By: Braum StrokerPlot: If you don't already know the plot to Dracula then... I don't know what to tell you. But basically five strong man-brains and one woman-brain fight to destroy the king of the un-dead. The whole story is told through their diaries.
My Thoughts: I was kind of expecting this book to go like Frankenstien, where once you're finally introduce to the monster you realize the origin story is nothing like what the monster is made out to be today. But it wasn't. The Dracula that I've always heard about seemed to be exactly the same as the Dracula in the book. I also wasn't expecting it to be as creepy as it was but I was pleasantly surprised.
The first part of the book is probably my favorite. Jonathan actually living with, and then later being held captive by, Count Dracula in his mansion was the best. It's the most that Dracula is actually in the book, he is talked about constantly but there are only three maybe four scenes that he's actually there. It also tickles me the image of Dracula driving Jonathan to his house and then having to run around into his mansion and opening the door for him like he'd been there the whole time. How did no one ask Jonathon how he escaped after reading his diary?? That was never explained, even though I kept waiting for it.
The next part of the book, with Lucy, I really enjoyed too, and then it kind of slowed down after that. They just were reading and plotting and running errands and then plotting some more. Especially because they only once once or twice came face to face with him in all this time. They just had to toss crackers into his 'boxes' and call it good. It was weird the pedestal they put Miss Mina on. And then the fact that they didn't IMMEDIATELY realize what was happening to her even though they had just been through it with Lucy, was dumb. It definitely picked up at the end and I kind of liked how it did come down to the very end of the book.
Favorite Quotes: "I told her how anxious I was about Jonathan, and then she tried to comfort me. Well; she succeeded somewhat, for, though sympathy can't alter facts, it can help to make them more bearable."
"You are a clever man, friend John; you reason well, and your wit is bold; but you are too prejudiced. You do not let your eyes see nor your ears hear, and that which is outside your daily life is not of account to you. Do you not think that there are things which you cannot understand, and yet which are; that some people see things that others cannot? But there are things old and new which must not be contemplate by men's eyes, because they know--or think they know--some things which other men have told them. Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain."
"I could not resist the temptation of mystifying him a bit--I suppose it is some of the taste of the original apple that remains still in our mouths--so I handed him the shorthand diary."
Rating: 4/5 I dug it.