‘Dracul’ by JD Barker and Dacre Stoker – Book Review

I’ve always loved vampires. Bram Stoker brought to life the most infamous vampire of all: Count Dracula. When Stoker submitted Dracula to his publisher, he included a preface indicating, “The events here described really took place.” This was during the time of Jack the Ripper, so his publisher took out the preface and the first hundred pages. The only original draft that exists starts on page 102. No one knows what was in those first hundred pages… at least no one alive. I didn’t know any of this until I read more into Dracula while getting ready to read Dracul, the new prequel written by Bram’s great-grandnephew, Dacre Stoker (Dracula: Undead), and J.D. Barker (The Fourth Monkey book series). The book follows Bram Stoker and his quest against the evilest monster, Dracula. It proves that “even immortals have their beginnings.”

The book’s synopsis:

The prequel to Dracula, penned by a Stoker descendant and a bestselling writer, Dracul is a supernatural historical thriller in which a young Bram Stoker must confront an indescribable evil. It is 1868, and a 22 year-old Bram Stoker has locked himself inside a desolate tower to face off against a vile and ungodly beast, armed with mirrors and crucifixes and holy water and a gun, kept company by a bottle of plum brandy, praying to survive a single night, the longest of his life. Desperate to leave a record of what he has witnessed, Bram scribbles out the events that led him here–a childhood illness, a haunting nanny, stories once thought to be fables now proven true. A riveting novel of Gothic suspense, Dracul reveals not only Dracula’s true origin, but Bram Stoker’s–and the tale of the enigmatic woman who connects them.

The novel is in the same epistolary format as the original novel. The reader is able to see into each of the Stoker siblings’ (Bram, Matilda, and Thornley) minds, moving between the past and the present. We are introduced to a sickly young Bram, a child so ill that his family believes that he is at his last hour. He is saved by his childhood protector, Nanna Ellen, who is more than she appears to be. We are then transported to Bram in his early 20s. He has not gotten sick since he was a child and is in the peak of health. That is when Matilda tells Bram that she has seen Nanna Ellen, who has not aged since the siblings were children. This leads Bram, Matilda and Thornley into searching for Nanna Ellen, where they end up facing the ultimate evil, Dracula.

I liked that the novel was in the same format as Dracula. It had the feeling of the original work as well as the classic film, with the Stoker siblings each matching characters from the first book: Bram as Harker, Thornley as Dr. Seward, Matilda as Mina, and even a Van Helsing character named Arminus Vambery. Even the backstory played nicely into Stoker’s original inspiration, Vlad Dracul or Vlad the Impaler. Dracul was true to the original whole still giving the story its own unique twist.

Dracul was released October 2nd. It is available through  Amazon, Audible, iTunes and more. Signed copies of the book can be obtained through The Mysterious Bookshop in New York, NY, and select indie bookstores nationwide. Sink your teeth into Dracul this Halloween!