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    Dracul: A Novel
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    Dracul: A Novel
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    Dracul: A Novel
    Audiobook16 hours

    Dracul: A Novel

    Written by Dacre Stoker and J. D. Barker

    Narrated by Pete Bradbury, Vikas Adam and Full Cast

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The prequel to Dracula, inspired by notes and texts left behind by the author of the classic novel, Dracul is a supernatural thriller that reveals not only Dracula's true origins but Bram Stoker's—and the tale of the enigmatic woman who connects them.

    It is 1868, and a twenty-one-year-old Bram Stoker waits in a desolate tower to face an indescribable evil. Armed only with crucifixes, holy water, and a rifle, he prays to survive a single night, the longest of his life. Desperate to record what he has witnessed, Bram scribbles down the events that led him here ...

    A sickly child, Bram spent his early days bedridden in his parents' Dublin home, tended to by his caretaker, a young woman named Ellen Crone. When a string of strange deaths occur in a nearby town, Bram and his sister Matilda detect a pattern of bizarre behavior by Ellen—a mystery that deepens chillingly until Ellen vanishes suddenly from their lives. Years later, Matilda returns from studying in Paris to tell Bram the news that she has seen Ellen—and that the nightmare they've thought long ended is only beginning.

    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.

    Read by a Full Cast:
    Pete Bradbury, Narrator
    Vikas Adam, as Bram Stoker
    Saskia Maarleveld, as Matilda Stoker
    Raphael Corkhill, as Thornley Stoker
    Alana Kerr Collins, as Ellen
    Allan Corduner, as Arminius Vambéry

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 2, 2018
    ISBN9780525640479
    Unavailable
    Dracul: A Novel
    Author

    Dacre Stoker

    Dacre Stoker is the great grand nephew of Dracula author, Bram Stoker. He lives with his wife, Jenne, in South Carolina. The Un-dead is his first novel.

