Dracula

by Bram Stoker

I first read DRACULA, by Bram Stoker, in college. I had recently watched a movie that had a variety of well known book characters, Mina being one of them, and I was ashamed that although I knew the characters, I hadn't read the stories they came from. So I read DRACULA and every assumption I had of the book was dissolved. I thought I knew what to expect because I had read other classic horror such as FRANKENSTEIN, but they just aren't the same. (I like DRACULA better.)

The first point to note is that the story is written in epistle format. I know this is a dissuader for a lot of people; I have a difficult time getting into books that are entirely journal entries or letters. For me the emergency of the situation isn't there. The letter or entry was written, therefore the character survived the situation. However, with the POV character being Mina, there is still a lot of suspense as to what is going to happen to the other characters in the story. You may think you know the character of Dracula and what he can do, but seeing the story evolve from beginning to end is something completely different. This is one of the origin stories for vampires and is more realistic then some of the other novels out there.

DRACULA isn't action. It isn't face paced. It is all about feeding on fear of the unknown and unbelievable. It is creepy. It moves along at its own pace but is well worth reading and learning about a high profile character and his origins.