Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
Release Date ~ 3/2/10
Format ~ Paperback (Movie Tie-in Edition)
Publisher ~ Grand Central Publishing
Source ~ Gifted
Purchase: The Book Depository

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.   

   Because a obscenely hilarious yet very appropriate video is worth a thousand words, I'm going to start the review off with a little Parry Gripp song titled "Abe Lincoln Man".

(He kicks a little butt then he makes a little speech, he's Abe Lincoln man!)

    When I first heard about Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter back in 2010, I was instantly intrigued by the idea. I was (and still am) a big history buff, and I like, like the rest of the youth crowd, I was going through a huge vampire phase. I downloaded it onto my kindle, read the first 20 pages, but then got something else to read and drifted away from it. It was only until someone gave me a paperback copy recently that I decided to pick it up again. And boy, am I glad I did!

   Though when you think of vampires, historically well researched is not one of the words that would come to mind. But Grahame-Smith's novel is just that! With a very detailed account of his life (both non-vampire and then the added vampire related parts.) I found myself learning a ton about our nation's favorite president.

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   The blending the vampires into the Civil War story was genius. It also made perfect sense: the vampires were feeding off the blood of slaves because no one would notice the death of a few slaves, and killing slaves wasn't even considered murder at the time. Abe's mother was killed by vampires when he was young. and it was his revenge mission to kill every one of them in North America. This revenge plot would lead to the freeing of millions of slaves but would cost the lives of many of both races.

   The character of Abe was awesome! It was interesting to learn about all his depressing mood swings (some of them real, some of them added in). I always thought it was always fun and games (with a few nation changing speeches in between) up until the assassination, instead he had to bury three of his sons during his lifetime, had his mother die before his eyes at age of nine, and become a pawn for the "good" vampires.

SPOILER ALERT- DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THIS BOOK YET

    I really enjoyed the ending of this book! It was awesome that he became a vampire himself, and was there when M.L.K. made his historic speech in front of the Lincoln memorial. So since he's a vampire, I guess he could still be walking around today *looks to the left* *no Abe* *loves to the right* *no Abe* * disappointed*

(END SPOILERS)

  Brilliant, fast paced, and great fun, Grahame-Smith has completed the seemingly impossible task of making vampires fresh again! I can't wait for the movie!

Cover Comments: Though this cover is basically just the movie poster, I love all the trees, and then Abe sitting there with his ax!