IT WAS AMAZING. Not even one bit of it felt like a drag to read.
I did watch “So you haven’t read: Dracula” from Extra History both before and after finishing the book. They mentioned sexual undertones and whatnot, and I didn’t exactly latch onto that, minus the fact that both Lucy and MAYBE Dracula himself both have 3 suitors each. That is, if the vampire women are even Dracula’s mistresses.
As for their point on good ol’ Victorian Mina being saved compared to the more modern Lucy… that was… meh. Because the way I see it, Mina had a bigger harem than Lucy towards the end. I mean come on, even if Art. Seward or Quincey aren’t exactly suitors, VAN HELSING HIMSELF FELT LIKE A POTENTIAL. Or perhaps I am misreading it. Oh well.
This is one such book where annotations felt appropriate, I even indulged in it for the first time. While it did take me out of the story, it helped when tracing Dracula’s appearances throughout Whitby and Carfax. And when Van Helsing finally summarized all of Dracula’s abilities towards the end of the book, the notes are there to recall the mist, the different forms, and even the wolves. It also helped during Jonathan’s detailing on tracking down the cargo porters and with Renfield’s antics until his death.
Renfield was a fun character to read, I laughed at the part where he literally ate his “pets” as a way to clean up before Mina could visit him. Interesting fellow but he is still an engima to me. When he pleaded with the men to be released before they invaded Carfax, why? Was it because he knew that they were walking into a trap considering how Dracula could control mice?
Part of me wished there was more action towards the end, especially on Dracula’s part. He just… got killed from having his box opened. Granted, it was pretty epic to have Quincey and Jonathan team up in literal battle like that, it felt like something straight out of an anime. Like there could have been more of a battle, and more than just the scar on Mina’s forehead just disappearing after Dracula’s true death. Speaking of which, it did mention that there was a brief look of peace just before he turns to dust. And I’ve read inputs that say Dracula might have been a pitiable villain, perhaps that’s where it came from?
The epilogue was quite brief, I think maybe even the shortest so far from the few classics I’ve read. It feels rushed, but at the same time isn’t because its kind of irrelevant as well for the most part. I do wonder who ended up marrying Arthurt and Seward.
10/10 would reread this book again in about a year or so. 😀
by NommingFood