Dracul

by Dacre Stoker & J.D. Barker
493 pgs

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed reading Dracul, Dacre Stoker and J.D. Barker's prequel to the iconic book Dracula., written by Dacre's great-granduncle Bram Stoker. But before I say anything about the story, I think it's worth mentioning that the backstory of how the book came to be, which is outlined in the Authors' Note at the end, is fascinating and should not be neglected. It adds significantly to the story and explains ho anyone could have the audacity to try to add anything to Uncle Stoker's tale.

The backstory outlines Stoker and Barker's research of Dracula, which included the discovery of a lost journal of Bram Stoker's and the rare opportunity to review the book's original annotated manuscript. The manuscript interestingly begins on page 102, a fact Stoker and Barker deftly use in explaining the origins of their prequel. The story they were able to piece together from the journal and the notes is a great addition to the book and the vampire genre in general.

In the story, Bram Stoker himself plays the role of one of the main characters, and it begins in 1868, with a then 21-year old Bram hiding in the tower of a castle one night trying to ward off Dracul with nothing but holy water and some crucifixes. He's frantically trying to write down and record the events of his life, which led to this point, hoping that even if he dies, or something worse, his story will have a chance to be told.

From there the story goes back in time to Bram's early childhood and the mysterious woman named Ellen Crone who tended to him and his sister Matilda. Ellen took particular care of young Bram, who from birth had been a sickly child who spent almost all of his early childhood confined to his bed. IT wasn't until Ellen arrived and mysteriously healed him that he was able to begin living a full life. Ellen mysteriously disappeared from their lives ad Matilda made it her life's mission to find out what Ellen did to change Bram like she did.

Numerous times in her search for Ellen over the years, she would catch a fleeting glimpse of a woman in a crowd she was sure was Ellen because she looked like she hadn't aged a day since she left, but as soon as she was seen, she'd disappear again.

The story sunk its teeth into me (sorry, I tried to resist) and didn't let go. It's a vampire story that stays truer to the original character than probably any of the hundreds of other vampires stories that it inspired, and it's well worth the time it takes to read it.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