Bram Stoker Books

I consider this to be one of Stoker's best books. I would rate it right up there with "Dracula" and "The Jewel of the Seven Stars". The short stories in this collection are great. I especially liked the stories `Dracula's Guest' (which is supposed to be an exercised chapter from Dracula) and `The Judge's House'.

The nine stories in this collection are:

Dracula's Guest
The Judge's House
The Squaw
The Secret of the Growing Gold
A Gipsy Prophecy
The Coming of Abel Behenna
The Burial of the Rats
A Dream of Red Hands
Crooken Sands

If you enjoyed "Dracula" you should definitely read this book.

Even had Bram Stoker not penned the fabulously successful Dracula, efforts such as the stories in this book would more than qualify him as a gifted, masterful writer, with a special penchant for writing horror. The most prominent story in these pages is of course "Dracula's Guest," a story excised from the final manuscript of Dracula. This is an interesting, well-told tale, but its exclusion from the aforementioned novel seems to me to be rather inconsequential. The real jewel of this collection is "The Judge's House." I have read this story several times over the last decade or so, and I must say that this is my favorite horror story of all time. It somewhat chagrins me to make such a pronouncement, thinking of the masterful tales of Lovecraft, Poe, and King, yet I am compelled to make it. The ending may be somewhat cliched , but the dark, brooding, smothering atmosphere Stoker creates in this house is powerful and brilliant. The Judge's House may well be the most haunted house in literature.

The other seven stories are less noteworthy but eminently readable. Again, there are some cliches to be found among them, but they all "work." "The Squaw" is my least favorite--it is, to some degree, silly n terms of its characters and ending. I should also add that animal lovers such as myself may well be somewhat traumatized by one incident in the story--I certainly was. "The Secret of the Growing Gold," "The Gypsy Prophecy" and "The Coming of Abel Behenna" are pretty standard fare. "The Burial of the Rats" presents a thrilling, well-thought-out story of danger and escape (as well as a grim portrait of some of society's underbelly). "A Dream of Red Hands" is a sort of moralistic story that puts me in mind of some of Hawthorne's work. Finally, "Crooken Sands" is a good doppelganger tale whose presentation and overall air seem different, if not unique, from the other tales in this book. If you love old Scottish dialogue, you will reap some benefits from this story--for the rest of us, though, it makes for some slightly harder reading (but I think the story would be much less effective without it).

All in all, Stoker was a more than capable short story writer, even though he did sometimes stick too closely to the classic form; cliches and predictable plot points do diminish the quality of a few stories but by no means do they seriously hamper the effectiveness of them. It is unfortunate that many people think Stoker wrote Dracula and nothing else. The selections in this book are classic horror stories that only help to grant legitimacy to the genre.

I was amazed when I listened to "Dracula's Guest" and "The Secret of the Growing Gold" on this cassette. I am a fan of classic stories, horror films and Victor Garber, but I had never owned an audio cassette of a classic story until now. While the possibility of "listening" to these stories thrilled me, I was concerned if I would enjoy them. My fears were very quickly laid to rest. Victor Garber is a wonderful stage-trained actor who has a very understated and unforced vocal delivery. So, I can only describe these recordings as "classy". The way he changes his voice with each character is very effective although it is clearly his own all the way through.

Some of you may prefer reading over listening but don't overlook buying this cassette. For one thing, it is more fun to listen to these stories than reading silently, and, probably, reading aloud. Both stories are fairly easy to follow, but "The Secret of the Growing Gold" is the hardest. Despite that, I strongly feel that this audio cassette is a must-hear. I recommend this to all fans of classic stories and audio books.

The book lives up to it's title. It's a fantastic read for something of its age. It easily beats off the new-comers to the horror genre. I'd recommend it to people who have at least a little experience with Bram Stoker's "Dracula" or something similar.

This "short story" was originally part of "Dracula." It was left out at the behest of the publisher and published after Stoker's death by his wife. I've read "Dracula" many times in my life, and enjoy "Dracula's Guest" as a "lost chapter". It is obvious where the account fits into the book because it builds up to the letter from D. to the innkeeper which *is* in the book.

In defense of the original publisher's ax to the chapter, the story is much more rapid paced and has less of the "haunting realness" that rest of "Dracula" has - it is more in the pulp style of Stoker's "Lair of the White Worm".

