I thought he was too arrogant, probably because of how critical he is of his father, who probably deserved it but it didn’t sit well with me. In this case, however, I didn’t care much for Lincoln. I tend to prefer character-driven novels because characters are what motivate me to keep reading and usually when I’m hooked on a book, it’s because I really like the protagonist or another prominent character. But once the story got started, I was committed to the novel and could barely tear my eyes away from its pages. For now, I’ll focus on the book.Īt first, I thought the narrative would be dull because the introduction was a touch boring.

The story is engrossing and Grahame-Smith’s research of the era and his subject easily shines through in the book, but there were some changes made in the movie that I preferred. After reading it, I think I’m about 50/50. I bought the book two years ago after watching the movie, which I enjoyed, and was curious to see if the book was better.

By the end of the day, I was yearning to read Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. I visited the Lincoln Memorial that day and later rewatched season 1 of The Strain, a TV show that airs on FX about vampires taking over New York City. I was eager to pick up this novel after a short bus tour of Washington, D.C., prior to the one I mentioned above. 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. 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.

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. I felt as if I was looking out on history while reading a story that called to it. Doing so also helped to cement the novel’s worldbuilding in my mind making it easier for me to imagine the setting. I also visited an old train museum and read the book while sitting in its café area, which was restored to maintain how it looked back in the late 1800s. While reading the book, I went on a guided bus tour of Washington, D.C., and was told facts that confirmed some of the passages from the story. My reading experience with Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was one of the best I’ve ever had.

Abraham Lincoln by Seth Grahame-Smith