Dracula (the original 1897 novel) is the ultimate aro/polyam solidarity book.
Firstly, forget everything you think you know about Dracula from the movies or pop culture. The things that might give you pause, like the sexy blood-drinking and romance with Dracula… None of that is in the book, nor accurate to the book even in subtext. The real story of Dracula isn’t focused on romance and sex, but instead friendship.
Friendship is such a heavy theme in this book. All of the characters have such strong, dedicated, and healthy friendships with each other. All the allos I’ve seen read this book even admit that and heavily discuss it.
The main “straight” romance in the book is literally the most well-written and respectful romance I have ever seen in media. Despite the time period the book was written in, the characters treat each other as full equals, actually love and respect each other, have full trust in each other’s love with no jealousy or concern of cheating (at one point in the book, the woman literally laughs because of how silly the idea of her boyfriend cheating on her was!). They are Entirely dedicated and even get a little blasphemous with it, despite being an otherwise very Catholic book.
(Not to mention they both give off major trans and bi vibes.)
The other romance in the book features a woman turn down 2/3 of her suitors. These 2 men hold no ill will towards her for this, but fully accept it and vow to be friends with her forever. And you get to fully see the genuinity and strength of their care and friendship and the lengths they are willing to go through to help and save her. All the suitors themselves have a very strong friendship with each other, with no jealousy in sight.
For the aros, it's a book about unconditional platonic love. Everyone joins and works together to try to save her. Both old friends working together, and new people brought in that very quickly become just as close. And when I say close, I mean “We just met but I will die for you” strength.
For the polyamorous folks, it's a book with so much of that friendship combined with homoerotic subtext and no jealousy in sight. It’s incredibly easy to see all of the characters in a polycule, from the friendship to subtext to thematic parallels. (And most of the modern fandom does!)
I also recommend reading the book via Dracula Daily! The book is an epistolary novel, in the format of exchanged letters and entries all with in-world dates. Dracula Daily sorts all of these entries into their chronological order, so you follow the order of events alongside all the characters. And as there is an in-universe explanation for why the book is written in entries and all of them dated, it's amazing to read day-by-day and get to that reveal in the story. To sign up, Dracula Daily is a free substack subscription by Matt Kirkland. You can sign up for it any time, and the emails start on May 3rd and it runs until Nov 7th. If you do decide to join, check out the Dracula Daily tumblr tags to read and analyze along with everyone else doing it! (But be warned, some people are on re-reads so there may be spoilers, but most folks will tag them for first-timers!)
There’s also Re:Dracula, which is an audiobook podcast that uses the Dracula Daily chronological format. They have different actors for each character and add tons of music and sound effects. It's a really great and book-accurate adaptation, and they lean into the bisexual subtext whenever they can, which is very fun. To listen, you can find it on any podcast service, and it's also on Youtube. (And their tumblr is @re-dracula)
Additional Information: Novel, Horror, Gothic Fiction, Fantasy
Trailer: N/A
