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8797999's review
3.0
Not my favourite of the series, a bit disjointed but it all came together at the end. I thought there could have been a bit more to the end with Kate and Genevieve but there are two more books in the series so perhaps there is.
3.5/5 rounded down.
3.5/5 rounded down.
wannabekingpin's review against another edition
3.0
All Reviews in One Place: Night Mode Reading
Imagine America during the 60s to 80s – full of vampires. Andy Warhol? Vampire. Mad Men? Probably vampires. Vampires, just like the warm, feel the need and want to get famous, become movie stars, rock stars. Much like actual movie stars, famous people, rock stars – wish to become vampires. Problems are: some vampires don’t even show up on film, leaving them with such duties on set as special effects (ripping off clothing, carrying “floating” things around); while talented folk who are becoming vampires – often lose their talents. But this problem, unlike having no image on film, can be solved by faking it. There’s a new drug in town, called Drac, that gives you all the vampire traits for an hour or six. And this is how some young man named Johnny Alucard has evened out the scales among these two tribes of humans vs vampires: both parties crave each others blood. For if Drac runs out, well, some states don’t even consider vampires legally alive to be killed for blood again. In the meantime, Dracula is on everyone’s lips. Stoker’s name as pseudonime is as common as Smith. Directors are trying to overthrow each other by making better Dracula movie. Adult film industry is blooming with Dracula Rising and Dracula Sucking. Capes, castles, and intense need to tell the folk you are an indirect Dracula’s get is a must in Hollywood if you want to be a somebody.
Johnny Alucard, back then known as Ion, is the last of Dracula’s get. During war in Romania his own people, his own commando, threw him at Dracula’s feet as a tribute, as a snack, as an exchange for their own necks. Ion felt no regret over it for, in truth, the boy barely felt anything at all. This empty shell of a boy, with no fear or emotions in him, became the perfect vessel for Dracula and his final plan. For, after all, World can be taken in more than one way, and it doesn’t have to involve guns.
The book is very fine and interesting. It’s the author’s constant need to put names, backstories for the names, references, and so on, together with massive scene descriptions (which are great, don’t get me wrong, but what’s too much is too much!) – made it a chore, no longer a pleasure. I couldn’t listen to this book in audio form, for my mind would start filtering the droning that was in no way relative to the story and the next thing you know – missed a bit. So I can’t give the book more than 3 out of 5, but be assured, I shall read the fifth one in the series.
Imagine America during the 60s to 80s – full of vampires. Andy Warhol? Vampire. Mad Men? Probably vampires. Vampires, just like the warm, feel the need and want to get famous, become movie stars, rock stars. Much like actual movie stars, famous people, rock stars – wish to become vampires. Problems are: some vampires don’t even show up on film, leaving them with such duties on set as special effects (ripping off clothing, carrying “floating” things around); while talented folk who are becoming vampires – often lose their talents. But this problem, unlike having no image on film, can be solved by faking it. There’s a new drug in town, called Drac, that gives you all the vampire traits for an hour or six. And this is how some young man named Johnny Alucard has evened out the scales among these two tribes of humans vs vampires: both parties crave each others blood. For if Drac runs out, well, some states don’t even consider vampires legally alive to be killed for blood again. In the meantime, Dracula is on everyone’s lips. Stoker’s name as pseudonime is as common as Smith. Directors are trying to overthrow each other by making better Dracula movie. Adult film industry is blooming with Dracula Rising and Dracula Sucking. Capes, castles, and intense need to tell the folk you are an indirect Dracula’s get is a must in Hollywood if you want to be a somebody.
Johnny Alucard, back then known as Ion, is the last of Dracula’s get. During war in Romania his own people, his own commando, threw him at Dracula’s feet as a tribute, as a snack, as an exchange for their own necks. Ion felt no regret over it for, in truth, the boy barely felt anything at all. This empty shell of a boy, with no fear or emotions in him, became the perfect vessel for Dracula and his final plan. For, after all, World can be taken in more than one way, and it doesn’t have to involve guns.
