Dracula by Bram Stoker

I did it. I finished Dracula the night before Halloween. I was willing to sacrifice dishes, laundry, even my children in order to do it. This book has been the inspiration for many different films and is considered the first book to truly define and set the character of Dracula and Vampires in general.

Interesting things about the book:

1.Dracula has a moustache. Seriously, this bugged me through almost the whole book. And it is described as bushy, too.

2. Dracula did not go to London to pursue a look-alike of his lost love. He went there because there were no longer enough people to feast on in Romania and what was left took special precautions against him. So, he upped and moved to London to feed on the masses and to create a whole race of Vampires to rule the night.

3. if you are bit by a vampire you are in their power but you are not a vampire yourself until you die. So, poor Mina was bit. When Dracula tries to go into hiding she thinks she is safe until Doctor Van Helsing tells her that she can live a normal life while he is gone, but as soon as she dies she will be in eternal torment.

4. Dracula can go about in daylight without burning. He just can't change shape, turn into mist, or squeeze through tiny cracks during daylight hours.

5. Van Helsing is NOT Hugh Jackman. He is more like Albert Einstein.

Things I didn't like about the book:

1. I really loved the character of Dr. Van Helsing. BUT, by the end of the book I wanted to pull my hair out every time he started talking. It was cute in the beginning how he would ramble on like an absent minded professor, but when wolves are circling and your possible eternal damnation is emblazoned on your forehead you really just wish he would GET TO THE POINT!

Things I liked:

1. I love how the classics all have such strong morals to them. This story is full of expressions of faith, friendship, and forgiveness.

2. It gave me chills multiple times. Sometimes because it was to gruesome to think about, others because I couldn't imagine being in Mina's place, or her husbands.

3. I actually liked the epistolary style of writing. Ok, that was a fancy termed I just learned that basically means that it is told as if you are reading a scrap book of various journals entries, newspaper clippings, telegrams, and letters.

4. I liked, and respected, that main characters died and it still ended in a realistically happy way.

My husband's two cents: "It sucked" (Yes, pun is definitely intended)