Dracula. Most know this name because of the famous book written by Bram Stoker. However, the man was not a made up being. No, he was not a vampire; though he was considered bloodthirsty. The real man, Vlad III Prince of Wallachia, ruled mostly from 1456 to 1462. He was known as Vlad the Impaler. Why was he considered such a name? Like I already mentioned the man was bloodthirsty. He was known to kill by impaling his 'victims' (they were at war so you can't really call them victims, just the other side of the war). Vlad would impale by inserting a sharpened pole into the bottom of the body and leaving the pole at such an angle that the pole would slowly fully impale the person until he died.
This sounds extremely vicious and gross, I know. But just keep in mind that this was in the 1450s, which was a very long time ago where people were well... different. Vlad might have been more bloodthirsty than most, but that may never be solved, for many cases may never have been documented.
Ok, now that I have spilt my 'knowledge' at you so you have a bit of background information, we shall go on to the review of the book.
Review:
For some reason I thought the book was a biography of Vladimir the Impaler's life. I was looking forward to reading it. I had previously watched on the history channel a series on the real Dracula. It was interesting and as I said I was looking forward to reading more about him.
However, the book is not a biography on Vladimir. No, it is a story with some 'facts' about the real man. The novel "is a reinterpretation of the 'facts' that led history to remember Vlad Dracula as a monster".
That said, while I was not as excited with this change in the tide, I still continued to read the book. I was not overly happy with it, but it was an ok read. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but it wasn't too bad.
**I was sent a copy of the book in order to write a real and honest review. I was not paid to write this review. All opinions are my own.**
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