and all 5 canonical victims, Spring-Heeled Jack, the island of Dr Moreau, Dickens & Jacob Marley, the Ratcliffe Highway murders, and probably others that I missed.
I recommend this highly!
This is a very weird alternative history, taking place during the reign of Queen Victoria. She has taken Vlad Tepes as her Prince Consort, and his bloodline has spawned a whole subset of vampires. London is now home to thousands of citizens both vampire and "warm," all jostling for space, position and of course blood in this metropolis, which otherwise follows Victorian life and customs. But then someone starts killing vampire prostitutes, the "silver knife" who is likely a warm citizen who has got it out for vampire prostitutes. Charles Beauregard of the Diogenes Club, and Genevieve Dieudonné, one of the few vampires who comes from another bloodline and is actually 50+ years older than Vlad, both get involved in the case.
In Newman's book, vampires are neither all evil bloodthirsty murderers like in original vampire fiction, but nor are they sexy dudes with the hots for teenagers like in more modern stories (you know...Twilight...). Like humans, Newman's vampires are both good and bad, with a mix of every range of vampire. The human populace does not hate or fear them in excess - instead, they more or less have accepted the vampire element into their society, which I find fascinating.
Anno Dracula is a careful balancing act between fact and fiction (i.e. both Bram Stoker and Dracula/Jack Seward/the Harkers are characters), between history and folklore, between dark and comedic. While definitely bloody and dark, the book also has a certain dark humour to it, and through the voice of Genevieve, we learn to respect at least some of the vampires. The Ripper's victims are given a voice - well, at least Cathy Eddowes, Liz Stride & Mary Jane Kelly are - something I really respect, as so often the focus is on Jack only. Newman also carefully weaves in some of the theories about who Jack the Ripper was that have been proposed over the years. (In the end, Newman does indeed offer his own solution).
Though a bit long, this book was wildly entertaining and perfect for the dark days of autumn. Winner of the Bram Stoker award back in the early 90s, this book does not feel dated and is perfect for any fans of the Victorian era, anyone fascinated by vampires and supernatural beings, any book lovers of the Gothic genre.
The book brings in many people, places, books, characters, and facts from a wide range of 19th-century sources, but interestingly, Anno Dracula does not feel crowded and full of needless name-dropping like some texts can sometimes feel (Matt Haig's How to Stop Time, I'm looking at you!). Instead, each reference, almost always subtle, feels essential and natural to the story. Some references are more obscure than others. I'm sure I missed plenty (esp. as I was listening to the audiobook), but these are the references I caught: Dracula, Bram Stoker & Florence Balcombe Stoker, Oscar Wilde, Vlad Tepes, Queen Victoria, Dr Jeykll & Mr Hyde, Carmilla, Varney, Sherlock & Mycroft Holmes and the Diogenes Club, Jack the Ripper and all 5 canonical victims, Spring-Heeled Jack, the island of Dr Moreau, Dickens & Jacob Marley, the Ratcliffe Highway murders, and probably others that I missed.
I recommend this highly!
barbarajean's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
kaadie's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This book for me was mid. Not bad, not amazing. The main plot, catching Jack the Ripper, was engaging enough and the killer was written with a fair amount of nuance. I found it hard to follow some of the action scenes. The descriptions of stuff in general were sometimes convoluted and overly verbose and ironically not very descriptive. There was some offensive content like the (completely needless) use of the k-word and mentions of blackface. I thought they were carelessly tossed in and added no real value to the narrative. The gore and horror aspect of the novel was well achieved, particularly in regards to body horror. The serial killer as always is a crazed misogynist. Some nuanced commentary would have been nice I suppose but ultimately that is neither the aim nor the purpose of this novel. Overall, a perfectly acceptable read (the genre isn't really my thing).
atari6213's review against another edition
3.0
Closer to a 3.5, it was a fun little alternate "history" exploration. The not-so-casual racism from the characters in some parts really brought it down though, even if it was "period accurate" I still don't like the totally unnecessary slurs and descriptions sprinkled in there. Something else that bothered me too was when the two main characters entered a bad neighborhood, the five hundred year old vampire is somehow scared while the human is cool as a cucumber? Even though she later claims to not be scared of Dracula? Come on now, she shouldn't be worried about shit.
andrea_hr's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
printedadventures's review against another edition
1.0
Horrible. I had to force myself to continue picking this up and force myself to read it. I hated the writing style, the obnoxious name dropping of fictional and non-fictional people, and last but not least how completely bored I was trying to care about the characters.
gems_31's review against another edition
Full Review on Book Chick city
ANNO DRACULA started off very promising. The mixture of Victorian England, real events and famous characters from history along with real-life people was enough of a draw for me to pick it up.
It looked as though the author was going to take Jack the Ripper’s crimes and give them a paranormal twist, which I did find interesting. However, the story was very slow and didn’t pick up any pace. Each chapter was more like a ‘spot the literary character’ or famous face. The author has kindly added a guide at the back identifying the characters, but it became tedious. I found myself constantly flicking to the back of the book every time a new character was mentioned , this ended up taking me out of the story more often than not and I found it hard to keep up with the story.
There was no way for me to fully engage with any of the characters and though there was some interesting backstory to Dracula, it wasn’t enough to keep me reading. Even now I could not tell you anything about the lead characters except for what is already printed on the front cover. (The front cover of the book I read stated it to be in the style of a carnival side show, with the names of the characters and a brief description of what they were.)
I knew I was in trouble when I struggled to pick up the book in order to read any more. By 150 pages I called it a day and put it aside.
This isn’t the first time I have read a book which attempts to imitate the writing style of the Victorian or Georgian writers, but it was too wordy for me. For a book that does manage to imitate these styles well, I would recommend Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger. The first book in this series is Soulless.
VERDICT:
A good premise that seemed to get bogged down with the details and trying to throw in as many famous faces, both fictional and real, into the mix.
ANNO DRACULA started off very promising. The mixture of Victorian England, real events and famous characters from history along with real-life people was enough of a draw for me to pick it up.
It looked as though the author was going to take Jack the Ripper’s crimes and give them a paranormal twist, which I did find interesting. However, the story was very slow and didn’t pick up any pace. Each chapter was more like a ‘spot the literary character’ or famous face. The author has kindly added a guide at the back identifying the characters, but it became tedious. I found myself constantly flicking to the back of the book every time a new character was mentioned , this ended up taking me out of the story more often than not and I found it hard to keep up with the story.
There was no way for me to fully engage with any of the characters and though there was some interesting backstory to Dracula, it wasn’t enough to keep me reading. Even now I could not tell you anything about the lead characters except for what is already printed on the front cover. (The front cover of the book I read stated it to be in the style of a carnival side show, with the names of the characters and a brief description of what they were.)
I knew I was in trouble when I struggled to pick up the book in order to read any more. By 150 pages I called it a day and put it aside.
This isn’t the first time I have read a book which attempts to imitate the writing style of the Victorian or Georgian writers, but it was too wordy for me. For a book that does manage to imitate these styles well, I would recommend Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger. The first book in this series is Soulless.
VERDICT:
A good premise that seemed to get bogged down with the details and trying to throw in as many famous faces, both fictional and real, into the mix.