A thrilling, well-woven tale that spins a new mythology for Bram Stoker’s most beloved book. Much like Dracula, Dracul is a slow burn, especially at first, but that makes the payoff even better. Recommended for horror fans!

Bram Stoker and his siblings are taken care by a nanny Ellen Crone. Ellen is taking care of Bram as he is a sickly young boy. As time goes by, Bram and Matilda become aware of Ellen’s strange habits. She tells them a tale of the Dearg-Due. What/who is a Dearg-Due? Bram is very sick and Ellen is not there to care for him. His mother fears his death. At the last minute, Ellen arrives and magically heals Bram. What does she do? As Bram and Maltida investigate Ellen’s room while Ellen is out, they are more mystified about her. Ellen picks up and leaves the household suddenly with no notice. Why? They go searching after Ellen but have no success. They do meet a tall, dark figure that becomes known as Dracul — evil personified.

According to the author’s, this book is a prequel to Dracula. They wrote this book due to letters and diaries found. Before “Dracula” was published, he was not successful as he said it was nonfiction. He also had to cut the first 101 pages of his book and edit the rest of the book and say it was fiction. This book uses Ireland for the setting of this book. This is an amazing novel. Read it!

This was an ok book. I really wanted to enjoy it more than I did. The other novel by this author Dracula: The Undead was a better novel.

Bram Stoker's novel was one of my favourite required readings at my univerisity course, so it was inevitabe that I would want to read Dracul. I wasn't disappointed. Complicated and delicate as a spider's web, it makes you shiver and read on with excitement.

I've already recommended it to some friends who love the original story.

This book was an interesting look at the man behind the famous vampire. I knew very little of Bram Stoker aside from the fact that he wrote Dracula. This alternates between "Now" and Stoker's youth. From his sickness and curious nanny to his adulthood and some interesting experiences, this book kept me enthralled! It is purported to be developed from actual family journals and notes written by Stoker. Some of the events are a little wild and far fetched to believe but it was definitely an interesting read. I did get a little confused at first by what was going on in the "Now" sections and had a hard time following them. By the end it all came together. A fantastic read if you're into vampires.

If you are a vampire fan, I'd recommend this novel. If you're a fan of gothic horror, I'd recommend this novel. But as good as it is, and as much as I loved it, I can't say that it has the same wide appeal that _The Historian_ did.

One of my most anticipated reads for 2018! One of the authors is a relative of Bram Stoker, which makes this nover super interesting. This is a must read for all fans of Dracula!

Started reading it and could not continue. Sorry, a waste of time. I love all books about Dracula. This one just is weird. Did not hook me. A book has to hook me from the beginning or just forget it. Life is too short to spend it on a book that does not appeal. Sorry!

Who does not know the epic horror story Dracula, written by Bram Stoker in 1897? Now Dacre Stoker (a relative of Bram) and J.D. Barker aim to tell us a possible story about how Bram Stoker got the idea for his epic scary tale.

Bram Stoker is a sickly child, often close to death. Only his nanny Ellen Crone seems to be able to help him through the tough phases. But Bram and his sister Matilda suspect that there might be something wrong with Nana Ellen. For one, she seems to change the color of her eyes. Her appearance also seems inconsistent. Sometimes she looks youthful and beautiful, other times she appears like an elder woman.

When Bram suffers from his illness again, this time closer to dying than ever before, it is Nana Ellen who magically cures him. Even though Bram’s parents insist that their doctor is responsible, Bram knows Nana Ellen did something to him that has changed him forever.

Matilda and Bram set out to find out more about the woman who has taken care of them for years. They realize that they have never seen their Nana eat anything. They decide to investigate and find out that her room is filled with soil and that mysterious maps are hidden inside.

Something is off, that is for sure. But before the children can find out more, their Nana vanishes. She leaves behind lots of questions. Only one thing seems certain: Bram’s sickness is cured and it is Nana Ellen’s doing. Little do they know that there lives and that of their Nana are entwined and that adventures lie ahead of them.

