Dracula

Renfield before Mina comes in the room:


Stoker certainly did not in and of himself earn four stars, but (this hurts to say as a public library employee) the full cast Audible exclusive rendition was very good. You were right, Meredith.

Except for when the women characters did more informal accents, which I found intensely grating and incomprehensible, I do not know why. But for the most part it felt cinematic and expressive.

Ever since [b:Regarding the Fountain|23404|Regarding the Fountain A Tale, in Letters, of Liars and Leaks|Kate Klise|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1311778035l/23404.SX50.jpg|24375], I have loved an epistolary format. There is something about that patchwork of memory and clippings forming a narrative that I find intriguing and fun.

In Dracula (spoilers from 1897 I guess), a lawyer visits a client living in Transylvania, looking to relocate to London. Imagine the lawyer's surprise when the client turns out to be a vampire who is holding him hostage. Meanwhile, his fiancée at home is starting to worry, both about him, and about her friend whose old habit of sleepwalking has resurfaced, leading her on wild adventures each night.

With time multiple doctors and good strong brave Christian men find themselves wrapped up in accepting, then vanquishing the reality of Count Dracula, with a backdrop of dust-caked castles and so-called lunatic asylums.

The pacing is...weird. It feels intentionally slow-moving at some times, but towards the end it becomes really repetitive and non-eventful, only for everything to happen in a rush. Leading up to this, we stay with the two characters for whom the least is going on, so we're kind of in the dark about what's actually going on. Maybe this is a choice to build suspense, but for me it kind of had the opposite effect.

Things I found funny, but I don't think they were supposed to be: - Descriptions of the Count going out in his “lizard fashion” scaling the walls with his toes.- How much of the text is spent with people talking about how much they love the other people who are fighting Dracula with them. As soon as they meet another guy they're like, “He's the bravest most wise and devoted genius hero who I worship and he's also hot and strong and I would gladly fall on my sword for him and we will remain friends forever and I will take care of his wife who I also love and so too do all of our other friends we did in fact just meet twenty minutes ago at the train station but we love each other all the same because we are dear and sweet and poor and God's will be done.”- All the men urging Mina to stay behind because this is men's work (not even that doing this made her extremely easy for the Count to prey on, although like, yeah obviously), only to immediately almost be tricked into freeing Dracula's known devotee from an insane asylum because he convincingly said “I am better now.”- When Van Helsing said a very confusing sentence, and I said out loud to an empty room, “What??” and he followed it up with, “Sorry, that was a really confusing sentence.”- When Morris left the room mid planning session without talking to anyone to try and shoot the problem with a gun. How American of him.

If you do read this, I recommend the Audible version. But you must only get it for free and then cancel your free trial immediately, and then use Libby and hoopla for everything else. For the stakes are greater than life or death.