SPOILER >> It adds a little depth to Jonathan Harker's journey to the castle in the form of a foreshadowing encounter with another vampire. << SPOILER

As a long-time fan of the Bram Stoker/horror genre, I was a bit skeptical that this was yet another retelling of this long-loved story. I was pleasantly surprised at the format (have never seen this story in such format) which seems Comic-book/frames. The glossy pages with beautifully rendered artwork makes this one of the favorite gifts I have received in a long time. Happy to have it in my collection.

at first glance looks fabulous, especially to me as i love watercolor art.
at second glance, script and framing could be better. aiming at creating suspense, authors killed all suspense.
the way frames and texting are arranged makes it hard to read and hard to see the art.
the art itself is pretty at first glance, but quite mushy at second.
watercolor is difficult technique, and in this case it could have been done better. some things you can't even make out, irregardless of the format of the albume (which is rather large).
so, the verdict is "eee.." neither entirely bad, nor good.
i could have lived without it.

A superb rendition and interpretation of this classic horror. One of the final artistic work by Mr. Fernandez before he left the comic field in 1990s to focus exclusively on paintings.

The main caracters in the story are Jonathan Harker, Mina Murry/Harker, and Lucy Westenras. There are several different settings, so I won,t list them specifically. Most of the book, they are in Europe in the 1800's. The plot of the books is Jonathan is a solicitor and meets the "Count". Sopposably the Count is friendly and turns evil. My opinion of the book is it is great it has some diffficult words so I recommend it to 8th grade and above. It is very interesting and fun. I liked the way that the author set up the book and the way he used everybodys point of view.

Barbara Belford's "Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula" is considered to be the most scholarly and thorough of the 3 Bram Stoker biographies that have been published. But Mr. Stoker was a reticent person about whose personal life, opinions, and character there is precious little known. Whether out of humility or caution, he usually took care not to reveal himself. So what we know of Stoker comes primarily from his public life, which was thankfully shared with several grander, more loquacious personalities. Perhaps due to the scarcity of information about her subject, Barbara Belford gives Stoker's friends, colleagues, and the London theater community a lot of attention, especially Henry Irving, the great actor whose fame was dwarfed only by his ego, and whom Bram Stoker dedicated 27 years of his life to serving. Indeed, this biography of Stoker would serve well as a history of Irving's famous Lyceum Theatre for the decades that Stoker served as its acting manager.

The book starts by describing Stoker's childhood in Dublin, the third child born to a middle class Anglo-Irish family in 1847 during the potato famine, and his apparent debilitation until the age of 7. He grew up to be a civil servant like his father, and pursued personal interests as an unpaid drama critic for the "Evening Mail", through which Stoker met Henry Irving. After marrying the lovely Florence Balcombe, whom Oscar Wilde also courted, the Stokers moved to London where Bram's efficient management would help make the 1500-seat Lyceum Theatre fashionable and profitable. Since the Lyceum dominated Stoker's life, it dominates his biography, but Belford also discusses his trips to America on tour with the Lyceum company, his effusive admiration for Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln, and his novels and stories.

The upshot of "Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Man Who Wrote Dracula" is that Bram Stoker was a modest, hardworking man, exceedingly courteous even by Victorian standards, whose tireless work for Henry Irving was acknowledged by many but unappreciated and unrewarded by Irving himself. Stoker's genial but reserved manner harbored passionate, worshipful emotions toward his heroes, invariably men of power with larger-than-life personalities. Belford draws an occasional parallel between persons in Bram Stoker's own life and characters in "Dracula". Most notably, she sees a "sinister caricature" of Henry Irving in the vampire Count. Actress Ellen Terry seems to be reflected in Mina, and Stoker's wife Florence may have lent some of her character to Lucy. None of this is a stretch as long as one recognizes that "Dracula"'s characters don't have a single source, but many.

This biography includes a lot of good information for fans of Bram Stoker's work, but a couple of stylistic problems nagged at me. One is Belford's confusing tendency to refer to people by first or last name only, at the beginning of a chapter, instead of starting off with a full name. Another is the repeated use of the phrase "Unholy Trinity" to describe the business partnership between Henry Irving, Bram Stoker, and stage manager H.J. Loveday, which I found melodramatic. But Belford's book succeeds in creating a picture of Bram Stoker's personality without reading too much into his actions or words.

