The Historian in Pick-a-Shelf

Sep 13, 2008 Kellie rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2006-reads

Phew. This was a long one. My personal opinion...way too long. I not sure why an editor would want a book like this to be as long as it is. I think I would have liked it better if it was shorter. The descriptions of the various countries, their cultures and geography was interesting. The story is very intriguing. It just seemed to drag in various places through out the book. I think people will enjoy it if they have the endurance for it. The story is about modern day Dracula. It is sometimes dif Phew. This was a long one. My personal opinion...way too long. I not sure why an editor would want a book like this to be as long as it is. I think I would have liked it better if it was shorter. The descriptions of the various countries, their cultures and geography was interesting. The story is very intriguing. It just seemed to drag in various places through out the book. I think people will enjoy it if they have the endurance for it. The story is about modern day Dracula. It is sometimes difficult to follow. The story opens in Amsterdam in 1972, when a teenage girl discovers a medieval book and a cache of yellowed letters in her diplomat father's library. The pages of the book are empty except for a woodcut of a dragon. The letters are addressed to: "My dear and unfortunate successor." When the girl confronts her father, he reluctantly confesses an unsettling story: his involvement, twenty years earlier, in a search for his graduate school mentor, who disappeared from his office only moments after confiding to Paul his certainty that Dracula--Vlad the Impaler, an inventively cruel ruler of Wallachia in the mid-15th century--was still alive. The story turns out to concern our narrator directly because Paul's collaborator in the search was a fellow student named Helen Rossi (the unacknowledged daughter of his mentor) and our narrator's long-dead mother, about whom she knows almost nothing. And then her father, leaving just a note, disappears also. As well as numerous settings, both in and out of the East Bloc, Kostova has three basic story lines to keep straight--one from 1930, when Professor Bartolomew Rossi begins his dangerous research into Dracula, one from 1950, when Professor Rossi's student Paul takes up the scent, and the main narrative from 1972. The criss-crossing story lines mirror the political advances, retreats, triumphs, and losses that shaped Dracula's beleaguered homeland--sometimes with the Byzantines on top, sometimes the Ottomans, sometimes the rag-tag local tribes, or the Orthodox church, and sometimes a fresh conqueror like the Soviet Union. ...more

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Mar 26, 2009 Sunflower rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-read-2009, library, historical-fiction

For a so-called horror story this one is rather gracious. And not even mildly scary. A very long whodunit, involving two generations of one unlucky family plus assorted other intellectuals known to them, and travels over much of Europe. This book must have needed a lot of research on the author's part, and the title tells you exactly what you get; a history. And I agree with other reviewers, *watch out, spoiler ahead* Dracula is a librarian? That's right up there with God being a woman who bakes ...more

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May 21, 2007 Poppy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction

Good plot, nice writing, and the bits about historical elements are nicely put to blend with the storyline. But the end is rather an anticlimax, that's the setback. ...more

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Aug 17, 2008 Slayermel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, fiction, mystery, fantasy, historical-fiction, thriller, vampires, book-club, paranormal, 21st-century

I really enjoyed this book, what a great detailed story. The amount of history, woven in with details of countries, cultures and historical sites is amazing. I enjoyed every page of this novel. The characters where completely believable and likable. I felt like I was right there with them on their journey. There where several times where I was so engrossed in the book that my phone rang and I jumped out of my skin. :op

I will definitely be reading more about Vlad the Impaler as I found parts of ...more

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Mar 08, 2008 Southernbelle0326 rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction, own, waste-of-time, 2009-reads

At first, I thought this book started off good. I didnt want to put it down. Later, I found it to be a drag. I ended up skimming some of the book. The book seems too wordy. It could have been a 300 page book instead of 676 pages. I liked the short chapters. I didnt like the fact that the book kept changing point of views. Once the story was being told by the daughter then the next it was the father telling the story. Made it very confusing for me and I found myself saying "Wait, who's talking he ...more

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Oct 05, 2008 Jennifer rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 25, 2009 Nicole rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book, historical, 2010

This book had so much potential, the problem was there was so much of it. Kostova actually writes beautifully, and the idea of Dracula still alive for hundreds of years was interesting. However she went into such detail, made you go through every historical document she could find, and then ended so anti-climatically that it ruined things. Unfortunately by the end, it didn't really care what happened, I just wanted it to be over. ...more

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Nov 14, 2007 Joanna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2009-read

I really enjoyed this book. While the book is a Dracula/vampire story, it isn't overly heavy on the vampire activities and is much more focused on the historical research and tracking of Dracula through history and through historical documents. The story seamlessly switches between events in the past, research from the past of historical events, and events in the present. A very enjoyable read! ...more

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