Jonathan and Mina Harker have begun raising Quincey and are enjoying their lives with their friends who survived Transylvania. But the nightmare that they thought was over is not…It only just began in Transylvania.
“How do we know what truly constitutes death for one who is un-dead?”
I got through this sequel a lot faster than I had anticipated – about 560 pages in a week. I did, however, need to make a list of original characters from Dracula and new characters in this. Which I’m so happy I did and made it easier to track who the characters were as I continued reading.
Dracula’s Child is a quick read that’s in the same epistolary format as Dracula by Bram Stoker. I think I’ve not picked up certain books previously because I didn’t think I’d like the format of letters, diary entries, etc. But I actually did like it for Dracula and Dracula’s Child – so that just goes to show…Even when you think you won’t like something, you can try it out and find that you do actually enjoy it.
Barnes is so eloquent and uses beautiful language. No one speaks the way he wrote the book, which made it similar enough to Dracula that it seemed Stoker wrote this as a sequel. Barnes must’ve done so much research to be able to write this way.
“I sauntered into Mr. Shone’s boudoir to discover my associate all but in flagrante delicto with the brawny peeler. Although Dumont covered himself with alacrity, I glimpsed upon his left thigh the raw red mark of an incision.”
Barnes had some incredibly important points to make too. Such as the following:
“I think that learning good judgment, however late and whatever the cost, is one of the reasons why we were given life in the first place.”
In addition to making Quincey wise beyond his years, Barnes makes a great point of human growth that I think is overlooked in the society I’m living in. One of the reasons that we have to learn in life is so that we can grow. People make mistakes; it’s partially what defines humanity. Obviously from the very fucked up people that have affected and influenced the world and its history, humans aren’t born with “good judgment.” Learning through the mistakes that are made, that’s how humans become better. But I see a lot online of people not being compassionate towards others who make mistakes and don’t have 100% judgment. And no one is ever going to have 100% judgment; that would be perfection, and no human is perfect. Nature itself is not perfect – that’s why species keep evolving and the earth moves. Outside of humans, nature is not perfect and keeps trying its best to reach perfection.
Read on.
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