I read Dracula for the very first time last year, after trying to read it and never succeeding whilst in my teens. I found that now I'm an older and more experienced reader the book came a lot easier to me, and I was able to enjoy the classic story. Whilst I liked the book it never really wowed me or kept me excited. Dracula's Child, on the other hand, proved to be much more what I was hoping the original would be.

Much like the classic book Dracula's Child is written as a collection of diary entries, letters, and newspaper articles, collecting together a narrative that takes place over the better part of a year. The story takes place a dozen years after the conclusion of the original, and features the heroes of that novel, the Crew of Light, as they discover that they may not have managed to completely destroy the foul vampire.

In this new age, literally as it is now the 20th Century, these brave souls have moved on with their life. Doctor Seward has moved on to a new practice, Arthur Holmwood has settled down into his political career and marriage, Jonathan and Mina Harker are now parents to their son Quincey, and Van Helsing is enjoying his elderly years. They're all enjoying their lives since battling the monstrous count, and whilst things aren't perfect, they're all mostly happy. However, things begin to go wrong when during a gathering to celebrate Quincey's birthday Van Helsing suffers some awful kind of stroke, muttering a vague prophecy about Quincey, before collapsing and falling unconscious. This event is only the beginning, as from here things begin to go wrong not only for the Crew of Light, but the whole of England.

At first the book seems to go on a few tangents, introducing new characters and situations that don't at first seem completely related, other than two new characters travelling together through Europe, who discover the remains of Dracula's Castle. However, after a while it becomes clear that there are many more connections than you first think, and that there is a huge web of plots and schemes just beneath the surface. Eventually it becomes apparent that there is a grand plan at work here, and that Dracula's claim that he would have revenge wasn't just a throw away comment, but a very real promise.

This is where the book really worked for me. The original novel felt very slow, and I found myself wondering what Dracula was doing during the long periods between events, and why he was taking weeks or months to do small things like turning Lucy Westenra into a vampire. Here, however, the long time frame makes so much more sense. There's always something happening somewhere, always a part of the plan unfolding or setting up something else that it never feels slow. Dracula never felt particularly calculating to me in the original, but here he and his minions are always a dozen or more steps ahead of the heroes.

Eventually Dracula's schemes lead to him returning to physical form and being handed power over London. He's not just a vampire hunting in the dark anymore, but the lordly Count he was in his homeland, reshaping England into a dark vision of his own making. Vampires have started to spread through the streets, and regular humans are living under a dark shadow, barely more than cattle. It's in this environment that a new Crew of Light are formed, with some of the original members and some new characters, people who hunt down nests of vampires and plan to destroy Dracula once again.

J.S. Barnes has crafted a story that feels true to the original, but is so much more exciting. It starts slow, yes, but once you start to see all the pieces that are in play you understand the scope of the story he's been crafting, and then things go to hell and it becomes a desperate battle to survive. He's managed to take the original book and created a sequel full of energy and excitement, one that's bigger in scale and horror. There have been a lot of re-imaginings or sequels to the original book, but this is certainly one of the best that I've read, and if you like the original novel this one will make you feel right at home.

I really tried to enjoy this book. The premise was intriguing to me, but I just could not get into it. Honestly, I had the same problem with Dracula by Stoker, and I have to believe that if you enjoyed the original, this would be right up your alley.

5 ⭐ are not enough.
It is truly a pleasure to meet again Stocker's team in the fight against the Count. The format of the book kept the original style, the story was told through the letters of the various characters.
Great job. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this beautiful story.

The writing was fantastic! The prose was similar enough to the original story that is reads as a sequel. I really liked that it continued with the epistolary writing form. The characters were well rounded and multifacited. I was a little dissapointed with the ending, but overall it fit well and wrapped up everything nicely.Overall I was very pleased with the book and believed fans of Dracula will find something to love within these pages.

Chill part of this review: I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Fangirl part of this review: OMG I WAS HOLDING MY BREATH FOR THE FIRST 350 / 400 PAGES HOW DID YOU MANAGE THAT MR. BARNES?!

I am mesmerized, awed, I felt completely immersed in this story. I had to stop reading when I was still in Brasov (really, at the very beginning) because I couldn’t cope with THE TENSION. The prose is marvelous, Barne's writing is timeless. TIMELESS. If you tell me this book was written in 1903, I’ll believe it. I have to emphasize the TENSION because this is not a horror book. You won¿t be scared while reading it. But you’ll be left breathless and edgy and jittery, I can PROMISE THAT.