The book is very fine and interesting. It’s the author’s constant need to put names, backstories for the names, references, and so on, together with massive scene descriptions (which are great, don’t get me wrong, but what’s too much is too much!) – made it a chore, no longer a pleasure. I couldn’t listen to this book in audio form, for my mind would start filtering the droning that was in no way relative to the story and the next thing you know – missed a bit. So I can’t give the book more than 3 out of 5, but be assured, I shall read the fifth one in the series.
hummeline's review against another edition
2.0
I've really enjoyed the previous Anno Dracula (Draculae?) books, but this one just seemed a little... less than. I think part of it is due to it being mostly composed of short stories, but it seemed more like a way for Newman to play around with references instead of give us a full plot. I love seeing Gené and Kate—and honestly Penny!—again, but it made me long for the days of the previous books, where I felt higher stakes, and there were characters I cared about. Johnny himself is just... dull, and I couldn't really care about his main goals—and so ultimately this fell flat because of that. There were definitely some bright spots, so it'll be three stars.
pizzaaa's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
wyrmdog's review against another edition
4.0
The story starts off in Romania and introduces us to the character that headlines the book. His story is almost ethereal in its tragedy of pain and betrayal, but it is also cemented solidly by the presence of a character that has shown up repeatedly in the stories that came before, and it is through him that we set the stage for the entirety of the book, even though for the largest part, that course seems an afterthought until it reveals itself as the primary motivator of everything, all along.
Perhaps the result of being a collection of novellas, the story is a little disjointed and lacks a coherent arc, feeling instead like a sequence of events that rise and fall all on their own, and only together and presented as a novel do they betray any narrative clumsiness.
The stories in and of themselves are largely just as entertaining as Newman's previous outings have been, and include encounters with a Scooby gang with the Punisher (and others) as members and rather condescending takes on both Buffy and Vampirella. I do believe that for every pop culture reference I understood there was at least one I did not. It's dense and smart and almost smug, unapologetic and necessarily so.
The Anno Dracula series has always been a bit of a subversion of popular vampire stories, an excellent and intelligent look at another way vampires might incorporate themselves into the world at large were they to forego keeping themselves a secret, an examination of the world and its history writ large with absurdity and wit. So one must be prepared for those subversions, the skewering of properties and characters that the reader may hold dear. It is more love letter than lampoon.
It feels a bit disappointing that Genevieve must be rescued as often as she is (particularly given her age and one might assume, power), and both she and Kate are largely bit players in the entire arrangement. They remain the heart of the book, though, like planetary bodies continually pulling apart and coming together again in a gravitic dance, Penelope a distantly orbiting dark star.
Far more satisfying than the diversion into the 60s and its compulsively disjointed referents, Johnny Alucard is still plagued with too many easter eggs and script excerpts that do little to enhance the story but if indulged, are entertaining in their own right.
Once again, I four-star a book I spend considerable time picking at. I know I do that and in part it is because I like it so much. Whatever its faults (if they can be said to be such), Johnny Alucard delivers another superb outing that feels as much like a logical extension of the world Newman has set in motion as it does a look back at fragments of the world as seen through a shattered funhouse mirror.
Perhaps the result of being a collection of novellas, the story is a little disjointed and lacks a coherent arc, feeling instead like a sequence of events that rise and fall all on their own, and only together and presented as a novel do they betray any narrative clumsiness.
The stories in and of themselves are largely just as entertaining as Newman's previous outings have been, and include encounters with a Scooby gang with the Punisher (and others) as members and rather condescending takes on both Buffy and Vampirella. I do believe that for every pop culture reference I understood there was at least one I did not. It's dense and smart and almost smug, unapologetic and necessarily so.
The Anno Dracula series has always been a bit of a subversion of popular vampire stories, an excellent and intelligent look at another way vampires might incorporate themselves into the world at large were they to forego keeping themselves a secret, an examination of the world and its history writ large with absurdity and wit. So one must be prepared for those subversions, the skewering of properties and characters that the reader may hold dear. It is more love letter than lampoon.
It feels a bit disappointing that Genevieve must be rescued as often as she is (particularly given her age and one might assume, power), and both she and Kate are largely bit players in the entire arrangement. They remain the heart of the book, though, like planetary bodies continually pulling apart and coming together again in a gravitic dance, Penelope a distantly orbiting dark star.
Far more satisfying than the diversion into the 60s and its compulsively disjointed referents, Johnny Alucard is still plagued with too many easter eggs and script excerpts that do little to enhance the story but if indulged, are entertaining in their own right.
