Skip to main content

Dracula

Dracula by Bram Stoker is truly horrifying and a classic EVERYONE should read. 

Summary

Johnathan Harker is off on business. He always has a plan, Except, this time he doesn't. His mysterious business associate has not given him any direction. Johnathan Harker travels to Transylvania to meet his host. Instead of a professional, businessman, Harker is greeted by a seemingly mythical, ghastly white-haired and skinned man. Count Dracula, or the Count for short, terrorizes the town below the cliffs of his lair. Throughout Harker's time at the castle, he is almost killed from scaling the castle windows' ledges, three ghost women who cackle and try to suck the blood out of the veins in his neck, and the Count himself. 

Meanwhile, Harker's fiance, Mina Murray, is with her beloved friend, Lucy Westenra, in Whitby. Lucy starts having dreams and sleepwalking. One night, Lucy sleepwalks to a misty churchyard where Mina spots a ghostly figure on a bench next to an extremely pale Lucy. Mina enlists the help of Doctor Seward, a physician who deals with the mentally insane. Even Dr. Seward is in over his head with this case. He cannot explain Lucy waking up every morning pale, sickly, and extremely weak. Dr. Seward begins to notice tiny holes on the sides of Lucy's neck. Dr. Seward pays a call to his friend and expert in the mentally insane, Dr. Abraham Van Helsing. Van Helsing takes the case. 

Van Helsing, Seward, and the Harkers (Mina and Johnathan marry) form a team to find, figure, and destroy the Count and his schemes before its too late and before Dracula strikes...again. 


Review

Bram Stoker's Dracula is truly very good. Honestly, I was extremely skeptical. 

I am not a huge fan of horror/fantasy. I do not like a lot of blood, guts, cuts, veins, and supernatural occurrences - I am shivering as I type this.

This classic horror novel blew me away. As a person who does not like the genre of which Dracula is an integral part, I love Stoker's tale. It is a little longer than it needs to be, but other than that, I have no complaints. I especially recommend listening to this book on an audiobook app or with one of my previously mentioned favorites, Pheobe Reads a Mystery podcast.

All in all, the story is well developed, the settings are explained extremely well, and the team of Dracula/vampire hunters is a dynamic group who will stop at nothing to get what they desire: to capture and kill Count Dracula.




Audience: 13+
Publisher: Dover Publications
Date Published: this version - 2000; orginally - 1897
ISBN: 9780486454016
Format: paperback
Genre: Horror/Classics/Fantasy/Mystery


*sensitive material* - blood (heavy), death, and assault



Happy reading!! Comment your thoughts below!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Author Spotlight: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley At my school, I am a Library Leader. (Library Leaders promote reading in the middle school and recommend books for the younger grades.) The Library Leaders had the fortunate opportunity of eating lunch and meeting with Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. We got to ask her questions and just talk with her. Mrs. Bradley also spoke to the whole seventh and eighth grade in assembly about her research. 1)      When/How does she write? Mrs. Bradley writes in the morning, but this depends on her chores for the day. She got into her routine when her children, now graduating college and out of college, were small and went to school. She would always wait until her husband took them to drop them off at school. She likes for her writing space to be very quiet. She prefers typing when she when she writes as to writing. (This may be pretty common; I do not know what the common format among writers is today. I just thought I would include eve...
Post a Comment
Read more

Long Way Down

A Long Way Down Written in verse, A Long Way Down by J ason Reynolds is a novel about making a moment’s decision. *DISCLAIMER: The story deals with grief, mild cussing, and gun violence. Plot Summary: Will doesn’t live in a so great part of town. This African-American teen’s brother, Shawn, is shot and killed by a member of gang member in a near-by part of town. Will decides to follow ‘The Rules’. (‘The Rules’ are passed on through generations of members of this community and they are: 1. DON’T CRY 2. NO SNITCHING 3. ALWAYS GET REVENGE.) Will decides to kill the gang member who killed Shawn. He HAS to follow ‘The Rules’. He gets on the elevator to go down to the Lobby and the elevator stops at every floor. People that have been shot in the past and were in his life get on the elevator at every floor. This thriller is written over one minute and nine seconds. Author Praise/Critique: Jason Reynolds is a very talented poet. The book is very visually pleasing because ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Reading and writing, reading and writing, reading and writing: that's what I hope to keep doing all summer (with some swimming and seeing friends mixed in there too!). Here's another review! This is Stuart Turton's The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle,  and it's a doozy.  SUMMARY THE RULES OF BLACKHEATH Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m. There are eight days and eight witnesses for you to inhabit. We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer. Understood? Then let's begin... Evelyn Hardcastle WILL die. And every day Aiden Bishop WILL try to identify her killer and break this neverending cycle he has somehow found himself in. But every time a new day begins, Aiden inhabits the body of a different guest at Blackheath. Some of Aiden's hosts will be more helpful than others. Some of Aiden's hosts are more capable than others. Some of Aiden's hosts start to overcome Aiden's true personality. Then again, who is Aiden? A...
Post a Comment
Read more