THERE ARE MORE IN THE CLASSIC START SERIES, I WANT THEM ALL! 20,OOO LEAGUES WAS ANOTHER GOOD ONE, SPEAKING OF BOYS....

Given the legend of Dracula as portrayed in the movies, comic books and other venues, I firmly believe that all people would be served by reading the original story by Bram Stoker. It is a classic dark tale of legend and superstition, which ironically, began with the life of a real Count known to history as Vlad the Impaler.
This book, an abridged version written in a more modern English style, is the next best read to the original. From it, the reader can acquire the sense of the classic, the combination of terror with descriptions of the human Slovaks and Gypsies who worked for Dracula and allowed him to survive in human society.
I have read the original Stoker book several times and have always preferred it to the simplistic caricatures of the Dracula movies. While this book is not as good as the original, it retains the spirit of the original far better than any movie possibly could.

Eiko is a woman, not a man

It has full page color pictures of all the costumes from the movie and some of the original sketches. It also explains Eiko's inspiration for his Academy-Award winning costumes.

This is a well written and easy to read book. Joslin takes a scholarly (and not snobbish) look at the Dracula movies made over the past few decades. My only complaint about McFarland books in general is that I wish they contained more photos and illustrations. However, the end-all-be-all of "Dracula at the Movies" books still belongs to Midnight Marquee's Dracula book.

While a scholarly work of high-quality content, organization, and thoughtfulness, this book is easy-to-read and a pleasure to behold!

For any fan of all things gothic/Dracula/vampires, this is a must-have!!!

"Dracula" was not the first vampire novel, nor was it Bram Stoker's first book. But after years of research, Stoker managed to craft the ultimate vampire novel, which has spawned countless movies, spinoffs, and books that follow the blueprint of the Transylvanian count.

Real estate agent Jonathan Harker arrives in Transylvania, to arrange a London house sale to Count Dracula. But as the days go by, Harker witnesses increasingly horrific events, leading him to believe that Dracula is not actually human. His fiancee Mina arrives in Transylvania, and finds that he has been feverish. Meanwhile the count has vanished.

And soon afterwards, strange things happen: a ship piloted by a dead man crashes on the shore, after a mysterious thing killed the crew. A lunatic talks about "Him" coming. And Mina's pal Lucy dies of mysterious blood loss, only to come back as an undead seductress. Dracula has arrived in England -- and he's not going to be stopped easily.

"Dracula" is the grandaddy is Lestat and Jean-Claude, but that isn't the sole reason why it is a classic. It's also incredibly atmospheric, and very well-written. Not only is it very freaky, in an ornate Victorian style, but it is also full of restrained, quiet horror and creepy eroticism. What's more, it's shaped the portrayal of vampires in movies and books, even to this day.

Despite already knowing what's going on for the first half of the book, it's actually kind of creepy to see these people whose lives are being disrupted by Dracula, but don't know about vampires. It's a bit tempting to yell "It's a vampire, you idiots!" every now and then, but you can't really blame them. Then the second half kicks in, with accented professor Van Helsing taking our heroes on a quest to save Mina from Dracula.

And along the way, while our heroes try to figure stuff out, Stoker spins up all these creepy hints of Dracula's arrival. Though he wrote in the late 19th-century manner, very verbose and a bit stuffy, his skill shines through. The book is crammed with intense, evocative language, with moments like Dracula creeping down a wall, or the dead captain found tied to the wheel. Once read, they stick in your mind throughout the book.

It's also a credit to Stoker that he keeps his characters from seeming like idiots or freaks, which they could have easily seemed like. Instead, he puts little moments of humanity in them, like Van Helsing admitting that his wife is in an asylum. Even the letters and diaries are written in different styles; for example, Seward's is restrained and analytical, while Mina's is exuberant and bright.

Intelligent, frightening and very well-written, "Dracula" is the well-deserved godfather of all modern vampire books and movies -- and arguably among the best.

Written in 1897, Stoker's Dracula is a classic of British fiction, fascinating for its subject matter and still the subject of films a hundred years later. Count Dracula, the epitome of evil, is exotic enough to keep even the most jaded reader of his exploits interested in their outcome, and grounded enough in the reality of evil to make even doubters wonder whether evil can be transmitted from one person to another against one's will.