Now, that’s not to say I didn’t have some troubles with some plotlines. Some things I just had to believe because someone said so and I found that hard at times. I feel like interesting points where made but never exploited (THAT DIARY. WHY WOULD YOU INTRODUCE THAT DIARY AND MAKE IT LEAD TO NOWHERE)?

I wish we could have seen more of the London the author presents. He made SUCH AN AWESOME WORK with the characters, but I just didn’t see that with the places.

To focus on the positive, Barnes handles with such respect the characters we know, adding what’s necessary and interesting for the plot, but keeping them SO TRUE to the originals that Stoker himself could have written them. For the new characters that he introduces, Maurice is now one of my favorites, even if sometimes the point of his mere existence seemed wobbly.

There are AWESOME scenes, amazing atmosphere, and some good plot twists, and I guarantee it’s a book YOU WONT BE ABLE TO PUT DOWN.

Thank you so much. The ending felt a little bit rushed, and even though there are not big lose ends, I sure hope the author is working on some new material in this universe.

*** Many thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher Titan Books for providing me with an electronic ARC of Dracula's Child in exchange of my honest review.***

This was an overall good read. The writing style perfectly set up the Gothic atmosphere with the story presented as entries of journals, letters and so on. Keeping to this format really paid homage to Bram Stoker's Dracula. The story and characters were skillfully executed and the slow unfolding of events building up was on point. The horror of the events, feeling trapped and the shadow of the Count coming towards the character was an amazing set up and can make every reader dive deep into this mood. However it seems that that's the best part of this book.
The characters themselves (the original ones from Bram Stoker's work) were off at moments. Dracula is one of my favorite books and I revisit it regularly, so it was weird to see the same characters but ever so slightly different. I feel some of them weren't done justice, were sidelined at some point or didn't get enough time overall. The plot is good, but I never thought that characters like these will take so long to actually accept the situation and took any action- they've been through this before.

This is my personal and very bias opinion, however I do recommend everyone to read this story as the style and atmosphere are brilliant.

Dracula's Child was a phenomenal read for me! I really enjoyed the turn this book took from the original story of Dracula. It was thrilling, intriguing, sad in parts and kept my undivided attention. This is a real page turner.

This is told in diary and journal entries and more or less written in the style of that era, I i dare say it was a little more modernized than the language would have been then.

There were quite a list of words that I had to look up and words I had never heard before, but because of some of their use in sentences they didn't require looking up a definition.

I believe it also must say in the synopsis or description that this is an LGBTQ book as I believe one of the characters in the book to be gay.

If you like classic literature or Dracula then I definitely recommend reading this exciting book!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

The most impressive thing about DRACULA'S CHILD is that Barnes does a really good job of capturing the tone, structure, and literary design of DRACULA. Just like the book that inspired it, DRACULA'S CHILD is epistolary, being told from letters, diary entries, telegrams, and newspaper articles, and it really does read like a story of the time period. I also greatly appreciated how Barnes took a few story threads, with both the original characters from DRACULA as well as new characters, and slowly drew the connections between them and the Count. Plot wise it also felt like a sequel, with the characters from the original feeling like they had proper characterizations, and the expansion of Dracula's motives and plans after he was foiled in the original (but no spoilers as to how any of that works given his demise). But the thing that didn't work for me as well, and affected my feelings towards this book, was how Mina Harker gets benched about two thirds of the way through the novel. Mina is already the only woman character coming back from DRACULA (given that the other big woman character was Lucy, and well....), and I had hoped that she would have a role that reflected her importance from DRACULA but expanded it beyond a Victorian perception of a heroine. While she started out strong, she ultimately falls by the wayside, and since most of the female characters in this new story were either sacrificed for man pain or plot devices, it didn't sit well with me that this also happened to Mina. But I won't spoil how that all shakes out either. I'll just say I didn't hate how it ended.... just that we were deprived.

Overall, DRACULA'S CHILD is a pretty well done follow up to a classic, and while I took issue with things that are personal to me and my love for the original, overall it was a fun read.

The characters are well written and solid described, the plot lines are well thought out and the writing itself reminds me of the original Stoker book. The story follows up on the lives of the survivors of the original book. The start in the book was rather slow but through it out the book it becomes very interesting and I really enjoyed reading it.

