I still haven't heard from the prize pack winner ALYSSA - so if she happens to see this, please answer my "Winner Announcement!" email within the next day so I can get your giftcard and books to you. If not, I'm afraid I will have to choose a new winner =(Disclaimer: This book was borrowed from the reviewer's local library. Review is posted just because. Reviewer received no monetary (or otherwise) incentive in exchange for a good review.
Type: Young Adult Fiction, Vampires, Text-speak, Email, Spooky castles, Men are Jerks, Team Abe!, New version of a classics, Cool companion.
Why this book?: Part of it was cover love - I thought this was quite a cool cover. Second, I was curious how someone could take a classic (like Dracula), and change it into something more modern. Take the general story, change ages, places, times, and technology, and see what they end up with.
About this book: iDrakula is a modern retelling of the classic Dracula by Bram Stoker. Young Jonathan Harker is an intern, sent by his office to take care of finalizing the Count's estate and his move to America. Mina begins to worry when she hasn't heard from Jonathan for days, and takes it upon herself to go get him and bring him home. But she didn't realize that would just bring all of the darkness home, and soon her life gets scary a little too fast.
As I said, I was very interested by the idea behind this book (and the cover, which I really like!). With how important texting and emailing is in our everyday lives, it's interesting to see how that technology would effect a story. And add in that the main characters are now younger, well, I just had to read it.
I quite enjoyed the little references a Dracula fan would catch. Such as booking a flighting through Tepes Travel, AskVlad, a case file #666-666. It was fun going through the book and trying to find all these little things worked in, and Bekka Black deserves a shout out for adding them. And speaking of cool, from what I hear, if you have an iPhone or iPad, there is an app you can get to go along with this book. I don't know what it does, but if anyone has it or has messed around with it, let me know!
I did notice that occasionally Jonathan did not sound like a teenager. He's supposed to be a little older than Mina, maybe nineteen or twenty, but I doubt he would mention the Count having skin like "tracing paper crumpled into a ball then smoothed back out." If a book is going to be moved entirely to being told via texting and email, and the characters moved to a slightly younger generation, then it would be better to go all out, and find some teenager-y lingo to describe the Count instead of words that sound too old for Jonathan.
And on one last note, I definitely enjoyed Mina's kick butt heroine style. She knows what she has to do, is willing to fight for it, and deals extremely well with tough situations. "iDrakula" is short, and the medium (text, email) makes the book even shorter, but you still get a sense that Mina is a dang good heroine.
I'm going to give "iDrakula" a THREE out of FIVE (3/5). I enjoyed it, it was short enough for a quick, jaunty read, and it was a definitely interesting retelling. But it didn't scream "WOW" at me, and frankly, I'm not sure I would recommend this to too young an audience. While it is definitely Young Adult fiction, there is some mention of sex, cheating/affairs, and STDs, so make sure the reader is mature enough to handle that sort of thing (even if the references are few and far between, and a little flippant sometimes). But as I said, this is a fun book to read, so if you have the opportunity to get your hands on it, do it - especially if you're a Dracula fan.
Have you read iDrakula by Bekka Black or played with the iDrakula application? Share your thoughts in the comments! Want to pick up a copy of your own? Click the link on the left to order it from Amazon.com!
Happy Reading!
~!~ Amanda, aka Morning Glow ~!~
