Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

When Abraham Lincoln was nine years old, his mother died from an ailment called the "milk sickness." Only later did he learn that his mother's deadly affliction was actually the work of a local vampire, seeking to collect on Abe's father's unfortunate debts.

When the truth became known to the young Abraham Lincoln, he wrote in his journal: henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become learned in all things—a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose."

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for reuniting the North with the South and abolishing slavery from our country, no one has ever understood his valiant fight for what it really was. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.

This book was great. Mixing a factual biography of Lincoln with fun fictional "facts" about vampires, it is highly entertaining.

Imagine, if you will, everything you ever learned in school about Abraham Lincoln. Now, insert vampires into every tragic event and major decision that ever happened in his life. That is what this is.

The book is divided into three parts; Boy, Vampire Hunter and President. The second of the three being the most fictionalized. It tells the story of Lincoln's life with entries from Lincoln's secret, and fictional, journals as well as some very well Photoshopped photographs, interspersed throughout. I think it could have done without the pictures, though they were amusing.

It is, actually, a pretty accurate biography, except, you know, all the bits with vampires in it. I learned a few things I had not, previously. I even scoured the internet afterward to find out if some of the events were real, which, most were.

Grahame-Smith's writing is good, though there are a few redundancies in the story. It was a lot better than his writing in Pride and Prejudice and  Zombies, which I did love. Vampire Hunter gave him more creative control and it shows!

My only issue with the story was that it did take away some of the "nice guy, Honest Abe" qualities that the actual Abraham Lincoln had. But once I pushed that aside, I got into the "alternate reality" of his life, that much more.

This is one of the most inventive books I have read in a while. Not only that, but it had depth.
I will warn, there are quite a few gory parts and if you get squeamish skip over those parts, if you choose to read this. Which I recommend you do.

4.5 out of 5 stars

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