Customer Reviews

Dracula, My Love: The Secret Journals of Mina Harker

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I loved the novel Dracula when I was younger so was excited to review this new version told through the eyes of Mina Harker. It seems her original journal didn't tell the whole truth . . . she was not as actually repulsed by Dracula as she seemed in the original book, but was actually quite attracted to him. In the novel Dracula, My Love, Mina is a bit of a women's libber and unsatisfied sexually with her straight and narrow husband. In fact, all the characters are a bit different in this version. Lucy is not only beautiful but a bit of a slut, Van Helsing is an idiot filled with misconceived notions of vampires, and Dracula is the poor misunderstood vampire who really doesn't want to hurt anyone. While I liked the idea of this novel and thought the writing good, it was a bit too Harlequin romance for me. I enjoyed the first portion the most which was mostly a recap of the original novel but after that, I got tired of Mina's condescension of the men who were trying to help her and of her two-timing her husband with Dracula. I think fans of Twilight might enjoy this tale but for myself, I'll stick with the original Dracula.

I'd give this 3 1/2 stars but since amazon only allows full stars, I'm upping this to four because I think James is a good writer and I was just the wrong audience for the book.

There are several books available that tell the story of Dracula from Mina Harker's perspective, but none have been as intelligent nor come close to the original as Syrie James' novel.

"Dracula, My Love" is an account of Bram Stoker's Dracula seen through the eyes Mina Harker. As in the original novel, the narrative is given from the journals of Mina and Jonathan. Mina, however, keeps a more shocking and intensely romantic journal in secret shorthand, free from the prying eyes of those who might seek to discover the events that are not recorded in Bram Stoker's version. In this spellbinding novel, Mina is both terrified and intrigued by Count Dracula.

Mina heads for a holiday to Whitby after her fiancé, Jonathan Harker, leaves for the continent on business to Transylvania. Not having heard from him in months, Mina is deeply worried about him and of her friend, Lucy Westenra, who has taken up sleepwalking and is looking rather pale. Her mind is also preoccupied with the devastatingly handsome foreigner who has just arrived in England and has taken an interest in her.

Although Mina misses Jonathan terribly, she is swept off her feet by the attentions of Mr. Wagner (aka Count Dracula). He is charming, intelligent, worldly, cultured and sympathetic. When Mina shares her concerns about Jonathan and Lucy, he knows just what to say to put her mind at ease. He is always near and seems to appear whenever she wishes to see him. She feels drawn to him despite her moral obligation to Jonathan. She feels confused and ashamed, but the thought of not seeing him again fills her with grief. When Mina comes to realize that she is in love with Mr. Wagner, she resolves never to see him again despite her breaking heart.

Dracula, however, has plans of his own and vows to keep Mina for himself. He spins a web of passion, deceit, and uncertainty around Mina to always keep her guessing at what the truth is. Syrie James' Dracula is not the monster Bram Stoker paints him out to be. He is evil, but he is also a deeply passionate man who is alone. He wants someone to share his lonely existence with and feels he has found his soul mate in Mina. It is that passion that propels Dracula to make the horrifying choices he does. He will stop at nothing to keep her, even at the risk of losing her love or bringing about their possible destruction.

The novel follows the events of Bram Stoker's Dracula but is fleshed out and given a richer narrative by Syrie James. She makes a great attempt to show us richer, three-dimensional characters than the ones of Bram Stoker, adding backstory for both Dracula and Mina Harker's origins. This book was an absolute joy to read and I will be adding it to my personal library.

Syrie James pens an interesting spin on the classic vampire novel with "Dracula, My Love". Commendable for its expansion of the character of Mina and ability to draw the reader into her story, while maintaining the original storyline's cohesiveness, the book is a nice, modern spin on the tale.

My largest critique comes of the handling of the Dracula character. Instead of maintaining the characteristics of the original Stoker representation, James chooses to present her antihero as a little too misunderstood for his own good; instead of a dark, tortured hero who Mina loves in spite of herself, Dracula gets a treatment which makes him a little too sanitized. The conflict is erased too easily; for a more compelling story, I think the vampire should have been left a little more of his villainous traits, with Mina falling for him anyway.

The other major issue I had with the novel was the blending of the Stoker content with James'. Especially in terms of dialogue, there is a distinct schism between what James has written and what was in the original novel; either James should have rewritten more of the Stoker dialogue to blend better with her own book, or made her own verbiage a little more antique.

