11/17/2024

I Read Dracula and it Sucks

Howdy everyone! School and work are kicking my butt as usual. I've started going in on the weekends to weigh samples for my thesis. We will see how it comes out! I'm also moving at the beginning of the year and will be living with my husband and girlfriend. The schedule got sped up but I'm not distraught and I'm looking at the positives. I'm also less stressed about things because I'm seeing that the fascists that won the US election are so goddamn incompetent that they're already sabotaging themselves. I also got on progesterone! I wasn't sure what to expect but it's turning out to improve my mood and sleep! Finally, I'm branching out from Monster High and getting more toys. I bought this eeveelution Mega Blok kit, but what I desperately want is this Monster High doll house.

As for the title, I finished Dracula and I'm not impressed. Dracula starts off incredibly strong with Jonathan Harker being trapped in the Count's castle but that's really where the novel peaks. Fundametally, the horror of Dracula is very Victorian, centering around female sexuality and foreigners. Characters that start out strong like Harker, Renfield, and Van Helsing all inevitably become annoying or act drastically out of character because of a woman. Mina and Lucy are effectively cardboard cutouts of women used to propel the plot forward while every man in their life fawns over how saintly they are. The pacing is horrid with long stretches of the novel being talking and the action getting little screen time; the confrontation and killing of Dracula is literally three pages at the very end of the book. In short? I can only recommend this book if you're a horror writer or a horror historian. It has aged terribly and it will not resonate with you.

Because of how bad Dracula was, I have started writing my own vampire novella. I love Vampire: The Masquerade and am going for something inspired by but not set in that world. I'm using Dracula's characters as templates as well because I think I can write something better. I've joined the Horror Writers Association and want to be part of their mentorship program where I'll be taught by a professional horror writer. I have to have a piece of polished work for it and so I'm hoping to submit part of my novella. This is what I gotta do to chase this dream. I've got four stories submitted right now but haven't heard back on any of them. We will see how things go for me.