Once again, I four-star a book I spend considerable time picking at. I know I do that and in part it is because I like it so much. Whatever its faults (if they can be said to be such), Johnny Alucard delivers another superb outing that feels as much like a logical extension of the world Newman has set in motion as it does a look back at fragments of the world as seen through a shattered funhouse mirror.
biblio_lore's review against another edition
3.0
I've joined the ranks of people who said they wanted to love this. I truly did. I want to love you, book, but ultimately you didn't have enough story to keep me interested. I give it the three stars because the writing is really well done and as per usual, Newman is a master with the pop culture references. The problem, however, is that they get in the way here when The story doesn't have enough meat to contain them. Added to this, I felt like Johnny, the main villain and focal point, wasn't strong enough to carry this novel. Kim Newman is an excellent writer and everything here is well done but the material just doesn't hold for me.
zeloco's review against another edition
3.0
I'm a little upset - it started strange, then it got really fun, but then it somehow managed to fizzle out, even with the 'main action' being quite clever. Perhaps it was since I jumped into this without knowing anything (or even knowing it was part of a series), but I don't think the lengthy, list-like way of prose makes it easy to read (sometimes it's fine, but sometimes it felt like reading a Wikipedia list on 'insert topic here' (not even the actual articles, just the lists)).
The concept is interesting and the world building is clever and gives a lot of lee-way for the author to pop things out at you, that you wouldn't think possible, but still work in the world he's set up. So you sort of feel like bewildered explorer. It was brushing 5 stars for me up until about midway, then it kind of stopped being fun for me personally.
The concept is interesting and the world building is clever and gives a lot of lee-way for the author to pop things out at you, that you wouldn't think possible, but still work in the world he's set up. So you sort of feel like bewildered explorer. It was brushing 5 stars for me up until about midway, then it kind of stopped being fun for me personally.
leelah's review against another edition
4.0
4 stars read for me.
Eleven years ago Kim Newman showed us he can take a legend and create something new, original and fun. Almost a decade later, when vampires are so present and usual they have their own genre in literature, it's almost sardonic he can still play with Dracula myth and reinvent him all over. :)
Before I even got into story I gave a plus to Kim Newman for he dedicated this novel to big [a:F. Paul Wilson|20561|F. Paul Wilson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1210613635p2/20561.jpg], whose Adversary Cycle and Repairman Jack series certainly made an influence on Newman's vision (if inserting Wilson's character in his world and to our amusement wasn't a clue enough). :)
This novel is a journey of Johnny Alucard, a true son of his father. His native land,place of his origins-Romania isn't fit for vampire of his ambition, but glitter and shine of Hollywood certainly proved to be. Like in previous novels, Dracula's manipulations are led by human weaknesses, greed and addiction. There is this constant message that Newman likes to tie with his story- evil is strong as much as we are weak. There is many hidden notes and jokes, but they are easy to pick up if you read KN before. His Johnny Alucard reads like anthology as we're going from Coppola, to Andy Warhol and finally Hollywood. Newman showed us he can twist history in fun, if not even sarcastic way when he married Queen Victoria to Dracula, but in Johnny Alucard this distorted view of history of cinematography is downright astounding. Newman is a film critic also and his knowledge, familiarity with work and lives of figures of that time is so rich and almost palpable while you're reading. He was always a master of inserting famous people and fictional characters in Anno Dracula series (some of them directly, some of them in more subtle way) and in Johnny Alucard he did it more than ever.
Johnny Dracula also feature Geneviève Dieudonné, my first vampire girl-crush, as well as Kate Reed. Geneviève still rocks.:)
The reason for my star reduction lies in episodic style of this novel. As much as I liked it in Diogenes Club, some chapters in Johnny Alucard that were written like scripts downplayed enjoyment for me. In acknowledgements Newman writes:"Sections of this novel have appeared, in slightly different form, disguised as novellas...", so that could be the reason behind it.
markyon's review against another edition
4.0
Johnny Alucard, Book 4 of the Anno Dracula series, is not something that I ever expected to see, but I’m very glad I did.
For Book 3, (Dracula Cha Cha Cha) published in 1998, seemed to draw things to a definite close – Vlad Tepes, Count Dracula of the Undead, was beheaded, his ashes spread into flowing water and gone, an ending which would normally pretty much decide a villain’s fate.
