Dracula

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Dracula
Bram Stoker
1897

The Summary
Bram Stoker's Dracula collects the journals and personal testimonies of Jonathan and Mina Harker, Dr. John Seward, Lucy Westenra, Arthur Holmwood, Quincey Morris, and Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, in which they confront the world's most terrifying creature:

A vampire.

The Good
Stoker will keep you riveted with his story.  Besides creating one of the literature's most fascinating - and terrifying - villains, he has taken the time and care to recreate the details of life within the pages of his novel.

And, considering the number of correspondences between characters and the specific connections necessary to complete the story, it's an amazingly well-written work.

It's beautifully detailed with marked differences between the individual characters involved.  Each character has their own personality, their own history, their own reactions to a situation - and they become honest, endearing folks.

More importantly, it's absolutely fascinating.  I mean, who can resist the allure one of literature's most prolific vampires?

(And, no, Edward Cullen does not count.)

The Bad
On the flip-side, all the detail makes reading Stoker's novel a bit tricky.  Once you make connections, it's easy to find those tenuous links between characters and locations and mysterious events; however, those can prove to be slightly elusive.

Moreover, chapters can occasionally take a while to "build-up" to a point.  You will battle with bouts of the humdrum and dull, but the story picks up considerably when certain realizations come together.  But, until then, it may seem a little lackluster and disjointed.

The only advice I can offer is persevere.

The Ugly
Guts, gore, mayhem, madness, death, and destruction.  Dracula has it all for the horror enthusiast.  Would you expect anything less from one of the most terrifying creatures written into existence?

Of course, for those of you with a more timid constitution, pace yourself.