Reviews tagging Death

Dracula, by Bram Stoker

143 reviews

marigoldgem's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Surprisingly strong female characters and definitely one of my favorite classics now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Grief, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Medical content, and Mental illness

Moderate: Animal death, Gun violence, Violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, Confinement, and Kidnapping

forgetfulreader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.5

It's considered a classic for a reason. The pace is slow in the beginning but once it gets going the story is everything you'd want in a book. The story is told through a collection of journal entries from different characters pov. I usually find stories like this confusing to read but this time it had me feeling more involved. It's like I was helping the characters piece the puzzle together to figure out what the hell the count was. I really enjoyed it and Bram Stroker created the blueprint for every other vampire story we have now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Xenophobia, Grief, and Body horror

Minor: Sexism

carina_dreamer's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, and Grief

Minor: Suicide and Blood

szel_zsofi's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Animal death

Moderate: Sexism, Animal cruelty, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Misogyny

fjordpingvin's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Death, and Medical content

Moderate: Classism, Injury/injury detail, Sexism, Mental illness, Animal death, Blood, Animal cruelty, and Xenophobia

Minor: Antisemitism, Gore, Suicide, Grief, Murder, and Terminal illness

lunam0uth's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Medical trauma, Death, Murder, Injury/injury detail, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Mental illness, and Racial slurs

Minor: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Animal death, Body horror, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Injury/injury detail, Stalking, and Sexism

obviouslag's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood and Death

goldfishtangerine's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Racism, Xenophobia, and Sexism

orchidlilly's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

3.0

Dracula's horror has a kind of slow burn that makes it very hard to capture in movie form. This also makes it, for those of us who are used to more thriller-like horror, or for those who are already aware of vampires as a concept, a bit of a slow read. There are times when the book drags on, most notably the newspaper sections and legal proceedings. It is rife with that classic British brand of racism, which while expected, is no more pleasant than it would be now. It also has a good bit of that 19th century sexism which is annoying, if only because of how repetitive it becomes, and how much of a hindrance to the plot it is.
All in all, an interesting read, but a good bit of the charm and suspense is lost to the changing principals of time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cannibalism, Gore, Medical content, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Injury/injury detail, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Classism, Gun violence, Murder, Stalking, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Ableism, Animal death, Death of parent, Grief, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Child death, Gaslighting, and Panic attacks/disorders

miak2's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

 

"Remember my friend, that knowledge is stronger than memory, and we should not trust the weaker."

Once again, I am wholly unqualified to rate and review classic novels (or any novels, for that matter. I'm really just rating this based on my own personal enjoyment of the book.

For those who don't know about it, I joined the Daily Dracula email project, where I was emailed the entirety of the book over the course of six months, following along with the book's internal timeline. Dracula is told through a series of dated logs and journal entries, which made reading it in real-time a fun adventure. And, honestly, I don't know that I would have finished the book if I'd tried to read it all in one sitting.

There are parts of the book that are super engaging, and then parts of the book that are super dry. Unfortunately, I found myself to find the beginning-to-middle sections the most interesting. Which meant that finishing it usually meant playing some games of catch-up with my Dracula emails, as I'd keep leaving them for the next day. But the beginning story, with Jonathan Harker and Dracula, and the middle story with Lucy both had me looking forward to each day's email. (In fact, the Lucy section actively had me laughing out loud at some points).

I enjoyed how all the characters started off with individual stories and were all brought together for a common cause. I do think the book turned quite bland once they were all together, but that's beside the point. I also think a lot about what reading this would have been like in the early 1900s without the context of the cultural phenomenon that Dracula (and vampires as a whole) have turned into.

I appreciate that there was a badass female character, even if all her best qualities were deemed great because they're typically masculine qualities. Obviously this book was written during a time period that viewed women very differently, but some of the ways he wrote about women were regardless quite difficult to me. Overall I'm glad I read this classic, but I think I might've preferred to read the hilarious Icelandic 'translation'. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood