Susan J Morris
Author
Emily Woo Zeller
Narrator
1.10.2025
It’s over …?
Chapter 16 thru 24
There was so much crammed into the ending. So much exposition of a plot that was trying so hard to be clever and I guess it was for many.
This was not for me but I think it was probably a good book with a unique plot for people who like this kind of story.
I wish it had been better if only so i could have really enjoyed Helena and Mia more. It read so much like fanfiction and can there be such a thing as fanfiction for fictional characters? It just felt self indulgent and trying to mix everything into a blender.
I love that these two characters exist … just not in this way.
I think this book did well for Susan and hopefully she is working on other work – not a sequel – just other work. I like her writing style and I hope to see more of it.
Story this session: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars
Narration: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars
1.8.2025
What Can I Even Say?
Chapters 11 thru 16
I am really trying to get through this book. I am interested in how it resolves. I don’t hate it, I just don’t enjoy the process of experiencing it. It’s frustrating.
I think Susan J Morris has a beautiful way with words. As this is her first book perhaps she will develop even more as a writer. I want to see that. I would absolutely be willing to try another book she puts out. But this book is … not for me and not really appealing for me.
What I do really love about the story is Susan’s love for Paris. Her passion is really coming though and it’s contagious AF. This story is absolutely a love letter to Paris and French history. I just wish her characters and the plot were just as lovingly crafted, researched, and developed. As it stands now the book feels like FANFICTION by someone who loves Paris enough to have either done a ton of research or has been there or lived there and legit LOVES the place.
I feel like the characters and the plot are just an excuse to write about Paris and feminism. And while I can appreciate that … it just feels unbalanced and contrived as a manifesto of sorts about men sucking and women deserving better. She’s not wrong … it just gets boring after a while and Helena and Mia deserve a better platform given how unique these two classic literature daughters could have been.
I’m almost done with it. It’s not bad enough to give up before finishing and that is mainly in part to me being a fan of Emil Woo Zeller’s narration work.
Story this session: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars
Narration: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars
1.6.2025
The Agenda Is Real
Chapters 1 thru 10
I think this book would be amazing for a lot of people but it’s not so much for me. There are a few reasons why this could be but I think the main one has more to do with my feelings about Dracula than anything else.
I recently read Dracula for the first time and I realized that so many people really get the novel wrong and I’m unsure as to why. I’m not sure what Susan J Morris has against Van Helsing but she seems to be under the impression that he hates women or that his son does or something? Van Helsing is Mina Harker’s champion the entire book. He deeply respects her and admires her and if not for the two of them Dracula would never have been defeated. Why do women who read Dracula seem to think all the men hate Mina? They don’t. Nothing could be further from the truth. It bothers me that so many people have no clue what Dracula is actually about or how the characters interact or feel about each other.
Susan’s book takes the daughter of Mina and Jonathan from Dracula as well as roping in the daughter of Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis and pulls them both into a supernatural adventure/mystery. I think the idea of that is compelling and fascinating and it was made me buy the book in the first place. What I got was a book from a woman who clearly is madly in love with Paris and knows so much about the place and its history and maybe even speaks French, who didn’t read Dracula and clearly hates men.
I don’t have a problem with the last part … I dislike men tremendously but I guess I was hoping for a book about two potentially epic characters solving a mystery and what I got was much less than that and a lot of agenda. Men suck. Men hate women. Men are beasts. Men are awful. I know all that and I don’t need it reiterated on every single page and in every single thought and in every single situation. I was looking for something like … The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (which has more respect for Mina Harker than even this book does) or Indiana Jones just with two amazing women. This book probably would have been better if it was written by a man with no agenda who just really loved these characters.
Dr. Helena Moriarty did nothing very Moriarty-ish. So far she hasn’t used a brain as much as her brawn. She’s wears a suit and carries a revolver and she shoots people. She could be anyone … she could be Alan Quartermain or Tom Sawyer but I see nothing of Moriarty in her. Mia Harker is a well loved and fleshed out character. The story is from her perspective and it’s clear that Susan loves this character despite never having read Dracula … or if she did, she came away with a really … unique understanding of it.
Mia is worried about her visions that seem to be psychic based or her being connected to supernatural power and somehow this is compared to Mina having had a connection to Dracula. This connection to Dracula is what allowed the entire team to track him and ultimately defeat him in the original novel. Mina allowed herself to be hypnotized and was able to see where he was and what he was doing and the entire book she is fighting to remain herself and not be usurped by his evil while also LEADING THE ENTIRE TEAM. Her connection to Dracula isn’t a negative thing and she has the support of everyone around her which is how she’s able to maintain herself and fight with her own strength against him. I have no idea what Susan read if she did read Dracula … but I get the impression that she’s never read it or didn’t like it if she did. No Van Helsing would ever have a problem with Mina Harker or her child. No Van Helsing would have a problem with any woman. Van Helsing in Dracula was one of the kindest and most compassionate and amazing characters. He loved Mina. He loved all the men too. He did everything he could to save Lucy and was devastated by the loss of her. What the fuck book have people been reading if they think Van Helsing would have any problems with Mina or the skills of her child?
This is Susan’s debut novel, published in October of 2024, and I feel like it would have been way more enjoyable for me if it was just about two women – not women created from other literature – solving a supernatural mystery in France. But it’s not that. It’s a mess of ideas and agendas and interpretations of literature that clearly hasn’t been understood or appreciated or even read. NO woman that has read Dracula and understood it would write these characters this way. Dracula is one of the only novels that champions a strong woman and where the woman remains herself and LEADS the men. It is why so many men make movies relegating Mina to the background or as a victim or as a sex object – BECAUSE they hate women. For a woman to write a novel that mirrors the same sentiment speaks to her being influenced by the very men she so obviously despises.
What a waste.
Emily Woo Zeller is a narrator whose work I like a great deal. She isn’t big on “line reading” but she is great at reading lines. Her voice, her cadence, her style is very recognizable and consistent and while she doesn’t “perform” as much as some other narrators, I will ALWAYS grab a book that is narrated by her. You can’t go wrong with Emily’s work and I know I’ll never be disappointed by any work she does.
Story this session: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars
Narration: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars
Final Review
Not for me.