Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
“Most men have no purpose but to exist, Abraham; to pass quietly through history as minor characters upon a stage they cannot even see. To be the playthings of tyrants. But you...you were born to fight tyranny.”I was really surprised by this book; fact and fiction blend seamlessly together as Seth Grahame Smith tells the story of Abraham Lincoln from childhood to his assassination: a lawyer, politician, family man and vampire hunter.
Things I liked:
The Intro -- To my surprise, the story does not start with our 16th president's birth... Instead, it starts with modern day times and a failed novelist.
The Horror -- These vampires aren't nice, they don't want to be your friend, and they certainly don't want to carry on an epic romance with teenage girls. But the horror is introduced artfully, first as an unseen foe Abraham struggles to name, and then growing more violent and more cunning over the years.
The Dreams -- In novels, you don't need to document every time the characters takes a nap or goes to the bathroom. The reader just assumes it happens.SGS takes advantage of this edit, by introducing dream sequences. Passages so exciting and so frightening you can't bear to look away - And then Lincoln wakes up.
The Emotion -- Abraham Lincoln's childhood was not easy so it's no wonder you can't help but respect him more for who he will eventually become... But more than that, the losses he experiences, as he experiences them, brought tears to my eyes. And almost as important, the losses made me hate the tyrannical, murderous vampires, more than I thought possible.
The End -- A twist I didn't see coming. That is all I will say on that matter.
Rated: 5/5
Originally posted:
July 1, 12
I actually didn't care for this book-its pace was too slow for me. I loved Grahame-Smiths's other book though, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies :)
ReplyDeleteI've been hesitant to start P&Pw/Z, because the original never appealed to me. But now you've got me curious.
Delete