I thoroughly enjoyed this book, though I did have several gripes about some of the plot elements towards the end.
I’ve never read Bram Stoker’s Dracula or any history about Vlad Tepes; it’s simply not a huge interest of mine, so I don’t know how different or new or accurate Kostova’s version of the story is from everything else that’s been done. All I know is that it’s entertaining and well-written. Her descriptions are vivid, if overlong for my taste (if I’d been reading instead of listening, I’d have skimmed them), and the characters for the most part seemed to have realistic and consistent personalities. And there’s an “evil librarian.”
The audiobook version of this is delightfully well-done. The story is told by a series of first-person narrators, many of them in letters, and every character (including the non-pov characters) is voiced by a different person. (This means there are no dialogue tags in the audiobook; I want to go look at the paper book to see how different the conversations are.)
The story begins with a 16-year-old girl, whose name I forget who is never named, finding a strange book and mysterious letters in her father’s library, which leads to a hunt for Dracula. Her father tells her his story in bits and pieces (and I kind of wanted to thwap him, especially later on, since it would have made more sense to give the girl a synopsis of his whole past at the beginning, and then fill in the details. But that would have been less interesting plot-wise). We also hear from the father’s teacher, Rossi, via his letters. I was very glad the audiobook had been recorded with several readers, or it would have been impossible for me to remember as each scene changed whether I was with the girl, the father, or the teacher, watching events 15-20ish years apart.
The plot had a few coincidences and unecessary bits. The characters seemed to meet too many other people who just happened to have mysterious books of their own, at least one of whom scarcely seemed worth the mention. Too, there’s a minor character who shows up at the (rather anti-climactic) climax who was barely mentioned before and isn’t necessary for the events of the scene. (That is, he’s necessary as it’s written, but it could have been written differently.) [1]
Worse, there are some unfortunate out-of-character actions towards the end. It almost struck me as if Kostova realized she needed to bring all her plot threads together, so she made the characters do things they wouldn’t have otherwise. [2,3]
Random thing that amused me #1: All the times a character would start off a letter with something like “I don’t have much time to write…” and then go on for what must have been pages giving details of history or archtecture or setting. They must have aced their timed essays in school.
Random thing that amused me #2: The dramatic music at the end of the chapters. Many times, it was appropriate. (“He had a mysterious book!” DaDummmm!) Others…not so much. (“Then we went into the parlor and ate a delightful dinner.” DaDummmm!)
Spoilers follow.
SPOILERS
Why did Dracula create and deliver the books and then try to keep people from finding him? I presume this was a game.
[1a] The Turkish guy, for example, who just happens to show up in the restaurant to meet Paul (the father) and Helen.
[1b] The other guy(s) who bothered me were the random dragon-book-finder at the conference and the Oxford guy. Now that I am poking around on the net I see that they’re the same guy (Hugh James). (The problem with audiobooks is I don’t always hear the names right and if I can’t remember something I can’t go look it up.) That makes a little more sense, but I think he could have been left out entirely. (wikipedia says, “In an ensuing struggle, individuals mentioned throughout the story mysteriously converge in a final attempt to defeat Dracula.” The ‘mentioned’ and the ‘mysteriously’ are the bits I have a problem with.)
[2] Helen’s abandonment of Paul and her daughter seemed unconvincing. I can logic it through so it makes sense, given that she’d been bitten twice and was depressed, but I don’t really believe she would have run away. (And wouldn’t Dracula have looked over the wall and made sure she was dead?)
[3] The biggest puzzle — maybe I missed the explanation — was that Paul and Helen simply stopped looking for Dracula once they’d found his tomb and found Rossi. Having done so much work and knowing Dracula was still out there, it seemed they should have started looking for other hiding places rather than feeling safe.