A review by miak2
Dracula, by Bram Stoker

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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