So there's a reason why Dracula is a classic horror story. Stoker created the vampire that is still a thing in 2018. Why do writers come back again and again to the tale of a creature that was all about murder and mayhem?I tend to love Stoker's look at Dracula and vampires the most. I always side eyed writers that made vampires poor tortured and sad and alone. Stoker's first look at Count Dracula shows us a cunning character who is focused on wrecking Johnathan Harker's life and those connected to him.

"Dracula" focuses on Count Dracula who travels from Transylvania to England (London specifically) in order to spread more vampires. Fighting against him is Johnathan Harker, his new wife, Mina along with friends of the couple (Doctor John Seward, Quincey Morris, and Arthur Holmwood). The latter group also comes across a vampire slayer (whatever, that is what I am calling him) Abraham Van Helsing. 

I think the saddest character in this is Lucy. She's best friends with Mina and has attracted many marriage proposals. When she finally agrees to marry Arthur, it would be seem that her life is perfect. However, she seems to be growing weaker and weaker and is sleepwalking. John calls in Van Helsing who suspects what is going on, but doesn't inform all parties. The end of Lucy always made me feel bad.

We also have the character of Renfield who is creepy as all get out. Reading about him collecting bugs, spiders, sparrows, and wanting a kitten or cat and finding out what he was eating and feeding to other animals was a bit much for me. 

The book cuts things up by showing us the journal or diary entries from many of the characters. I can't really argue against this style of story-telling. It allows us into the characters heads. I do wish at times that we could have gotten more dialogue between characters though. Sometimes it just reads as flat sometimes. The flow was up and down. I think switching between characters/entries takes you out of the story at times. 

I do wish that more movies/tv shows had been more faithful with the original work since you do get a sense of the camaraderie that has developed by all parties in order to stop Dracula especially when he ends up cursing Mina with vampirism. 

The ending shows what happens after they all confronted Dracula which I liked. 

Haven’t read this since I was a teenager.

The description of Dracula and Renfield is awful. We now have Mina and Johnathan married though Mina has no idea what has happened to him exactly.

I forgot these were written in diary/journal format.

So I have to say this one was very enjoyable. Maybe because there is no Peter angst concerning a woman he is interested in. We get more information on how magic works in this world that Peter is in. Also we get some nice police work as well in this one. The Faceless Man is still running amok though, but I was glad to not have this book focus squarely on him.

Things I loved:

I did enjoy Peter working alongside Lesley. It seems that Lesley is better than Peter at magic, or at least stronger than he was when he first started up with Nightingale.

We get a FBI agent in this one who seems quite savvy and I would love to see her pop up again.

I don't even remember if Peter mentioned going to school initially to become an architect or what in book #1, but I love that he did and he was able to explain certain type of building arrangements and the running joke about why do architects need to draw.

Molly is still silent but seems quite protective of her ever growing population of the Folly.

The writing is very good and also there are some hilarious one liners in this one. It definitely reminds me of the good parts of Doctor Who. The setting of London where magic reigns supreme is a great one.

The ending was great with Peter figuring out who is the culprit behind a murder. And we get a nice circle back to a girl from the beginning of the book who seems to be getting added onto the magical Scooby-Doo gang.

Things I didn't love:

I want more Nightingale. He barely feels like he is in this book. Though he is in this one way more than book #2. I want more training scenes with Peter, Nightingale, and Lesley.

Even though I was happy to see Lesley, I wasn't happy to see how Peter acts anytime Lesley removes her mask. It seems to not bother a lot of people (Nightingale and Molly) but Peter still reacts to it. And it seems that Lesley in a couple of situations notices it too. And through a drunk/funny scene later on with Lesley and Peter. Peter is attracted to Lesley and Lesley is a little bit with Peter. I do think that things will come to a head eventually though since others are interested in Lesley and don't seem to care about her face. I was happy to see Zach, the new character who is half fairy (fae) seems interested in her. Though Zach seems to have a crush on someone else that is called a "whisperer" so who knows if anything will go forward with that.

Honestly I am tired of Tyburn trying to act like she's big and bad. She just shows up in every book now to threaten Peter.

I am already wanting to read book #4 to see what happens next.

With this book, I got my first bingo on my second bingo card which is nice.

So I have to say this one was very enjoyable. Maybe because there is no Peter angst concerning a woman he is interested in. We get more information on how magic works in this world that Peter is in. Also we get some nice police work as well in this one. The Faceless Man is still running amok though, but I was glad to not have this book focus squarely on him. 

Things I loved:

I did enjoy Peter working alongside Lesley. It seems that Lesley is better than Peter at magic, or at least stronger than he was when he first started up with Nightingale.

We get a FBI agent in this one who seems quite savvy and I would love to see her pop up again.

I don't even remember if Peter mentioned going to school initially to become an architect or what in book #1, but I love that he did and he was able to explain certain type of building arrangements and the running joke about why do architects need to draw. 

Molly is still silent but seems quite protective of her ever growing population of the Folly. 

The writing is very good and also there are some hilarious one liners in this one. It definitely reminds me of the good parts of Doctor Who. The setting of London where magic reigns supreme is a great one. 

The ending was great with Peter figuring out who is the culprit behind a murder. And we get a nice circle back to a girl from the beginning of the book who seems to be getting added onto the magical Scooby-Doo gang. 

Things I didn't love:

I want more Nightingale. He barely feels like he is in this book. Though he is in this one way more than book #2. I want more training scenes with Peter, Nightingale, and Lesley.

Even though I was happy to see Lesley, I wasn't happy to see how Peter acts anytime Lesley removes her mask. It seems to not bother a lot of people (Nightingale and Molly) but Peter still reacts to it. And it seems that Lesley in a couple of situations notices it too. And through a drunk/funny scene later on with Lesley and Peter. Peter is attracted to Lesley and Lesley is a little bit with Peter. I do think that things will come to a head eventually though since others are interested in Lesley and don't seem to care about her face. I was happy to see Zach, the new character who is half fairy (fae) seems interested in her. Though Zach seems to have a crush on someone else that is called a "whisperer" so who knows if anything will go forward with that.

Honestly I am tired of Tyburn trying to act like she's big and bad. She just shows up in every book now to threaten Peter. 

I am already wanting to read book #4 to see what happens next. 

With this book, I got my first bingo on my second bingo card which is nice. 

Going to read this for "Darkest London." Wonder how book #3 is going to find Peter.