Review: Dracula

Dracula, the old classic vampire book. As part of my goal of reading twelve classics this year, I chose this one as what I hoped would be an exciting adventure story about vampires. I have been wanting to read a vampire story for awhile as I find the idea of superpowers is the every day world intriguing. But, much like Frankenstein, I was woefully disappointed.

The book Dracula is very different than any of the movies I’ve seen. It’s a much slower progression of events. There’s lot of times where the characters sit around and think or simply watch events unfold. There’s very little surprise in this book. It moves so slow that every event that occurs feels telegraphed from several chapters prior.

Modern movies and television don’t do well with characters sitting around – there must be action – but this is not how real life works, and it was refreshing to see the characters embrace their intellects.

What I don’t like is Van Helsing. In movies like the Blade trilogy, he’s a boss and knows what’s up. In this book he monologues for hours and doesn’t say anything new. Most of what he says is: “Here’s what happened (which you know cause you where there)” or “You won’t believe me, so we’ll talk later.” And he comes off like a pompous prick.

Often times when stories have been around for a long time and told over and over, there is a power creep where the villains become more terrifying over time. Interestingly in this case, vampires have actually become weaker in modern stories. Bram’s vampires could squeeze in through the smallest cracks, turn into other creatures, control wolves, and so much more. Bram’s vampires are pretty unstoppable.

I’m thankful for this book as it made vampire stories become popular and interesting, but I’m very glad this style of writing is dead.

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Overall I give this book 2 stars.

Up Next: His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik