Review: "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter" by Seth Grahame-Smith

 

From Goodreads:  Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness."

"My baby boy..." she whispers before dying.

Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.

When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, "henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.

Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.

 

My Thoughts:  It took me a long time to decide that I wanted to read this book.  It just sounded absolutely silly to me.  However, it was a lot better than I expected.   The book is supposed to be Seth Grahame-Smith writing the true story of Abraham Lincoln using diaries given to him by a vampire.  Grahame-Smith takes Lincoln's life and adds a fun little twist to it by making him a vampire hunter and making vampires the cause of the Civil War. 

 

I think that the author did a great job of weaving the vampire aspect of the story into the actual event sin Abraham Lincoln's life.  The story seemed smooth and it didn't feel as though there were any odd transitions between fact and fiction which I liked.  I have read another of this author's books and it was very choppy so I was glad that was not the case with this book.  I thought it was neat how the author had Lincoln meet up with Edgar Allan Poe who was fascinated with vampires.  There were also some great 'authentic' photos that showed how vampires always seemed to be where Lincoln was.  The one thing I really didn't like was the ending to the story.  It seemed to go against other occurrences earlier in the book and it just was not the way I would have liked to see the story end.

 

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter was a silly read that mixes history and the paranormal.  It was a little slow moving at times but overall, it's a good read if you are looking for something fun and different. 3 stars