It is 1868, and a twenty-one-year-old Bram Stoker waits in a desolate tower to face an indescribable evil. Armed only with crucifixes, holy water, and a rifle, he prays to survive a single night, the longest of his life. Desperate to record what he has witnessed, Bram scribbles down the events that led him here…
A sickly child, Bram spent his early days bedridden in his parents’ Dublin home, tended to by his caretaker, a young woman named Ellen Crone. When a string of strange deaths occur in a nearby town, Bram and his sister Matilda detect a pattern of bizarre behavior by Ellen — a mystery that deepens chillingly until Ellen vanishes suddenly from their lives. Years later, Matilda returns from studying in Paris to tell Bram the news that she has seen Ellen — and that the nightmare they’ve thought long ended is only beginning.
When it comes to the monster, the creatures that managed to burrow into society’s collective psyche, there can be few more enduring than the vampire. An elegant apex predator that sits higher on the food chain than us, and is sustained by the blood that runs in our veins. Of all the myths that surround these undead parasites, Dracula is hands down the most famous. The new novel Dracul by Dacre Stoker* and J D Barker takes a different approach to the story of everyone’s favourite bloodsucker. The premise is simple – what if the infamous Count and Bram Stoker were more directly connected than anyone ever suspected. I’ll admit that when I first heard about this novel, I assumed it was going to be a straight prequel to Dracula.Turns out I was wrong, it is an entirely different beast. I think Dracul could actually be far better described as the genesis of the Dracula myth.
How has this been achieved? Well, the authors have been delightfully sneaky. Their narrative mixes key factual elements from Bram’s early life with their own plot. For example, a quick search on Wikipedia confirms that Bram was bedridden at a young age. I’m a sucker for this sort of detail. I always appreciate fiction that uses information this way, taking facts and using them as the ideal jumping off point to a fictional tale. It feels like it adds an extra air of authenticity to proceedings.
The story alternates between two different time periods; the first follows Bram and his siblings while they are young, the latter when they have grown up. One of the things I particularly like is how the older version of Bram is portrayed. There is a damaged quality to the man. His earlier encounters with Ellen Crone have marked him, both physically and psychologically. Part of Bram will always be in thrall to this mysterious woman, and when called he is all but powerless to resist. It’s fascinating to watch how this internal battle plays out against the rest of the plot.
I also really enjoyed how the relationship between Matilda Stoker and Ellen was handled. Years after Ellen disappears from the Stoker’s lives, Matilda still writes letters to Ellen imagining that they are still in contact. Matilda is, in her own way, just as obsessed with Ellen as her brother is. The circumstances that surround Ellen’s disappearance still gnaw away. As a reader, we get real insight into just how much Ellen Crone impacted all the Stokers.
The other character who I imagine I am more or less obliged to mention is the novel’s title character. There is little doubt that Dracul’s presence is felt throughout. Elusive, and when he does appear, often enigmatic. Dracul’s disdain for humanity feels almost palpable. He views us as little more than cattle. Though he may appear in the form of a civilised gentleman, you know that Dracul is doing little to contain his rage. His blood-lust drives him in all things. If Dracul wants something, or someone, he takes it. Consequences are for mere mortals to worry about. This makes for the perfect villain, a creature that could almost be human but is entirely driven by their basis instincts. The need to overpower, to control and to feed is everything.
There are also a handful of deliciously gory moments. I’m not going to mention any directly, for fear of spoilers. Suffice to say they did make me go “Eeeeeeuuuuwww” on more than one occasion. Bugs, body horror, and bloodletting are always a winner in my book.
On a side note, I’ve always been insanely curious about how the collaborative process works when a novel is written by two authors. In this instance everything appears to flow so seamlessly I’d be hard pressed to tell you who is responsible for individual elements of the tale.
Dracul starts slowly but gathers pace with each passing chapter. Viewed in isolation, it is a successful reimaging of the vampire myth origin. Where it really succeeds however, is in paying reverential homage to its literary forebear. If you read Dracul and then Dracula, the lines between fact and fiction are going to blur together even further. I suspect it would make for a truly unique experience.
When it comes to a musical accompaniment for this novel, I nearly went for the gothic exuberance of Dracula by Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet. After much thought however, I decided the soundtrack to The Woman in Black by Marco Beltrami was more appropriate. I think it better captures some of the subtler elements of the story.
Dracul is published by Bantam Press and is available now.
*You may have spotted a potential familial link here. You’d be right. Dacre Stoker is the great grandnephew of a certain Irish author who may have been mentioned elsewhere in this review.
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