Dracul is a horror adventure novel with likeable characters and an interesting story. It feels like a classic adventure tale with twists and turns, and would make a great movie. Lots of story elements are based on the true backstory of Bram Stoker. It helps that as a relative of him, Dacre Stoker had access to many information regarding Bram’s life. The result is a vivid tale that I flew through and enjoyed a lot. Not groundbreaking in any way, but definitely a fun read for people who like scary pieces.

An exceptional novel, lot of fun, and a great prequel to Bram Stoker's masterpiece. Characterizations were perfect, plot and setting were spot on, and the tone was both frightening and mysterious. Especially good was the connection drawn between Stoker and Count Dracula. This reads more like a historical novel than a horror novel, but the horror is definitely there.

Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J.D. Barker
Source: NetGalley and Audible
My Rating: 5/5 stars

I never thought there would be a vampire book, from any genre, that would come close to replacing my all-time favorite vampire book, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I am damn glad to know I can still be surprised!

On the surface, Dracul was intriguing; from the cover to the synopsis, I knew it would be something I would, at the very least, like. At second glance, I was a bit concerned with the overall length of this book. I’ve been an avid reader long enough to know, I get intimidated by the really big books and at 500+ pages I worried about DNFing Dracul without really giving it a chance. And so, I scurried off to Audible.

From the first word to the very last, I soaked up this book like a paper towel soaks up a spill. With a full cast of narrators, this dark, unnerving, and completely enthralling story had me mesmerized. While I want to say I was most intrigued by the men of this book, Bram and Dracul, I found I was most drawn to Ellen Crone and Matilda and through those women, I saw and heard the story in a very different light. Both women are strong, courageous, and intelligent creatures who have been thrown into situations not of their making. For Ellen, the story is long and winding with so much tragedy, heartache, and misery as to be nearly unbelievable, yet she has persevered. Matilda has had something of a privileged life, but has always been somewhat sidelined because of her gender, the time period, and her devotion to her brother, Bram. Matilda is headstrong and determined and very much drives much of the action in this book.

As to the men, I found Bram’s brother, Thornley to be among the most interesting. Though he doesn’t have much of a role to play in the first part of the book, once Matilda enlists his help and his wife has been attacked, Thornley is all in. Like Ellen Crone, Thornley is punished for his love and only becomes involved in the madness to hunt down a nightmare when his wife’s life is at stake. Though Thornley loves his brother and sister, he loves his dear wife even more and seeks only to avenge her condition. What’s more, Thornley introduces the group to Vambéry, a most mysterious and wickedly intelligent man, who aides the hunting party in their endeavors. Though Vambéry is committed to helping the group, his loyalties and beliefs are clearly divided which adds a whole other level of tension to a story already fraught with tension.

The Bottom Line: I will be forever grateful I listened to this book and didn’t attempt to physically read it. Because of the length and intricacy of the story, I fear I may have given up on what turned out to be a truly phenomenal read. Every narrator brought something special to the story and though there are many voices involved, all were quite clear, and I never found myself wondering, “Who’s speaking now?” In fact, I found the voices and perspectives to be quite discernable, quite clear, and absolutely true to the personality of the character. This is a fascinating and complex story from start to finish and I feel certain, this first read through, or listen through as the case may be, won’t be my last.

My thanks to the Publishers via NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this a 4 stars or 8/10. I found it a very plausible prequel to Dracula, inspired by notes and texts left behind by Bram Stoker, the great grand uncle of Dacre Stoker.

This story is a story of several parts, the first part I struggled with a bit as I found it not as interesting as other parts. It tells the early years of Bram as a sickly child and how he was looked after by a woman named Ellen Crone. As events nearby to Bram's home begin to happen it's not long before the furtive imagination of Bram and his sister Matilda go into overdrive and they suspect that Ellen might be involved with the events. Eventually Ellen disappears without trace from their lives and they are at a loss as to where she has gone.

In a later part on her return from Paris, Matilda is convinced that she has seen Ellen and that her appearance appears to have not changed as if she hasn't aged the years that she should have done. Did she really see her or not and if so, how can she not have aged in that time? I found that I got on a lot better with the story as Bram and Matilda became older in the later parts of the story and that it moved at a much faster pace then.

