Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

I first discovered this author about four years ago when one of the guys I worked with brought in a book called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I thought it was a cool title and he said that it was a fun book, full of zombies, ninjas, and Jane Austen. Odd, but so are my some of my favorite books. I wanted to read it, but I didn’t give it much thought after that day, just telling myself that I would read it some day. Years went by and I finally read it- loved it! I wanted more of this creative author. Since I loved the book, Mary: Mrs. A Lincoln by Janis Cooke Newman, I was stoked to see he wrote one about Abraham Lincoln being one of the world’s greatest vampire hunters.

Overall impression—LOVED IT! Buy it, borrow it, check it out from the library. This is NOT a book about teenage lover boy vampires, but real freaking Bram Stoker vampires. One huge plus for this author is that he does not write for one gender. Both men and women can read his work and appreciate it for different reasons. History buffs will like that most of the people that were important in Abraham’s life, make their appearances in this book. Albeit, differently than you might think. People who were killed by disease and tragic accidents, meet up and close with vampires. These sad deaths shape Abraham’s life from early on to make him want kill every vampire in America. Seth Grahame-Smith mingles American history and Sci-fi perfectly, starting with one of America’s most intriguing mystery, the disappearance of the Roanoke settlers. For those who forgot, the first attempt at settling the new world did not go well and there is no confirmed explanation as to WHY. A group of people came over, set up a small community, and disappeared with no trace. There are a few carving in some trees, but beyond that—nothing. Damn vampires… Fast forward to Abraham Lincoln’s time, vampires have figured out a nice legal system to buy blood through slavery. They have made their presence known to some of the slave traders/owners in the south. The vampires bargain to buy slaves instead of hunting the owners and their families. So a few people (Lincoln and some of his friends), try to end slavery to dry up the blood supply.

Seth Grahame-Smith tries to keep the spirit that ending slavery was ALSO good for equal rights, but the book loses a little of the enormity of how awful slavery really was. Which in retrospection is probably a good thing since it is a huge bummer. The book has been picked up for a film, and in my opinion, screen writers, directors, and editors usually butcher a good book amazingly well. So until I see it, I promise to be hopefully optimistic. Please please don’t ruin it! Release date is set for June 22, 2012.

One big beef with this novel, and it is a BIG problem for me, is the engine for the entire novel, Abraham’s secret journal. The author has bits of journal entries from a secret journal containing all references to Abrahams vampire hunting- mingled in with the story. I’ve read some of Abraham’s speeches in school, and some of his biographies. He lived a long time ago, people spoke differently, wrote differently, and used different words that we do now. His journal in the book just doesn’t SOUND like him, so I lost some of enthusiasm when I got to those parts. There are tons of them too, sigh. Even with that, the author does an AMAZING job of mingling two genres together. It is his gift, and I can’t wait to read another of his novels, some day.