Last weekend I got an advance copy of the Stoker-endorsed Dracula sequel. I'm not done with it yet (although I'll probably finish tomorrow) and:
1) I'm fairly confident that the only significant stuff coming from Stoker's notes are the occasional bits of backstory (like, Harker will reminisce about how he originally met Mina).
2) It is badly written. Granted, this is an uncorrected MS, but: whew. If I'd known to do it when I started, I'd have kept a running count of the cliches.
3) If you listed a bunch of different ideas for a Dracula sequel, they're in this. ALL of them. So it's bananas, which I have to admit does make it kind of entertaining. But probably not in the way that was intended.
4) Major plot point:
So... Elizabeth Bathory is another vampire. And she was Jack the Ripper. And that's why Dracula was trying to get to London originally. See?
As to 4) I have to say: Whoa! That's the crackfic.
And there's SO much more! Like
because of her dalliance with Dracula, Mina hasn't aged. And she's now discovering that she's a little bit superpowered. And since she got pregnant post-Dracula... so is her son.
It reminds me a little of Nicholas Meyer's Holmes pastiches. Except for being terrible. So it's educational, because Meyer kinda made it look easy.
Oh ... dear. And I've read almost all of those crackfic notions in
other
Dracula -themed books, done with varying levels of success. Maaaan, now I'm conflicted. Do I want to buy a copy so I can laugh and laugh at the cliches, or do I want to avoid it because it will make my head explode and I shouldn't give those people any of my money?
Jilli, get it from the library so you can do #1 without doing #2.
Jilli, if you don't care about it being a promo paperback, I'd be happy to send it to you. (When my friend gave it to me, I thought of you.) I got it during a weekend trip so it's been smooshed in luggage and dogeared a bit. But I'm certainly not going to want to reread it, so you'd be welcome to it.
Jilli, if you don't care about it being a promo paperback, I'd be happy to send it to you. (When my friend gave it to me, I thought of you.) I got it during a weekend trip so it's been smooshed in luggage and dogeared a bit. But I'm certainly not going to want to reread it, so you'd be welcome to it.
Eeee! I would be thrilled to have your promo paperback copy, thank you!
Just finished. And wowzers. Sample cliched phrases, all taken from from within about a dozen pages before I got tired of keeping track:
cutting through his skin like butter
through bitter tears
Quincey's pulse quickened
opposite sides of the same coin
she was on thin ice
they were cut from the same cloth
There's something so goofy near the end that I want to believe that they're deliberately taking the piss. Not for the "plot twist" so much, because that was telegraphed, but... it plays out in a way that's
extremely
evocative of a famous movie. I actually don't want to spoil it because it's so outrageous, but I did put a post-it there for Jilli.
And good news -- they're clearly setting up a sequel!
And there's SO much more! Like
I guess we now know there's
one person out there who actually liked the LoEG movie.
