Dracula’s Child

Ever since Bram Stoker’s Dracula appeared in print, authors have been writing sequels, stand-alones, and side-stories featuring the most famous vampire. This book continues the long tradition and, kind of like all the others, lands flat on its face. We pick up with the original Children of Light years after their adventures in Transylvania to kill Dracula. Jonathan and Mina Harker now have a young boy named Quincey who is growing into adolescence. At an anniversary dinner party when the fame Dr. Van Helsing goes into a coma, a darkness descends over Britain as friends become lost then found and a great evil is destroyed.

Similar to the original, the story is told through diary entries, letters, and newspaper clippings. But it is often overwrought and at times a bit dull. Also, the new characters who appear on the scene really add little than just caricatures of characters from the source material. The constant reference to “the previous century” gets repetitive and old fairly quickly. The ending leaves a lot to be desired as it feels incomplete, and pretty much the entire thing was for nothing.