Book Review: Dracula

 

 

 

Blurb on the Back:

“My very feelings change to repulsion and terror when I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and begin to crawl down the castle wall over the dreadful abyss, face down, with his cloak spreading out around him like great wings”

And then a whole bunch of historical information about Bram Stoker and the books which influenced him…should have been insight into what I was getting myself into really; the font size on the back is only barely legible (it’s so small!) and I have 20/20 vision.

My thoughts:
So. Dracula hey.
What a book…What.A.Book.
Where do I begin with this book?
What can I say about this book?
What. Can. I. Say.

Dracula, for all those who don’t know, is/was a book written by Bram Stoker around 1897 or thereabouts. As the blurb says on the back, it wasn’t the first of it’s kind and there were books of a similar theme running rampant around that time, this book was just the bee’s knee’s of the genre.

Which makes me really concerned for what the other books were like because ugg.

I’m just going to come out and say it. I didn’t love Dracula. I didn’t like it. I don’t know why I didn’t give up about 3 months into reading it because I clearly wasn’t enjoying it. But no. I’m stubborn and insist on persevering.

I like the story generally speaking, I’m sick of all this glittery vampire trash that’s going around, I like the good old days when vampires were murderous villains of the night! For some parts of the book, which I often read late at night, I was genuinely checking behind doors and jumping at my own shadow but this eventually stopped because what was originally anticipation for a fabulous classic novel turned into sheer boredom and a strong desire for the book to hurry up and end.

Unfortunately it became one those books where I started skipping over paragraphs because I was so over whatever was going on in that moment. I was bored.

I persevered, I don’t know why, maybe because I highly value classic books (regardless of how boring they are) and I want to appreciate written literature from authors who are long passed dead. I don’t know. But I finally finished the book, I feel a slightly sense of accomplishment, but for the most part – it took me 8 months to force myself through that book and books should never take 8 months to read!

Book Review: Wild Romance

Blurb on the Back: In 1852, on a steamer from France to England, nineteen-year-old Theresa Longworth met William Charles Yelverton, a soldier destined to become the Viscount of Avonmore. Their flirtation soon blossomed into a clandestine, epistolary affair, and five years later they married secretly in Edinburgh. Then, that same summer, they married again in Dublin – or did they?

 

Seperated by circumstance soon after they were wed, Theresa and Charles would never live together as husband and wife. And when Yelverton married another woman, an abandoned Theresa found herself forced to prove the validity or her marriage. Multiple trials ensued, and the press and the public seized upon the scandal. Wild Romance is the inspiring tale of a woman who never gave up, and who help on to her ideals of independence, dignity and – despite everything – love.

 

My Thoughts: A while ago I complained that I didn’t read the blurbs on books thoroughly enough and that I should endeavour to do so just so I know what I’m getting into. I forgot about that deal. I had absolutely no idea that the book I was buying was based on real life events; it wasn’t until I googled the names of these people, after reading the preface, that I realised that these people were indeed real and these events really did take place.

 

I really got into this book. I really enjoyed learning about the events and learning about these people. However, I think part of my strength in being able to read this book in its entirely comes from having to read various ethnographies for University subjects. It is very dense in facts and information and it also doesn’t really direct you in terms of who you should side with or why. It’s one of those vague situations where you’re given the facts and you have to make up your own mind.

That being said, I changed my mind multiple times during the book. I felt like Theresa was a bit of a stalker and Charles would have been better off not writing to her and getting some form of a restraining order. There were other times where I thought Charles was playing games with Theresa and he knew it, but she was young, naïve and didn’t really have those role models to teach her any better.

And then there were times when I thought they were both idiots.

I think Theresa’s story is a sad one. I think she was horribly misguided and led on by this guy, but it was by her own doing. She tries to present herself as this smart individual, but I feel like it wasn’t without it’s shortcomings. I feel like if she hadn’t gotten caught up with Charles, she would have done quite well for herself and potentially made an impact in terms of Women’s rights but I also feel like she was one of those girls who was smart enough to achieve a lot, but just couldn’t really be bothered.

She tries to escape this public acknowledgement of her being the victim but she also seems to thrive off of it. I don’t know, but she came across as a walking contradiction really.

It’s a good story nevertheless. I liked learning about these issues and thinking about how different the times are compared to back in the 1800’s. But a lot of patience is needed to read this book, there isn’t much a climax and after the trials, the book becomes a bit dragged out. I can see why and I can understand why, but I guess that’s just life, that’s Theresa’s life anyway.

 

It’s a good book, it really is interesting and I was pleasantly surprised with how much I got into reading it.

Book Review: Derik’s Bane

Blurb on the Back:

Derik’s a werewolf with alpha issues – and a body to die for.

Sara is the personification of unspeakable evil – and smells like roses.

