“The Diaries of the Family Dracul” by Jeanne Kalogridis

“Covenant with the Vampire”

324 pages, Delacorte Press, ISBN-13: 978-0385313131

“Children of the Vampire”

301 pages, Delacorte Press, ISBN-13: 978-0385314121

“Lord of the Vampires”

347 pages, Delacorte Press, ISBN-13: 978-0385314145

The Diaries of the Family Dracul by Jeanne Kalogridis is a prequal trilogy to Bram Stoker’s Dracula in which much of that original tale is reimagined. The books – Covenant with the Vampire, Children of the Vampire and Lord of the Vampires – were all published in the late 90’s and, as far as I can tell, didn’t make much of an impact, culturally speaking. This is rather surprising as, all things considered, they are well-written and engaging, with characters that are not two-dimensional and a plot that holds together well, even if Kalogridis rewrites whole parts of the original Dracula in the third book (the ending of which…how do I say it…SUCKED).

Covenant with the Vampire truly feels like what Stoker may have written himself is he had taken up Dracula’s tale in the decades before his original story. Like in the original, Dracula is a lord living in Transylvania and the story is told, again like the original, through the diaries of various family members, particularly his great-nephew who arrives from England with his pregnant wife (also a great diary-writer) and his sickly niece, who has been stuck with him here in Transylvania (none of them know he is a vampire, of course). There is much historical detail and flavor here to go along with the creepier aspects of the original story: we have wolves, mysterious specters of the hero’s dead little brother, superstitious peasants, crucifixes, murdered babies and a vampire who is about as evil as you can get rather than dashing, erotic or pitiable. Covenant with the Vampire pays its dues and gives complete respect to the characters created by Bram Stroker (I find that many novels dealing with vampires are simply watered-down imitations of the character Stroker created more than a century ago). Dracula is the ultimate nemesis, but recently he and his kind have become glittery, loving, self-sacrificing…seriously, he’s a bloodsucking fiend who needs to be destroyed. Nothing good can come from “loving” something that sees you as food or that has lost its basic humanity, as modern writers have forgotten.

Children of the Vampire continues the story and Kalogridis’ style is still absorbing, with believable characters that come to life and an engaging storyline. Although warned in this book’s Prologue of Kalogridis’ decision to align her book more-closely with that of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, I still found the result to be interesting as the author reinterprets many of the happenings from the original work. Perhaps she did so because the legend is by now an established one and that may have played somewhat of a role in Kalogridis’ writing and prevented her from taking too many artistic liberties with the same. Oh, she is still present, make no mistake, for there is some of the most raw and unadulterated witty writing that I had read in a long time. There is also great detail in Vlad the sadist’s favorite pastime of torture in quite gruesome and vivid detail, so be warned. Children of the Vampire is a weaker book than the first in the series as parts of it drag on and on, especially in the middle. Overall it felt like what it was: the middle book of a trilogy, with the author moving the characters and plot lines to where they need to be for the last book. There are some metaphysical elements which start out interesting, but I got a little tired of pages and pages of them. But Kalogridis isn’t afraid to broach any subject or write any plot twist, and I was never exactly sure what was going to happen, so the unpredictability was nice.

Lord of the Vampires is the last book in the trilogy and by far the weakest. It certainly was ambitious for any author to write a series of prequels to Dracula that eventually overlap with the main book. All of Kalogridis’ extensive research is on display in the series, and the first two are excellent (though definitively noncanonical) attempts to flesh out the story behind Stoker’s magnum opus. Several passages have been lifted and rewritten from Dracula which, in and of itself, isn’t a bad thing as Kalogridis attempts to fit her reworking of Stoker’s story into the original, often with interesting results as we see familiar scenes from different perspectives (one of the brides’ anger at Harker calling her “illspelt” was classic). Oh, and the Countess Elizabeth Bathory shows up, as she is wont to do in any other author’s take on the Dracula myth. For the most part, as an ending to the trilogy Lord of the Vampires is a good book, wrapping up all of the storylines and providing closure for all characters. The writing is a good mix of horror, suspense, thrill, mystery, gore and some even darker subjects is a winning combination. However…the conclusion in which one of the characters becomes a different type of vampire spoilt so much of the story for me. I won’t give it away, but it seemed like Kalogridis wanted a happy ending for her undead brood and it sounded a very false note.

The Diaries of the Family Dracul was, then, an excellent trilogy and a clever reworking of one of literature’s most enduring characters. While the ending leaves much to be desired, I won’t let that take away from the overall quality of the series.