A different kind of Batman
V Superman.
(Because Dracula is often associated with bats and Hitler’s
subscribed to Frederich Nietzsche’s philosophy of the Übermensch, or
“superman”.)
(Eh, forget it. I ruined the joke by explaining it.)
Set forty years after the events of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (or rather, the “real” events
that were somewhat butchered by Stoker’s novelization), Professor Van Helsing
and his daughter Lucy have become active participants in World War II. They
have allied themselves with guerilla forces in Rumania – including Jonathan
Harker, grandson of the original Harker from Dracula – to take down the Nazi occupation there. But they soon
realize that they do not have the resources or powers to take down one of the
strongest military forces in the world, so the good professor rationalizes that
in order to defeat one monster, they must unleash another. And so, the Van
Helsings and their allies make a pact with Abraham’s old foe: Dracula himself.
Much like the original Dracula
novel, Dracula vs. Hitler forgoes the
traditional chapter book style of storytelling in favor of telling the story
through journal entries, private diaries, Nazi military reports, and excerpts
from an unfinished novel. Not only does this style of storytelling make it much
more unique than other modern novels like it, it helps add to the “this all
really happened” vibe that Patrick Sheane Duncan works so hard to create. I
always like fictional stories that take the standpoint of “These are true
events that have unfolded. Pay no attention to the fact that this is in the
‘Fiction’ section at Barnes & Noble.” With the prologue of Duncan’s
discovering of this “true” tale through forgotten government files, he does a
great job of building up imaginary credibility to this account.
This choice of nontraditional storytelling also allows us to
get a pretty good range of perspectives through a variety of journal entries
and other private thoughts. Over the course of the 500-and-some pages, we get
to see the story through the eyes and accounts of Abraham Van Helsing, Lucy Van
Helsing, Jonathan Harker, Nazi officer Waltraud Reikel, and even Adolf Hitler
himself. Parts of the story will go from Lucy’s unpublished novel describing
her struggles to find a place in a male-dominated war, to Harker’s
inexperienced musings about what he thinks war will actually be, to Hitler’s
journal entries on his philosophies of immortality and what he ate for lunch
that day. It gives a surprising amount of humanity to a wide range of
characters. You really feel like you’re getting inside their heads to see what
makes them tick, effectively providing the book with many interesting,
three-dimensional viewpoint characters. Though, as a consequence to the book,
this does mean that we pretty much know who’s going to survive each section of
the book, as logic dictates they wouldn’t be able to finish their private
entries if they had died.
Though sometimes these accounts do get flogged down with
unnecessary repetition, particularly in the accounts from Harker. He’s infatuated
with Lucy from the moment he meets her, and after the two have a one night
stand early in the novel, he can’t stop thinking about how they’re destined to
be together. It gets old fast, especially when there’s a war going on around
him and all he can talk about is how lovely Lucy looks. I get that he’s young
and impressionable when it comes to love, but there’s bigger stakes here than
your broken heart, dude. Every time this repetitive romantic entanglement got
brought up, I just rolled my eyes and wished it would cut back to the
Nazi-killing vampire.
Speaking of which, the most interesting character is by far
Dracula himself. Fitting, since he’s half the title of the book. He presents
himself as this noble, romantic gentleman, with a savage side buried barely
skin-deep that’s bursting to come out. His struggle throughout the book is one
of redemption, trying to keep this beast at bay to clench onto what shreds of
humanity remain. Admittedly, I didn’t quite buy it at first that a monster like
Dracula could reform and become a more noble being with remorse for his
murderous past, but you really grow to like and sympathize with the vampire
over the course of the novel. Even though I disliked much of the romance that
was in the book, his relationship with Lucy was something to admire. It’s
definitely twisted in a kind of dark Beauty and the Beast kind of way, but also
kind of genuine and mystifying in how well they compliment each other. It’s a
real shame that he’s the one main character who we don’t get a first-hand
account from, as I would have found Dracula’s first-person perspective on the
story to be incredibly informative.
Despite the book being over 500 pages long, I still feel
there’s some things the book could have expanded upon. At several times, Lucy
makes references to her practices with the dark arts, but nothing really comes
of it. Sure, she uses subtle magic in the story here and there, but it never
becomes integral to the plot. There’s also some references to Dracula’s
real-life history, as the story makes it clear that this Dracula is the same
Vlad Tepes Dracula that became known as “Vlad the Impaler.” While they make
references to his brutal rule and horrific past, I feel that a first-person
point of view from the vampire himself would have elaborated upon this point in
his life to better satiate those history buffs out there. And the ending leaves
something to be desired. After everything that happens, it just kind of ends
without a ton of fanfare. There’s an epilogue, but it’s not much. We don’t even
get full closure on the ending whereabouts of our protagonists. Maybe there’s a
sequel in the works, but I definitely need just a little bit more of these
characters to see where they ended up.
Overall, Dracula vs. Hitler was a surprising read, not like
the flashy B-movie suggested by its striking title. Hitler’s doesn’t even show
up in the story until about the halfway point, but I guess Dracula vs. Hitler is a much better title than Dracula vs. A Bunch of Random Nazi Redshirts. When it’s not giving
us in-depth looks into our main characters’ motivations, beliefs, and psyches,
it’s a gritty war novel that throws in just the right amount of supernatural.
The action is bloody and violent, especially when Dracula gets involved in the
conflict himself. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who likes historical
fiction and gothic horror. And for those of you who need your vampire romance
fix, this book has a much better human-immortal love story than Twilight.
Final verdict: 8.5/10
But just think about the new sub-genre this book has opened
up: horror movie monsters fighting historical dictators! What could be next? Wolfman vs. Stalin? The Invisible Man vs. Castro? Kim
Jong-il vs. The Bride of Frankenstein? The possibilities are endless!
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