J.S. Barnes' "Dracula's Child" is a continuation of Stoker's novel.

The characters are well written and solid, the plot lines well thought out and the writing itself reminds me of Stoker's. It's a Gothic horror and follows up on the lives of the survivors of the original work. It has a slow start, nothing picks up until the second half of the book. Before that, it's a very slow read.

What wasn't so well done was one of the plot elements. A few of the characters are gay and when you first meet one he's on the look out for cheap drugs and "boys". Context makes it difficult to tell if he just means men younger than him as he is almost fifty or if he means actual children. Then we're introduced to the second, a younger man.

Their relationship and the way the vamprisim comes into play unfortunately fallows footsteps set before it that need to be addressed. Vampirism has been used in stories to cause fear of gays, parroting propaganda that gay men were spreading AIDS without a care. Spreading Vampirism in this book follows that path via one character.

Vampirism has always been sexual but even in the original work, female vampires went after men and males went after women.

There was truly no need to have the characters be gay for this plot point. They suffer and then fall into an unfortunate trope that has no place in a book published now.

It's a well written book as far as it goes but the fact this line exists is poorly done. If the only reasons lgbtqia+ characters are included is to suffer and fall into bad tropes, then the writer needs to think about why they're including them at all.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

Dracula’s Child is an intriguing and well written work of gothic fiction. It is a follow up of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

It takes place after the events in Bram Stoker’s original book and centers around Jonathan and Mina Harker.

The Harkers are living uneventful lives in England and the book starts with the birthday party of their son, Quincey Harker.
At the celebration, Professor Van Helsing’s health takes a turn for the worse, after leaving a cryptic warning for Quincey and advising him to fight for his soul. Thus, the other characters come to the terrible realization that this is a sign for Dracula’s return.

The author writes in Bram Stokers style and incorporates diary entries, letters and newspaper clippings to tell the story.

The story of the Harkers alternates with a pair of travelers on a tour of the continent. It is detailed through their journal entries how they become entangled with Dracula and come to serve him.

It is a nostalgic feeling to read about the well loved characters of Bram Stoker’s story and how their lives proceed after the events detailed in the original book.

Dracula’s child is a truly scary and chilling book, which, like Stoker’s original work, permeates a sense of dread and uncertainty. The character of Dracula is as dark and terrifying as the original.

I think the fans of the original, as well as other horror lovers, will definitely enjoy this book. I would recommend it for all horror and paranormal genre readers.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advance reader’s copy of this book for an honest review.

This was a very interesting novel. It was written is similar fashon to the original Dracula and followed the personal accounts, as compiled by Quincy Harker years later, of several characters as they dealt with the resurrection of Dracula. Professor Helsing's death in the early chapters, though a bit of a disservice to his character, paved the way for Dracula to come London and take over. The rest of the original main characters are thrown into disarray and don't even realize what is happening until it is nearly too late. By the time Jonathan, Aurthor, and Jack are ready to go after Dracula, a large portion of England are vampires. Quincy, Mina & Jonathan's young son who has a piece of Dracula's essence in him, is also captured & about to be sacrificed so Dracula is returned to full power. Ultimately, Dracula is defeated but at great cost. Mina, who was captured midway through the book, is now a vampire. Unable to kill her, she lives in the cellar of the family manor & takes nourishment only fron Jonathan when necessary. Quincy is now the vessel that contains Dracula. Shoukd anything happen to him, Dracula would be free again. The story closes with a letter penned by Quincy, now a young man headded off to fight in WWI, who is fearful that the changing world will once again awaken the presence within him.

Aside from a few slow parts, the story was very good. I am interesed to see if there will be a sequel.

I received an ARC copy of this book via NetGalley.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Titan Books and the author, J.S Barnes, for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of Dracula's Child in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
I was excited at the prospect of reviewing this book. I loved Dracula when I was younger, so I was looking forward to this read. Such a good book.
The storyline was well thought out and written. The gothic style of narrative and settings make for a deliciously chilling read. A thorough enjoyment to get lost in.
Well worth a read.

I was given a copy of this book to review.

As a young man, I read Dracula. I was engrossed in the book, the settings, and the writing style. When given a chance to read Dracula's Child, I was very excited. This book reads similar to Dracula. The same characters are present and the story starts a short time after the ending of Dracula.

The writing style is similar to Dracula, late 18th century, with some 17th-century slang. I admit now and then I referenced the words, to be sure I fully understood what I was reading. This is an excellent horror story without the gore, a joy to read!