Aside from these points, this was a satisfying read. I like getting into the brain of Mina and getting more backstory on her, while still having the same tale presented by Stoker. Fans of modern paranormal romances who want to get back to where a lot of the genre tropes began should enjoy this book; fans of the original looking for a more cerebral adaptation might be a little less enthralled, but still entertained.

Absolutely wonderful! Mesmerizing.... like Dracula wrote it himself just to roundup a few more victims - what charisma! Haven't read a book that's kept me this interested in a long time. This is not classic literature, but it is a well-written, captivating story that makes you want more!

'Dracula, My Love' is the third novel by acclaimed Hollywood screenwriter (turned novelist), Syrie James.

As the title suggests, James's novel is a retelling of Bram Stoker's original Gothic tale. Our protagonist is Mina Harker, who is recounting a time in her life when everything was thrown into disquiet and discontent. Seven years after the events that bought a Mr Wagner (née, Count Dracula) into her life, and Mina still senses his presence and yearns for his forbidden touch...

The more I read in the Urban Fantasy genre, the more I am fascinated with its origins. And it seems I am not alone. 'Dracula, My Love' is the second novel to come out that retells and reshapes Stoker's classic tale (the other novel by Karen Essex is called 'Dracula in Love').

You may think you know the tale of Dracula, and can therefore gain no fascination or insight from a retelling. True, you may know the players and the setting. The Whitby cliffs, Lucy Westenra's tragic death and the twisted triangle of Mina Murray, Jonathan Harker and Count Dracula. But writers like Syrie James and Karen Essex are revisiting the original tale from a modern perspective and setting Stoker's Gothic story ablaze in modernity.

One of the finest aspects of 'Dracula, My Love' is Syrie James's heightened awareness of Stoker's time and setting, as she draws on fascinations of the past as well as modern sense. She cloaks the Dracula myth in inventive historical facts, drawing on the legend of Vlad the Impaler but also referencing 'pop culture' of the 1800's. 'Dracula, My Love' is awash with many interesting historical tidbits - like the fact that Oscar Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' was released in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine the same year that Stoker's 'Dracula' tale is set, making for an insightful comparison.

And then there are the times when Syrie James adds modern perspective and common sense to Stoker's tale. Like in the character of Doctor Van Helsing, whose medical methods are brought into disrepute when James hints that the good doctor's 'blood transfusions' are killing his patients.

Syrie James is writing 'Dracula, My Love' in the wake of 'Twilight' and 'True Blood', and fans of Edward Cullen, Bill Compton and the like. Hence, 'Dracula, My Love' tells the romantic tale of Mina Harker and Count Dracula. This is the focal point of the story, as told by Mina herself. And really, this romance still holds so many fascinating angles and back-story's, as James highlights. Dracula and Mina are the ultimate star-crossed lovers; Dracula the forbidden fruit, and Mina his innocent Eve. At times I wished that James had kept the character of Dracula more terrifying, for there are times when she justifies his actions with excuses and reasoning. However, it's impossible to tell whether such protestations of innocence are in fact Mina being an unreliable narrator, trying to defend her falling for the Count? And really, that's half the fun of reading 'Dracula, My Love'... trying to figure out how much Mina is a victim of circumstance and how much she willingly succumbed to Dracula's temptations...

'Dracula, My Love' is a wicked and titillating re-imagining of the classic Gothic tale. Mina is no longer relegated to the swooning heroine in Syrie James's story, she is instead the willing temptress and lover of the 'monster' Dracula. This is like an adult 'Twilight', right up the 'True Blood' alley and a truly tempting retelling of a classic horror story.

The author uses classic gothic style and has a great knowledge of literary history as she tells us about Mina's love with a dark stranger. This is a wonderful and well-written sequel to Dracula.

This was given to a friend as a gift who reportedly enjoyed it. She found the general flow of the writing to be directional hence easy to follow yet suspenseful. Overall she found the story interesting and recommends it to other readers.

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy:
[...]

Reading Dracula has long been on my list of things to do. I loved The Historian, I read vampire books by the bushel, and I've heard time and time again that Dracula is a book celebrating technology and gadgets (admittedly, it's "shorthand" and "typewriters", but those were the texting and iPhones of their time). My nook came pre-stocked with a free version of the book, but even then (and I hate to admit it) my deep aversion to epistolary novels held me back. I just can't get excited about a book told after the fact, through snatches of diaries and letters. I want action; I want immediacy! Every once in awhile I can push myself past the initial dislike, but that requires me to be trapped in scenarios involving desert islands (or family trips) with no other books in sight.