I enjoyed this prequel to Dracula, I have to admit that whilst I've seen many films starring him I've never read the novel by Bram Stoker. This was a story that I chose as a Halloween inspired read. I found it well written and at times you wonder whether it's actually fact or fiction, as there appears to be a lot of factual inspiration to the story.

I do enjoy J.D. Barker's writing and have never read any work of Dacre Stoker before. I do intend reading the sequel that he has written to Dracula and also reading Dracula itself at some point. I hope that this is not the last story that they work on together.

If you like your horror fiction with lots of gothic history then this is definitely the story for you.

I thought this book was very interesting. It was very hard to get into at first, but then I realized what was going on. At the end really loved this book! For people starting to read, give it a chance will get better!

This prequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula centers around 21-year-old Bram holed up in a tower waiting for the big faceoff with "you know who." He is scrambling to record his experiences so the reader gets the backstory of his supernatural experiences, as well as journal entries and letters written by his siblings.

The book started out great--Bram's beautiful but mysterious nanny time and again saves him from his unknown illness, but once she exits, the book loses its magic. It's bland for a while--everyone seems to move on happily until one day, Bram's sister Matilda decides she has to know how the nanny healed Bram and what the effects were on him and they start this whole hunt for the nanny and discovering the world of vampires. Suddenly brother Thornley and his wife become major characters in the book, but as they were largely ignored earlier, we don't have the foundation of caring about him and the trauma his wife is experiencing. And the nanny's character was all over the place, first she's this loving angel, then she's tormenting and playing with Bram, then she's a victim turned monster, and in the end she's noble and honorable. She was so inconsistent that I just didn't buy any of it. Then the "expert" appears and the book seems to be stealing from the original Dracula. The "adult" Bram sections seemed to be the same scene over and over with different scary creatures. In the end, I was just glad to be done with this book. I recommend reading the original Dracula and skipping this one.

Dacre Stoker certainly had big shoes to fill and I believe he honored his ancestor's legacy. I hope that there will be more from Decre - this certainly fits the bill for a Dracula follow up. I would like to read more like this.

This book was really, really, really slow for me. I had a pretty hard time sticking with it. getting into the book took some strength and I struggled through the first 100 pages. Don't get me wrong, it's my type of story, I love all the Dracula stories and I LOVE Bram Stoker - so I immediately requested an ARC when I saw the author's name. Didn't we all? Unfortunately it fell a bit flat for me. It started slow, but just the constant repetition of things had me almost wanting to quit.

I loved the idea that the characters were Bram Stoker's family. Although a bit hokey in parts, it is equally creepy in others- which is definitely what I like to read! I can only imagine though how hard it is to do 'yet another' vampire story... I DO think that we can do without the "omg what is happening!" Clearly, we all know he's a vampire! I loved the incorporation of the journal entries as well. It made feel like I was in Bram's head - a fascinating viewpoint knowing and loving the original stories - this is nice homage to Bram's tales, but could use a bit more "fresh blood".

Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC. #Dracul

Great read! I was drawn to this book because a descendant of Bram Stoker's wrote the book using notes from Bram himself. Would definitely recommend this book!

This is the 160th book I've read this year. It's also far and away the best book I've read this year. Perhaps the best book I've read in many, many years.

In my library sits a small shelf dedicated to great vampire novels. I've read no small number of books on the topic, and prior to reading Dracul, only three made it onto that shelf. Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, Lauren Owen's The Quick, and of course, Bram Stoker's Dracula.

And then there were four, as Dracul proved to be an incredibly worthy addition to the few elite offerings of a crowded genre.

Truly great tales of the sinister, "gentleman vampire" prove hard to find. There are hundreds of books about tender-hearted teenage vampires who fall in love with humans. And there are easily as many about gleefully sadistic and perverse vampires, à la Anne Rice. But those that chronicle a tale of the traditional, classically evil macabre breed of vampire are truly few and far between.

Thus, imagine my joy at discovering Dracul (and during Halloween week, no less!)

A must read for those who love Stoker's Dracula and the literature that has followed in its wake.

A suggestion: Refrain from reading the author's note until you have finished the novel. It won't ruin the story if you don't, but it provides some jaw-dropping information that I think is best appreciated only after you have finished the book.

