Dracul

J.D. Barker, Dacre Stoker — 2018

The prequel to Dracula, inspired by notes and texts left behind by the author of the classic novel, Dracul is a supernatural thriller that reveals not only Dracula’s true origins but Bram Stoker’s—and the tale of the enigmatic woman who connects them. It is 1868, and a twenty-one-year-old Bram Stoker waits in a desolate tower to face an indescribable evil. Armed only with crucifixes, holy water, and a rifle, he prays to survive a single night, the longest of his life. Desperate to record what he has witnessed, Bram scribbles down the events that led him here... A sickly child, Bram spent his early days bedridden in his parents' Dublin home, tended to by his caretaker, a young woman named Ellen Crone. When a string of strange deaths occur in a nearby town, Bram and his sister Matilda detect a pattern of bizarre behavior by Ellen—a mystery that deepens chillingly until Ellen vanishes suddenly from their lives. Years later, Matilda returns from studying in Paris to tell Bram the news that she has seen Ellen—and that the nightmare they've thought long ended is only beginning.

Reviews

Narah Quinn@narahquinn

Oct 20, 2021

Let me be clear - I love Dracula. It is one of my all time favourite books, I studied it for my English A-Level coursework (a comparison piece with Frankenstein) and I own multiple copies of it, but I never realised that it had been so heavily edited, that it was so far from the Dracula that Bram Stoker intended to release! I really took my time with this book, in fact I almost feel like it took me too long to read it (about 3 weeks) but a lot of that I think was down to my brain trying to figure out who was who, and more importantly what the hell actually happened in their lives. I read the authors notes (at the back of the book) when I was about 3/4's of the way through and if you don't normally read them, please make sure you do - it will enlighten you, and if you are a curious reader and a Dracula fan you may find yourself on a search for other, foreign, editions of Brams original. I can lierally say nothing without giving something away, and it could potentially ruin not just 1 but 2 books so I will just leave you with this one snippet from the authors notes, along with a whole hearted recommendation that you buy this book and read it - because, "Bram Stoker did not intend for Dracula to serve as fiction but as a warning of a very real evil."

Draculelle@draculelle

Aug 26, 2021

To fully appreciate this book I think it is absolutely necessary to read the authors’ notes at the end! Although a little slow at first, once the story gets going it was hard to put this book down. It does jump around a bit in terms of the timeline (some of the time stamps seemed a bit unnecessary to me) and also the characters, but it’s not hard to follow. When I finished this book I thought it was nothing more than a nice take on how Bram Stoker came to write his most famous work, but then I read the notes at the end by the authors and it completely shifted my perspective. Did these events really take place, and do such creatures exist? Reason would have me suggest not, but I loved the mystery of this and it left me wanting to know more.