And yet, like the best of the undead, fifteen years after the last novel (Dracula Cha Cha Cha) we’re back to Kim’s world, an alternate reality where for decades vampires (‘the undead’) live alongside the living, using the ‘warm bloods’ as a source of food, as an entertainment, as a plaything.
For those who don’t know, the series shows an alternative history that reflects how culture deals with the consequences of this, from the 1880’s to the First World War and the 1920’s, and with Cha Cha Cha the 1950’s and 60’s. With Johnny Alucard, subtitled ‘Anno Dracula 1976-1991’, we’re probably in our last book of the 20th century.
Johnny Alucard begins in Transylvania in 1976 where one of our heroines of the series, vampire Kate Reed, is a consultant on the set of Francis Ford Coppola’s troubled production of Dracula. Facing appalling conditions, local difficulties and production issues, Kate and Coppola return to Hollywood to begin again, but bringing with them a young vampire outcast, Ion Popescu, who Coppola employed as a member of the film crew in Transylvania.
Now renamed Johnny Pop, the young man settles into the Hollywood lifestyle of girls, drink and drugs, making his name selling a dangerously addictive drug that confers vampire powers on its users. As Johnny stalks the streets of Manhattan and Hollywood, sinking his fangs ever deeper into the zeitgeist of 1980s America, it seems the past might not be dead after all…
In terms of structure, Johnny Alucard is similar to the other books in the series in that there are six main stories in the novel, separated by five ‘Interludes’. Some of these have been published before as novellas. As ever with these Titan Books publications, there is supplementary material at the back. This time there are two appendices: Destroying Drella, which purports to be an essay by Kathleen Conklin about Andy Warhol’s fascination with vampyrism, and Welles’ Lost Draculas, an article by ‘Jonathan Gates’ summarising the many attempts of Orson Welles to complete his film version of Stoker’s tale. Both of these add detail to some of the events in the main body of the novel and are interesting additions to the novel.
Kim once again uses his encyclopaedic knowledge of film and movie making here to create an exciting tale that highlights the hedonistic lifestyle of Hollywood in the 1970’s, but with – erm, added bite. As usual, there’s a brain-straining list of homages and references for anyone who wants to know nicely listed at the back, but the tale is entertaining enough to work without them. Our heroines of earlier Anno Dracula novels, Kate Reed, Penelope Churchward and Genevieve Dieudonne, are intertwined throughout to create both continuity and a point from which all these events can be observed.
There’s some nice little ‘other’ touches, as well. Some of the short chapters in the first part of the novel are Coppola’s Dracula script as if written by John Milius, which are a delight – think Conan as Dracula, with some very cheesy (and yet rather appropriate) dialogue. Similarly there’s a knowing wink with extracts from two versions of an Orson Welles Dracula, first in 1939/40 (where it echoes Citizen Kane) to a jazzier version in the 1980’s. Welles himself goes from portraying Dracula to Van Helsing between the two versions.
Because we’re now ever closer to the present day, part of the fun is reading how Kim merges real people with his fantasy world. There are mentions of so many still-known names and cultural reference points, from Andy Warhol, and John Lennon to Orson Welles and Stephen Spielberg, from Colombo to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, that much of the book is enjoyed by just seeing who or what appears next. This is apparent from the start. One of my most enjoyable parts is at the beginning when Kim mixes some of the apparently real (and often quite jaw-dropping) stories associated with the filming of Coppola’s Apocalypse Now with his alternate version of Dracula – Martin Sheen’s heart attack whilst filming, Robert Duvall’s famous line from Apocalypse Now re-written about vampires.
The story then becomes something else when our characters reach America. Most of the books this far have concentrated on vampires in Britain and Europe, but here Kim lets them loose in the USA. We have a tale of drugs (here called ‘drac’), vampires and Andy Warhol, fused with an energy and seedy excitement often associated with those cocaine-filled days of the 1970’s and 80’s but with a Horror twist, and some provocative social commentary:
“In the months he had been in New York, Johnny had learned that being an American was just like being a vampire, to feed off the dead and go on and on, making a virtue of unoriginality, waxing a corpse-face to beauty. In a country of surfaces, no one cared about the rot that lay beneath the smile, the shine and the dollar.”
The latter parts of the novel show Johnny’s evolution into Johnny Alucard (and if you haven’t realised by now, read that surname back in reverse order) – the age of the vampire as King of America, Anni Draculae.