I've always loved vampires. Bram Stoker brought to life the most infamous vampire of all: Count Dracula. When Stoker submitted Dracula to his publisher, he included a preface indicating, "The events here described really took place." This was during the time of Jack the Ripper, so his publisher took out the preface and the first hundred pages. The only original draft that exists starts on page 102. No one knows what was in those first hundred pages... at least no one alive. I didn't know any of this until I read more into Dracula while getting ready to read Dracul, the new prequel written by Bram's great-grandnephew, Dacre Stoker (Dracula: Undead), and J.D. Barker (The Fourth Monkey book series). The book follows Bram Stoker and his quest against the evilest monster, Dracula. It proves that "even immortals have their beginnings."

The book's synopsis:
The prequel to Dracula, penned by a Stoker descendant and a bestselling writer, Dracul is a supernatural historical thriller in which a young Bram Stoker must confront an indescribable evil. It is 1868, and a 22 year-old Bram Stoker has locked himself inside a desolate tower to face off against a vile and ungodly beast, armed with mirrors and crucifixes and holy water and a gun, kept company by a bottle of plum brandy, praying to survive a single night, the longest of his life. Desperate to leave a record of what he has witnessed, Bram scribbles out the events that led him here–a childhood illness, a haunting nanny, stories once thought to be fables now proven true. A riveting novel of Gothic suspense, Dracul reveals not only Dracula’s true origin, but Bram Stoker’s–and the tale of the enigmatic woman who connects them.

The novel is in the same epistolary format as the original novel. The reader is able to see into each of the Stoker siblings' (Bram, Matilda, and Thornley) minds, moving between the past and the present. We are introduced to a sickly young Bram, a child so ill that his family believes that he is at his last hour. He is saved by his childhood protector, Nanna Ellen, who is more than she appears to be. We are then transported to Bram in his early 20s. He has not gotten sick since he was a child and is in the peak of health. That is when Matilda tells Bram that she has seen Nanna Ellen, who has not aged since the siblings were children. This leads Bram, Matilda and Thornley into searching for Nanna Ellen, where they end up facing the ultimate evil, Dracula.

I liked that the novel was in the same format as Dracula. It had the feeling of the original work as well as the classic film, with the Stoker siblings each matching characters from the first book: Bram as Harker, Thornley as Dr. Seward, Matilda as Mina, and even a Van Helsing character named Arminus Vambery. Even the backstory played nicely into Stoker's original inspiration, Vlad Dracul or Vlad the Impaler. Dracul was true to the original whole still giving the story its own unique twist.

Dracul was released October 2nd. It is available through  Amazon, Audible, iTunes and more. Signed copies of the book can be obtained through The Mysterious Bookshop in New York, NY, and select indie bookstores nationwide. Sink your teeth into Dracul this Halloween!

Initial thoughts: “Goddess bless the Stoker family. Bram’s Dracula story is a gift that keeps on giving. There is nothing I did not love about this collaboration between Dacre Stoker and J. D. Barker. As a prequel, it has everything I love about the original Dracula story without messing with it. As a stand-alone, it is cleverly and convincingly portrayed to be the real story behind the story with the reasons for the 102 missing pages of Bram’s original manuscript abundantly clear. Creepy, intense, gory in the right places, great characters – it is the perfect blend of storytelling elements. Plus, like his previous novel, the Stoker family authorizes this prequel. I am most definitely a fan!”

Now: I stand by my gushing. Dracul is a genuinely entertaining and scary story that works for both Dracula fans and those who may have never read the original story. Personally, because I am a superfan, I love the idea of Bram Stoker meeting vampires and that his personal experiences are what fueled his novel. I love that a distant relative attempted to fill in the gaps of the missing manuscript. I love the “Is it true?” aspect of the authors’ notes. I especially love how formidable Bram’s sister is. Seriously, that girl did not let convention dictate anything she did. I adore how Mr. Stoker and Mr. Barker turned on their head the characteristics of the original cast of characters and played with all of the roles. Plus, I had way too much fun with the little nods to the original; it felt like my own Easter egg hunt. Still, I do think that someone who is not as familiar with the original tale will find Dracul intense and enjoy it just as much as I did.