iDrakula by Bekka Black
Reviewed by JenniferRatings
Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content
LANGUAGE
VIOLENCE
SEXUAL CONTENT
ADULT THEMES
*This review refers an Advance Copy. iDrakula will be available for purchase October 2010.
Ratings Explanation
Language: A handful of swear words, one instance of profanity.
Violence: Renfield asks for a kitten to “consume”. Lucy and Renfield bite each other. The count kisses Lucy; she bites him and drinks his blood. Stakes are driven through the hearts of vampires to kill them.
Sexual Content: Jonathon tells Mina he can think of a “few things we could do in the dark without parents around…” Lucy tells Mina that Renfield bit her, which Mina thinks is gross and unsanitary. “Like sex?” Lucy asks. Jonathon tells Mina, his girlfriend, that he slept with her best friend Lucy. Mina is worried about STDs and asks him to make a list of his partners. The count kisses Mina and she wants it to last forever. He licks the blood off her neck.
Adult Themes: Jonathon gets drunk and thinks he may have made out with the Count’s daughter. He has a hickie and a hangover. The Count turns people into vampires. Mina and Abe must kill Lucy, Mina’s best friend, by driving a stake into her heart. Mina is surprised that she could do it.
Synopsis
While Bram Stoker tells the story of Dracula mainly through journal entries and letters between his characters, this modern take-off utilizes text messages and emails to retell the classic tale. It is a brief retelling, hitting the major points of the original book.
After Renfield’s “phychotic break”, Jonathon travels to Romania in his stead to the Count’s very eerie castle where he finds piles of human bones, empty, deserted rooms and no way to escape but to jump out of his window. When Mina and Jonathon’s’ father manage to get him back home he is deathly ill, supposedly with some rare blood disease. Aided by Abe Van Helsing, Mina unravels the dark mystery that eventually claims more than one life.
I applaud Bekka Black for discovering what really seems to be a natural medium for retelling the classic Dracula. Although short, the reader gets the highlights of the original. Unfortunately, along with the modernization comes added sexuality which I do not remember from Bram Stoker’s Dracula.