Hiya bibliophiles!
TODAY we’re ranting about Dracula, My Love by Peter Tremayne.
Let’s start with the superficial complaining. The cover is godawful. It’s one of the worst 80s pulp fiction covers I’ve ever seen. I mean really, did no one stop to think that covers need to attract the buyer? Usually, I can forgive a cover if what’s between the covers is a good time. This book failed miserably.
We meet the tragic Morag McLeod at the end of her story reflecting on her life to led her to her choices. A real man-hater (with good reason) Morag wants a peaceful life for herself as a governess to make her own way in the world. Morag is NOT likeable. She is somewhat of a milquetoast main character. What drives her is basically her distrust of men. But, more on that later.
Dracula is introduced to us as an eccentric Count in the bowels of Transylvania. Gone are his bloodthirsty and ruthless ways in favor of an “intellectual” searching for the truth of nature and immortality. We only get glimpses of his “darker” side of his actions towards side characters. Other than that, his desperation to keep Morag human is weird and uncharacteristic of the Count.
For some inexplicable reason, the Countess Bathory makes several appearances as a side character in this novel. Was she needed to move the plot forward? Absolutely not. She and the other vampires are just a sideshow and completely unnecessary to the plot.
Speaking of unnecessary- for the love of God can we move on from the sexual assaulting of female protagonists to create a “tragic backstory” for them? There was absolutely no reason why Morag had to be repeatedly (!!!) abused in order to end up in Transylvania. It’s lazy fucking writing and lazy fucking story telling.
The romance, if you can call it that, was terrible. There was no slow burn, or any burn, whatsoever. Morag doesn’t fight with any of the explanations the Count gives her about the secrets of Castle Dracula and BOOM! she’s all doe eyed over the Count. She spends less than a week there, supposedly heartbroken and anti-dude. and decides to become a vampire at the end of that week.
The Count literally does nothing but smoulder his peepers and talks to her like an equal and she’s down for the bitey-bitey. It just wasn’t believable. Tremayne could have AT LEAST made the romance interesting. But no. It was just bad cover to cover.
Then, of course, there’s Van Helsing. What would a Dracula book be without the good doctor. EXCEPT he does absolutely nothing and does not serve any purpose whatsoever in this story.
To add insult to injury, let’s talk about the pacing. It was terrible. Morag bounces from memory to memory in chronological order as if she’s reading a poorly written book report. The plot dragged until the last 50 pages when everything is revealed et cetera.
Literally the only redeeming thing about this book is I paid 99 cents for it.
TLDR; It was a bad time. 2 Stars.
Ink & Tome 