Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter
Seth Grahame-Smith

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 the 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 lift 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.

Having seen the movie before the book, I was expecting something fairly decent, but nothing special. Let me say, the movie holds nothing to the book. While I enjoyed the movie when I had seen it, in retrospect, it's junk compared to the novel. In fact, it doesn't even follow most of the storyline of the novel. So, if you've seen the movie, put it out of your head, get a hold of this novel, and be prepared for something that is special.

The author already proved his talent with his telling of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and shows his ability to create something out of nothing with this novel. It's an idea that hasn't been done before, and oddly meshes well with Lincoln's life. The whole thing just makes sense being put together in the way that it was. Having the vampires as a backdrop for the existence of slavery and for why America pulled away from England was clever and entertaining.

You don't need to be a history buff or know much about Lincoln to enjoy this novel. It's got something for everyone, is hard to put down, and the writing style is that of a seasoned writer and not someone new to the business.

I highly recommend this book.

My rating: Five out of five snails.