Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter  
by Seth Grahame-Smith

Synopsis:
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.


Review:
I have mixed feelings about this book, I read it a few months ago and I still haven't decided if I like it or not. Usually my first reaction to that would be to decide that if I didn't love it, I must have hated it, but as time has passed, I've come to the conclusion that it's actually a good thing because this book really made me think.


Most of the time I read for enjoyment and to escape reality, this was a book club selection so it was kind of assigned reading, in a way. It's not a subject I would normally read about: historical figures and vampires. As the synopsis says, it really did read like a grand biography. I actually didn't know a lot about Lincoln's life before I read it, and although it seemed very well researched, I am not sure if I know anything (true) about Lincoln's life now. The other day I caught myself in a conversation about history and Lincoln and I stated some random fact and my son asked me where I heard that, and I had to embarrassingly say "from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," they nearly laughed me out of the room. 


This is the kind of damage this book does. It reads so true to life and the vampire story is so expertly woven into historical "facts" that is makes me question reality. A lot. I mean, who knows, maybe the first secret service agents were vampires, and maybe the Civil War was fought so that southern vampires could take over America. 


If you have a better brain filter than I do (which I am sure 99.9% of you do) then you will remember not to learn history from Mr. Grahame-Smith's novels and just enjoy them as the farcical historical fiction they were intended to be. Me, I have been banned from all Lincoln and Civil War conversations in my house, due to this book and my faulty brain filter. Oh well.


It really was a good book but very dark and violent. Mr. Lincoln lived a very sad and difficult life and there are parts in this book where the emotional pain is almost overwhelming, then he goes out and lops the head off a vampire and life moves on. So yes, read this book and then come over and we will discuss our version of the Civil War and Mr. Lincoln's life and my kids can just butt out of it.


Intended Audience: I would recommend 16 and over due to violence.


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Other books by this author:

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Unholy Night