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iDrakula

by Bekka Black (Goodreads Author)

3.01 of 5 stars 3.01 · rating details · 521 ratings · 187 reviews

"The classic vampire story that started it all gets new life for a generation of connected teens"

18-year-old Jonathan Harker is diagnosed with a rare blood disorder after visiting a Romanian Count. His girlfriend Mina and a pre-med student named Van Helsing team up to investigate the source of the disease. The teenagers discover a horrifying truth: the Count is a vampire....more

Paperback, 1st Edition, 150 pages

Published October 1st 2010 by Sourcebooks Fire

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Nov 17, 2012 Rain Misoa rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: NO ONE! THIS BOOK IS HORRIBLE! Well... to the feeble-minded.

Recommended to Rain by: Library

Oh my word... never I have ever read a more revolting book as I did this one. It wasn't anything like the original Dracula. NOTHING! I can't even see myself writing out a decent review for this book because I am just so... disgusted by it. Black did a horrendous job in adapting the original story into her own. It turned out to be more of a mediocre drama than a Gothic horror story. All of the original characters were so amazing and brave! These characters? They certainly are NOT amazing. I could...more

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Nov 05, 2012 Jennifer Wardrip rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: trt-posted-reviews

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

Mina, Lucy, and Jonathan are in the here and the now. Mina and Jonathan are a couple. Their friend, Renfield, has been admitted to the hospital after attacking animals. The friends are concerned for him, and Jonathan has agreed to attend to a job that Renfield was supposed to do. He's soon off to Romania to help the Count with some matters.

Jonathan and Mina try to stay in touch through messages, but they each realize that none of their messages are reaching...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Timothy Ferguson rated it 3 of 5 stars

An interesting take on Dracula. Dracula is, of course, an epistolary novel: one made up of letters. The author of iDRAKULA instead uses mocked up photos of phones displaying text messages, tablets displaying web pages, and the odd email. She makes some interesting choices to deal with problems, for modern teen readers, in the text. This highlights those problems in an interesting way. Why is Mina so defenceless? Why are Lucy’s suitors so much older than her? What’s the point of Qunicey Morris ex...more An interesting take on Dracula. Dracula is, of course, an epistolary novel: one made up of letters. The author of iDRAKULA instead uses mocked up photos of phones displaying text messages, tablets displaying web pages, and the odd email. She makes some interesting choices to deal with problems, for modern teen readers, in the text. This highlights those problems in an interesting way. Why is Mina so defenceless? Why are Lucy’s suitors so much older than her? What’s the point of Qunicey Morris exactly (other than catching American readers?) Why is Johnathan worth getting so bent out of shape over, given that he’s nowhere near a traditional romantic lead? Why does Mina have no agency in her rescue? We know the answers for a Victorian reader – but what are the answers for a modern reader?

I found how disempowered her teens were particularly striking. It’s not clear how old most of the characters are in the original novel, but Lucy Westenra is explicitly described as 19. Mina and she are within a few years of each other in age, which means Mina is likely a teen / early twenties woman. In the original book she, and her age-mates, get to do all sorts of grown up things. In iDRAKULA, none of them is really in charge of anything: they are all trainees and interns, held in the modern, protracted adolescence of most twenty-somethings.

The story does not stand on its own: you need to be familiar with a version of the tale for it to have its full arc. So, that’s to the book’s detriment, if considered as a novel. Since it only takes half an hour to read, you might instead think of it as an art piece. As a commentary on Dracula, it works.

When you get to the end and see the ad for the App, you finally get how this piece came together. The primary form of this work is as an app that delivers the text, along with mocked up voicemails. The book is just a way of recycling the creative product into a new market. I’m used to seeing things go the other way (Nick Bantock’s Ceremony of Innocence, for example, took his art books and animated them) and I’ve seen similar things with comics and roleplaying games, but this is the first time I can think of where I’ve seen an app’s contents be stripped back to work as a book in unlinked text. There must be other examples…

So, interesting in that it highlights something which I think is going to be increasingly common. Much as some movies have script adaptions released as novels, so apps (although we may not call them that) will have derived art pieces, requiring minimal extra creative imput, in the codex form.

I think this is an interesting trend, and challenges the idea of the book as the primary form of literature, which is interesting. It also hopefully gives authors more money for their work, so its an interesting economic model for arts workers.

