Book Review: Dracula by Bram Stoker
Very occasionally I’ll have a browse through Amazon’s pile of old classics. They’re all free to download these days, so whenever I find myself between books or not knowing just what I want to throw myself at, I’ll have a gander at the old big ones, and see if anything jumps out at me.
That’s where I saw it, in big white letters on a black background, with a dab of blood on the cover:
Dracula
Who doesn’t want to read arguably the most famous horror novel of all time? Well, not, not this guy, that’s for sure!
First of all, I feel like I need to preface this review by saying this book is old. Like, properly old. It was first published in May, 1897, a fact that I feels need to be taken into account when talking about it. Because the language is weird sometimes. Not even talking about overly convoluted and complex sentences, full of old-timey words and phrases, I often found (and reacted to) a weird use of verbs. Consider this passage for example, talking about a burglar emptying a house while the owners are away:
“[…] some burglar come and broke window at back and got in. Then he went and made open the shutters in front and walk out and in through the door, before the very eyes of the police. Then he have an auction in that house, and advertise it, and put up big notice. And when the day come he sell off by a great auctioneer all he goods of that other man who own them.”
I’m still not sure if this is some weird formatting mistake or if this is a style preferences or what the hell is going on, but this kind of stuff kept happening throughout the book and it stuck out as a sore thumb to me. On top of this, half of the time, there are long passages that seem completely disconnected to what we were just talking about or what’s going on in the plot.
But never mind that—let’s focus on the plot! Dracula, as you might be aware, is a Transylvanian Count, and our story starts there. This first part of the book is particularly haunting and terrifying, and I was very impressed with how scary the book actually is. The frigid forests make it go cold down your back, and Count Dracula’s castle is very creepy indeed.
As the plot moves over to England, there comes a very thrilling part where we follow the travels of a ship called The Demeter, and I particularly loved this part. It reminded me that there’s a new movie out with that title, and reading this really made me want to watch it.
As the plot lands in England, it dials back a bit, and I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t find at least a third of the book pretty bland. It’s written as a series of diary entries and letters between people, and much of it is pretty boring.
But as the hunt for Dracula begins, and the slow revelation of his nature and powers comes to the surface, the mystery gains traction, and the book starts to terrify again. I was honestly impressed with how creepy it is at times, and I especially liked reading about Renfield and his madness. I was perhaps a bit let down by the end, but all in all, a magnificent classic and a surprisingly scary book.
Have you ever read Dracula or any other scary classics? Let me know what you thought in the comments!
As always – if you like what I do, if you’re interested in books and you’d like to support me, I’d appreciate it immensely if you checked out my books and short stories! Crime & psychological thrillers for all!
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