not_another_ana's review against another edition
I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher
Bram Stoker, the current acting manager of the Lyceum Theatre and future writer of Dracula, finds himself involved in a supernatural matter when crimes seemingly related to vampiric activity start happening in London. I expected something a little bit different from this. It technically has a lot of elements that I enjoy but the way the were assembled was a failure, like putting together a puzzle without looking at the reference picture.
My two biggest issues were details and pacing, the two being closely linked in this case. I think the author knows a lot about Bram Stoker and the context in which he lived. You can notice this in all the details he chose to add to the story, and while they help set the scene and transport the reader to the appropriate place and time there were just too many of them. They dragged the story down, I did not need to know all the correct historical terms for every little thing. This, in turn, affected the pacing. I dropped the book around 48% because it was just so slow. At that point in the story Bram Stoker had only tangentially learned something about the main plot and none of that was interesting enough to keep me going.
I don't think the book knows what it wants to be. It contains multitudes in a way. It's a Bram Stoker biography, a historical novel, a vampire tale and a campy romp all at the same time. None of this meshes well with a central plot. One of the things that made me put this down was a sudden change of POV to a completely new villanous character who wasn't even in the city and just infodumped a lot of the plot. Just very odd and not enjoyable. Maybe give this a go if you really want to know about London in the 1880s but not if you want a tale about the inspiration for Dracula.
Bram Stoker, the current acting manager of the Lyceum Theatre and future writer of Dracula, finds himself involved in a supernatural matter when crimes seemingly related to vampiric activity start happening in London. I expected something a little bit different from this. It technically has a lot of elements that I enjoy but the way the were assembled was a failure, like putting together a puzzle without looking at the reference picture.
My two biggest issues were details and pacing, the two being closely linked in this case. I think the author knows a lot about Bram Stoker and the context in which he lived. You can notice this in all the details he chose to add to the story, and while they help set the scene and transport the reader to the appropriate place and time there were just too many of them. They dragged the story down, I did not need to know all the correct historical terms for every little thing. This, in turn, affected the pacing. I dropped the book around 48% because it was just so slow. At that point in the story Bram Stoker had only tangentially learned something about the main plot and none of that was interesting enough to keep me going.
I don't think the book knows what it wants to be. It contains multitudes in a way. It's a Bram Stoker biography, a historical novel, a vampire tale and a campy romp all at the same time. None of this meshes well with a central plot. One of the things that made me put this down was a sudden change of POV to a completely new villanous character who wasn't even in the city and just infodumped a lot of the plot. Just very odd and not enjoyable. Maybe give this a go if you really want to know about London in the 1880s but not if you want a tale about the inspiration for Dracula.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Minor: Antisemitism and Suicide
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