Review: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter

image from goodreads

My husband and I recently went to the movies and saw the preview for the movie version of Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.  

He got really excited as he had already read the book and really enjoyed it.  This isn't your momma's Abe Lincoln, that's for sure.  

Since I knew we would be going to see the movie when it came out (and I always try to read the book first), I sat down over Memorial Day weekend to read Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. 

Summary from Goodreads:

Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness."

"My baby boy..." she whispers before dying.

Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.

When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, "henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.

Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.

Being a dork, I read the author's note/ introduction, which claims that the story (in diary form) was given to him by a mysterious man named, Henry, who in return, just wanted the story written.  The book itself was interesting.  It was written as though it were a biography, using the "diaries" as primary sources and evidence.  There were also "photographs" (doctored) to make it look like there were vampires in America, and that Abraham Lincoln was a vampire hunter. 

The book painted President Lincoln as a man who suffered from deep depressions and melancholy (which I think is historically accurate), but also as an ax-wielding bad-a$$ (there is just no other way to describe him than BA.  I'm sorry if I've offended anyone).

I thought that claiming the civil war (and everything that lead up to it) was actually a plot designed by vampires to keep slavery (and thus their food supply) intact was interesting; as was writing the novel in the style of a biography.  I liked how the author used Lincoln's famous speeches as chapter openers, and even claimed that most of the speeches were veiled threats to vampires and their supporters.  

However, overall, I found the writing to be pretty dull.  But, I can see how it would translate well to the big-screen.  There was a lot of descriptive writing that is easier to "see" than read.  For me, I think this will be a rare case where I may enjoy the movie more than the book.

I know this is a "grown-up" book, but I can see high school students (and maybe middle schoolers) being really into this book.    Especially with vampires being so popular right now, and the movie coming out soon.