A Review of Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter,by Seth Grahame-Smith

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Who knew?

The Lost Colony--done in by vampires. Slavery in the US-maintained with the active assistance of vampires--as a captive and available food source. Jefferson David, a tool of the vampires. The Civil War, good vampires on the side of the North, and very bad ones on the side of the South--their goal, to create a country for immortals, with us, the lesser mortals, bred as blood on the hoof.

And Abraham Lincoln, whose mother was done in by the bloodsuckers, a vampire hunter--brought to you by the same man who wrote, according to Booklist, "the most wacky by-product of the busy Jane Austen fan-fiction industry—at least among the spin-offs and pastiches that have made it into print," Pride and Prejudice and the Zombies, "expanded edition” of Pride and Prejudice, 85 percent of the original text has been preserved but fused with “ultraviolent zombie mayhem.”

You get the idea. This isn't the history I learned in school--but then, maybe vampires wrote those text books .... I did grow up in the South ...

Seth Grahame-Smith skillfully adapts Lincoln's journals, letters, and his speeches, and the biography that we are all familiar with into what the LA Times called "an original vampire tale with humor, heart, and bite" (and the puns in the reviews get worse, by the way). The vampires have always been amongst us. Controlled in Europe, they seize opportunity to get their own territory here in America--and once we get our independence, they get busy. When Lincoln learned his mother's death can be attributed to vampires, as well as those of his grandparents, and that his father is somehow complicit in this, he vows to kill every vampire in America. He conducts this crusade with ax and stake and the continual assistance of a good vampire, Henry Sturges, all of which Grahame-Seth weaves into the Lincoln biography. It turns out, of course, people are not as they seem, as Joshua Speed is enlisted in the cause, and more than a few other historical figures.

Yes, tongue is in cheek, but this well-researched novel is mostly dark, as the reader experiences the death of two of Lincoln' sons and the collapse of his wife and the ongoing misery of slavery--exacerbated by the abuse of the vampires. And even though we all know how Lincoln's life turns out (or think we do), the narrative is compelling and engaging: I kept reading, all the way to Ford's Theatre.

As dark as it is, this novel is an enjoyable read and I recommend it. As Mary Ellen Quinn, Booklist reviewer asks, "What’s next? Wuthering Heights and Werewolves?"



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