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walkonpooh's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
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? No
5.0
angushealy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
lilyantan's review against another edition
2.0
Imagine a 19th century London where Dracula (Vlad Tepes, The Impaler) has defeated Van Helsing, turned the queen of England and became the Prince Consort. Now imagine that one of Helsing's ex-crew member (Seward)went a bit cuckoo in the head and started killing vampire prostitutes, earning the name of... Jack the Ripper. Sounds like a pretty awesome solid plot, huh? That's what I thought too. Unfortunately, I was not impressed.
This whole book was an ode to 19th century bibliophiles and historians. Newman has incorporated real life people, characters from Victorian novels and countless of references unique to that era into this book. Someone whose knowledgeable in this topic would surely have been delighted. The references where lost on me. I was left to concentrate on the actual plot rather then delighting in Newman's cleverness. And for me the plot fell flat. It seems that so much effort was gone into throwing in blatant to obscure historical references that plot efforts suffered. 80% of the book revolved around the Ripper murders; an ancient vampire and a national spy leading the efforts. Although the killer was right under their noses and pretty obvious, they were both completely clueless. The last 20% of the book suddenly made the whole Ripper killings into a national conspiracy which everyone in the book was either intentionally or accidentally in on. Too many aspects where coincidental for this conspiracy plot to actually be believable. Additionally, to keep the book real, Newman added a bunch of side scenes and plot lines, which I feel, were so random, unnecessary and eventual resulted in loose ends.
Read this book if you're a 19th century lover, Bram Stoker fan or aware of the Jack the Ripper case. Otherwise, return the book on the shelf as you found it and walk away.
This whole book was an ode to 19th century bibliophiles and historians. Newman has incorporated real life people, characters from Victorian novels and countless of references unique to that era into this book. Someone whose knowledgeable in this topic would surely have been delighted. The references where lost on me. I was left to concentrate on the actual plot rather then delighting in Newman's cleverness. And for me the plot fell flat. It seems that so much effort was gone into throwing in blatant to obscure historical references that plot efforts suffered. 80% of the book revolved around the Ripper murders; an ancient vampire and a national spy leading the efforts. Although the killer was right under their noses and pretty obvious, they were both completely clueless. The last 20% of the book suddenly made the whole Ripper killings into a national conspiracy which everyone in the book was either intentionally or accidentally in on. Too many aspects where coincidental for this conspiracy plot to actually be believable. Additionally, to keep the book real, Newman added a bunch of side scenes and plot lines, which I feel, were so random, unnecessary and eventual resulted in loose ends.
Read this book if you're a 19th century lover, Bram Stoker fan or aware of the Jack the Ripper case. Otherwise, return the book on the shelf as you found it and walk away.
the_original_shelf_monkey's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
jrosenstein's review against another edition
3.0
Newman certainly has an original take on Dracula. This book is a mashup of a lot of Victorian characters, both fictional and non. Dracula, of course, but also Jack the Ripper, Queen Victoria herself, a bit of Sherlock Holmes and his brother Mycroft, Dr. Jekyll, Dr. Moreau and more. It is both a lot of fun and rather dark, complete with the requisite thick London fog. In Newman's reimagining Dracula marries the widowed Queen Victoria and becomes England's Prince Consort, bringing vampires out of the shadows. The aristocracy and the poor are becoming vampires en masse, and the living find their world up-ended. Jack the Ripper stalks poor prostitutes, but now they're vampire prostitutes and he disembowels them with a silver knife. The plot is quick moving if occasionally convoluted and Newman manages to keep a lot of balls in the air, mostly successfully.
haileyldavidson's review against another edition
1.0
so disgustingly dry i wished to be buried alive in the cold, parched earth rather than read about a man ripping open yet another woman's bodice.
dariadanley's review against another edition
3.0
Given that the rest of this book is alternate endings, I'm going to say I'm finished now.
I can't give a true, passionate review, since I don't really know what happened here in this story. This is 100% my fault since I was trying to read it so quickly, thus I failed to connect to the story or the characters. Since I can't say a lick of what happened, I can't say if this is good or bad.
This book and I was a situation of wrong place, wrong time. I'm going to put this back on my shelf and give it a go another day, and I hope I can connect to it then.
I can't give a true, passionate review, since I don't really know what happened here in this story. This is 100% my fault since I was trying to read it so quickly, thus I failed to connect to the story or the characters. Since I can't say a lick of what happened, I can't say if this is good or bad.
This book and I was a situation of wrong place, wrong time. I'm going to put this back on my shelf and give it a go another day, and I hope I can connect to it then.
beachybookstack's review against another edition
5.0
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Honestly the cover is what drew me to it when I saw it on the shelf at the bookstore and thank goodness the storyline was just as good. I definitely appreciate the way Kim Newman described vampires in terms of bloodline while so many other books go overboard and make them crazy magical or completely ridiculous (for example Twilight). Once the story picks up pacing the mystery really starts coming together and I enjoyed the different viewpoints as the chapters progressed.
becky_f79's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
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? No
2.0