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annoyingtiger888 's review for:
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
by Seth Grahame-Smith
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
I really don't know how I feel about books like this and like the Christie Affair. Taking a well-loved, historical figure and twisting their history into something different... it feels like fanfiction that should never be published, fanfiction that should remain on Tumblr and Wattpad. It feels disrespectful to the person who has passed and the legacy they left behind, disrespectful to their family, their descendants. It just feels... wrong to write books about real people, dead or alive, unless it's a biography.
With that said, I can't lie and say I didn't feel excited about this book when it first came out. Back then, I thought the idea was cool and, I admit, I was hurt by my own expectations. I expected it to be an action packed thriller that was fun to listen to, fun to experience. I was disappointed. This was no action packed thriller, nor was it very fun to listen to. I typically expect books like this, rewriting history, to be fun and not take itself too seriously. This book was not fun and it took itself way too seriously.
It was just depressing and, at times, I found myself rolling my eyes whenever he would interact with the vampires. If I wanted to read depressing history, I would have read a true, nonfiction biography of the man's life. I came here looking for fun, looking for cool action, thinking of our former president slashing and hacking his way through vampires. It was just sad and now I feel even more depressed than when I started this book.
Plus, the author wrote it out as if Abe ONLY freed the slaves because it would drive back the vampires which felt like it cheapened his legacy.
At first, I was intrigued but I quickly started to fall asleep. It was hard to listen to for multiple reasons and I feel sad, not just for the shit this man went through in real life, but also for my failing expectations. I had such high hopes for this book but they had been dashed and crushed just like Abe's hope and love of life had been.
There is one quote from the beginning that really struck me, though, so much so that I felt the need to write it down and include it here:
With that said, I can't lie and say I didn't feel excited about this book when it first came out. Back then, I thought the idea was cool and, I admit, I was hurt by my own expectations. I expected it to be an action packed thriller that was fun to listen to, fun to experience. I was disappointed. This was no action packed thriller, nor was it very fun to listen to. I typically expect books like this, rewriting history, to be fun and not take itself too seriously. This book was not fun and it took itself way too seriously.
It was just depressing and, at times, I found myself rolling my eyes whenever he would interact with the vampires. If I wanted to read depressing history, I would have read a true, nonfiction biography of the man's life. I came here looking for fun, looking for cool action, thinking of our former president slashing and hacking his way through vampires. It was just sad and now I feel even more depressed than when I started this book.
Plus, the author wrote it out as if Abe ONLY freed the slaves because it would drive back the vampires which felt like it cheapened his legacy.
At first, I was intrigued but I quickly started to fall asleep. It was hard to listen to for multiple reasons and I feel sad, not just for the shit this man went through in real life, but also for my failing expectations. I had such high hopes for this book but they had been dashed and crushed just like Abe's hope and love of life had been.
There is one quote from the beginning that really struck me, though, so much so that I felt the need to write it down and include it here:
"There are but two types of men who desire war: those who haven't the slightest intention of fighting it themselves and those who haven't the slightest idea what it is. [...] Any man who has seen the face of death knows better than to seek him out for a second time."
Overall, I think I'm going to start avoiding historical fiction books because they just make me uncomfortable and sad. At least the ones that take real people and twist their lives to fit some weird fanfiction the authors have in their heads. How stuff like this can be published, and with so much praise, is beyond me.