I've just finished reading Dracula by Bram Stoker and it was a more interesting novel than I expected!
I don't really know what I was expecting, but I really liked the format in which the book was written: multiple different POVs from journals, memoranda, recordings (and even newspaper clippings) from the different members of the cast. In my opinion it made the read a bit more immersive, like I was actually experiencing the events of the novel as the people who wrote the journals themselves, and it also made it more satisfying when Jonathan and Mina team up with Dr Seward, Mr Morris, Lord Godalming and Van Helsing to kill Dracula by pooling all their resources and knowledge and advantages etc together by reading each other's journals and learning from each other's experiences.
The Count is a very menacing and dangerous villain. His strength at night is that of 20 men, he can turn into a bat or mist and fit into impossible places, he can command terrifying wolves and control the weather to some extent, and he can turn other people into vampires themselves and hijack their own will. It makes a lot of sense why Dracula is such a well known antagonist and villain in fiction.
I also really liked the methodical, logical way in which the group plans to end Dracula once and for all. Despite the overwhelming power of the Count, Van Helsing (mainly, since he's the wisest member of the team) uses information he has learnt from myths and legends as well as information from the journals of Harker and Dr Seward to try to make use of every weakness the Count has, e.g., garlic, cannot cross water on his own, sunlight, the need to sleep in a coffin with his earth every day, crucifixes, etc. to try to gain every advantage against him.
It was interesting to see Mina use her own connection to Dracula's mind against him by spying on him during a hypnotised state, and that Dracula miscalculated trying to sever that connection because Mina could still see through his POV, whilst Dracula himself couldn't see from Mina's POV afterwards (I'm not sure why he doesn't know this. Van Helsing says he has a "child brain" but I never really understood what he meant. Is Dracula just ignorant in the true extent of his power, or is it because he is of "criminal kind"?).
It also pains me to say this but Mina's hypnosis episodes reminds me exactly of Will using his connection to the hive mind to spy on the Mind Flayer and, much later, Vecna in stranger things 😭😭. The whole plan to kill Dracula did give me stranger things season 5 vibes, but the difference is the book was actually well written, lol.
8/10. Tense, terrifying, and thrilling. No wonder it's a staple of gothic fiction.
by Equivalent_Bank_5845