Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

Seth Grahame-Smith

Average Rating 8/10 ( 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 has 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 axe, 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 America's 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 the nation.

'Grahame-Smith does an excellent job of capturing the spirit of this style of story-telling, mixing historically accurate anecdotes with entries from Lincoln's fictional secret journal, weaving the vampire elements into the story in a manner that's quite believable.'

Review by Chrissi (310710) Rating (8/10)

Review by Chrissi
Rating 8/10
I do not really know anything about Abraham Lincoln, other than stuff picked up from films (Bill and Ted, National Treasure, etc.,all very highbrow and educational:) so when I saw the really cool trailer for this, I thought that it would be illuminating. I have to say, what with the title and the trailer, I was expecting something humorous, but it is not intentionally that way. Nigel asked me for the genre and I suggested Alternative History, but seeing as how that is not currently a category, it has had to go into fiction.

Once you get your head around it not being comedic, you can appreciate what I can only assume is a largely biographical story, albeit with vampires. I checked wikipedia, just to see if what was written there ran largely true to the narrative, and it does.

The deaths of Lincoln family members serve to bring vampires to the attention of the young Abraham and he sets about destroying those that he can find. However, he does meet vampires who do not feed from those unable to protect themselves, and he forms a relationship with them which goes on to influence him when he enters politics. The vampires immigrated to America from the time of the first settlers, believing that a new country would allow for easier hunting than the Old World. The vampires roam throughout the country, and part of their evil is their support for slavery, allowing as it does a captive menu for their delectation.

His political career and high personal achievements are all documented, illustrated within the story through his relationships with both vampire and non-vampire. Even up to the plot to kill him at Ford’s Theatre and the late changes made to the planned evening, it was of course a vampire supporting the Confederacy who plotted to end his life.

This book strikes me as a useful learning guide for someone wanting to find out about Lincoln in a non-textbook way. I learned a lot and whilst it was not quite what I thought, it was engaging and I have retained a surprising amount of information, although that may not have been chief among the aims of the author. It really is quite a quirky idea, but one that in this case works well, I am sure that Abraham Lincoln, a largely self-educated man, would approve highly of anything that encouraged people to read about the process of legislature and the price paid by a country for freedom for all.
Chrissi (31st July 2010)