With this background in mind, I'm sure you can understand that I approached DRACULA, MY LOVE with equal parts hope and fear. Hope that I would find hints of the great book I had always planned on reading, fear that Syrie James would fall short in her adaptation and add yet another roadblock between me and ever reading Dracula. In the end, my hopes were exceeded and my fears entirely assuaged. Rather than ruining anything, DRACULA, MY LOVE is a gateway drug for those of us who have yet to read vampire primary source material.

DRACULA, MY LOVE is an accessible first person story told from the point of view of the admirable Mina Harker (or `Mina Murray' in the start of our story). Mina is a believable product of her Victorian upbringing, and beyond that, she is also intelligent, honorable, and curious. It is a mistake to view her skills with shorthand and typing through our modern lens ("Can't everyone do that?"). James does an excellent job drawing the reader in to a period mindset, showing her peers' admiration for Mina's mastery of these new sciences. While there were times when Mina's willingness to accommodate the men in her life was a bit much, my moments of exasperation were largely a product of how invested in her I had become. I cared about Mina and the choices she was making, the life she was choosing. She was so vivid and pivotal, I can't imagine the story of Dracula without Mina at it's center.

Despite having never read the "real thing", DRACULA, MY LOVE holds the same enthusiasm for technology and science that I imagine the original does. I am a complete sucker for the juxtaposition of science and myth, and DRACULA, MY LOVE has enough practical problem solving and mysterious bat/cloud/wolf creatures to make me swoon. While James sets a new camera angle on a familiar old story, she also draws the reader in to ask the same questions that fuel her story from the very first page, "How much do you trust your conclusions? What can you prove? What if what you `know' is wrong?" It is this spirit of curiosity and problem solving that stayed with me when I closed the book and put my head on the pillow. What did I just read? How much did I trust the opinions and accounts as they were laid out?

What really happened?

Sexual Content: Sensual scenes that suggest sex.

As a lover of all things vampire, I had to read this novel. I love the classic Bram Stoker's Dracula and I thought James did a fine job of blending the original with Mina's story. I feel that James gave us an accurate picture of life in Victorian England and the confict for such a modern woman as Nina. There was quite a lot of suspense and just a bit of eroticism which I admire. The ending left me wondering... will there be a sequel someday? I hope so.

I got a copy of this book through Librarything's Early Reviewer program. I love the original story of Dracula (Qualitas Classics)but always wished that the women characters were more filled out. This book does a great job of doing that in a believable way and paints Dracula into a more complex character than he was originally portrayed as.

The whole book is told through the viewpoint of Mina Parker. Through her eyes we see Lucy's decline, hear of Jonathan's troubles in Transalvania, etc. The story line closely follows the original Dracula storyline but the interactions between Mina and Dracula are more filled out. You also see more of Mina's relationship with her husband Jonathan. This definitely comes off as more of a romance than the original Dracula (Qualitas Classics), but mostly it is a Victorian fantasy of sorts.

I thought the book was well done. The language and writing style mostly stays true to the original Dracula, and the original Dracula storyline is basically followed (if embellished on quite a bit). Mina Harker is a wonderful complex character: she is dutiful, yet independent, she loves her husband, yet is drawn to Dracula. She is a character that is easy to love and empathize with, she is even admirable at points.

The characters of Jonathan and Dracula are also filled out nicely. Neither of the male leads is completely good or completely evil. Jonathan can be overly restrictive and traditional towards Mina; which suffocates her at times...yet he is also a loving husband. Dracula is more accepting and encouraging of Mina's non-traditional behavior (wanting to work outside the home and be educated) but is selfish when it comes to what he wants.

This book ends up being less about the mystery behind Dracula and more about Mina's struggle to decide between two men who truly love her but each have faults of their own. That being said there is still some mystery and urgency throughout this book. The book would have been more engaging and unpredictable if I had not already known the story of Dracula so well.

Overall the book is well done and a must read for Dracula (Qualitas Classics) fans, especially Dracula fans who have always wanted the role of the female characters in Dracula expanded. This take on Dracula is definitely more of a romance than a horror, although not annoyingly so, and it is aimed towards a female audience. Some of the steamy scenes in the book get pretty explicit so I would recommend for an adult audience. I enjoyed this book and would definitely consider reading other of James' books in the future.