The novel begins with the arrival of Jonathan Harker, a lawyer representing a London real estate agency, at the Transylvanian castle of Count Dracula to clinch the deal by which the count will move to a British estate. Details about Harker's arrival by coach, his greeting at the castle, which has no doors except the front door, his reception by the count (who has hair on the palms of his hands), and his instructions regarding where he may go or not go within the castle set the tone and establish the mysterious background of the count and a sense of dread regarding the outcome for Harker.

By the time that Harker recovers from a long and mysterious illness and returns home, the count, already in London, has turned Lucy, a lovely ingenue, into a vampire. Dr. Van Helsing, a German expert on vampires hired by her family, saves her several times from what appears to be severe anemia and recommends ringing her room with garlic and making sure that she has crucifixes around her. When Dracula then turns his blood-thirsty attention to Mina, fiancée of Jonathan Harker and friend of the unfortunate Lucy, the scene is set for a showdown regarding Dracula's power vs. the power of goodness and traditional religion.

Stoker takes his story beyond sheer melodrama, eliciting sympathy for the afflicted victims of Dracula while also recreating the religious atmosphere of the period and the beliefs and doubts of average citizens. The novel is far more compelling than I expected, creating suspense at the same time that it develops the character of the count with his supernatural powers. The climax in which the forces of good are ranged against the forces of evil in the shape of the count, whose long history is detailed in the novel, is truly a conflict between traditional religion and evil in the form of Satan personified. Fun to read and surprisingly affecting. Mary Whipple

The Historian, updated version of the Dracula legend
Dracula's Guest (Wordsworth Mystery & Supernatural)
Count Dracula (BBC Mini-Series)
Draculas: 4 Film Favorites - Horror of Dracula / Dracula Has Risen from the Grave / Taste the Blood of Dracula / Dracula A.D. 1972 (2DVD)

As stated by another reader, this is *NOT* Dracula. This is a "Modernized for the 21st Century Reader Edition" variation of the original. Another way to describe it would be "Dumbed down for a third grader edition".

All of the feel, most of the character, and part of the story are completely gone.

Do not bother with this if you want Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Since the 1800's everyone has known the name of Bram Stoker and his famous novels. The few who haven't read the book have seen at least one of the abundant movies based of said novel. Dracula begins with the young lawyer Johnathan Harker being brought into the castle of Count Dracula which is situated in the remote mountains of Transylvania. After a while and his discovering of the fact he was a prisoner, Harker escapes the castle, but only barely with his life. Shortly after, the Count arrives and many suspicious things follow. The friend of Harker's fiancée, Lucy, is slowly dying before the eyes of her suitors. Dr. Seward brings his mentor, Van Helsing, to London for advice. Lucy dies shortly after and The group of Harker, Seward, Van Helsing, and Lucy's suitors chase Dracula to his castle. Dracula is destroyed once and for all by being sliced through the throat and having his heart pierced by a Bowie Knife. This novel is perfect for any horror or vampire fan, but it is obvious that any person who was interested in either they would have read this already.
This book is the 'original' vampire novel. Bram Stoker set the bar for every horror or vampire book after. Without "Dracula" I doubt the vampire genre would be as popular as it is now. The horror genre was enhanced to an even higher art by Stoker. He turned an at-the-moment slightly known element of writing and made it completely famous. In the horror genre, every book should be compared to "Dracula", vampire or not.
Despite being written in a letter format, you can feel the emotion in the words. Every word was chosen and written with extreme precision and making sure that it said exactly what he wanted to convey. If any other author had attempted to pen this work, it is doubtful that they could have pulled it off as well as Stoker had.
The development in this novel was completely superb. Every one of the characters showed an intense amount of depth through their letters. Despite being written in "short-hand", they all had deep emotion and personality clearly shining through. The plot is also well developed and you are completely aware of what is happening, and hardly ever, if ever, have to question what is happening at that moment.
With Bram Stoker's writing, we find a great literary classic. We will most likely never find a vampire novel which can out-class "Dracula". Adults and many teenagers who love the horror genre will know and love this title. Hopefully the wonderful novel "Dracula" by Bram Stoker will live on for a long time to come.