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Oct 07, 2012 Laura added it

Laura Proctor
iDrakula- Bekka Black
150 Pages
Horror

I enjoyed reading iDrakula. The story was told through emails, text messages and browser pages. This is one of the first horror book I really enjoyed, but the book really kept me interested, and I never wanted to put it down. The author wrote the book so we would stay interested and engaged. The book was written for teens now a days which made it easier to understand. iDrakula is about a 18 year-old man, Justin Harker who is dating Mina. Justin...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Leila added it

Leila Habayeb
Independent Reading
September 27, 2012

“iDrakula by Bekka Black – 150 pages”

iDrakula is a captivating, interesting horror novel about 18-year-old Jonathan Harker, who is diagnosed with an rare blood disorder after a trip to a trip to Romania. His girlfriend Mina and their pre-med friend Van work together to try to figure out the reasoning behind this disease. After a while they find out that the Count that Jon visited in Romania was a vampire. From there on in the story Mina and Van w...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Renee rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: authors-should-be-smacked, famous-story-retelling, funny, this-was-crap, vampire, ya, who-fucking-publishes-this-crap, unintentionally-funny

OMG! So this is getting three stars, and only because it made me laugh and laugh and laugh. Take an author with WAY too much time on her hands, give her something to butcher, add emails and cell phones and you have created idrakula.

While yes the original story is written through diaries and letter and transcriptions, it works because of the time period. This is ridiculous because no one really does all of their communication through emails and text messages. Especially not important things like...more

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May 31, 2012 Aleks Beygel rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Any girl who likes to read a book about a teen romance/mystery.

Recommended to Aleks by: A librarian

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 03, 2012 A.J. rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: on-the-kindle-not-the-shelf, parody-pastiche, vampires

I read this as research for a project I'm putting together for a Vampire Literature class. I wanted so badly to like it because I love the concept, updating both the technological and epistolary considerations of the original novel to a modern-day interpretation. However, I felt the book lost a lot by reducing the number of characters as drastically as it did, and while I understand the desire to update the characters and their arcs to a more contemporary mentality, the changes made made little...more

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Feb 13, 2012 karen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dracula, with a twist: instead of being told through letters and diary entries and telegrams, Bekka Black's iDrakula is told through instant messages and emails and browser histories.

I borrowed this from my library because, honestly, it looked HILARIOUS. What is this, a new version of the "...and Zombies!" trend?

It's entertaining enough as a novelty, but because almost all of the modes of communication used in this version of the story are brief bursts of text, it feels very superficial. The r...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Dani rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: vampires

Every time I think, “Man, I’m so OVER vampires.” I seem to pick up yet another book that features more mythological blood-sucking creatures of the night. Perhaps I’m just not as over them as I imagine myself to be. Perhaps they are my peculiar form of bookish Kryptonite. In any case and for whatever the reason, I’m glad I picked up iDrakula.

Ashamedly, as much as I read about vampires, I’ve never actually read Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I’ve seen movies, I know the plot and the players, but I’ve neve...more Every time I think, “Man, I’m so OVER vampires.” I seem to pick up yet another book that features more mythological blood-sucking creatures of the night. Perhaps I’m just not as over them as I imagine myself to be. Perhaps they are my peculiar form of bookish Kryptonite. In any case and for whatever the reason, I’m glad I picked up iDrakula.

Ashamedly, as much as I read about vampires, I’ve never actually read Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I’ve seen movies, I know the plot and the players, but I’ve never actually picked it up and read the granddaddy of all vampire books. An oversight I hope to rectify soon. So that stated, as far as in depth comparisons go for the purists among you, Dear Reader, I won’t be able to give any. However, based on my knowledge of Stoker’s Dracula, Black has written a smart and innovative homage to this gothic classic. Originally written in an epistolary format (i.e. letters, journal entries, etc.), Black has modernized the story, making it relevant for 21st century teenagers by telling her vampire tale via text messages, emails and occasional iPad web browsing. Not only is the novel cleverly written, but the way the story is presented visually is extremely appealing to my inner wanna-be graphic designer and provides the reader with an aesthetically pleasing reading experience.

