iDrakula is a retelling of the Dracula story told through new media--text messages, emails, "screen shots" of web browsers. I was so excited to see this, since, of course, Stoker infuses his novel with the latest technology of 1897, it is, in the words of Jonathan Harker's diary: “nineteenth century up-to-date with a vengeance."
But if we continue on with that quote we find something more: "And yet, unless my senses deceive me, the old
centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere “modernity” cannot
kill.” While I loved the novelty of Black's approach and I was happy to see Mina as such a feisty character, I just didn't feel the chill of Dracula himself; he seemed to me to be oddly missing from this novel. In Stoker, technology isn't a gimic; he is questioning the role of technology and its potential for good or for ill. His characters are aware of the thrill and power of the new. Mina, Jonathan and the others don't use technology casually. Mina is a "train fiend" who is fascinated by Dr. Seward's phonograph. Mina's mastery of shorthand and the typewriter help to defeat Dracula, although finally it is her quick mind and their courage that prevail.
In iDrakula the characters seem to take technology for granted -- of course they communicate by these means. In an interview, Black says that she was inspired to write the book after watching two teenagers have a conversation through texting while sitting next to each other. Although the book is meant to appeal to young people by speaking "in their language," I think it might have had more depth if they shown a deeper sense of discovery or if the novel had questioned these new technologies a bit more, as Stoker did. Or perhaps technology has lost its power to dazzle and it is our dependence on it--as shown when Jonathan has "server issues" during his imprisonment with Dracula--that is the new horror.