Dracula
This tale is so widespread that I don’t feel like the synopsis paragraph is needed…but for those of you chuckle heads out there that need it explained: Dracula is the story of a centuries old vampire who is ready to move up in the world and wants to move from Transylvania and take London by storm. He sets his sites on Jonathan Harker and his friends as his next victims but doesn’t anticipate them being smart or strong enough to fight back. And yes, of course, there is plenty of blood, bats, and garlic.
For some reason I got it in my head that this book was going to top the charts as a favorite since it’s often associated with other horror stories like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. This, unfortunately, was not even close to true. I’m thankful that this book was written because it was truly the first to introduce vampires (as we think of them today) to the masses. But that’s about where my appreciation for this book ends. It has gone on to inspire absolutely terrifying portrayal of vampires, but the work of Stoker himself felt so incredibly dry and monotonous that I had a difficult time finishing a book less than 300 pages long. I want to say that it was just a sign of the times and that writing was different back then, but Frankenstein was released nearly 100 years before Dracula and it is a phenomenal novel….so I think that excuse doesn’t work. I figured Dracula would have suspense and action in it, but it really is just a lot of boring journal entries that are too afraid to go into gruesome details and the action scenes are so short (like, 1 paragraph short) that if you are skim reading, you’ll miss it.
Overall, I would say as far as the horror genre is concerned, there are numerous better options for readers out there. And there are also a few great vampire movies that you could watch instead of picking up this novel.
Malia's Pizza Rating
Caramelized garlic pizza