Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

Dracula by Bram Stoker

51 reviews

ghford's review against another edition

2.5

Not any better on a second read. I don't think Stoker's intention was what I took away from this book...that the carelessness, arrogance, and ignorance of men very much enables violence against women to persist. Mina's "unclean" and then physical mark of her assault by Dracula was so disturbingly close to how some rape victims feel that reading that part was horrifying. Rampant sexism and antisemitism are also hard to take. I give it some points for atmosphere, and I have enjoyed many of the classics I have read. This one just isn't for me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Sexism, Blood, Antisemitism, and Stalking

akgeekgirl's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

yilliun's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

Overall, I enjoyed this much more than I expected I would. The last ~100 pages were such a slog for me to get through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Xenophobia, and Classism

Minor: Racism and Antisemitism

waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

When I read one of "the classics," I pause and remind myself that I'm about to step into a different time with different people who held different and sometimes/often offensive beliefs. A "classic" may not be a good story with good characters, but instead may be a good window into the time and place it was written and set in. And "classics" are also saddled with the moniker of being "over-hyped." With this in mind, I can firmly say that I thoroughly enjoyed Dracula! I didn't feel like I was stepping into a totally unfamiliar world because Stoker is descriptive without making the reader feel bogged down with details or flowery descriptions. I think the characters, while quite overwrought, were fully fleshed out *rim shot* people, and I'm pleased to say that this includes the women! Dracula is very much worth the hype. I can see why it's maintained cultural relevance and why its tropes and themes remain popular after 127 years. I was waiting for the mythical "right" time to read this book, and I'm glad I got to enjoy it during spooky season!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, and Stalking

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, and Antisemitism

lethargicbat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Terminal illness, Blood, and Stalking

lenorayoder's review against another edition

mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Overall, this is a high three stars for me. There’s a lot to love here, but there are also some significant problems. If a book that I really want to read takes me 19 days to get through (most of those being swallowed by the middle of the book), I just can’t say that I really liked it. 

First the pros: Dracula has the makings of a fascinating villain, evidenced by the many adaptations he’s inspired. There are a few moments that are fairly chilling, but I think his real strength is that every interaction has a creepy and/or disturbing undertone that makes him compelling. And

buying a home next to an asylum

is SO smart.

Count De Ville

made me CACKLE, what a dramatic bitch. I love all of the vampire lore, and seeing how much has changed and stayed the same around vampire (and werewolf!) mythos since this book was published. I’m especially curious about all the rose stuff, I’ve never heard that before. The idea that vampirism is almost a trance state that happens

more and more often before death makes it permanent

is such a good idea and works really well here. 

I love Jonathan’s journals, and how much of a wife guy he is. Which makes sense because Mina is amazing, and I was so relieved when we first switched to her journals and she was an interesting character. Loved when Jonathan threw some serious shade at Van Helsing in his journal

for making Mina upset (“with actually a smile”)

. I found Seward’s

proposal

incredibly endearing. I love the weird dynamic that Morris, Seward, and Arthur have in combination with Lucy and

without her

- those boys are in looooove. I think Lucy SHOULD be allowed to marry all three of them. The whole

vampire hunting

crew is a little stupid (why aren’t they all wearing crucifixes 24/7 at the very least?), but honestly I think that’s realistic. Like Jonathan making a will

in case he dies vampire hunting

and the only beneficiaries being members

of the vampire hunting party

? Iconic. What an idiot. I wonder if he ever

grew that gray hair back out

.

Some of the writing hits really hard - what comes to mind immediately is the description of Lucy’s

evil vampire face, especially the part about Medusa’s snakes

, and Jonathan and Seward’s early diary entries. 

The cons: Dracula is absent for a lot of the book, and when we see him again he’s

not as impressive as he was

in Jonathan’s early diary entries. I don’t like that a lot of his character is interpreted through Van Helsing. I don’t think we’re supposed to see Van Helsing as an unreliable narrator, which is frustrating as both a missed opportunity and because the way he deduces Dracula’s motivations and actions is so flawed that he shouldn’t end up being right. Also all the “child-brain” and criminal determinism was problematic, weird, and really undermined Dracula’s scare factor. The vampire lore also gets a little muddled once Van Helsing starts interpreting. Vampires

resting in holy ground and fixing that by making the ground more holy

was just plain stupid. The

three-foot-long stake

made me laugh and I doubt that was the intention.

For an epistolary novel I don’t think different character’s writing varies enough in tone, and some of the dialogue feels unrealistic, especially characters writing dialogue with accents and poor grammar into their journals - it was irritating to read for no reason, like who does that. Steward’s diary and Jonathan’s early diary feel mostly realistic, but the rest of the time they don’t feel enough like actual entries for me. Also, the in-universe explanation for why this book exists makes all of the really slow parts (and there are SLOW PARTS) make no sense, and I resented those slogs more once I read the explanation. Either filler should be cut out, or the filler should form an actual subplot. There were chunks of the book that took me days and days to read because they just weren’t compelling.

Mina is an interesting character with a lot of potential but Stoker is clearly sexist and that sexism really mars her, and makes a mess of Lucy (and her mom!). Hated how Van Helsing talked about both of them but especially Mina, ugh. Renfield feels like a lost character - it was never really clear what was going on with him, and I think that needed to be clearer with a better resolution, or he needed to be in less of the book. Van Helsing really rubbed me the wrong way, especially with the constant monologuing. I’m surprised he’s become such a focus of adaptations.  

The action sequences are all lackluster, and a lot of them are the result of pretty contrived plotting (like the

keeping things from Mina, then not, then back again

).  Overall I think this book mostly suffers from being a little too long. Some plot points get stretched too far, some themes are poorly defined, and a lot of characters are underdeveloped. If Bram Stoker had had a good 20th or 21st century editor I think this book would have been four or even five stars, but alas. I think the fact that almost every adaptation varies wildly from the source material kind of speaks for itself.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism and Blood

Minor: Racism, Xenophobia, and Antisemitism

mothstrand's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Forced institutionalization, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Ableism and Antisemitism

macliffe's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

One of my favorite books of all time. It’s technically horror I suppose but I see it more as a hopeful story about good winning over evil.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror and Misogyny

Minor: Child death and Antisemitism

ameliethemoomin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-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

5.0

good god i love this book

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Antisemitism

pyrorchis's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No

2.0

Even aside from the blatant xenophobia/racism/sexism of the entire premise, the ending was very lazy and the characters were all so two-dimensional. I confess I was rooting for Dracula the entire time and hoping he'd finish them all off.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Xenophobia, Antisemitism, and Injury/Injury detail