Sunday, October 2, 2011

BW40: Spooktacular October


I've seem to have gotten into a vampire, werewolf, ghosts, angels and demons reading kick lately.   Last year for the month of October I read Frankenstein and was surprised because the story wasn't even close to what the movie had been like.  Maybe I had watched Mel Brooks Young Frankenstein one too many times *grin*    Then I read Dracula: The Undead by Dacre Stoker, Bram's great grandnephew, inventive sequel to Dracula. 


Barnes and Noble: At last—the sequel to Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula, written by his direct descendant and a Dracula historian  Bram Stoker's Dracula is the prototypical horror novel, an inspiration for the world's seemingly limitless fascination with vampires. Though many have tried to replicate Stoker's horror classic- in books, television shows, and movies-only the 1931 Bela Lugosi film bore the Stoker family's support. Until now.

Dracula The Un-Dead is a bone-chilling sequel based on Bram Stoker's own handwritten notes for characters and plot threads excised from the original edition. Dracula The Un-Dead begins in 1912, twenty-five years after Dracula "crumbled into dust." Van Helsing's protégé, Dr. Jack Seward, is now a disgraced morphine addict obsessed with stamping out evil across Europe. Meanwhile, an unknowing Quincey Harker, the grown son of Jonathan and Mina, leaves law school for the London stage, only to stumble upon the troubled production of "Dracula," directed and produced by Bram Stoker himself.

The play plunges Quincey into the world of his parents' terrible secrets, but before he can confront them he experiences evil in a way he had never imagined. One by one, the band of heroes that defeated Dracula a quarter-century ago is being hunted down. Could it be that Dracula somehow survived their attack and is seeking revenge? Or is their another force at work whose relentless purpose is to destroy anything and anyone associated with Dracula?

I thoroughly enjoyed it, however, I've never actually read Dracula by Bram Stoker.   Decided this year I'm finally going to read Dracula, especially since I'm on the fore mentioned vampire kick.  Plus I happened to stumble across his very first book The Snake's Pass which looked really interesting so picked it up:



Amazon:   Arthur Severn, a young Englishman on holiday in the west of Ireland, is forced by a storm to stop for the night in a mysterious village, where he hears the legend of "The Snake's Pass." Long ago, it is said, St. Patrick battled the King of the Snakes, who hid his crown of gold and jewels in the hills near the village. But it is not only legend that haunts the town. The figure of the demonic money-lender Black Murdock looms over the village, as he searches for the lost treasure while manipulating the townsfolk to his own evil ends. Even more threatening than Murdock is the shifting bog, personified as a baneful "carpet of death," which will swallow up anything -- and anyone -- in its path. Art and his friend Dick will brave the dangers of the bog to seek out the treasure, but the sinister machinations of Murdock will lead to a deadly conclusion! Featuring a slow accumulation of terror worthy of Le Fanu, The Snake's Pass was Bram Stoker's first novel. A clear precursor to Dracula, The Snake's Pass was the only of Stoker's novels set in his native Ireland. This edition follows the text of the first edition published at New York in 1890.

Come along and join me in a spooktacular read of  Dracula by Bram Stoker.  And along the way, you may as well check out his other stories.

What spooktacular books are you reading this month?

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5 comments:

  1. Dang, I already chose my Halloween reading--a giant collection of Victorian mystery stories and Roald Dahl's ghost stories.

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  2. The Graveyard is great for October--but not particulary scary. I'm not really into horror.

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  3. I read a cozy this week, Beaglemania, I didn't actually review it but did post description/details

    I think I read Dracula a very long time ago.....will have to drag it out again. Planning on reading Yellow Moon by Parker Rhodes this month

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  4. Does Stephen King count ? He is next on my list I think.

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  5. @Jean - Ronald Dahl ghost stories - will have to check them out.

    @Kaye - Depends on the author. Some I can handle.

    @Book Dragon - I'll have to check out Parker Rhodes. Never heard of her before.

    @Paul - Yep, King counts!

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Thank you for your kind comments.