Josh Wingfield

First let me say that I wanted to review the unabridged version and couldnt find it on Amazon. Bram Stoker's books was writtten in the late 1800's so some of the text my require a look into the dictionary. It is by no means unreadable. I think even a young teen would have no problem with it. I had to look a few words up but so what I expanded my vocabulary a bit. If your not sure just go to a book store and turn a few pages. If you like spooky stories about vampires and the like you'll enjoy this book. One thing I have to say is that I saw the movie first (the one with Gary Oldman titled same as the book) and I actually liked the movie more than the book. The movie puts a romantic twist to it that really works in the film. If you havent seen the movie read the book first. You may wind up liking the book more than the movie. You cant go wrong. It's a classice book that should be on your reading list.

Bram Stroker's Dracula is a must read for any one that calls themselves a horror lover. I have been a big fan of all types of Vampire books and movies for as long as I can remember. This book simply started it all any Vampire movie or book that you have ever seen has been influenced by this very book. Whether you are a vamp lover like myself or are simply looking for a good book with a great story then this is your book. Oh and one more thing many people think they know what this book is all about simply because they have seen a few movies or have just simply heard so much about it. believe me you know nothing about it tell you actually pick up the book and start reading.

I was intending to buy a novel for my nephew, one which I had read unabridged and enjoyed immensely. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the "editor" was in fact an "abridger" and that lots of the original text was gone. This abridgement was not listed under book details; I wish I had scrolled down to the reveiws. Now I have to go through the hassle of return, shipping charges, etc.

After Dracula, Jewel of Seven Stars is Bram Stoker's best work. The reasons for this are obvious: It is dark and gripping while portraying a claustrophobic menace that envelops the characters at the end. Of course no one will ever accuse Stoker of being the finest stylist English has ever produced, but the writing is competent--moreso even than in Dracula. Unlike its more famous companion novel, Jewel offers us only one character's narration though, leaving us to see the other characters through his eyes alone (and groan at his ineffable stupidity in places). The action begins basically in midperiod then fills in the background before giving us the grim ending. Surprisingly this is a highly successful means of storytelling and helps maintain the reader's interest. The end itself is a curiosity in that it has an original, nihilistic ending and a later, happy ending. It can be--and has been--argued the two endings are just inversions of each other, but clearly the original ending is the stronger and more consistent. Although authorship on the second ending is unknown, I highly suspect Stoker did not write it. It lacks the feel of the rest of the book and does not seem to have the same flair as Stoker's canonical writing. Despite some reservations though, this is a hugely gripping and thrilling, if not necessarily enjoyable, book that builds inexorably to one of the most chilling climaxes of any book I've ever read. A must for fans of welld one gothic horror.

Definitely not as exciting as Dracula, but this one is still a must have for Bram Stoker fans.
I enjoyed it immensely, the ending however was a little unexpected. All in all it is a a great book from the master of horror.

I first read this book 15 years ago.I found it worth reading and managed to translate it to Persian language free of charge & publish it here in Iran so that others can also enjoy it!The outstanding feature of the book is its decent language, not practiced much in the books we see in the market these days.

I was very pleased to discover this book in a used book store last month, as I had not realized that Bram Stoker had written other books which were still in print. Being very fond of his Dracula, I thought that this would be well worth my time if it even approached the level of enjoyability that Dracula possessed. Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed with The Jewel of Seven Stars, as Stoker seems to have drastically changed his writing style and reverted to writing in a way that many authors seem to write their initial books in before finding the key to success. What I mean by this is that his writing style in this book is very awkward, stilted, and forced, and the characters are rather wooden and unconvincing. This is what is often found in early works of great authors (I just recently encountered this phenomenon in Robert Louis Stevenson's Prince Otto). What is strange is that this book was written years after Stoker wrote Dracula, and it makes little sense why he would revert to this type of writing after apparently moving past it in his masterpiece.

Awkward writing is not enough to turn me off of a book, but it does detract significantly from the story. The story itself has been explained in detail by previous reviewers, so I will not repeat the plot outline yet again. The story in general, though, is gripping in places, but tends to drag unbearably in others. The first half or so of the book actually moves fairly quickly and is enjoyable, but the second half is almost nothing but dialogue, and it is not terribly exciting or interesting dialogue. It is not without reason that a whole chapter was removed from some editions because it was simply unneccesary and boring. The glimpses of promise, combined with my desire to discover how it ended and my respect for Stoker's other work, kept me going through it despite the tediousness (at times) of the reading. The ending was not a disappointment to me, though many found it to be so. I am talking about the original dark ending, not the alternate happy ending added to later editions (which I found to be terrible compared to the original, and have a hard time believing that it was actually Stoker that wrote it, especially since it appeared years after his death). It is incredibly rare for authors to have endings like this one in novel length books, and despite its abruptness and vagueness, I was more pleased with it than I would have been with a more elaborate yet typical ending.

