Reviews tagging Grief

Dracula, by Bram Stoker

46 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

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

emmaward55's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

average person eats 3 flies a year" factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 flies per year. Flies Renfield, who lives in an asylum & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

Okay now that that's out of my system, I have to confess, I read this book is a rather unorthodox fashion, as part of the Dracula Daily emails, whereby the letters in the book are emailed out to readers on the corresponding dates. It's a fun idea for an epistolary novel and I found that it suited the format well. However, did I manage to keep up with those emails? Heck no! In fact, I only managed to finish it now, a month after the book has ended, because I started copying the emails into a text-to-speech bot and listening to months at a time. 

The above being said, I really enjoyed my first experience with Dracula! I especially loved the characters of Mina and Van Helsing, and Jonathan "wifeguy" Harker gets a mention too. Although the book some times suffered for it's period typical Christianity and sexism, it was refreshing how Stoker broke free of that at times and allowed Mina to be more than just the wife in jeopardy. Like every man in this book, I too would give my life for Mina Harker at the drop of a hat.

In term of the ending, it did feel somewhat anti-climatic. I understand that an outright fight between Dracula and the party would have ended in Dracula's survival, but I was expecting more than just a quick brawl with a group of unnamed (and unimportant) men and them stabbing the Count as he slept.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gore, Mental illness, Medical content, Kidnapping, Confinement, Racial slurs, Murder, and Sexism

Moderate: Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Terminal illness

Minor: Alcohol and Cursing

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

lizzye33's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Gore, Grief, Genocide, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Confinement

appurusakura's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Injury/injury detail, Animal cruelty, Blood, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Body horror, Racial slurs, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gore, Medical content, Mental illness, and Death

Moderate: Racism, Slavery, Classism, Colonisation, Religious bigotry, Grief, Death of parent, Racial slurs, and Cursing

sarahhoward's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Misogyny, Child death, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Animal death

Minor: Death of parent

divine529's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

Dracula is and probably will always be one of my favorite books. 

I read along with the Dracula Daily crew this time around and had an absolute blast reading it this way. 

From the characters to the plot and overall story it's just a fantastic book on all fronts (as well as an excellent Gothic novel). 

Definitely a book I'll revisit many times again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical trauma, Blood, Confinement, Death, Medical content, Mental illness, Gore, Injury/injury detail, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Alcohol, Sexism, and Animal death

Minor: Child death