MY RATING
☆☆☆☆

SYNOPSIS

 

 

Dracula returns…

It has been some years since Jonathan and Mina Harker survived their ordeal in Transylvania and, vanquishing Count Dracula, returned to England to try and live ordinary lives. But shadows linger long in this world of blood feud and superstition – and, the older their son Quincy gets, the deeper the shadows that lengthen at the heart of the Harkers’ marriage. Jonathan has turned back to drink; Mina finds herself isolated inside the confines of her own family; Quincy himself struggles to live up to a family of such high renown. And when a gathering of old friends leads to unexpected tragedy, the very particular wounds in the heart of the Harkers’ marriage are about to be exposed…

There is darkness both within the marriage and without – for, while Jonathan and Mina wrestle with the right way to raise a child while still recovering from the trauma of their past lives, new evil is arising on the Continent. A naturalist is bringing a new species of bat back to London; two English gentlemen, on their separate tours of the continent, find a strange quixotic love for each other, and stumble into a calamity far worse than either has imagined; and the vestiges of something thought long-ago forgotten is, finally, beginning to stir…

MY REVIEW

Let me tell a little secret…
I nearly gave this book a hard pass.

How dare J.S. Barnes touch my beloved Dracula?

But this was the old me trying to get in the way. The same old me that keeps squealing whenever I pick a genre other than Horror. The old me that would rather not try to read something different.

NOPE!

Screw the old me.

I decided to go for it and see what J.S. Barnes could come up with.

As I’m writing this review, I keep thinking of fancy ways to describe what the author did in this book, but let just keep it simple: nailed it

J.S. Barnes nailed it.

The writing is impeccable and will immediately remind you of the original Dracula.

As with Dracula, if you’re not a fan of the epistolary form, this might not be for you. Just know that the format works just as great as it did in the original.

It could be classified as a slow-burner, which isn’t an issue to me. As long as I’m enjoying the story, the pace is secondary.

Overall, a fantastic surprise.

I really enjoyed this one and I’m glad I decided to give it a fighting chance.

If you’re a fan of Dracula, ‘Dracula’s Child’ should be on your TBR.

Huge thanks to Titan Books and NetGalley for sending me a review copy.

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