Clocking in at 150 pages even, iDrakula is a quick, but intense read. Black keeps the plot moving at a fast clip and the text/email formatting style sucked me right in. It gives off a vibe of the forbidden and taboo, not only from the feeling that I’m snooping in someone’s private correspondence, but also from the sensational events and subject matter of the book. It is creepy, dark and edgy. The twists Black incorporates into the story keep it interesting so that the novel is not merely a predictable, straight retelling. Instead it’s something different while still remaining true to the tone, themes and basic plot of Stoker’s original novel.

The formatting and length of the book had me a little worried that the character development might suffer – I was worried that the stylization and advancement of the plot might take center stage over the characters. Yet, that is not the case. Taking into consideration how easily tone can be misconstrued through electronic forms of communication, Black does an excellent job of bringing her characters to life and giving them individuality and nuance. This is true, especially in the character of Mina who is the main protagonist of this novel. While still an example of goodness and devotion, Black’s Mina subscribes to a bit more girl power. She’s a strong, independent young woman who’s a Jujitsu champion and doesn’t allow herself to become anyone’s doormat. I really enjoyed her character and the direction that Black developed her.

If I had any complaints about this novel it is only that the last third seemed a bit rushed. There is a lot of build up and then the climax just rushes by. I feel like some of the emotional significance got a little lost in the dash to the end. But as I said before, I’m not sure how the original novel was paced since I haven’t read it yet, so it could be mirroring the original in pacing and I’m just not aware of it.

Overall, with a cleverly re-imagined plot, an updated cast of characters, and a gorgeously visual presentation that gives a nod to our 21st century obsession with electronic connection, iDrakula is a wonderfully dark and creative homage to Bram Stoker’s gothic classic.(less)

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Sep 24, 2011 Karin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics-transformed, texting, mixed-media, modern, dracula-retelling, vampires, teen-sleuths, teenagers, relationships, relationship-problems, young-adult-fiction, borrowed-from-the-library

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is a fun, modernized retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The characters interact primarily through cell phone texts and emails, and occasionally you’ll get to see browser images of what Mina is looking at on her computer. There are some differences – it takes place primarily in the US (except for Jonathan’s trip to Bulgaria to meet the Count), the main characters (except for the Count) are all teenagers, Jonathan and Mina have a falling out because he’s been unfaithful (a number of times –...more

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Apr 05, 2011 Linda M.C. Nguyen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

This story is unveiled little by little via text messages, emails and photos. There are also Ipad web browser spreads to advance the story. This combination leads to a fast-paced story that most of us are unaccustomed to, but it's a fresh modern twist on a vampire story.

This story is well thought out. Only certain elements from the Dracula classic is borrowed for iDrakula, which isn't a bad thing. There's lots of room for modern takes on vampirism. Madness due to vampirism is associated with a p...more

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Mar 19, 2011 Rachel rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: dracula-variations, read-unowned, vampires, young-adult, transformative-works

As has been justly observed by numerous readers and commentators on the novel Dracula, Bram Stoker has a fascination with the technology of his time and its role in communication and storytelling. The novel is filled with telegraphs, traveler's typewriters, shorthand and dictagraph machines. For this reason, I feel compelled to give Bekka Black's aim in writing iDrakula (a tranposition of Dracula to the present day, utilizing text messages and emails in place of letters and journal entries) a ce...more

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Dec 01, 2010 Mundie Moms & Mundie Kids rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-debut-author, 2010-100-book-challenge, arcs-i-own, mundie-moms-reviews

Bekka does a great job with her modern day spoof on Drakula, as iDrakula is written all in text or email form. I honestly didn't know what to expect reading a book written all from email and text, but it worked for iDrakula and I was pleasantly surprised.

Mina Murray's boyfriend Jonathan Harker travels to Romania for a summer internship, but while there something happens to him. He finds himself locked in a castle with the mysterious count. Mina doesn't hear from Jon for days, and when she finall...more

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Nov 04, 2010 Mary Ford rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: rented

First off this was a really quick read for me, which is exactly what I needed this month. It's November which means it's NaNoWriMo which means my already crazy life just got crazier. I think it took me about 3 hours in total to read.

For me that was three very enjoyable hours. Bekka Black has taken one of my favorite classics and turned it into a book that is completely modern. I loved the format and I sincerely hope she is planning on doing this again; maybe with a different classic?