You may enjoy this book more than I did. I certainly hope so. To me it was disappointment, especially compared to the level of greatness Stoker achieved with Dracula. To be honest, it would be a disoppointment even if I wasn't comparing it to Dracula, because it was just so tedious and boring in the second half. It would have been a legitimately enjoyable book if the first half was kept as it is and the second half shrunk by about 75 pages. As much as it pains me to say this of a Stoker book, if I could go back and do it over, I would not spend my time reading this book. While it is not unbearably horrible, it is not really worth the time needed to read it. If it's the only book on hand and you have nothing to do, then by all means read it, but I wouldn't recommend searching it out or anything.

Overall grade: C-

This book is great. I couldn't put it down. Personally I think that it is as good as "Dracula". It amazes me that it remains so obscure. One of the other reviewers complained of a weak ending. I assume that this poor person was unlucky enough to have read the 1912 edition. Stoker's publishers though that the original 1903 ending was too gruesome and made him rewrite it as a condition of re-publishing the book. I don't think anyone could describe the original ending as weak. If you like a good horror novel I highly recommend this book.

While this is definitely a Should Read novel-- after all, the character of Dracula is firmly entrenched in our culture-- I came away from it mildly disappointed. While the epistolary quality is a fun way to get inside the minds of the various characters, I never became comfortable with its inherent misogyny. The women are either pillars of virtue or shameless vixens, and the men's responses to female sexuality are either to possess the woman, kill her, or protect her. This is clearly a response to the time in which it was written, when women were beginning to show their discontent with being merely decorations.

Stoker also shows his (or perhaps his culture's) fear of the other through the constant assertions that London is the center of the civilized world and those places further east are barbaric and backwards. However, this is still essential reading as it's important to get this influential story from the original source and not one of several over-sexed, over-dramatized Hollywood versions.

Bram Stoker's influential late-Victorian novel remains a dominant presence in the realm of horror and vampire literature. While some modern readers may have difficulty with the late 19th-century writing style, the novel itself is a rewarding experience for anyone willing to consider the work, and the use of language should not be held against its brilliance.

Though not the first word in vampire literature and mythology, Stoker's novel is, in a way, the last word - and one very much so worth reading.

I loved this novel; the story was well written and I was even frightened at times as to the detail and the images of the greatest vampire of all time. I would strongly encourage evertbody to read this wonderful classic.

This is a sort of a compendium of all tales about vampires surely the author was able to find at his times. And although I don't know English deeply, it seems only a regular novel, mediocre in strict literary sense.
But a novel isn't only literary language, and "Dracula" has some valors not to disdain.
First, there are a collision between old delayed continental Europe, origin of Dracula, symbol of evil, and modern England in full industrial revolution. Gramophones, telegraphs and other machines hardly exits in Transylvania, but abounds in Britain. It's said Bram Stoker wrote this novel with a typewriter, by then a novelty.
But Stoker lacks romanticism. In this sense, some of the several films about Dracula surpasses this novel in that.
However, the author does hit in some facets; one is disquieting: Dracula only is able to enter in your house if you invite him to do.
Another is the forces of goodness, as professor Van Helsing, Lucy, never resource to official authorities as police. Very British I think, as Dracula is a big peril, but... is his own private peril an enemy, and they achieve well the problem by themselves.

The greatest testament to Stoker's work is that it remains uniquely compelling despite popular conceptions shaped by some appalling cinematic adapdations. Even now, it is possible to understand the enthusiatic response of contemporary readers to his sensational tale of "the Undead" and the hardy souls who take on the eponymous Count. From the chilling opening in the Carpathians, Stoker relates his grimly fascinating tale mainly through diary extracts, also managing the tricky task of creating authentically different narrative voices. Add to the equation some masterful prose, a relentless pace and some genuinely shocking moments and the result is a novel that genuinely deserves the title of "classic".