Book Review In the Footsteps of Dracula

Many visitors to this site obsess over their own geeky loves (and if you don’t what’s wrong with you?) but if you love The Walking Dead chances are it will not drive you to venture to Atlanta just like if you love Robocop you’re not going to take a pilgrimage to Detroit. But for author Steve P. Unger, the mystery and adventure that the classic novel Dracula promised was too much to resist and he ventured off to follow in the footsteps of the most famous vampire of all time. From Borgo Pass to Whitby Abbey and everywhere in between, Unger digs deeper into the mythos of both the fictional bloodsucker as well as the Medieval warrior he was based off of.

Steven Unger splits his book up into different sections in order to make all the vast amounts of information easily digestible to the reader. In the first part of the book we look at the journey taken in Bram Stoker’s novel; the entire time tying together the familiar gothic romantic tale with Bram Stoker’s own personal life and how it inspired his writing and career. He tells us of an East Europe that seems not to have aged a bit since the events in the story. The amount of detail in this section is remarkable it makes you feel as if you are right there, travelling with Jonathan Harker to visit the Count. From there we go to Whitby which at the time Unger was travelling was in the midst of a festival where black clad enthusiasts from all over the world gather to revel in the Dracula related festivities. The book finds a nice balance covering the local Whitby Gothic Weekend as well as the famous landmarks of prominence from the book.

After that the book goes into my personal favorite section, the tale of the real Vlad Dracula AKA Vlad the Impaler. Being the history geek that I am I could not put down the book as I read about the Romanian prince from his warrior heriatge (his father belonged to an elite group of knights known as the Dacian Wolf Dragons) to his violent reign over the region of Wallachia and downfall. The next part of the book moves from the story of Vlad Dracula to his travels as Unger ventures to the various castles and villages in Romania that had served the brutal warrior during his life.

The amount of detail put into the recounting of this adventure makes anyone want to take their own Dracula inspired vacation; luckily Steven Unger includes all the tips and and information that he learned from his own travels to help others. Overall the book is loaded with details which play up the uniqueness foreign locales as well as the mystery and terror surrounding the Dracula legend. This is a book appeals to vampire lover, travel enthusiasts, and history buffs alike.