What’s that in the sky? It’s a Larry Bird! It’s a Plain Jane! No, it’s a Travis Blake!
Time for another Loser’s Thoughts on Substack Lit-terature.
I just finished the first book in Blake’s series, Dracula’s Ghost. This book is a love letter to Stoker’s original story, showcasing a deep understanding and respect of the legendary Dracula. Blake did serious behind the scenes heavy-lifting to make this book historically accurate and it really shows. He does such a good job of continuing the story and carrying the feeling Stoker created with his work. The book follows Stoker’s characters and continues the story. It does not read like fan fiction or anything of the sort – it reads more like Stoker’s great-great-(not sure how many greats here)-grandson, Dacre Stoker who recent penned Dracul — a prequel story that I found quite good. Blake’s book feels similar, both in quality and vibe.
The feedback I have for this one would be in regards to the structure. The book does a lot of jumping around in the timeline and I became a little confused at times. It’s not difficult to read or impossible to keep track of things, but I do think maybe having larger sections in each time would aid in the readability.
That’s all I got for this one — it’s very well done and I will eventually be returning for the sequels. I will finish by saying the absolute best way to enjoy this book would be to read the original Dracula or a decent summary of it, then dive straight in headfirst without looking.
Read original Note here.