I I loved this book, I was reminded of the old Dracula stories and this one is set about 10 years after Van Helsing along with his companions were successful in defeating Dracula. Jonathan and Mina have a 10-year-old son now at a dinner party that Helsing attends bad omens and other things happen.

This is a great book to read in one sitting.

Jonathan and Mina Harker and their close friends - Dr Seward, Lord Godalming and Professor Van Helsing - get together to celebrate Quincy Harker's 12th birthday. During the celebrations Van Helsing collapses and cries out a strange prophecy that will put all their lives in danger, before falling unconscious.
This is a good follow up to Stoker's Dracula. Written in the same epistolary style. Letters, journals and newspaper cuttings collected by Quincy Harker.
I did enjoyed this story, there's a lot of descriptions though, and in some parts I found it slowed the story down. I really liked the ending and if the author decided to follow the story on, I would definitely read it.
Dracula is back and he's hungry for revenge.

It has been some years since the Harkers and their friends destroyed Dracula, riding the world of darkness. Mina and Jonathon have retired to a quiet life in the countryside to raise their son and tend their lasting mental scars. Lord Godalming has a prominent position in British politics, and Doctor Seward has a successful practise on Harley Street.
But darkness is growing in the East and it’s focused is fixed on Britain and in particular the Harkers’ young son, Quincy. Do the ageing heroes of the past have the physical and mental strength to face eternal and all-consuming hatred once more?
As a big fan of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, I was keen to get my hands on Dracula’s Child, and I am pleased to say it did not disappoint. Made up of a combination of journals, letters, telegraphs, and newspaper articles, the language, tone, and atmosphere match the original so perfectly it could have been written at the time by Stoker himself.
Dracula’s Child follows an organisation made up of affluent and powerful men called the Council of Athelstan who are unhappy with the way Britain is developing. They believe that under the government of Count Dracula, Britain can return to its glory days, ignoring the unstoppable nature of progress. Using their influence, they orchestrate civil unrest in London and smuggle a vampire into the capital to create an impossible situation for the king which they intend to take advantage of. Without giving anything away, the reader should be aware you should never trust a vampire.
The fantastical nature of the story is grounded by the lasting impact of the returning characters previous encounter with Dracula. Mina and Jonathon are not an effective married couple. Jonathon’s torture at the hands of Dracula and his brides has left him mentally scarred, so Jonathon turns to alcohol as a coping mechanism. Mina is not unsympathetic to what he has been through, but she is judging of her husband’s drinking, which leads Jonathon to drink more, so she becomes more exasperated with him, a vicious cycle for both of them. It is this aspect of the emotional impact from Dracula acting as an extra antagonistic element in Dracula’s Child which dragged me into the story. I already cared about these characters, and I was sad but not surprised to see them reduced by what had happened.
This is a bleak story, there are no happy moments as the main characters beset on all sides with evil both human and immortal. As you would expect with an ending to match. I don’t do spoilers unless I have to, and always with a warning, so I won’t say much, just that the ending gave me genuine chills and put J.S. Barnes on my list of go-to authors.

This book definitely had a few twists and turns for a vampire tale. I'll be looking for more books from this author.

Thank you to #Netgalley and Titan Books for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Set 10 years after the original events of Dracula, we find out MC's once again dealing with the vampire overlord.
Dracula's child is very much set the same as the original Dracula is - through the character's diary entries, letters, editorials, etc. and then collated over the to tell the events of the story.

I think Barnes did an excellent job at building the atmosphere in this book to make it just as creepy as the original.

Whilst the narrative builds up the MC's and the characters, there is no action until maybe the last half of this book, it' very slow-burn, but the ending is definitely worth the wait!

10 years have passed since the Crew of Light fought their immortal enemy Dracula and the world has moved forward into a new century. Mina and Jonathan are living in Oxfordshire with their son Quincey and maintain their friendship with Jack, Arthur and of course Abraham Van Helsing. On Quincey's 12th birthday they are all together celebrating however tragedy hits and a darkness begins to creep in to their lives.

Using the episatolry style following Stoker's Dracula, the narrative is told through multiple character's letters, diaries and newspaper articles. There is a huge amount of detail in the world the Harker's now live and it's worth reading or rereading Dracula so that you can see Barnes' nods to the original novel, plus why wouldn't you read an absolute classic.

Thanks to NetGalley and Titan.