Worthwhile read for the context of Dracula and vampires. While this wasn't the first novel/story about vampires, it certainly had a huge influence on modern vampire tales. I really enjoyed some aspects of the book but overall this was very slow with very little character development. Some scenes were surprisingly atmospheric and I liked the format of letters, diary entries and newspaper articles. However, there were very little scenes/interactions with Dracula himself. A lot of the book was about strategizing, travelling and tracking shipments. I assume back then the concepts were new enough to be mysterious and horrifying but by now the tropes are so well known that everything was quite predictable. No wonder I didn't remember anything about this book from having read it before (15-16 years ago?). I enjoyed the first half a lot more than the second one.