- Title:
- Dracula
- Author:
- Bram Stoker
- Release:
- 1897
- Format:
- Audiobook, Physical
For William. Happy Halloween, love. <3
This review will contain spoilers. This is not the norm for my blog.
Dracula is the first story I’ve ever read that’s comprised entirely of letters. The only other story that’s similar is Frankenstein, which I’ve previously reviewed. It raises interesting questions. Who is reading this story? I know the obvious answer is “You are, dumbass.” but that’s not what I mean. In the context of this world, who has discovered this collection of letters, journals, and notes? Is it the offspring of a survivor or a random person decades later? Do they believe any of it? Who is the reader intended to be? This is something I’ve wondered since I first read this story.
I’ve had a theory since I first read this book in winter-2020 and that’s Dracula is a goddamn troll. Every single event that takes place in his castle screams lonely immortal and prankster to me. The moment that sealed it for me and made me re-think every page up to that point is when he throws Harker’s mirror out the window. He could have “accidentally” dropped it but he didn’t. He deliberately and obviously threw it out the window. He doesn’t have a servant staff and has to make Harker’s meals to maintain his appearance. He prevents Harker from leaving because he’s probably not had company for years and gets lonely in that gigantic castle.
Once the scenes set in Dracula’s castle involving Harker are over, the book can get a bit slow for a long while. It may leave you wondering what the hell any of what’s going on has anything to do with Dracula or the plot as a whole. When I first read this book, I didn’t pay much attention to this section. But you should. It serves to familiarize yourself with the characters and their lives and makes them all feel more human than most characters in books you read. By the end of the story, I found myself invested in their lives and sad to have to part with them, which is rarely the case with one-off books for me.