Book Review of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is the next widely-known novel from Seth Grahame-Smith, author of Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies. Yeah, that one.
I went into this book expecting to hate it, to find it stupid, but was told by a friend I dearly trust that I had no choice other than to read it. While its title makes you want to laugh and scoff and roll your eyes, this book is refreshing, original, and exciting. Though bits of the pacing were stop-and-go, it’s a good book that I highly recommend you read.
The Details
This story is unique not only in its content, but also in its telling. A failed author and shop keeper in a small town is told to write the true story of Abraham Lincoln. The truth, he discovers, is that Lincoln had no original aspirations to be president, and stumbled into the political arena quite by chance thanks to his natural gift for story telling, his desire to do right by people, and of course his hatred of vampires. The story claims that Lincoln, one of America’s greatest presidents, was also one of the greatest vampire hunters of his time.
Tell me you’re not scoffing at least a little.
I really wanted to hate this. I expected to hate it. And yet, within the first five pages, I grew fond of the narrator’s humor. Then, I wanted to know more about these journals the writer was given, which apparently told the true story. I wanted to learn why he’d been given this apparently all-important task of relaying the story of a few secret journals from Lincoln’s life.
The primary novel is Lincoln’s story, not the writer’s, but we alternate between third-person narration and excerpts from his secret journals (as well as other characters’ letters to each other about him). It’s broken into three sections: boy, vampire hunter, and president. I have to admit, I found the last section a little dull and the pacing grew a little slow, but that’s because it reflected more of his political and wartime ambitions than vampire hunting. However, the interwoven tales of vampires and the “true nature” of the Civil War were difficult to resist. We even get a little bit of John Wilke Booth’s story. That was fun.
I was not a huge fan of the last page. There was an interesting twist, one I suppose I should have (but didn’t) see coming, but it left me a little let down. It felt a little forced, and made me question why the writer in the first chapter had been asked to write a tale of Lincoln’s life. It was sweet, in a way, but felt too fictional and like the author was trying to tie everything in a bow.
Regardless, this is a creative story. While I noticed an error here or there (one “excerpt” from Lincoln’s journal was in third person, instead of first), I was still engaged by the story. There’s violence, humor, betrayal, discovery, the struggle between what’s right and what’s wrong, and the magical allure of vampires.
Even if you think this sounds like the dumbest novel ever, you should give it a try. My friend proved me wrong about that. You’ll probably be able to see if you’ll like it in the first chapter.
