I didn't expect to love this book, but I really loved this. I haven't read Jane Austin or anything really of the true classical era because I typically find women so boring there, but I really loved this. There were of course no real surprising (what, a vampire? I never suspected), but the characters were fascinating. While I know there were outdated Victorian ideals applied to Mina and Lucy, their characters in general were so powerful and wonderful. After reading it, I don't really see how vampires were made into something sexy or attractive and despite the sexualization of them (at least with this incarnation of vampires). Also interesting to me was how it spoke of child predation that was occuring in the era and the role of women, a taboo subject even today.