 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to 31 Days of Halloween. It is Classics week, and I have finally finished Dracula by Bram Stoker. I've been trying to read this book since I was about 10 or 12 somewhere between there when I really got into reading adult fiction, and I never never made it, but I finally did. I bought this edition especially because I was going to read it along with Brad Proctor, and he did that I think in February, and it's now, well I read this in September, but it's now October and I'm just now getting around to my review, and it took me months to even start the book. But anyways, I finally finished it, so here are my thoughts. The middle of the book is an absolute slog. There's a lot of Victorian romance and all of them kinds of stuff going on in there that I didn't care anything about. Oddly enough, it reminded me a little bit, just a tidbit of 112263 by Stephen King, where there's this whole middle chunk that I absolutely hated, but I loved everything that it's bookended by. Now, saying that, I am still giving it three stars, and here's why. I have seen the Francis Ford Coppola adaptation, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and I remember laughing at certain scenes that I still to this day find funny, like Dracula scampering up the wall. It was shot in such a jerky way that it just looked goofy to me. In the book, it's absolutely horrifying. I knew the scene from the movie, but it is so much better done in the book than it is in the movie. But the main reason I'm giving it three stars, three stars alone, actually five stars, but since I didn't dislike the last bit of the book, I'm cutting it down to most of the book. I'm not gonna lie. Most of the book was a chore to read, but I'm gonna cut it back down to three because of the demeanor scene. When the demeanor arrives, when it comes to shore, the descriptions of the crew, the descriptions of the boat itself, everything was so well done. I could have done with just that scene alone being by itself. As a short horror story, it would have been very effective. Now, I'm not a fan of vampire literature period. It's the most overdone horror trope I feel. If you love it, you do you. No judgment whatsoever. But I don't like vampires. It's also, it's the not to deus ex machia, but it's always solved with some kind of religious iconography, whether it be a cross or whatever. They can hold them back that way. It feels using that as the end all for damn near everything that's classic horror is like, oh, every monster is afraid of God. Of course, it's the Christian God and none of the other ones. But uh, anywho, this, that that demeanor scene, and I hear that they are making an entire movie based solely on the voyage of the demeanor. That I am all signed up for. I am looking forward to that. I did like things about the wolf. That was kind of cool. Him turning into a bat will always be goofy to me because I'll always think about the classic Dracula movie with the with the bad special effects, which is funny because when I think of the Bramstone when I think of Coppola's movie, I think of that goofy wall climbing scene. But in the book, I like it so much better. I am glad this one exists. Same thing that I said. Well, I'm not sure which order I'm putting these in. This might be the first one of the week. But I said the same thing about Sleepy Hollow. I'm glad that it exists. I'm glad that it's out there. I'm glad so many people have found a way to repurpose this monster, this character, this trope. And I'm glad so many people love it. So I'm giving it three stars for that also. Did I enjoy the book? No, not really. Like I said, most of it was a chore, but it had two absolutely brilliant scenes. And that is the Dracula on the wall and the demeanor scene. But have you read Dracula? If you haven't, I'd like to hear from you if you haven't, or if you've never been able to finish it. Give me some solidarity. Let me know why you've never been able to finish it, why you never read it down there in the doobly-doo. Also, weighed against the old Dracula movie, the Universal Dracula movie, it's a lot different, quite different. And we're going to go into that even. We're going to go into that subject even more when I talk about Frankenstein later this week. But yeah, let me know what you thought about it, especially if you've never been able to finish it, or if you like me. Never, never could finish it. Or if you've never even tried it and give me your reasons down there in the doobly-doo. But until next time, I have been E, you have been U, this has been another episode of 31 Days of Halloween. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye!