Bookworm Blurbs

A mysterious attack on Margaret Trelawney's father brings young lawyer Malcolm Ross into the Egyptologist's bizarre home, and the couple soon find they are battling ancient forces greater than they previously could have imagined. The Egyptian queen Tera has been awoken, and is coming to take what she believes to be hers - whatever the cost to the Trelawney family. Set in London and Cornwall, and written at a time when a fascination with the East pervaded Victorian England, The Jewel of Seven Stars reflected the perceived contrast between the Orient's savagery and moral degradation, and its exotic beauty and opulence. (source)

I'm really glad that the Classics discussion group here on booklikes chose this as our January read! I'd never heard of this one before - the only Bram Stoker novel that I knew of was Dracula, and I'd never even read that. So this was an exciting find, not only because I'd never heard of it but also because it was my first Bram Stoker attempt. I also have never read a classic horror novel, so it was really neat to see what an early horror novel was like. 

The story was really interesting and I definitely enjoyed reading it. I thought the concept was super unique and very interesting to read about. It started off with action immediately, as Miss Trelawny sends for our narrator, Malcolm Ross, at 3AM for support when she discovers her father in a comatose state. I never guessed the outcome of the mystery and I found myself constantly wondering what would happen next. 

I must confess, I did think that parts of the book moved slow, especially the middle. It took several chapters for Corbeck to tell Malcolm about his adventures with Trelawny and what could possibly have lead to his current state, and I found myself getting easily distracted and wishing he'd just hurry on with the story. I also thought that the ending was a bit anticlimactic and was disappointed by that. 

What worked well for this story, however, was the business with Margaret Trelawny. She has a very odd connection with Queen Tera and it was spooky to read about how this would play out.

But, again, I did feel that the ending was anticlimactic, and that included this part of the book. 

Overall, I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to read this book and I look forward to both reading more by Bram Stoker and reading the Classics group's next pick, Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte! If you're a fan of the horror genre, I definitely recommend that you give this a try - though it's not quite as bone chilling as many horror novels that are around today, I do think that it's worth reading just to see how far the genre has come since the early 20th century.