Getting there we encounter a variety of stories, with a great wry sense of humour (Debbie does Dracula, anyone?) Many of the tales are about drugs and film making, a process not always mutually exclusive. In the 1980’s Orson Welles is funded to create the ultimate Dracula picture, better than the Coppola version mentioned earlier, only to find that, once again, fate determines things otherwise. Penelope Churchward shows us a top-secret American vampire-soldier project, Kate Reed finds herself the target of a vampire assassination group.
In its latter stages, Johnny Alucard becomes a tale more about the decline of Hollywood, the business it has become and the lifestyle it promotes, a sad reflection of the filmic glory it once had. By the 1990’s the film industry is a place of defeated dreams rather than celluloid celebration. I can’t help but feel that this is a reflection of Kim’s personal view, although it is always dangerous to feel that you have determined the personal views of a writer when reading their work. The ending brings the disparate stories together and ties things up fairly well.
In terms of writing, there’s a fifteen year gap between Cha Cha Cha and Alucard. Kim has been rather busy – reviewer for Empire Magazine and author of many other non-fiction and fiction novels, he’s not let the grass grow under his feet. What this time has also done is allow the writer to develop his craft, and the technical skill and ambition of Johnny Alucard shows that evolution clearly. This is a denser, much more complex and nuanced book in the Anno Dracula series, which shows an intelligence, an intensity, a knowing wink in a novel designed to homage as well as entertain that many other similar books lack.
Johnny Alucard is an interesting and entertaining addition to the Anno Dracula series. I think it will be best appreciated if you have read the earlier novels, but it is not essential, for its well-referenced irreverency, meticulous cultural referencing and satirical commentary make this an accessible and worthwhile read. Despite being a book I never thought would be assembled, I’m very pleased I got the chance to read it. A great Halloween read.
For Book 3, (Dracula Cha Cha Cha) published in 1998, seemed to draw things to a definite close – Vlad Tepes, Count Dracula of the Undead, was beheaded, his ashes spread into flowing water and gone, an ending which would normally pretty much decide a villain’s fate.
And yet, like the best of the undead, fifteen years after the last novel (Dracula Cha Cha Cha) we’re back to Kim’s world, an alternate reality where for decades vampires (‘the undead’) live alongside the living, using the ‘warm bloods’ as a source of food, as an entertainment, as a plaything.
For those who don’t know, the series shows an alternative history that reflects how culture deals with the consequences of this, from the 1880’s to the First World War and the 1920’s, and with Cha Cha Cha the 1950’s and 60’s. With Johnny Alucard, subtitled ‘Anno Dracula 1976-1991’, we’re probably in our last book of the 20th century.
Johnny Alucard begins in Transylvania in 1976 where one of our heroines of the series, vampire Kate Reed, is a consultant on the set of Francis Ford Coppola’s troubled production of Dracula. Facing appalling conditions, local difficulties and production issues, Kate and Coppola return to Hollywood to begin again, but bringing with them a young vampire outcast, Ion Popescu, who Coppola employed as a member of the film crew in Transylvania.
Now renamed Johnny Pop, the young man settles into the Hollywood lifestyle of girls, drink and drugs, making his name selling a dangerously addictive drug that confers vampire powers on its users. As Johnny stalks the streets of Manhattan and Hollywood, sinking his fangs ever deeper into the zeitgeist of 1980s America, it seems the past might not be dead after all…
In terms of structure, Johnny Alucard is similar to the other books in the series in that there are six main stories in the novel, separated by five ‘Interludes’. Some of these have been published before as novellas. As ever with these Titan Books publications, there is supplementary material at the back. This time there are two appendices: Destroying Drella, which purports to be an essay by Kathleen Conklin about Andy Warhol’s fascination with vampyrism, and Welles’ Lost Draculas, an article by ‘Jonathan Gates’ summarising the many attempts of Orson Welles to complete his film version of Stoker’s tale. Both of these add detail to some of the events in the main body of the novel and are interesting additions to the novel.
Kim once again uses his encyclopaedic knowledge of film and movie making here to create an exciting tale that highlights the hedonistic lifestyle of Hollywood in the 1970’s, but with – erm, added bite. As usual, there’s a brain-straining list of homages and references for anyone who wants to know nicely listed at the back, but the tale is entertaining enough to work without them. Our heroines of earlier Anno Dracula novels, Kate Reed, Penelope Churchward and Genevieve Dieudonne, are intertwined throughout to create both continuity and a point from which all these events can be observed.
