Dracula The Un-Dead is a bone-chilling sequel based on Bram Stoker's own handwritten notes for characters and plot threads excised from the original edition. Dracula The Un-Dead begins in 1912, twenty-five years after Dracula "crumbled into dust." Van Helsing's protégé, Dr. Jack Seward, is now a disgraced morphine addict obsessed with stamping out evil across Europe. Meanwhile, an unknowing Quincey Harker, the grown son of Jonathan and Mina, leaves law school for the London stage, only to stumble upon the troubled production of "Dracula," directed and produced by Bram Stoker himself.
The play plunges Quincey into the world of his parents' terrible secrets, but before he can confront them he experiences evil in a way he had never imagined. One by one, the band of heroes that defeated Dracula a quarter-century ago is being hunted down. Could it be that Dracula somehow survived their attack and is seeking revenge? Or is their another force at work whose relentless purpose is to destroy anything and anyone associated with Dracula?
I've been having really bad luck with choosing books lately. I've never had so many books making me want to build a bonfire in my backyard. This is definitely one of the ones I would burn while jumping and singing for joy.
Where to begin?
I wanted to read this book because I truly enjoyed the original Dracula. I didn't really care too much that it was written by Bram Stoker's great grand-nephew, but if anything, I thought he at least would have respect for his great uncle's masterpiece. Boy was I wrong.
There are so many things wrong with this book. From erroneous characterization (Jonathan Harker as a drunk, really?) to just things that are so unbelievable (like Mina knowing how to drive a car, think about that, a high class woman in Victorian England just knows how to drive?) to completely predictable situations (like Quincey Harker really being Dracula's son, not Jonathan's, which you could see coming from the very first chapter and being told ad nauseum that there was a secret Mina kept from him)
The main villain, Bathory was also a joke. She was completely one dimensional, which made her soooooo evil she was actually funny. Her tantrums are the stuff of sketch comedies.
Dracula was, of course, not dead and he appears as a weak second-rate version of himself. If you loved him in the original, then RUN from this book, because it will screw with your head and mar the way you pictured him.
Stoker, Dacre not Bram, wanted to clarify the mistakes his predecessor made in the historical aspects of Dracula. He actually had Dracula, using the name Basarab, give a fictional Stoker a lecture about the faults in his book. This alone is enough to make you want to throw hot coffee on the book (or at least for me, I actually had to will myself to PUT THE COFFEE DOWN). A little subtlety, Dacre dear, okay?
And then there's the ending. Wow.
Mian becomes a vampire and dies all in the same half hour, it seems. Dracula dies, or so we think...completely set up for a sequel. And then, we see Quincey getting on a ship to New York, and behind him, without him realizing, are two crates with the name Basarab on them which also get on the ship. Can you guess which ship?
That's right, the Titanic. Marinate in that for a bit: vampire Mina, Dracula and their son Quincey on the Titanic. What do you think they'll do when the boats sinking?
I guess we'll find out, because he's making a SEQUEL!
Rating:
1 (and I'm being generous) out of 5 stars