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    Reviews for Dracul

    4/5

    111 ratings18 reviews

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    • 2/5
      ‘’A crescent moon dangling in the sky offered the thinnest of illuminations, bathing the world in nothing but faint outlines, silhouettes, and shadows. The tower of Artane Castle was barely visible in the distance, lost behind rolling hills and farmland doted with the small homes of our neighbours. Beyond that were the hazel and birch trees of the forest, their inky branches scratching at the night sky in anticipation of a pending shower.’’Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a novel most of us have read. It is a work inspired by still unclear sources. Was it Vlad the Impaler or Countess Bathory that inspired him? Whatever it was, Stoker produced a novel that became a ‘’classic’’, justifiably or not. I thought that Dracul would be a literary effort to trace the thoughts and the sources that led Bram Stoker to create the (absolutely imaginary) Count figure. I can verify that the atmosphere in Dracul is well-constructed and the characters are interesting and (mildly) developed, However, my reading experience as a whole was extremely disappointing. There were times when I felt that the writers actually insulted my intelligence.Ireland, 1850s. The time of the terrible famine. In the Stoker household, the children are protected by the sorrow of the ones who aren’t privileged but they cannot be protected by strange forces that come from a world beyond our understanding. Ellen Crone, though, is there to protect Bram, Matilda, and Thornley. She is the mysterious nanny whose eyes seem to change colour once sickness strikes the house, whose face changes every time Matilda draws her portrait. Ellen is the angel that watches over the children but sometimes, the angels wear black. This will become obvious a few years later…Our story is told through the eyes of Bram, Matilda, and Thornley, spanning the decades from the 1850s to the 1890s. Told in diary entries, letters and in the usual third-person narration, the novel is written in an engaging style and Part I benefits from the multiple perspectives. The background of the novel is exceptional, no doubt about that. Apart from the mystery of the story itself and the alluring blue-eyed woman in black, we get the moon, wolves howling, snakes under stones, naked branches, windows opening by themselves, reflections in the glass, gargoyles, bogs, castles, nightly forests and a few (mishandled) traits of the Vampire tradition that was born in the Balkan region.It takes much more, though, to produce an actual work of Literature…Let me start with the least of the problems. Whitby is a magical place, legendary and haunting. It hurts me to say that the legends associated with the region and its famous abbey weren’t treated with the proper respect by the writers. Throughout the novel, there were parts that I would characterize as extremely graphic. Even I had to proceed with caution. In the first part of the novel, this was very effective. However, the rest of the book almost read like a 70s Hammer Horror movie. In fact, I think that Hammer films were more plausible. In the end, I just couldn’t take it seriously.‘’I’ll be okay’’? (repeated dozens of times!!!), ‘’I’ll be right back’’? ‘’Could you just..’’? In Ireland, in the 1850s? Are the writers joking? It was so irritating to find these linguistic abominations in a novel that is supposed to be an atmospheric and detailed read. In fact, most of the dialogue ‘’sounded’’ odd, unnatural. Vampèry speaks like a 21st-century lawyer in a silly TV-series. In addition, Matilda’s letters were a stupid inclusion which resulted in repetition, boredom, and anger on my part. Plus, the feeling that this was an unnecessary long novel was extremely tense. Certain parts seemed ludicrous, cheesy. Vampires writing their memoirs? God, no! Throw a melodramatic love story in the mix and there’s me running away faster than my shadow! Also: ‘’We will triumph or we will fail together.’’What? No. This is NOT Literature. It may be escapism, I’ll give you that. But I am not a reader who seeks ‘’escapism’’, this is not what I am looking for in a book.And now, personal rant time: The parts that tried to explain the origins of the Count have nothing to do with the historical facts. Frankly, I am tired and sick at heart to see Vlad Tepeș distorted for the sake of Gothic gimmicks. Was he violent? Well, obviously. People need to read some History...He was the man who stood against one of the vilest forces at the time, the barbaric Ottoman Empire. It is discouraging to see that writers who are too lazy to create stories of their own use historical figures to produce utter trash. The same thing happens with the stories about Countess Bathory. The Author’s Notes attempt to shed some light on the inspiration behind the books but they are didactic and preachy. And I wouldn’t bet my bookcase on the authenticity of the supposedly ‘’true’’ sources.Did I see the connection between the characters in Dracul and Bram Stoker's novel? I did and in that sense, one could say that was all that mattered. But for me, it is too little. Almost everything else ended up in a bloody mess (no pun intended…) and speaking strictly for myself, this book was a chore to read. If you want to read an actually well-written novel that leaves poor Vlad at peace and deals with Folklore, dashing vampires, beautiful cities and the Devil, then read Fear and His Servant by the Serbian writer Mirjana Novaković. This is what I call ‘’Literature’’...
    • 5/5
      This is a great book. I really enjoyed the way this story connects Bram Stoker's life with that of the tale of Dracula. The first part of the book, which details the lives of the Stoker children with their mysterious Nanna Ellen, was suspenseful and had some fantastically creepy descriptions. "I didn't answer her, though; I was too busy watching the worms as they wiggled out to greet us, slinking over the putrid soil from within the bed's bilious bowels."Matilda was one of my favourite characters, with her brave and clever nature.Definitely recommend this novel as a devotee to vampire and Gothic literature, as well as a fan of J.D. Barker.
