Dracul by Dacre Stoker and JD Barker

A young man, Bram is trapped in a desolate tower, with something evil lurking behind a locked door. He has only a rifle, some holy water, and several crucifixes to protect him. Slowly we learn how he came to be here.

As a fan of the horror genre, Dracula by Bram Stoker is one of those classics that must be read, so I was intrigued by this story. It’s also partly written by Dacre Stoker, his surname is no coincidence, he’s in fact the great grand-nephew of Bram Stoker himself, bringing a legitimacy to this gothic vampire tale. We have the seemingly young Bram, a sickly child who is being taken care of by his nurse, Ellen, a woman with a dark secret of her own. It is Bram’s sister, Matilda who initially suspects that Ellen is not all she appears. Thus, the story begins, and the pair slowly uncover the real identity of their nurse.

Dracul certainly ticks all the boxes, it is very traditional in the way the story is told and sympathetic with the original novel. There is a clever twist at the end, how a story leads to another story which is going to delight Dracula fans. It has the elements of any classic gothic novel, and of course there are echoes of the original. It is not a modern twist of the vampire theme, but then why mess with a classic? There is also an unexpected love story running through it, which gathers momentum at the end and give a sympathetic edge to the character of Ellen. Of course, the star of the show is Dracul himself, a dark shadow that looms over the Stoker family.

Dracul resurrects the voice of Bram Stoker and gives an insightful background of events that may take place in Bram Stoker’s original novel. I was pleased that it wasn’t a disappointment and really deserves it’s place next to Dracula itself on the bookshelf.