Sometimes I reread books and love them even more the second time around.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is not one of those books.
When I read it for the first time a few years ago I enjoyed it, though it wasn’t something I ever thought I would willingly read again. (And I was right: I read it again not because I wanted to but because my required reading list told me to.) I remember wishing that Count Dracula played a larger role in the story beyond the first one hundred pages or so and that the novel in general would have been a bit shorter.
I agree with you wholeheartedly, Holly of the past.
Dracula frustrates me for a number of reasons. The absence of Count Dracula through the majority of the book is disappointing. The plot is needlessly convoluted and the pacing is too slow. At first I liked how the story is told through journal entries and letters, but as I read on I realized that this style of narration was preventing the novel from moving at a faster speed. It also felt as though I was being told the same ideas and plot points three or four times after reading about it from all of the different characters’ perspectives. After a while most of the journal entries and letters felt really redundant.
This book is also frustrating due to the prior knowledge we have about the story before we even open to the first page. We know that Count Dracula is a vampire from cultural context, meaning that the surprise is completely taken away. When Lucy becomes sick later on in the novel it’s immediately obvious that vampires are the cause, yet it takes hundreds of pages for the characters to come to that same conclusion. In a strange way, reading Dracula felt like reading a story that I’ve known my whole life.
I understand why Dracula is an iconic novel and I appreciate it for being a well-written and meticulously crafted book; however, it’s simply not something that I find engaging, entertaining, or enjoyable to read.
What are your thoughts on Dracula? Have any spooky reading recommendations for the Halloween season? Let me know in the comments section below!
Yours,
HOLLY
nut free nerd 
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