Many novels of this generation deal with trials and tribulations of family and crises. However, no other novel has been interesting as "Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter" by Seth Grahame-Smith. Placed on New York Times Bestsellers list at #4, this book is guaranteed to take readers imaginations on a horrific ride.
The book was based off of the secret diaries of Abraham Lincoln that were supposedly given to the author Grahame-Smith, by a vampire. First off, vampires are a figment of people's imaginations or the idea that one exists derives from someone's mind who is fascinated with horror and probably worships Satain. However, the story is so intriguing that it would make any reader immersing themselves in the text believe that these creatures actually exist.
The main theme of the story is that Abraham Lincoln kills vampires ever since his father told him at a young age that his grandfather and mother were killed by them. From then on, Lincoln takes it upon himself to kill as many as possible. At the age of 16, Lincoln travels along the Ohio River to investigate about a possible vampire attack. He finds out the attacks are true and almost gets killed when attempting to kill a vampire.
That's when Abraham meets a friendly vampire- Henry Sturges. Henry Sturges becomes Lincoln's partner in crime, except he's one of the creatures that Abraham should be after and destroying. That's what was a little odd. if Abraham was so head strong on getting rid of as many vampires as possible and then became friends with one that was in his midst, why wouldn't have Lincoln killed Sturges also.
During that same time the two men become friends, Lincoln witnesses a slave auction. Come to realize, the slave's aren't being sold as laborers to work on a plantation, they're being sold as food. That alone is utterly disgusting, far from realistic and no human would desire to kill another human to devour the body. That part alone when reading this book made me wonder how this book was even worthy of holding the number four spot on the New York Times Bestsellers list mainly because the idea of having that action performed is ridiculous and quite frankly, immature.
Eventually, Abraham Lincoln finds love with Ann Rutledge. However, this love ends tragically after her previous lover, John McNamar, who is also a vampire living amongst the innocent in New York City, murders her. This angers Lincoln so much that he hunts down McNamar and kills him. Howeverm Abraham rebounds quickly and goes off to marry Mary Todd and begins a family with her.
The author included Abraham Lincoln meeting Edgar Allan Poe, who in the book is mentioned as Lincoln's "old friend". I thought it was interesting that Grahame-Smith would include that because Poe is known for his mysterious poems especially, "The Raven". Perhaps Grahame-Smith's goal was to get the same vibe across to readers who tend to prefer this genre. Either way, it did remind me of the works of Edgar Allan Poe because this book reminded me of mystery and suspense. I was not surprised once I read that the poet was mentioned in the story because it seemed somewhat obvious and predictable.
Some books nowadays are complex in many ways challenging the reader's minds. However, this was not one of them. This story seemed easy to become immersed in. Just the mere mention of the word "diary" people gravitate towards it because people are generally nosy.
Although people knew that this book was not really based off of true diary entries from the 16th president, why would people bother to read it? Maybe because people envision a well known president like Abraham Lincoln whose reputation is not bad, to carry a bloody axe in his hand in search of blood sucking demons.
Overall, this story was a page turner. However, the concept of the story was dumb and seemed like anyone off the street could develop a synopsis such as this and make as much money as Grahame-Smith probably did from it since it's in production right now of becoming a film. So I did not enjoy this genre of books but apparently a lot of people did.
One thing is for sure though, people do enjoy suspense, drama, and horror. And anything non-realistic that is well written will sell. It's no surprise that Grahame-Smith would deliver an enticing book that fans could really indulge in.
No comments:
Post a Comment