    • 5/5
      Cracking way to begin a new year of reading. This prequel to the classic is about as meta as it gets. Written by Stoker’s great-grandnephew & well known author J.D. Barker (The Fourth Monkey), it draws heavily from Bram Stoker’s childhood, journals & notes he scribbled while writing the original.Bram, his family & real life acquaintances are the main characters. Also worth mentioning is some tall, thin, icky guy going by the name of Dracul who manages to steal a few scenes. This is a proper horror story. The writing team has done a bang-up job of creating an original tale but in a style reminiscent of classics such as Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde & of course, Dracula. It’s gothic creepiness at its best, a story that engages all your senses as it drags you kicking & screaming from Ireland to Germany & back again. (Be careful if you read this in public…you may find yourself drawing some strange looks as you mutter things like “Do NOT touch that”.)Be sure to read the author’s note written by Dacre Stoker at the end. It’s full of fascinating tidbits of how the original manuscript was written then carefully edited to reflect the times. It was purchased at auction some years ago by Paul Allen (cofounder of Microsoft) & he granted access to the Stoker foundation but only after they signed a non-disclosure agreement. What is known is that the first 100 pages are missing. It’s a gripping & skeery read that seamlessly combines fact, fiction & folklore. A must-read for fans of the original or Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s “Cemetery of Forgotten Books” series & Lauren Owen's “The Quick”.
    • 5/5
      Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J.D. BarkerSource: NetGalley and AudibleMy Rating: 5/5 starsI 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.
    • 4/5
      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!
    • 5/5
      Amazing atmosphere from the start, making this a true gothic horror. Nods here and there to the original Dracula.
    • 3/5
      I was really excited to read this book, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations. It is a good book, but I found the pacing to be too slow, for the most part. Also the switching between present and past for most of the book didn't really work that well for me, and the switching of viewpoints at other stages sometimes interrupted the flow. It's a story that would have been better presented if it were shorter. It took me a long time to read, mostly because the slow pace stopped me from feeling compelled to keep going for more than half an hour at a time. I also found the ending to be somewhat flat after a final escalation of action.In terms of content, it does very much feel appropriate for the period in which it's set. It is worth reading if you like vampire stories, nicely atmospheric and Gothic. Some readers will absolutely love this, but it just didn't manage, sadly, to hook me.I received my copy through NetGalley. My review is my honest opinion.
    • 5/5
      Ever read a new book and knew it had all the earmarks of a classic? That's how I felt reading DRACUL. Dark, tense, and engrossing, DRACUL keeps faith with the original DRACULA. DRACUL's Dracula isn't a potential lover, doesn't sparkle, and will likely never join a rock band or perform on the stage. He's ruthless, brutal, dismissive of those "beneath" him, and holds a grudge like nobody's business.Bram Stoker and his siblings, Mathilda and Thornley, are our Van Helsing like protagonists.. Their story, beginning when Bram was a sickly child everyone was sure would die, is told via journal entries and letters, flitting between their past and present. Nanna Ellen Crone is our mystery component. Who or perhaps better asked, what is she? Is she good or evil? How did she "cure" Bram? The questions surrounding Nanna Ellen flew fast and furious in my mind as I read.DRACUL is creepy, spine tingling, and made me jump at every little sound. It's not the devil you might encounter next door, but the boogeyman you conjure as you read, the bump in the night, the darker shadow in the corner of your bedroom, that's my preferred horror. The mystery surrounding Ellen Crone was simply the icing on the cake. DRACUL flat out delivers. Five stars, & those are never given lightly.5 stars
    • 4/5
      An authorized prequel written by the great grandnephew of Bram Stroker. A worthy addition to the Dracula lore written in the same style as the original. This time we learn the back story of Bram Stoker and how he came to be a vampire hunter. A great choice for October!
    • 4/5
      This book intertwines Bram Stoker's actual life with his literary creation. It's an interesting premise, and at times this book is suspenseful and even a little scary, however it's also too long and uneven. I liked the beginning of the book when Bram is a sickly 7 year old looked after by a nanny whose behavior is decidedly odd. I also liked it when there was a sudden flurry of missing bodies, beating hearts, rats, roaches and grave robbing. However, there was a lot of repetition, and when Dracul finally showed up near the end of the book he was a cheesy, melodramatic disappointment. This might make a fun B movie, and I was entertained enough to round my 3.5 star rating up to 4.I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
    • 4/5
      Dracul is a prequel to Dracula. I read Dracula the Undead (which I loved), also written by Dacre Stoker, so I was expecting Dracul to be very good. I wasn't disappointed. This darkly atmospheric Gothic horror was a joy to read. With all the new fluffy, sparkling vampire stories around these days, this was a real treat. (Sorry, I'm just not a fan of the new breed of vampires.)

