It is, but I have further stuff to say about it over on minxbot in the next few days. I think she makes some structural mistakes that kind of cool the book's excitement and menace, but that's just the kind of book it is. It really ISN'T horror or a "vampire novel" - it's an academic thriller with occasional moments of intense unease, in which a vampire or two happen to feature, with no romanticism. People are bitten because the vampire wants to control them, not because they are so delectable and he is so hungry/thirsty. Dracula is never attractive to any of the characters: he is monstrous, imposing, repellent, and mysterious. And he is very much an unvarnished Vlad Tepes, not Bela Lugosi.
Anyway, yes, it's still good, but I'll be working up a full review in the next few days. I think the first half is five-star and the second half is four-star. A lot of this has to do with much of the book being set in Communist eastern Europe in the mid-1950s: to find out what they need to know, the characters have to deal with a lot of bureaucracy, and this sometimes makes things drag. Another issue is that most of what they do is go from one archive or professor to another, to get the information they need.
I have to say that if you read it, DO NOT READ AHEAD AT ALL. Sometimes in suspense novels I'll read the end just to see where things are going and how they're getting there; in this case, doing so spoils a lot of what Kostova is trying to do, structurally. So just don't. :)
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Date: 2005-06-29 12:43 am (UTC)Anyway, yes, it's still good, but I'll be working up a full review in the next few days. I think the first half is five-star and the second half is four-star. A lot of this has to do with much of the book being set in Communist eastern Europe in the mid-1950s: to find out what they need to know, the characters have to deal with a lot of bureaucracy, and this sometimes makes things drag. Another issue is that most of what they do is go from one archive or professor to another, to get the information they need.
I have to say that if you read it, DO NOT READ AHEAD AT ALL. Sometimes in suspense novels I'll read the end just to see where things are going and how they're getting there; in this case, doing so spoils a lot of what Kostova is trying to do, structurally. So just don't. :)