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Title: Draculas Children

Author: Richard Lortz

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-21-11

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Fiction, Horror

Publisher's Summary:

Out of the mist and darkness they come, child-creatures of the night who prey upon the unsuspecting.

Late one rainy night, a young school teacher arrives outside her apartment building and spies a mysterious, naked boy at the edge of Central Park. Thinking him injured or lost, she approaches him, despite the chilling fear slowly enveloping her. He flees, luring the young woman into the darkest, densest part of the park. There, out of the fog-laden woods, four more children emerge, restless and wild-eyed. And then they attack. The next morning, police discover the site of the womans shocking, grisly murder. They are baffled by the strange teeth marks and sheer brutality of the crime. What animal could have done such a thing? A bear? Wolves? A pack of rabid dogs? Theories fly, but they have no idea that the truth of the matter is something far more horrifying.

As much a character study as a tale of horror and the supernatural, Richard Lortzs Draculas Children offers a spine-tingling chill to the tune of Richard Matheson or Stephen King.

Members Reviews:

Graphic, original horror novel with a ridiculous alternate title

This book was first published in 1974 under the title "Children of the Night." The title was no doubt derived from the line spoken by Dracula in the novel of the same name. Hearing wolves howling outside Dracula says "Listen to them! The children of the night! What music they make!" Considering what happens in the book, the title is very apt. But for some reason this book was reprinted with the title "Dracula's Children." The new title is ridiculous; the novel has nothing to do with Dracula or vampirism. But a new line is added to the reprint: "What had he expected...Dracula's children?" I suppose the line was added to help make sense of the new title. But the title is still incongruous and strange.

The novel is set in New York in the seventies. It's the story of five children, all around twelve or thirteen years old: "two Spanish, one black, one (possibly) white and the other, God knows."

Their lives are a living hell, replete with grinding poverty and physically and/or sexually abusive parents. These five children, in order to escape the misery of their lives, dissociate (it's like a form of multiple personality, before multiple personality disorder became a cause célèbre) into carnivorous beasts. Not literally; they don't sprout hair and fangs and claws like Larry Talbot in "The Wolf Man." But they do take on the characteristics of animals. They lose the power of speech, run around on all fours and hunt in a pack, tearing apart their prey with their teeth. And although they are not together all the time if one comes in contact with a potential victim, all the others telepathically sense what is happening and come running to take part in the attack. It all sounds insane, but Richard Lortz makes it seem plausible and the result is a terrifying horror novel.

This is not a politically correct novel. Its depictions of minorities and homosexuals are bound to offend some people. Still, it's an engrossing, well-written tale.

This reprint, with the silly new title has another new aspect, this one much more effective. The illustration on the cover of a child (its race is not clearly determined), long-haired, wild-eyed, grinning a feral grin with a mouthful of prominent teeth is startlingly scary.