Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Dracula by Bram Stoker

80 reviews

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.0

It was a ton of fun having my first Dracula read spread out throughout the year with emails from Dracula Daily. It was a treat reading “in real time.” I struggle with reading classic books, so this also helped keep me focused and get through the story. I can see why this book was/is popular. Now it has super problematic sexism and ableism (see Renfield, excluding Mina from the action because she’s a delicate female, and all of the talk about how sexy Lucy was while dying or dead), but the style, pacing, and presence of a strong female character made this book stand out in its time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Grief, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Sexism

Death of friend

chris_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Gaslighting, Racial slurs, Sexism, and Blood

Minor: Xenophobia, Violence, and Antisemitism

phantompansy's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Grief, Alcohol, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Antisemitism, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, and Racism

loveisabird's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

this is no doubt a very good book and a classic for a reason but it also gave me such a deep and bone-chilling panic attack over the inevitability of death and nothingness that i was unable to finish the last chapter and a half for over five months and have been fixated on my fear of death everyday ever since. so thank you bram stoker for that i guess. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Grief, Kidnapping, Blood, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Violence, and Animal death

Minor: Misogyny

warlockdorian's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Murder, Antisemitism, Medical content, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Racism, Misogyny, Stalking, Xenophobia, Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, and Racial slurs

mellifer's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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? No

5.0

I was surprised how much I loved this book. It’s probably one of my all time favorite reads, which I definitely did not expect. 

I don’t love it so much for the horror, although there is plenty of that. Dracula is a really great monster and there are plenty of spine chilling moments. But I think the reason I love it so much is the good characters, and the relationships between those characters. Without giving too much away, these characters and their bonds to each other bring light and hope to what could otherwise have been a very dark and depressing read. 

I finished this via the podcast “Re: Dracula”, an unabridged, full cast audio version of the book, with some parts slightly rearranged to be in chronological order. I highly recommend this. The voice acting is perfect, the soundscaping is excellent, and overall it really breathes life into this book. I will most definitely be re-reading and re-listening.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Death, Grief, Ableism, and Confinement

Minor: Death of parent

crunchylettuce's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Grief, Sexism, and Medical content

Minor: Ableism and Kidnapping

henrygravesprince's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Racism, Misogyny, Antisemitism, Ableism, and Death

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Blood, Mental illness, and Medical content

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, and Confinement

andmingmingtoo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense 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

I had never read dracula prior to doing dracula daily! The first year I tried it, it was difficult to keep up the motivation. Once you get far enough into it, though, it really takes off, and the pauses and pacing accentuate the experience by drawing out some of the tension, as well as really highlighting when the book gets action-packed.
All in all, this book has changed who I am as a person and how I will consume all subsequent vampire media. I fully recommend to anyone who wants to check it out, but I also acknowledge that this is not everyone's cup of tea. While some characters were really easy to understand

like Mina

, others

Van Helsing

can get difficult if you struggle with older english. There's also a really vibrant online community, as well as several related works and interpretations (like the re:Dracula podcast).
I'm already looking forward to rereading (and crying my eyes out again) next year!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Racial slurs, Racism, Stalking, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Medical content, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Grief, Blood, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Xenophobia, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Colonisation, Misogyny, Animal death, and Torture

Minor: Child death and Alcohol

booksthatburn's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

I read this as part of the Dracula Daily emails from May to November in 2023. This is an annual event and will likely continue to be available in the future. 

Dracula is a book which has been around for over a century, and it's a story that has known problems of racism and antisemitism baked into its premise and its execution. What I primarily want to rate here is my experience of reading the book through Dracula Daily, where everything is emailed in order based on the date of the piece of writing, rather than being in the order Bram Stoker envisioned. I, as a person, got kind of stressed out by knowing that this book was going to take months to read. On the other hand, since I don't have a strong sense of the passage of time, it was very cool to get more of a idea of how long the characters were waiting for news or how very long all of this travel took. When the characters were waiting for word or would put in their diaries that they were still waiting on a letter or didn't have information they needed, that resonated more because I also had been waiting. Or, occasionally, I was able to read a letter that was written but had not yet reached the intended recipient.

Overall, I enjoyed it as an experience, but if you looking for a vampire story to read there are ones with fewer old-timey bigotries. The emails definitely are an easy way to get the epistolary feel, if that's what you want.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, Sexism, Antisemitism, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Medical content, and Animal death

Minor: Child death, Suicide, Sexual content, and Pregnancy