Excellent start and finish and worth working through. Definately a re-reader.
Review by Jaimie Moore on May 31st, 2010
This review is not going to be perfect. I started reading this book 9 months ago and stopped for 8 months in the middle. This however does serve to illustrate the main point of my review, which is this. The book starts fantastically. You are quickly drawn into the world of gothic horror, sexual tension and genuine fear that our first narrator is presented with and Stoker's decision to have the book as a collection of diary entries and letters means you very quickly develop a personal attachment with Jonathon Harker which serves to amplify the emotions you are sharing with him.
After about 50 pages you are introduced to other characters, again through the media of diary and letter and for me this was a bit of a turning point. Having been exposed to every thought of one characters and now suddenly to be passed person to person made me feel a little cheated I suppose. I started to lose interest in the characters and just want the plot to come forward. This uncomfortableness made pages 100 - 250 (ish) seem a little long and this where I originally gave up.
However on returning I found that I did care about these characters and I am very pleased that I gave this book a second go. The final third of the book is a crescendo of excitement and here you can clearly see Bram Stoker's background as a theatre director coming through but it does this without losing the innocence, brilliance or intrigue of any of the characters. This part of the book, even more than the fantastic opening, really hooked me and I was starting to grudge any reason that meant I had to stop reading.
I would definately re-read this and I am sure that now, knowing the characters as intimately as i do, I would be able to read the whole thing without boredom. This book is very good and it is clear why the character of Dracula started a revolution in popular mythology, the only flaw is the exposure to too many characters at once making the reader feel a little unappreciated towards the end of the first third of the book but having got through this patch, the story is definately re-readable countless times - which I guess explains the number of remakes and spinoffs form the last century.