Having finally finished this book yesterday I breathed a huge sigh of relief. This was an amazing book, not simply because of the story but because of the intricate detail that Kostova put into researching the folklore of Dracula, and his surrounding homeland. There are literally pages and pages of descriptive beauty as the story shifts from present to past and the hero/heroine comes across sumptuous countries and traditions.
Not everyone will like this book, purely because the legend of Dracula is a tricky subject, and also because some people feel that this is author is trying to overtake Bram Stoker's wonderful book.
She is doing no such thing and if anything is bringing the Dracula myth to the surface, alive and kicking. I am astounded at some of the folklore that Kostova shares with us, and also how she intergrates it into the story. I think she really deserves praise for the book and for her dedicated research, added to which the story itself was really gripping with some solid and heartfelt characters.
The one thing I wasn't keen on was how the story shifted immediatly from past to present without much of a warning, which gave me the impresssion that sometimes I was reading the account of the wrong person. The whole account is a story inside a story so to speak which can make you loose track sometimes, but overall that didn't stop me loving the idea of the story, and spending ages thinking afterwards 'as Vlad Tepes (Dracula) was a real person, who's to say this folklore couldn't be true and that he may not be alive today in some shape or form?..'
Started 1st March ( I was only reading this at work so it has taken longer!)
Finished 20th April
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