Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame Smith
(Format used for this read: Print–paperback)
I told yall in a previous review that I am slowwwwwwllllyyyyy working my way thru all the TBR piles on my bedroom bookshelf.
This guy has been sitting there since we lived in Virginia (see that McKay Used Books sticker? OHHHHHH how I MISS that treasured place!)
I really am clueless as to why I even picked this thing up years ago.
While I do immensely enjoy the historical fiction genre, I generally do not like ANYTHING when it is mixed with the horror genre.
I do NOT enjoy being scared. As yall know quite well by now.
But I think if I remember correctly, a friend recommended it to me at some point….and somehow it ended up on my bookshelf.
I figured since it IS October and the official “spooky” season, this may be the very best time to finally give it a go.
I mean….vampires ARE scary but they aren’t like SCARY SCARY, you know?
I remember even feeling quite amorous about them even when I read Interview With A Vampire in my late teen years.
(I do wonder what the whole “vampires are sexy” thing really is about….I mean, they are UNDEAD and KILL HUMANS by sucking the literal LIFE out of them….IDK how that ends up translating to sexy, but somehow it does time and time again LOL)
Plus, I have been surprising myself GREATLY lately with reading and ACTUALLY ENJOYING thriller type books, so I thought maybe I’d shock myself yet again.
So off my shelf it came.
(BTW…do any of yall have bookshelves in your bedrooms? I always thought most people did….I always have had one my whole life, my parents did, my grandparents did, my kids do….but I had a convo a few years ago at a book club meeting where I realized that this is NOT a regular thing! I was the ONLY ONE at that meeting who had a bookshelf in their bedroom…and this was among avid readers too. People thought it was quite a strange thing! Such an interesting revelation to me. Because where do people put ALL THEIR BOOKS?!? I mean, I haven’t EVER lived in a house with a library or a reading nook or a formal office or anything….and I definitely am not storing all my personal books in our family living room….so where else would I put them all?)
Here is the official summary before I get into all my thoughts:
“Indiana. 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 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.”
This definitely was a unique read and quite the fun fictional spin on Abe Lincoln’s life.
I thought the very beginning of the book was a creative intro to how the rest of the story was gonna play out….in fact, it actually reminded me of Interview With a Vampire a teensy bit. (NOT in the sexy vampire way though…there was NONE of that up in here 🤣)
The author sets the scene by explaining how he came to possess the journals of Abraham Lincoln….journals that documented not just his life as we already have heard thru the tales of history, but also his life journey as a vampire hunter.
Which seems completely preposterous and ridiculous…. AT FIRST.
The rest of the book goes back and forth between the journal entries and the author’s further historical commentary and explanation.
The way the author straight forwardly gives factual historical info and then also weaves in fantastical fiction at the same time is quite entertaining….for the most part.
I did find some of the history bits a little dry and boring…some of it felt too “textbook” like in the way it was presented.
Which I guess may have been the intent actually.
Because then when you read things you KNOW are not facts, you feel like you are reading STRAIGHT UP FACTUAL things…..like what you are reading is the REAL story.
(I am not a huge Civil War Era history buff or Abraham Lincoln life expert, but I am SO wanting my Lincoln loving hubby to read this book…because he knows a WHOOLLLLLEEEE lot and I’d love to hear his take on the comparisons and intermingling of fact and fiction)
I did find the journal entries and letters to be MUCH more interesting to read than the commentary parts….hearing all the emotions and processing and personal reflections….yall know that ALWAYS gets to me ❤
LOVED how he added in retouched photos/art work too to add to the “realness” of it all.
You know it’s fiction…but then you start doubting that it IS fiction.
The story really does kind of a mindfuck to you too….because by the time you get to the end you’re questioning all you know and believe and are like “Hang on a minute….COULD Abe Lincoln really HAVE BEEN a vampire hunter???” “WERE vampires really a driving force behind continuing slavery?” “Are there vampires IN AMERICA TODAY????” “I DON”T KNOW WHAT’S TRUE ANYMORE!” 🤣
Because if there is anything we know to be true about REAL American history, it’s that our textbooks leave out a WHOLE LOT OF FACTS.
Maybe vampires are just one of them.
Was this book scary? Well, it’s a tricky answer…but I think my answer would be “sorta not really”.
I would say it is more violent than scary.
Although I did not want to sit and read it by myself in my living room at night when everyone had gone to bed 🤣
Keep in mind that I am a giant cry baby chicken who can’t handle scary things so if I can handle this book and say it’s not THAT scary, than you can trust that it really isn’t!
This book I think can appeal to quite the range of readers….if you like history, historical fiction, thrillers, horror, there is a little something for ya here.
I found it to be a good, thrilling and entertaining story overall.
This book was made into a movie years ago, so I’ll have to see if I can check it out this next week in the days leading up to Halloween….it’s about as scary as I’ll get 😁