Night Elf Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 Dracula? I loved it! I thought it was going to be hard to read but it was really easy to read, and I was sad it was over at the end. Then there is the Fred Saberhagen book which told the same story from Dracula's point of view. It was good too. Or Frankenstein? That was another one that surprised me. It was a great story.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoCalLynn Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 I have Frankenstein on my tbr list for this summer. I read Mary Shelley's biography by Muriel Sparks last month. She had a difficult life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seasider Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 I read Dracula in high school. I thought it very scary! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mergath Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 I've read them both. I was surprised at how good they are, too. I've read a ton of horror over the years and it takes a lot to freak me out, but there were definitely a couple scenes in Dracula that gave me the creeps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 Read both of them in middle school. Love Dracula!!! Have read it a few times. Frankenstein I didn't get into that much. Both are on my oldest ds's shelf. He hasn't read them yet however. But they are in my personal need to know lit category. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 Have read all 3 that you mentioned. I agree that the Saberhagen was kind of a fun twist since it retells the story (mostly) of Dracula but from Dracula's point of view. Neat to read them back-to-back. Since I love Dracula so much, I have read quite a few vampire books; I guess vampires are my favorite supernatural creatures. I enjoyed Frankenstein & found it was very different than what I had been expecting. I thought it was quite a sad story. I love the whole story behind how Frankenstein came to be written.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 After reading Dracula, my daughter enjoyed reading Renfield by Barbara Hambly From Booklist:Hambly has retold Bram Stoker's Dracula in the voice of a minor character, Renfield, the madman who becomes the vampire's slave-agent in England. In Stoker's original, Renfield is a harbinger, extremely strong and violent, given to an unnatural diet of flies. When Dracula occupies the estate next to the asylum in which he is confined, Renfield attempts several escapes, claiming that his master is calling him. Hambly creates a past for this possessed man via his diaries and letters to his wife and gives him occasional lucid moments. When Dracula imposes himself on Renfield's deteriorated mind, he, bound to an active purpose, becomes yet more lucid. When Dracula orders him to kill Van Helsing, he isn't strong enough to refuse, but on the journey from London to Transylvania, he develops the strength to resist the count, find allies, and eventually retrace his journey back from lunacy to sanity. Hambly superbly weaves Stoker's plot and style with her own, producing one of the best recent vampire yarns. Frieda MurrayCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyWImom Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 I just read Dracula again about 6 months ago because ds (10!) wanted to read it & I said "No, I need to read it again first!" I decided he would definitely get nightmares from it. And, I had forgotten how good it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsTheDay Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 My dd read them for school this past semester. (I was surprised they were selections in an honors college English class.) I don't think she cared for Frankenstein, but she really liked Dracula and is encouraging her younger brother to read it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Interesting side note... Is Draula buried in Naples? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2655354/Is-Draculas-final-resting-place-16th-century-headstone-unearthed-Naples-belong-Vlad-Impaler.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhschool Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Read Dracula, DS read Frankenstein. Does that count? Anyway, Dracula has X-rated stuff in it. Beware! (the scary is the least of it!) Frankenstein is a super sad book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snow Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 I read Frankenstein in high school and what struck me about it was how sad and depressing it was. Not at all like a stereotypical horror type of story. Of course, that was 20 years ago now and I tended to think of everything as being depressing then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nd293 Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 I'm not a fan of the horror genre, but I read Frankenstein a few years ago and though it was a wonderful, incredibly sad read. I started reading Frankenstein because I found a modern novel based on the story called A Monster's Notes by Laurie Sheck, which presupposes a meeting between the monster and Mary Shelley when she was a child, and fictionalises her life story while also telling the story from the monster's perspective. It was a beautiful story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIch elle Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Love Dracula too! I listened to it - the 2 narrators were great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie in Ma Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 I've read and loved both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Elf Posted June 12, 2014 Author Share Posted June 12, 2014 Interesting side note... Is Draula buried in Naples? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2655354/Is-Draculas-final-resting-place-16th-century-headstone-unearthed-Naples-belong-Vlad-Impaler.html Wow, that's pretty cool. I wonder what was supposed to have happen between his dd got him back and when he died. I wonder if he lived for years with her, or was he so injured during war that he barely made it back to her in time before his death. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seasider Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Anyway, Dracula has X-rated stuff in it. Beware! (the scary is the least of it!) I read it quite a while ago, but it was in a high school lit class. I do not remember anything I would consider x-rated? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsTheDay Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 I read it quite a while ago, but it was in a high school lit class. I do not remember anything I would consider x-rated? Googling will come up with just about every.single.thing in the book having a sexual connotation. I was shocked (and leery), and dd confirmed that there was only one such scene, she didn't take anything else as symbolism. Neither was it addressed by her prof. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 Dracula? I loved it! I thought it was going to be hard to read but it was really easy to read, and I was sad it was over at the end. Then there is the Fred Saberhagen book which told the same story from Dracula's point of view. It was good too. Or Frankenstein? That was another one that surprised me. It was a great story.. Yes, I read both of them. I have reread Dracula a number of times. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 Read Dracula, DS read Frankenstein. Does that count? Anyway, Dracula has X-rated stuff in it. Beware! (the scary is the least of it!) Frankenstein is a super sad book. What kind of "X-rated" stuff? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 Not Dracula, but my kids and I read Frankenstein one year. We really enjoyed it. Mary Shelley was also very interesting to read about! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 There are sexy lady vampires and John Harker is appreciative of them, Lucy is a bit forward, and Mina drinks blood from Dracula. There are some erotically written passages when not much is actually going on. I think this is one of the more explicit passages. I lay quiet, looking out from under my eyelashes in an agony of delightful anticipation. The fair girl advanced and bent over me till I could feel the movement of her breath upon me. Sweet it was in one sense, honey-sweet, and sent the same tingling through the nerves as her voice, but with a bitter underlying the sweet, a bitter offensiveness, as one smells in blood. I was afraid to raise my eyelids, but looked out and saw perfectly under the lashes. The girl went on her knees, and bent over me, simply gloating. There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive, and as she arched her neck she actually licked her lips like an animal, till I could see in the moonlight the moisture shining on the scarlet lips and on the red tongue as it lapped the white sharp teeth. Lower and lower went her head as the lips went below the range of my mouth and chin and seemed to fasten on my throat. Then she paused, and I could hear the churning sound of her tongue as it licked her teeth and lips, and I could feel the hot breath on my neck. Then the skin of my throat began to tingle as one's flesh does when the hand that is to tickle it approaches nearer, nearer. I could feel the soft, shivering touch of the lips on the super sensitive skin of my throat, and the hard dents of two sharp teeth, just touching and pausing there. I closed my eyes in languorous ecstasy and waited, waited with beating heart. But all that is going on there is someone is being bitten, it isn't X-rated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 I've read both. I really liked Dracula, but not so much Frankenstein. Too much hair pulling angst (What have I done?") in the latter for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ipsey Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 I'm a bad person. :( I thought both books were horribly boring. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan in TN Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 Dracula? I loved it! I thought it was going to be hard to read but it was really easy to read, and I was sad it was over at the end. Then there is the Fred Saberhagen book which told the same story from Dracula's point of view. It was good too. Or Frankenstein? That was another one that surprised me. It was a great story.. I loved Dracula - I found once I got past the first few chapters it was very compelling and suspenseful. I didn't care for Frankenstein as much, though I thought it was necessary to read in light of one of my favorite films, "Young Frankenstein" :D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 I loved Dracula - I found once I got past the first few chapters it was very compelling and suspenseful. I didn't care for Frankenstein as much, though I thought it was necessary to read in light of one of my favorite films, "Young Frankenstein" :D. That movie is hilarious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 I reread Dracula about 6 months ago and didn't remember a lot of it, although I'm pretty sure I read it in high school. I really enjoyed it.. I also love the Fred Saberhagen books. There are quite a few in the series, I have 4 or 5 of them, and I"m trying to get the rest but they are really old and not easy to find. I'll have to read Frankenstein. I don't remember reading it in the past, but I'd be surprised if I didn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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