Now if they could just stop lusting after each other long enough to save the world.

It’s’ always good to have a psychic around – except when she tells you the world will soon end unless you do something about it. For werewolf Derik Gardner that means heading to sunny California and destroying the reincarnation of possibly the most powerful sorceress in history: Morgan Le Fay.

But the beautiful – and slightly ditzy – Dr. Sara Gunn has no idea that she is Morgan Le Fay. Her masses of wild red curls and crystal blue eyes make killing her an unpleasant prospect for Derik…and his half-hearted attempts don’t meet with much success. So if he can’t kill Sara, he’ll joing her, on a cross-country odyssey to change her fate, confront a medieval evil – and hopefully get lucky…

My Thoughts: So this book took me longer to read than I had planned. In all honesty, it could have been finished in a day and it practically was, except I got distracted and forgot all about it until last night. But I have finished it and it was pretty good.

I like the story line and I love the characters, I think they are all quirky and interesting in their own way. I like the main plot line and the idea of what has to happen, what needs to happen and what eventuates because I think it keeps you guessing for much of the story. I mean sure you can predict little things along the way, but the comedy keeps you entertained.

What I do know is, as much as I liked the book I didn’t love it like I loved the un-dead series. The un-dead series (by the same author) was similarly written (different plot and characters obviously) but I just got more enjoyment out of the whole series. Derik’s Bane is a part of a series but it’s more of a disjointed series – it’s about his pack and not specifically about him, where as the Un-dead series follows one characters adventures while she comes to terms with being a vampire.

However, it was a good read. It was good, it was fast, it was funny and sometimes a bit uncomfortable (I don’t like sex-scenes in books) but it was generally entertaining. These are the kind of books that you use to escape reality for an hour or so; you just get lost in this world of make-believe and fantasy which keeps you entertained.

 

Mary Janice Davidson is definitely one of my favourite authors and I always look forward to reading her books. I will endeavour to read the rest of the series and maybe by the time I’ve finished, my thoughts will have change in terms of which series is my favourite (Wyndham Werewolves or the Un-Dead)

Book Review: Birthmarked

Blurb on the Back: In the future, in a world destroyed by the harsh sun, there are those who live in luxury inside the walled Enclave and those, like sixteen-year-old Gaia Stone, who live outside, struggling to survive. Each month the people outside the wall must deliver a quota of babies to the enclave, to be raised by parents within and brainwashed to forget about the world outside.

 

It’s the way it’s always been, and the way Gaia thinks it should be…until her parents are arrested on suspicion of hiding a code; a code revealing the secrets of the “advanced” babies. Realising she is her parents’ only hope for survival, Gaia ventures inside the wall to rescue them. But she soon discovers that the Enclave is not as perfect as it appears; the gene pool has become too small and genetic irregularities are developing – something the brutal government wants to stop. At any cost. Can Gaia break the code and discover the truth, before it’s too late?

 

My Thoughts: I really need to start reading the blurbs before I buy books. This book was not at all what I was expecting; but in saying that, this book was a fantastic read. I literally didn’t want to stop reading it and I felt compelled to keep read as much as I could for as long as I could until I finished. Fortunately life intervened and I had to put the book down every so often, but generally the story line was so interesting that I didn’t want to stop reading.

 

I confess, I haven’t read The Hunger Games, but I saw the first movie and I feel like this book follows in that tradition. It’s futuristic world where things have gone wrong in history and now life is very different. When I started reading it, I don’t think it was made clear that it was set in the future, so it felt very ancient; a world that was back to basics and where people were living off the land. But when you keep reading, you realise that it is in the future, but things have changed. Obviously there are little things along the way that have survived throughout their history, but everything else has been destroyed.

 

I like the story because it isn’t a completely bizarre concept; the future is unknown, we don’t know what could happen in 5, 10, 20 years from now and a situation like the one in this book is entirely possible.

 

There were a few moments where they were explaining the science stuff (about DNA and Genetics) and I got impatient. I couldn’t help but think “Really?! You want to take time out to discuss this stuff?” but then I remember the lack of education and that sort of thing, so after I finished that part I realised it was important.

 

I really liked this story though. I really liked the futuristic perspective and looking back on one possibility of how the world could go wrong and screw everything up for humanity.

 

Unfortunately! The book is part of a trilogy, so now I really want to get my hands on the next two books! Like I said, it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting just from looking at the front cover, but it made it all the more better. If it ever had the potential to become a movie like The Hunger Games, I feel like Hollywood would screw it up. Without going into too much detail, Gaia has a very distinctive look about her and I feel they would get that wrong – but it all contributes to her, her strength and who she is.

 

I think this is probably one of the best books I’ve reviewed so far just because of how intense the story is and how caught up in it I go.