Gabriella’s Reviews > Dracula > Status Update

Something cool that I didn't notice the first time reading this because all the language was pretty old fashioned / elevated: but upon the third read it's really standing out to me how different each character's voice is. Mina writes flowery descriptions, Lucy is quite succinct and generally less of a "good" writer, Seward's does feel more like a dictation, etc.

Mina & Jonathan’s marriage with Jonathan sitting up in his hospital bed is so sweet

Unless I’m misremembering… it never really gets explained why Dracula happens to be so interwoven with this particular friend group (Jonathan happens to be his solicitor, the house he buys happens to be next door to Dr Seward’s asylum where his loyal servant Renfield happens to be a patient, he is obsessed with victimizing Lucy…) Fate or something I guess?

The Mrs Whistledown-ass newspaper reporter cracks me up. Not a journalistic standard in sight

"For life be, after all, only a waitin' for somethin' else than what we're doin'; and death be all that we can rightly depend on."
and old Mr. Swales is a philosopher

"The horizon is lost in a grey mist. All is vastness; the clouds are piled up like giant rocks..." Mina is a talented prosaist, even when she is very worried about where the heck is Jonathan

I think Mina has a thing for Lucy

Dr. Seward feeling so broken-hearted over Lucy that he envies Renfield (a lunatic who literally just ate a bunch of birds raw, feathers and all) because at least Renfield has a strong sense of purpose in his life… love this emo guy

Welcome to the story, crew of the Demeter.
“As there were only the big wooden boxes, there were no odd corners where a man could hide.” I don’t know how to tell you this…

"As he went down the wall, lizard fashion, I wished I had a gun or some lethal weapon, that I might destroy him" best line in the book alert