Oh wow! I have read many Dracula retellings, but this one is on another level! Easily my favorite retelling and definitely in the top ten of books I've read this year!
Dracula was finally defeated and Transylvania was finally living in a world that had hope and Aurelia has the most hope. Living with her parents and her little brother Vadim she lives as carefree of a life as she can in a post-Dracula world. That is until everything comes crashing down around her one afternoon, her brother is brutally killed by a demon and Aurelia is determined to set out and end this new menace, with a man only known as the Healer by her side leaves her village. Aurelia and the Healer are almost immediately set upon by a group of demons, both realize that they will not be able to defend themselves, and just when all hope is lost a female warrior, Wilhemina saves them and decides to journey with them for a bit. Little do the three of them know that this chance encounter is the key needed to restore Dracula.
Dracula and his namesake Vlad Dracul are/were both highly religious tales/people. Vlad was well known for his crusade to keep the Turks out of Transylvania and to protect Christianity, so I've always found it a bit odd that retellings today have taken the religious component out of the story. I am not by any means religious but I believe what makes not just Vlad an interesting figure in history but the Dracula story interesting is because it is in essence a story about good vs evil in terms of Christianity. Dracula the character is the embodiment of leaving God behind, of being literally locked out of heaven with absolutely no way of getting in ever. There is no forgiveness for a vampire. In terms of Vlad Dracul the real-life human when viewing him using our modern lens it's almost impossible for some of us to reconcile the incredibly brutal acts that he committed in the name of Christianity. This makes him the perfect character to play out a story of good and evil and in the case of Prasidis's Dracula since he is "saved" for a time at least that hard line of good vs evil becomes much more blurry than it already was. The fact that he falls again (or he appears to fall again) after suffering a loss and falling into grief humanizes the monster. We have fallen into my favorite color "Grey". Now, will the story continue this way, honestly, I'm not sure, but I hope it does. Either way, Prasidis has some really important things to say in terms of questioning one's faith.
The rest of the characters in this were great as well, I enjoyed a badass, warrior version of Mina, and Aurelia's story seems to be only just beginning. So I'm definitely looking forward to book two!
Now comes my second favorite part though and that is the art. As unique as the story is the art absolutely matches it! Art in graphic novels, comics, and manga get a lot of crap. Let's just get that out of the way. It's not considered "high art" by many people. The art in this, however, as far as I'm concerned is about as close to "high art" as you are going to get in a graphic novel (that is not to say that I actually believe that comic/manga art isn't high art personally). The scenes in this are reminiscent of beautifully done oil paintings, there is one scene where Aurelia and the Healer are on horseback and the moon is high above them and it's just breathtaking. I'd hang it on my wall. The use of shadows in this as well creates that perfectly creepy atmosphere that I think we all, unfortunately, associate with Transylvania in general (thanks Stoker).
Overall, this is 100% of what I look for in dark fantasy/horror tales. Give me a story that makes me think any day and Black Mass Rising certainly does that. As I said in the beginning this is easily one of my favorite reads this year and so far an excellent retelling that returns to the roots of what Dracula is and who Dracul was. Highly recommend to horror/fantasy fans!
And as always thanks to NetGalley and TKO Presents for the eArc of this book, this review was left voluntarily.
No comments:
Post a Comment