Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - Book Review

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

What is it about:
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..

What did I think of it:
I really enjoyed this book. I'm glad that Grahame-Smith used his own voice in this book instead of just adding to an already excisting text like he did in 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' as he has a very pleasant writing style of his own. I must say I think I would even have loved this book without the added vampires as Lincoln turns out to be a really interesting person even - or maybe I should even say especially - when he's not fighting vampires. This might be because I'm European and therefore not very familiar with American history, but I dare bet even those familiar with the life of Abraham Lincoln will find pleasure in this book.

Why should you read it:
It's a decently researched biography of Abraham Lincoln with vampires added to it as a nice bonus.