I do wish there was more horror that was also Christian fiction. I do occasionally enjoy a spot of horror fiction, and I feel like also being Christian fiction would put a damper on anything too outright scary. Which is good, because I like to sleep at night.
But! Dracula exists. It's exactly the sort of horror that I like. It's suspenseful, it's spooky, and it's not going to keep me up at night from how horrifying it is. (Horror has occasionally been known to do that to me, as proven when I first stumbled onto a small piece of SCP Foundation several years ago.)
It's honestly impressive how well the suspense is done. I hadn't read the actual book before, but I'd read the Manga Classics version, so I knew the basic plot. And yet, the sense of impending doom and "something is very wrong here" still gripped me throughout the opening arc of the book. Also I practically inhaled the last forty pages or so, which should tell you something.
The afterword in the edition I read points out that the titular vampire is basically the embodiment of everything Victorian society was afraid of (but also secretly fascinated with because humans are like that). And, yeah, he really is.
I think that the "What if we just shot him?" mentality would do wonders for a lot of other horror fiction. Granted, most of the horror fiction I read is for kids and thus doesn't make a lot of sense, but still. Having the idea to try defeating the horror monster by sheer force of arms makes your protagonists look competent, and if it doesn't end up working, if you handle it right it can make the horror monster even scarier. (If you don't handle it right, you end up just looking like "oh niuuu the bad guys are so scary how can we possibly fight them?" and killing suspension of disbelief.)
Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for violence, blood (this is the archetypal vampire novel), and some suggestive themes. And also for Renfield.
4 stars.
(Endnote: I wonder how the book would have gone had Jonathan succeeded in bonking Dracula with a shovel.)
Oh, there IS more Christian horror. I just haven't bought it for you guys. You should check out Quill and Flame and see if you want to put any of their books on your birthday wishlist.
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