BOOK REVIEW: Abraham LIncoln, Vampire Hunter

“So,what are you reading?”, asks my son-in-law.

“ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VAMPIRE HUNTER by Seth Grahame-Smith”, I replied.

“Bet that plays fast and loose with history”, he said. 

Yes, I have to admit that part of the fun of ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VAMPIRE HUNTER was separating well-know facts from the obviously fictional parts. Grahame-Smith put such a subtle  twist to the history that we have read since grade school to make it almost convincing.

Lincoln became a vampire hunter at the death of his beloved mother. He had reason to believe that her death was caused by a disagreement between his father and a suspicious man, who he found out was a vampire. 

He sharpened his axe and set out to rid the countryside of all of the man’s fellow night creatures. Problem was that the vampires in America had learned how to adjust to light; plus they were stronger, faster and much older than he. 

On a trip to New Orleans, where he mistakes Edgar Allan Poe to be one of the hated creatures, he finds that a large number of black slaves are being sold to provide the blood at special feasts.Now he has a good reason to start a war and free the slaves.

Grahame-Smith tells all of this story with a light touch. The subject is vampires, remember, so naturally there are some bloody scenes, but they fit into the overall tone of the book.

The historic characters are well done. When the author had to bend the facts, he kept the people within our knowledge of them. Mary Todd Lincoln had reason to become the tragic figure that history has painted her. The Civil War is well researched, if a little weirdly. We get a slightly different view of some of the famous battles and the generals who were there.

The clever illustrations are an outstanding part of the book. Again, most of the pictures seem to be familiar to us… except now we know why that axe is always close to Abe and why so many of the bad guys are wearing dark glasses.

I really liked the ending to this book...  I mean after the scene in Ford’s Theatre. It explains so many of the modern sightings of Abraham Lincoln.

I was so tempted to include phrases like “ the book has a bite to it” or “ a book worth sinking your teeth into”, but they both had been used in other reviews. Shame. Tim Burton is rumored to be one of the producers of an upcoming movie version. It is hard to imagine a director/producer better qualified to work with this material.

This was a fun read and now I will have to find a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith since Jane Austen has always been one of my favorite authors.