I have a taste for dark literature, gothic and shizz...you would know of this if you read my blog. Strangely I have always loved this kind of stuff. I remember when I was about six years old and my family got a computer. There was a program that allowed you to make your own bookmarks. My sisters chose nice pictures, my brother chose cars and I chose the Wolfman, Dracula and Frankenstein cartoons on my bookmark. I suppose it is in my blood. (Note: another reason I like gypsies is because they are described in Dracula. In the last scene the main characters were fighting gypsies because they were carrying Dracula's coffin.)
This is the OFFICIAL sequel to the original 1897 original (Ahhhh was my original reaction).When I heard that a sequel had been written I was mortified that such a classic had been developed upon. I have always hated when people make sequels of much loved classics. You instantly think...Oh gawd, they are going to ruin the book aren't they?
Once the story of the original has finished I believe it is a better thrill for you to imagine for yourself what the characters in the story did for the rest of their life. After Dracula had been killed and everyone had settled down I thought that they would visit Transylvania, regularly meet up with each other and talk about the old times...but not in this interpretation.
I bought the book as I knew I would do and began turning the pages. It was written by two people, a direct descendant of Bram Stoker, Dacre Stoker and a writer called Ian Holt.
The story began with a hunt for Elisabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess of legend who is being hunted by Dr J Seward himself. They have depicted him as a broken man who feels he doesn't have much purpose any more. Bathory is a lesbian, they made this very obvious because there is a description about the first time she fell in love with a woman. I have no idea whether the real Bathory of history was of the persuasion but...ya know, she killed lots of servant girls in her time.
You slowly learn that a lot of the original characters have gone a bit downhill, all scarred in their own way by Dracula. Everyone is scarred apart from Quincey Harker that is, the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker (named after the original and was only mentioned briefly in the epilogue of the 'real' book.)
One thing that I disagreed with was the writing style. I thought that if you were going to write a sequel to a nineteenth century novel then you should adopt the literary style of both the style of the writer and the time. For example nothing is hidden in the writing. Everything was hinted at, not actually mentioned. An example is in the story 'Carmilla' by Sheridan Le Fanu, in which the vampire character was an obvious lesbian. It was the same in Dracula, everything is 'suggested' and I think that this way of doing things should have been carried on in the sequel...ah well, I can let them off that.
...but then the writers did something blasphemous...all of the original characters started to be killed off one by one. What were they thinking? Dr Seward was run over by a carriage, Jonathan Harker was impaled in the middle of London (why?) Oh yeah and Dracula was not dead but had become an actor and was acting himself in the Dracula play. Even Bram Stoker himself becomes a character in the story, looking over the play of his own book. Dracula is depicted as a sympathetic character as well who looks back at the old days when he was a prince fighting the Turks...oh yeah and Abraham Van Helsing turns out to be a right old nut job.
I won't spoil the ending in case you want to read it but although I was sceptical about it at the beginning I thought it was an enjoyable enough read it. I still held my own opinions about what happened to the characters after the original story so I treated this book as somebody's own interpretation. A good book for the bookshelf with those with an interest in this sort of thing.
A good read if you don't take it too seriously. Why are most female vampires depicted as lesbians?...in literally every single vamp book.
I might do a few more book reviews. I'm now reading 'Rabbit Stew and a Penny or Two' by Maggie Smith- Bendell. She is a gypsy and the book is her childhood memoirs of being a gypsy during the war but also growing up in the 1950's. Good 'ole Jip- Japs. Watch this space.
Over and Out.
ED