The charact...more

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Feb 23, 2011 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars

iDrakula completely surprised me.

When I picked up this book I expected to laugh myself silly after a couple of pages. However, while I remained completely amused by the usage of e-mail, text messaging and iPad screen shots, I couldn't help finding myself getting into the tale. Even if I found that all of the technology seemed to be overused in my opinion, as I rarely e-mail my friends who live close to me nor do I text in any fashion similar to theirs -- text speak isn't used by every teenager y...more

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Feb 01, 2011 April (CSI:Librarian) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Quick and fun sums this book up nicely for the most part. There were a lot of hilarious moments and even a touching moment or two. The format itself was obviously the book’s main selling point so I was glad that it was also pretty awesome.

Using cell phones to communicate the contents of Dracula added a lot of humor and a rapid pace to what isn’t exactly the most action-packed of classics despite its having vampires. I liked the different cell phone cases and what that said about each character,...more

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Feb 20, 2011 Stacia Kelly rated it 3 of 5 stars

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Nov 15, 2012 Coaxial Creature rated it 3 of 5 stars

From what I remember of Drakula - haven't read that in a while, and it might be time from a reread - Bekka Black plays around just smidge with relationships. It works in this novel, however, so I'm not upset by that fact in the least. It actually modernizes the book, to go along with the technology. Some of the characters would seem so old fashioned if they were portrayed as they were in the original novel.

Having said that, it also felt like a fairly straight retread of the novel. I actually wo...more

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Mar 19, 2011 Tracey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Fun, fast read, thanks to the clever format: text messages, e-mails, and browser screen shots. It follows the basic communication of the original, though the tale has been condensed like mad. The characterization has changed, too: Mina kicks some butt as a competitive martial arts fighter, while Jonathan turns out to be much less savory. Abraham is only twenty, but he's depicted as dreamy, and he works at a hospital. I think Black (a pseudonym) tries for a more feminist retelling of the story--s...more

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Oct 07, 2010 Eleni ( La Femme Readers ) rated it 3 of 5 stars

iDrakula was a modernized version of Dracula that seemingly had great potential. Unfortunately, the execution was sadly not up to par. Despite that, Bekka's idea of introducing the concept and characters through texts, e-mail and other ways of communication was enjoyable. I especially loved the iPhone texts, it felt like I was reading a conversation on my own cell. In the beginning, Jonathan and Mina had a flirtatious and playful relationship. Yet, once Jonathan went to visit a Romanian Count, t...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Adalira Morningstar rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, read-in-2011, vampire-fiction, young-adult

I'll admit it, I picked this book up because the cover appears to be of a vampire advertising a cell phone. All I was hoping for was that this book would somehow be about a technologically advanced vampire stalking someone via text messages, possibly after finding them on Facebook. You know, to teach teenagers how social media is evil while cashing in on the somewhat baffling vampire craze that has swept the nation. (By the way, I totally claim the Facebook vampire idea.)

Instead, I got a modern...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Angela rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book follows a modern day Jonathan, Mina, Lucy, Renfield, and Van Helsing through the difficult times of dealing with a vampire. They stay connected with each other like any other teens in modern days, texting, emailing, and get information through surfing the web to find it. Renfield, Lucy's love, was institutionalized for eating small animals, but Lucy and her BFF Mina take regular trips to visit him there. This is where Lucy finds a new love interest, Abe Van Helsing. Jonathan and Mina a...more This book follows a modern day Jonathan, Mina, Lucy, Renfield, and Van Helsing through the difficult times of dealing with a vampire. They stay connected with each other like any other teens in modern days, texting, emailing, and get information through surfing the web to find it. Renfield, Lucy's love, was institutionalized for eating small animals, but Lucy and her BFF Mina take regular trips to visit him there. This is where Lucy finds a new love interest, Abe Van Helsing. Jonathan and Mina are an item too, but Mina is more serious about it and loyal than Jonathan is. Never good when a boyfriend sleeps with your best friend. Jonathan is sent to Romania to interact with the Count and is never the same again. Lucy too is different after bite marks are seen on her neck. Can Mina and Abe get to the bottom of the weirdness before it's too late for their own survival?

