Seth Grahame-Smith exploded onto the scene last year (after having several other books published) with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a book I still haven’t read. Â It was so successful that the “classic text mash-up” genre now practically has its own aisle at the bookstore. Â Taking a slightly different approach in his next endeavor, Grahame-Smith wrote Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. Â Rather than taking an old text and playing with it, instead he’s taking history and filling in the gaps with his own crafted tale.
The story follows old Honest Abe from his childhood through his Presidency and weaves around it a tale of revenge and vampires and a country nearly brought to its knees. Â I was skeptical as hell going in. Â That same skepticism is what has kept me from reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Â A tale like this is either going to be a monumental waste of time, or a masterpiece. Â Based on my reading of this book, I’m now more interested to go read P&P&Z.
I’m not a history buff, and I’m not familiar with the true story of Abraham Lincoln other than what they taught me in school. Â But the tale told here steps in and out and around his life in such a fashion that it is so easy to believe that it just might be true. Â It isn’t true, right? Â Vampires don’t really exist… right?
Anyway, I would gladly recommend this book to just about anyone with the only caveat being that some of the early book can be slow, but sticking with it is totally and completely worth it. Â I haven’t read a book that ended this well in a very long time.