Oldies But Goodies
{Put This One on Your TBR List}
Book Review: Mina
and Blood to Blood:
The Dracula Story
Continues by Marie Kiraly
by Karen S. Wiesner
Marie Kiraly, the author's grandmother's name, is the pseudonym of Elaine Bergstrom. However, the sequel published in 2000, Blood to Blood, was written under her real name, which is probably why I never knew there was a sequel until I went to write this review. You'll find Mina available under either author name.
Mina was published in 1994. I was fairly shocked with the new cover of the book as opposed to the original, which featured the haunting image of a woman with her face turned away, dressed in blood red, staring out at the dark night and seeing a bat piercing the twilight haze. I can feel her longing. I think I prefer the old, though the reproduction below is much more washed out than the first edition hardcover I have, procured from a conference I attended ages ago and actually met the fellow author there.
Mina Harker, as everyone who's read Dracula knows, was the fiancée and eventually the wife of Jonathan Harker. She became the obsession of a creature of darkness. Under Dracula's control, Mina was nearly consumed. When Dracula ended, the monster was defeated, his power at an end. Or was it?
Mina: The Dracula Story Continues actually starts during the journey toward Dracula at the end of the original, with Mina, Jonathan, Van Helsing, and Quincey. Following the end-stage events of Dracula, the count's dominion was supposed to be over. Mina could return to her husband, her life, the restraints of the Victorian age. But how to return to a role that no longer fits?
Mina isn't just an erotic romance without depth. The characters were finely drawn, compelling, and even devastating. I was ensnared in the web of complications, driven by the incentive of having come to love and root for Jonathan in the original tale. He was worthy of Mina's undying loyalty. As they were both ensorcelled by an ancient creature of the dark in different ways, they shared more than simply a proper Victorian engagement prior to their misfortune. However, she and Jonathan were shackled by the society they were prominent in and couldn't easily shake such confinement. That said, being the source of Dracula's obsession for however long, Mina couldn't forget the fever awoken in her blood by her irresistible captor.
I first read Mina when I was in my late 20s or early 30s (can't remember exactly). I re-read it earlier this year. I do confess that I now believe the character of Mina, as she's portrayed in this continuation, became depraved and selfish in her quest for freedom for her lust, and I couldn't actually blame Jonathan for his inevitable actions, though his repressed and selfish behavior with Mina wasn't fully justified either. Honestly, an uninhibited conversation between these two might have solved all the problems they made for themselves by remaining silent and unwilling to admit their true feelings. I do understand that's a hallmark of the Victorian age, but it was still frustrating as a reader to recognize how simple the solution to their problems was.
As for whether I believe the character of Mina in Dracula could be extrapolated into this dark version of her, I'm not entirely convinced. While the original character of Mina did seem to desire self-sufficiency beyond what a woman of her time was allowed, I wasn't entirely convinced that her former giving and even self-sacrificing nature in the original story would have allowed the depraved transformation she undergoes in Mina: The Dracula Story Continues, even if she's not fully free of Dracula's shackles in his defeat. Mourning for what Mina and Jonathan tragically lost before their lives were played with like a monster's toy was the true horror of this story.
As soon as I found out about the sequel, I ordered Blood to Blood: The Dracula Story Continues. I found it to be as well written and compelling as the first. Blood to Blood continues the plot lines started in Mina involving the title character, her husband Jonathan, and Arthur--for those who didn't real Dracula (pretty unimaginable), he was engaged to Lucy, Mina's best friend and a victim of Dracula. In Blood to Blood, there's an added twist and tension of Dracula's sister Joanna Tepes coming to London and meeting up with Jack the Ripper himself.
Despite the obvious talent in the execution of this complex story--and really all of the author's work--I nevertheless felt a bit repulsed with this one. When a life becomes about absolutely nothing else but glutting sexual compulsions, a train wreck is inevitable. Both Mina and Arthur are similar in that way, and they de-evolved as characters while their stories moved from Dracula into Mina and finally into this sequel. The only true bright light for me was in the ending given here. (I recognize that fans of erotica might feel differently about that than I do.) Having started in the original, the plot threads carried through all three books were satisfactorily tied up on all fronts by the conclusion of Blood to Blood. For that reason, I recommend reading all three to gain that coveted closure.
Karen Wiesner is an award-winning,
multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.
Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/
and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog
Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor
Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/
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