      The only reason I gave it four stars, rather than the whole five, is due to the pacing. There were a couple of parts that seemed to take more pages than they needed, and my focus began to dwindle. However, the story did spring back to life, and I'm happy I stayed with it.

      I recommend this book, and if you read it, be sure to also read the author's notes at the end. I found them fascinating.
    • 5/5
      4.5/5 stars!

      I'm keeping this one short and sweet! I loved it!

      If you enjoyed Dracula, then you most likely will enjoy Dracul as well. I loved the premise of it and the execution. My only issue, and it's a small one, is that it took me a little longer than usual to get into it, but then the prose and my dark imagination kicked into gear and I was mesmerized.

      Highly recommended!
    • 3/5
      Initially starting well With great gothic overtones, this is an interesting addition to the canon and genre of Dracula and vampires. It sort of gets campy towards the end but the other parts of the story makesYou just want to complete it yourself. Very good but a bit too cinematic in the final act.
    • 4/5


      All fiction – and supernatural fiction especially so – requires us to suspend our disbelief and to accept that the world between the covers of a book is as real as the one we’re living in (if not more). The premise of Dracul however is even harder to swallow than the very existence of the Undead – the novel presents us with a Bram Stoker who has personal experience of vampires and who has a final showdown with none other than Count Dracula himself. The concept intrigued me even whilst setting alarm bells ringing in my head – would Dracul turn out to be the great Dracula prequel touted by the marketing blurbs or just another in a recent tradition of horror mash-ups? The fact that the novel is jointly credited to Dacre Stoker (Bram’s great-grand nephew) and horror writer J.D. Barker only fuelled my misgivings. Apart from my irrational prejudice against co-authored works, the Stoker name on the title page gave me a niggling suspicion that it was there primarily to capitalize on the link to Bram. And so, with some difficulty in setting aside pre-conceptions, uncertainties and pet peeves, I joined a youngish Bram keeping watch in an unnamed tower, eyes fixed on a heavy door behind which untold horrors lurk...

      I must say that the initial chapters did little to shake off my doubts . The shifts between Bram’s vigil (helpfully marked “NOW”) and his recollections of his sickly childhood, nursed by the enigmatic “Nanna Ellen”, seemed artificial, the dialogue between Bram and his sister Matilda unconvincing. However, once this backstory was set out and the action shifted closer to the (novel’s) present, I became increasingly engrossed. Like Bram’s original, Dracul follows a group of improvised vampire-busters on a hunt which leads them to the dark heart of Continental Europe. The pace of the plot mounts inexorably and culminates in a set-piece in a ghost-village outside Munich which seems to be as much inspired by horror movies and zombie tropes as by ‘traditional’ vampire fiction.

      Part of the fun of the book lies in looking for the parallels between this novel and the original, as well as references to real life events and figures. Thus, as in Dracula, Dracul is recounted through a series of journal entries, diaries and letters, giving the text an immediacy and allowing for different perspectives. There is material which is clearly gleaned from the short story Dracula’s Guest and expanded to fit the plot. The novel also has its own Van Helsing, in the shape of Arminius Vámbéry, a Hungarian Turkologist who, in reality, was an acquaintance of Stoker and might have influenced or served as a model for Van Helsing. Rather than a prequel to Dracula, I’d consider it more of a companion piece – a “pastiche”, in a positive sense, which delights in resurrecting vampire tropes largely shaped by Bram Stoker’s seminal novel.

