Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Wednesday Reads - Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter


Today I am going to discuss a book I just recently finished reading called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. Grahame-Smith rose to fame with his first book, a rewrite of a classic novel: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (which I also highly recommend). Don't forget to check out Seth Grahame-Smith's website here for more on his books.


I have decided to use the review/summary from Amazon (which is almost the same as Grahame-Smith's own site) because they pretty much sum of the important details nicely! :)

Amazon.com Review

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..
 This book is a fun fast read that gives you a different look into one of the most famous presidents. It is written well and isn't too graphic, though there are some gory details (but it could easily have been worse!). It is very interesting to read how Grahame-Smith has woven vampires into the some of the biggest events in US history. He includes period pictures to show proof of vampire existence at the time.


You follow Abraham Lincoln from his childhood to his years as a lawyer and then a politician and then as the president. All the while he fights vampires, the names in which he is given by a "friend" who is a vampire. All of these information is given to you through the journal entries of Abraham Lincoln himself. These journals were "given" to the author to write in book form.

This book is far from the romance that I recommended last week, but it is a fun take on history. I recommend this book for anyone who loves history (thought I would take it with a grain of salt) and anyone who enjoys a good ol' vampire storyline! :) I enjoyed it but I have all these types of books and fine them a good escape from my other types of books that I read.

Have any of you read this one yet or any of his other books?

Don't forget that this book has been made into a movie and will be out this month!


2 comments:

  1. I didn't know it was a book! Awh I definitely have to read it before I see the film.

    ReplyDelete
  2. wanting to read this for a while, its all geared up and ready to go on Nook. Now I gotta read it before I see the movie! thanks for the recommendation!

    ReplyDelete

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