There’s some nice little ‘other’ touches, as well. Some of the short chapters in the first part of the novel are Coppola’s Dracula script as if written by John Milius, which are a delight – think Conan as Dracula, with some very cheesy (and yet rather appropriate) dialogue. Similarly there’s a knowing wink with extracts from two versions of an Orson Welles Dracula, first in 1939/40 (where it echoes Citizen Kane) to a jazzier version in the 1980’s. Welles himself goes from portraying Dracula to Van Helsing between the two versions.
Because we’re now ever closer to the present day, part of the fun is reading how Kim merges real people with his fantasy world. There are mentions of so many still-known names and cultural reference points, from Andy Warhol, and John Lennon to Orson Welles and Stephen Spielberg, from Colombo to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, that much of the book is enjoyed by just seeing who or what appears next. This is apparent from the start. One of my most enjoyable parts is at the beginning when Kim mixes some of the apparently real (and often quite jaw-dropping) stories associated with the filming of Coppola’s Apocalypse Now with his alternate version of Dracula – Martin Sheen’s heart attack whilst filming, Robert Duvall’s famous line from Apocalypse Now re-written about vampires.
The story then becomes something else when our characters reach America. Most of the books this far have concentrated on vampires in Britain and Europe, but here Kim lets them loose in the USA. We have a tale of drugs (here called ‘drac’), vampires and Andy Warhol, fused with an energy and seedy excitement often associated with those cocaine-filled days of the 1970’s and 80’s but with a Horror twist, and some provocative social commentary:
“In the months he had been in New York, Johnny had learned that being an American was just like being a vampire, to feed off the dead and go on and on, making a virtue of unoriginality, waxing a corpse-face to beauty. In a country of surfaces, no one cared about the rot that lay beneath the smile, the shine and the dollar.”
The latter parts of the novel show Johnny’s evolution into Johnny Alucard (and if you haven’t realised by now, read that surname back in reverse order) – the age of the vampire as King of America, Anni Draculae.
Getting there we encounter a variety of stories, with a great wry sense of humour (Debbie does Dracula, anyone?) Many of the tales are about drugs and film making, a process not always mutually exclusive. In the 1980’s Orson Welles is funded to create the ultimate Dracula picture, better than the Coppola version mentioned earlier, only to find that, once again, fate determines things otherwise. Penelope Churchward shows us a top-secret American vampire-soldier project, Kate Reed finds herself the target of a vampire assassination group.
In its latter stages, Johnny Alucard becomes a tale more about the decline of Hollywood, the business it has become and the lifestyle it promotes, a sad reflection of the filmic glory it once had. By the 1990’s the film industry is a place of defeated dreams rather than celluloid celebration. I can’t help but feel that this is a reflection of Kim’s personal view, although it is always dangerous to feel that you have determined the personal views of a writer when reading their work. The ending brings the disparate stories together and ties things up fairly well.
In terms of writing, there’s a fifteen year gap between Cha Cha Cha and Alucard. Kim has been rather busy – reviewer for Empire Magazine and author of many other non-fiction and fiction novels, he’s not let the grass grow under his feet. What this time has also done is allow the writer to develop his craft, and the technical skill and ambition of Johnny Alucard shows that evolution clearly. This is a denser, much more complex and nuanced book in the Anno Dracula series, which shows an intelligence, an intensity, a knowing wink in a novel designed to homage as well as entertain that many other similar books lack.
Johnny Alucard is an interesting and entertaining addition to the Anno Dracula series. I think it will be best appreciated if you have read the earlier novels, but it is not essential, for its well-referenced irreverency, meticulous cultural referencing and satirical commentary make this an accessible and worthwhile read. Despite being a book I never thought would be assembled, I’m very pleased I got the chance to read it. A great Halloween read.
bobreturns's review against another edition
3.0
Definitely the weakest of the Anno Dracula series, somewhat piecemeal in places.
Still though: it's Kim Newman. A love letter to vampirism in popular culture (this time more in modern film than classic literature form) and a cracking read.
Still though: it's Kim Newman. A love letter to vampirism in popular culture (this time more in modern film than classic literature form) and a cracking read.