Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter is yet another mash-up of horror and familiar story from Seth Graham-Smith, author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. While PP&Z was a hysterical reimagining of the Bennett sisters acquiring husbands while being the best zombie killers in the county, Lincoln’s vampire story, like Lincoln’s actual life, is full of melancholy and darkness.
Lincoln is looked upon by many as our greatest president due to his leadership skills, character, and crisis management. His life was filled with a sense of duty to his family, to his country, and to the sanctity of the Union. This becomes a key part of Graham-Smith’s story, and drives the character.
Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter begins when the narrator, a failed writer, is given one of the most amazing documents in American history: Lincoln’s secret vampire journals. Why he is given them I won’t spoil, but he is then compelled to write Lincoln’s secret story based on these journals and research into Lincoln’s public life.
The journal excerpts themselves are well-written, beginning with the writings of a young boy, whose mother was killed by a vampire. In real life Lincoln was estranged from his father, and in this reimagining, the estrangement was caused by a bad business deal with a vampire that led to his mother’s death. Thus begins his journey to learn all he can about the secret vampire scourge controlling much of America, strengthening his body with hard work (wood chopping and rail splitting, of course), and improving his mind to fight vampires on more than one front.
The strengths of Graham-Smith’s story is the use of real occurrences in Lincoln’s life to propel him to fight vampires, first in deadly and nearly disastrous direct combat, then in government. It is well known, for those that have studied Lincoln’s history, that when he finally comes of age to leave his father’s household and lives on his own in New Salem, Illinois, he made a name for himself as a person of strength and character when wrestling the town bully to the ground. In Graham-Smith’s retelling, he befriends this bully afterward, recognizing his strength, which he enlists to fight vampires in the area. As he gets older and vampire killing takes its toll, he builds a family, and fights vampires on the political field, for vampires control the slave-holding South. Slaves provide a readily disposable food source for vampires, and the vampires in power want to see slavery expanded, and eventually control all of America as a food source. Lincoln, a very successful vampire killer as long as he was able, is then called upon to become President by Northern men who know of the vampire scourge in the South and seek to destroy it in combat (the Civil War) and political schemes (Lincoln’s election to spark the conflict, and Emancipation).
The tragedies in Lincoln’s life are not made light of in this retelling. As his mother and son were killed by vampires, the latter while he was President, his melancholy is palpable and powerful. Lincoln in real life was brooding and melancholy, and a fan of Edgar Allan Poe’s works. These interests and elements of his character are highlighted in the fictional journals, as they portray his very real melancholy and despair, yet he continues to fight for what he believes is right, even as he suffers tragedy.
If Seth Graham-Smith, like in PP&Z, made a light and airy diversion out of Lincoln’s story, this book would have been awful and possibly offensive. But as it incorporates his real character and his real life with a fantastical horror story, it becomes almost believable, due to the devotion to Lincoln’s real character. This book is still a fun read, as it is diverting and well-paced, but also has the level of seriousness it needs to keep you enthralled.
For: fans of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Graham-Smith, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, graphic novels, alternative history fiction.
~Janna Tanner
Tags: Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, funny, Pride Prejudice and Zombies, vampires, zombies
