Review: Stoker’s Manuscript / Author: Royce Prouty / Publisher: Arrow / Release Date: Out Now
Fans of Bram Stoker’s Dracula may well be interested in this debut novel from Royce Prouty, a man with a clear and manifest love for the original work. However, to read a novel like this, we would argue that a thorough knowledge of the source material is completely unnecessary as this reviewer has never read Dracula and still enjoyed Stoker’s Manuscript. Obviously, though, this does leave us unable to critique how accurate the new book is in relation to the original.
The overall premise of the book is that the tale of Dracula was essentially the truth, fudged with some changes by somebody who wanted to keep the citizens of the night from reprisals against Stoker and co. Therefore the basic things that anybody knows about vampires (such as, they can’t stand garlic or crucifixes) are true in broad strokes but the crucifix weakness, for example, appears to be more the personal distaste of the vampires rather than a bodily reaction. These differences make the book very successful at blending this version of reality with our own which improves the novel no end.
There are a few minor bugbears, such as the book’s rather puerile attitude to religion, but in general this is a compelling narrative sure to keep you up late at night and make you as nocturnal as some of its characters.