You’ll want to read ‘Dracul’ with the lights on

You’ll want to read ‘Dracul’ with the lights on

It was just a little scratch.

You wouldn’t have even noticed it, except for the blood — and there was a lot of that. A surprising amount, in fact, for such a small scuff on the side of your wrist, the end of your finger, the top of your thigh, or, as in the new novel, “Dracul” by Dacre Stoker & J.D. Barker, your neck.

He could hear the thing breathing.

It was a raspy sound, half-howl, part-groan, and Bram Stoker was running out of items he could bless to keep the creature from the room where he sat. He watched the door, fearing he would lose the battle before daybreak.

As he waited, Stoker remembered…

He’d been born a sickly child and had been confined to his bed in an attic room for much of his first decade of life. It was a time of famine in Dublin and he might’ve even died were it not for his father’s job, which allowed for care, a decent home, ample food and a governess for the Stoker children.

Nanny Ellen Crone was stern, but loving, and the children adored her though she came and went as she pleased, which vexed Stoker’s mother. As Stoker remembered, Nanny Ellen saved his life during a particularly bad bout with his illness, but he couldn’t exactly recall how she’d done it. Not long after that, and a childishly impulsive chase through a bog (or was it a nightmare?), Ellen disappeared.

Didn’t she? Many years later, Stoker’s sister thought she saw Ellen in Paris . His oldest brother thought he’d seen her in Clontarf. It was her but not her, looking as though she was still a girl.

Ellen would have been middle-aged by then, so how could that be? And why did Stoker still have wounds on his wrist that tormented him when he thought of her and the night she saved his life?

He thought about those things, as a beast or wraith or something scratched at his door.

Before you crack the cover of “Dracul,” make sure you have enough light bulbs. You’re going to want to use them to make your house nice and bright and safe because this may not be the most innovative premise for a novel, but it’s one of the scariest.

Gone from the classic tale is its original sense of distance; here, authors Dacre Stoker (a great-grandnephew of the real Bram) and J.D. Barker put Bram Stoker directly into a tale that dives, neck-first, into horror with hinted end-notes of truth. That’s excellent and it ratchets up the fright-factor, though it’s tempered when we’re asked to believe Stoker as a 7 year old is more intelligent and articulate than any mid-19th century adult might be.

But nevermind. Stay, as this gothic novel with undertones of modernism gently draws you into a snarling sense of doom until you’re fully snared in a lock the doors, turn on the lights scare session. Stay, as you’ll race read to get past the goosebumpiest fright, heart galloping, hoping that the locks hold.

Stay, as “Dracul” leaves you scratching for air.


Talk to us

Please share your story tips by emailing editor@kentreporter.com.

To share your opinion for publication, submit a letter through our website https://www.kentreporter.com/submit-letter/. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) Please keep letters to 300 words or less.

More in Life

t
City to begin major renovations at Kent Commons Community Center

Work on $1.5 million project to start soon to upgrade recreation facility

t
Spring is near as nesting eagles return to Riverbend in Kent

Eagles can be spotted near Riverbend Golf Complex and along the Green River and Interurban Trail

t
Kent YMCA to offer free Community Day on Saturday, Feb. 24

Facility will be open noon to 3 p.m. to all for swim, gym and other activities

Voiceover actor Kat Cressida will visit Auburn at Unlock the Con on Feb. 17-18 for meet and greets, an exclusive dinner with a Q&A panel and a Sunday “Brunch with the Bride.” (Courtesy photo)
Disney voice actor Kat Cressida to host meet and greet in Auburn

Tickets are available for this two-day fandom event at the Outlet Collection’s Unlock the Con on Feb. 17 and 18.

t
Performers wanted for return of ‘Kent Has Talent’ show

Registration starts Feb. 1; auditions March 23-24; show set for May 23

t
Cider & Ale Trail coming to historic downtown Kent March 8

Event to feature cideries, breweries, distilleries from Washington and Oregon

Construction at the Snoqualmie Casino. CAMERON SIRES, Sound Publishing
Snoqualmie Casino expansion inches closer to completion

Convention space, ballroom and 210-room hotel to be completed by 2025

The Seattle Dykes on Bikes at the 2023 Making Strides of Seattle breast cancer walk. Courtesy photo.
Lesbian motorcycle club offers community and security

Membership continues to grow for the first Washington state chapter of Dykes on Bikes.

t
Lots of Toys for Joy gifts donated, distributed by Puget Sound Fire

Gifts included nearly 3,850 toys; 1,050 stuffed animals; and more

Image courtesy King County Library System
KCLS releases best books list of 2023

Librarians are always reading — here’s their top picks for this year.

t
New pastor to deliver Christmas message at Kent Lutheran Church

The Rev. Tormod Svensson first new pastor in 24 years at the downtown church