      In an afterword to Dracul, Dacre Stoker explains that this novel is based on his ancestor’s actual notes and on the first hundred-or-so pages of the novel which were allegedly excised at the insistence of the original publishers. Then, Stoker ups the ante – Bram, he tells us, presented the manuscript as a “true story” and Dracula was not meant to serve as ‘entertainment’ as much as a warning against a very real evil. Now, of course, Dracula was neither the first nor the last Gothic novel to present itself as a “non-fictional” account. Presumably, Dacre is riffing on this trope. But this does raise an interesting question – namely just how far is Dracul actually inspired by Bram’s biography, handwritten notes and “original intentions” and how much of it is Dacre’s and J.D. Barker’s own invention? Scholars of the Gothic might illuminate us – in the meantime, Dracul remains an enjoyable vampire romp which nicely complements the (unbeatable) original.
    • 5/5
      Dacre Stoker & J.D. Barker’s Dracul is the Stoker Estate-sanctioned prequel to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, positing that Bram discovered a terrible secret in his youth that later inspired his writing of Dracula. Dacre Stoker and Barker draw upon elements of Bram’s original manuscript that were excised prior to publication, adding a fictional history of the Stoker family similarly based on historical fact including Bram’s illness, his brother Thornley’s medical career, his sister Matilda’s artistic talents, and his sister-in-law’s final years in an asylum. Stoker and Barker write in an epistolary style in keeping with the original Dracula, balancing two narratives for most of the plot: one tells the story of Bram as an adult trapped in a tower and the other Bram and his siblings’ experiences with the unexplained from a young age through the framing narrative. The story will particularly delight fans of Stoker’s original Dracula while even casual fans of vampire fiction will enjoy the style. As a bonus, the spine of the hardcover contains a design created by Matilda Stoker to add a further layer of verisimilitude to the work.
    • 5/5
      Stoker is back y'all!!!Bram Stoker is transformed into a fictional character and beamed right into a novel of his own creation. Together with his brother and sister and a few others, they battle the ultimate force of darkness... Dracul.okay so first off I have done a lot of research on this book and the behind-the-scenes of the creation and writing of this book. Let me start off by assuring you that Decre Stoker is in fact a real relative of Bram Stoker. He is his great-grand nephew. With that in mind let me also point out that together with his co-writer JD Barker, they got to view an original manuscript of the first edition of Dracula. That paired with the fact that Bram Stoker left a lot of notes behind and a lot of the original novel was cut out, is the essence of how this book came to be. This book is indeed written with intent on telling of the original 101 pages that were lost during the publication process of the novel Dracula.Stoker and Barker have become masters of interweaving not only their writing styles but fact along with fiction. The lines bleed together so well that you can hardly tell one from the other. To say that this book is very well written would be an understatement. Bravo to the authors as I can proudly tip my hat to this undoubtedly soon-to-be classic prequel to the original novel of Dracula.I really really enjoyed this book! so much so that I would like to reread the original novel and I would like to read Dracula's Guest as well as Decre's other novel Dracula the Undead, which is a sequel to the original novel. The original novel was so inspiring to generation upon generation and I feel that this novel is a perfect complement to it.Also I would like to say that in reading this book I definitely learned a lot about Bram Stoker and how and why he wrote the original novel that he did. a lot of what he wrote and indeed a lot of what is in this novel is true (or true folklore). In fact when Bram Stoker went to originally published his novel he wanted to have it published as non-fiction! ? He felt that Dracula and his legions of the undead were something evil that people needed to be warned about. And when you take into account all of the Irish folklore that he included and was inspired by in his tale, who can tell for sure? The Dark Prince might truley be out there... lurking in the shadows just beyond our reach.I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a good horror novel, REAL vampires or is a fan of Dracula lore in any way.
    • 5/5
      A good, gothic vampire tale. I loved it. I am so tired of the modern vampire schtick ala Twilight. The author's notes includes information regaring the writing and publishing of the orignal Dracula by Bram Stoker.
    • 5/5
      This is a great book. I really enjoyed the way this story connects Bram Stoker's life with that of the tale of Dracula. The first part of the book, which details the lives of the Stoker children with their mysterious Nanna Ellen, was suspenseful and had some fantastically creepy descriptions. "I didn't answer her, though; I was too busy watching the worms as they wiggled out to greet us, slinking over the putrid soil from within the bed's bilious bowels."Matilda was one of my favourite characters, with her brave and clever nature.Definitely recommend this novel as a devotee to vampire and Gothic literature, as well as a fan of J.D. Barker.