reading response: Dracula

               From the time I picked up the book Dracula and really the whole time I was reading it, I felt sure it was going to go out in a big bang. You know, like the Count would put up this big fight and by some miracle the characters would defeat him and in the end there would be this huge sigh of relief when he went down. But no. After everything, after months and months of struggle, they find him in his coffin, fight off a couple of traders and stake him and preform the whole ritual, while he's "sleeping". I was very invested in the characters, and if anyone else got hurt I would be upset but honestly, the famous Count Dracula goes out in his sleep? I've never really been unsatisfied with the death of a "demon" or just a general antagonist but honestly the whole book was about ridding the world of this extremely dangerous creature with "superior and cunning" intelligence, and yet the death of "the woman in black" towards the middle of the book was more extravagant. Suspense, and the fact that they hadn't slain a vampire before could have something to do with that, but the death of the Count had no element of suspense and never did I doubt that they were going to kill him in that moment, and it only took about a page and a half to explain the events in the moments when they found him to when all that was left of Dracula was dust. 

              Moving to another topic, how on earth did Edward Cullen come from something that started with Count Dracula? Where did the majority of twilight and other vampire stories come from? I admire the writers imagination and ability to mold the characters with abilities that need explanation, but honestly the only resemblance between Dracula and the Cullens is that they both drink blood, and the Cullens don't even drink human blood. Also, where did the vampires vs. werewolves come from? In the book, the wolves listened to Dracula. There was the whole ordeal with the missing wolf at the zoo which I never really understood how that fit into the book, but I might have missed something if it wasn't a big thing. 

               I really liked how the book was arranged in journal entries, letters, records, and news paper articles according to when the events took place, because I knew what each character was thinking, and what was happening, even when the other characters didn't know. The only person I didn't always understand what his whereabouts and agenda were was Dracula, but the is obviously not going to be a part of the records they kept while attempting to hunt him down.