Alucard, a novel written by alumnus Matthew Scott, gives readers a unique twist on a classic horror story.

This Dracula-inspired novel, which was released July 15th, takes place in 19th century Transylvania and follows the story of human villagers attempting to overthrow Dracula from his powerful position. The novel begins by telling the story of a family of humans that has been battling off attacks from Dracula’s forces on its village.

The villagers soon join forces with a local pack of werewolves who are looking towards the same goal of defeating Dracula. Throughout the first half of the novel, the humans and werewolves actively work towards that goal and share many stories of their pasts that have led to their current paths.

While fighting the seemingly endless battles, the humans are forced to face loss and despair within their village while learning to trust the werewolves, a pack that has been feared for years.

Not long after the humans and werewolves are able to gain one another’s trust, a very unusual stranger named Alucard appears in the village, seeking to assist the fight against Dracula, his biological father. The three forces use their strengths to teach one another the best course of action to defeat Dracula.

Scott’s take on the Dracula story was quite interesting and unique; the use of a creative backstory for Dracula proved that Scott had covered all angles of the story. Although most of the novel is filled with backstories of the humans, werewolves, Dracula and Alucard, learning more about Scott’s characters was enjoyable.

Scott’s writing style and use of many characters were also key. The novel is written in straightforward language that flows and is easy to read. Although getting all of the characters straight was a challenge at some points, I was eventually able to connect all of the characters to their respective groups .

Scott’s light use of romance was also a nice touch to this story filled with horror and mystery, and his cliffhanger ending left me anxious to read more.