I will start with this...this is a very interesting book and way to write a book that's for sure. This was a super easy and quick read for me, which is nice sometimes. I found that if I had not known the original Dracula story though, I would have been completely lost in this book. It is a great book to read for a fun little spin off of Dracula, but only, in my opinion, if you have a knowledge of the original Dracula. If you do not, there may seem to be holes in the story and you may be confused by the whole thing. That being said, I (who have knowledge of the original Dracula) thought this to be a fun and light read. I felt it was well written for the format it was supposed to be in and made me see the characters in a more modern way. There was no huge plot per say because of it kind of following Dracula, but it was still worth the read to see the new and modern spin. It also goes more into the relationships of Mina, Jonathan, Lucy, Renfield, and Van Helsing which I found interesting to read. All in all, I found the book to be a good read, but probably not a good stand alone read. I liked the creativeness though of the author and using modern day things to expand on the story of Dracula. Mad me see them as "true teens". Fun read if you are looking for something different and quick/easy to read.

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Feb 28, 2011 Chelsea [Vampire Book Club] rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya, vampires, uf-pnr, to-read-and-review, physical-tbr

This review was originally posted to Vampire Book Club.

As the title suggests, iDRAKULA is an adaptation of the gothic lit classic Dracula. For those of you who have only watched the movie with Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves and Winona Rider, the original work (which you should read) relies heavily on correspondence between main characters Jonathan Harker and Mina Murrows. With iDRAKULA Bekka Black has translated the emotions and plot from the original into the way teenagers today would handle the sam...more

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Aug 06, 2010 The Readings of a Busy Mom Riaz rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: for-review

iDrakula is wrote in text message/email form throughout and it takes alot of imagination to see beyond the simpleness of it and I think that's what makes it a cool read, you are unable to grip to the characters but still like whats happening and how its happening. The idea of writing a book in emails/Texts and on a illustrated phone is very clever, especially as nowadays that's what we do we text or email instead of write a letter or pick up the phone like in the past.

iDrakula is a debut novel b...more

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May 16, 2010 Bill Preston rated it 2 of 5 stars

A breezy YA treatment of the classic Bram Stoker novel using for the most part the same plot line and character names, but updated to present day. This is a novel with a techno angle, while Stoker told his story in letters and journals, Ms. Black utilizes the communications favored by todays youth; emails, tweets, web pages and text messages. It makes for a very fast read, most kids can read the entire novel on their lunch breaks (maybe two, but they certainly won't need three), even the Spark n...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Tara rated it 2 of 5 stars

I would have given this book a higher rating if it hadn't changed some things from the original in needless ways. Van Helsing is a young intern who has a fling with Lucy? He's supposed to be the old respected doctor they all turn to for help. Renfield is their friend and Jonathan's colleague who goes crazy? He's supposed to be an unrelated mental patient who they eventually find out has ties to the count. There is no Seward and Quincey Morris is a cop in one brief scene. It doesn't seem right.

W...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Yanet rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: disappointing, boring, read-in-2012, vamp, paranormal

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 01, 2010 Savannah (Books With Bite) rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was a great and fun read. I enjoy looking at the different pictures and it is truly a unique read.

We meet Jonathon who is from the very beginning a player. I knew there was something off about him that made me dislike him right away. And yes, I was right. He was a low down cheating scumbag!

After taking a trip to Romania, one wild night later he woke up with blood on his neck. Not sure what to make of it, he calls his girlfriend Mina, for help. He gets sick and is later hospitalized. Re...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Alex rated it 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up at the library based on nothing but the title and cover, so I had no idea what the story was about. When I started to read it last night, my first thought was "What the hell is this?" Luckily I stuck with it, because this was a pretty darn creative book. We open with the story of Dracula being told through text messages and emails between the main characters, and ends up fleshing out an interesting portrayal of the events. I know it sounds ridiculous (and the "text speak" on the...more

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About Bekka Black

After a childhood often spent without electricy and running water, Bekka escaped the beautiful wilderness of Talkeetna, Alaska for indoor plumbing and 24/7 electricity in Berlin, Germany. Used to the cushy lifestyle, she discovered the Internet in college and has been wasting time on it ever since (when not frittering away her time on her iPhone). Somehow, she manages to write novels, including th...more

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