Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Dracula by Bram Stoker

71 reviews

jess_tries2read's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

Favorite parts: the imagery!! Victorian England, an ancient, Transylvania castle, spooky graveyards. All super cool. The book is written from letters and journal entries which adds to the realism.

Bad parts: Because of the journal entry thing, the audience only gets descriptions of the area through the lens of the author. Most of the recorded entries are centered on dialogue. What visuals are described are awesome, though. 

The pacing in the second half of the book was very slow...

... and the ending was a little underwhelming. 

Plus, I wanted Dracula to be hot. 

No regrets for having read it as I love having the knowledge of the story that has inspired so many other vampire stories. Plus, Victorian England is just neat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Body horror and Blood

euhfubeuh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

In my opinion, the format of Dracula as being told in letters and journal entries from different perspectives makes the story confusing post Harker’s entries in the beginning. Despite that, the entire exposition— for both Dracula’s and VanHellsing’s introduction— is well written and creates a good atmosphere for the story. From my understanding, the themes of Dracula set love and lust against each other in a debate over which is more dangerous. Idk I’m talking out of my butt; I don’t like the book that much, but I wish I did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racial slurs

atlantisblauw's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Very enjoyable classic, glad I read it. It's not what I expected, it's more a mystery novel than a vampire story. You already know who did it, but he's difficult to catch. Most of the story is about finding a way to defeat him, and it becomes clear that Dracula is a devil, making this a very classic go(o)d vs (d)evil story. 

One of the more interesting parts of the novel was that one of the main characters is a more traditional woman and the other calls herself a New Woman. She's said to have the mind of a man, so it's still pretty sexist, but she does take an active, even pivotal, role in the battle against evil. 

What I didn't like as much is how all men fall in love with the traditional woman, who gets three proposals in one day, then later on keep kissing the New Woman's hand and telling her they wouldn't mind dying for her, etc. It's just too much. 

I had some difficulty understanding one of the main characters, doctor Van Helsing. He's Dutch and I think that's why his grammar is bad, but as a Dutch person I can say he didn't make the mistakes Dutch people usually make. He clearly loves philosophical discussions, so that combined made it quite hard to understand him sometimes. 

All in all, would recommend if you like classics, vampires, mysteries, epistolary novels, Christian fiction, or feminist literature (because Mina Harker is pretty cool).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Sexism, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Blood

toksoplazmozy's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-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

4.0

Gdyby nie seksizm, mizoginia, wychwalanie Boga (pod koniec książki wyjątkowo częste) i czystości Lucy i Miny (które nie są bohaterkami z krwi i kości a szkoda) oraz moralizatorskie wywody van Helsinga, byłoby 5 ⭐️. Przygodowa, szybka i przyjemna do czytania książka.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Blood, and Medical content

Minor: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Death of parent

riverofhorton's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The world-building was incredible, and all but one of the main group were fully fleshed out characters. The only things that let it down were poo Quincey, the language of Van Helsing being a slog to get through, and the repetition of a lot of the bits of lore. Four times we're told that Dracula can't cross running water, three times that killing Dracula will stop the transformation of any vampires that are somewhere between human and vampire, three times we're told that communion wafers act as a talisman against the vampires, plus a few others that I could mention. I wonder how long this book would be without these instances of repetition. I particularly enjoyed reading the letters between Mina and Lucy, and their respective journal entries about the other: Mina is definitely gay for Lucy, and I can see no other explanation for the way she talks of and to Lucy. I would like to have seen some more expression of that love, but I get that wasn't really possible when this was published, sadly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

olia_k21's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, and Blood

Moderate: Eating disorder and Xenophobia

Minor: Sexism and Death of parent

decepticons's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, and War

Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and Stalking

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Classism

Vampirism used to excuse racism

“My dear Mina, why are men so noble when we women are so little worthy of them?” says enough about the book really

readrumm's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I listened to an audiobook on YouTube narrated by Tony Walker, which was amazing. His delivery for the story and the characters' voices, is top-notch, finominal. I usually can't get into audiobooks because It's hard to understand who is talking when the narrator reads everything in the same tone. But Tony Walker had such an amazing voice that I could tell who spoke from different tones and accents.  But for the book itself, I was close to giving it 4.5 - 5 stars because of the overall feeling I had listening to it and the pacing of the story. 

Spoiler here click at your own risk:

However, I was a bit disappointed in the ending when the last fight was somewhat anti-climactic from all the previous encounters they had with the Count, for it to end the way it did. Yet, the ending with Harker writing everything that has happened since then was a nice sweet satisfying ending, to such a dark classic.</spolier>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, and Death of parent

major character death

misuki's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Sexism and Death of parent

Minor: Antisemitism, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and War

hjb_128's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Child death