Grahame-Smith, Seth. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  North Kingstown, R.I.: BBC Audiobooks America, 2010.  ISBN: 9781607883548.

(Image Credit: Cape May County Library)

Abraham Lincoln may be best known as the16th President who changed the course of America’s government with the onset of the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery, but what if one of the most recognizable American Presidents was also fighting a war against some of the world’s darkest forces, more specifically, vampires?

Grahame-Smith portrays Lincoln not only as one of the United States’ most eloquent speakers and visionaries, he illustrates a man that discovers that there are vampires at work behind the scenes of the American slave trade.  Grahame-Smith begins Lincoln’s discovery of vampires within his childhood, where he embarks on a personal vendetta against the blood-thirsty creatures.  As Lincoln develops into the man who will lead the country into one of the most bloody wars in American history, he inadvertently begins a battle against America’s vampires.  Slaves are their primary food source.  With the abolishment of slavery vampires will no longer be able to live the free-reign lifestyle they are so accustomed to.  The Civil War was never truly about freeing slaves.  Instead, it is a war against vampires who want to enslave all of America, creating a world where their species no longer has to hide on the outskirts of society.  If they win the Civil War, vampires will have an abundance of Americans to feed on.  The United States will not be the land of the free, it will be the land the enslaved.

Grahame-Smith creates a tale intricately weaving Abraham Lincoln’s biographical information, as well as American history, into a macbre tale of vampire hunting.  This is not a story for those with a weak stomach.  He portrays two types of vampires: those who want to live  a quiet existance in the shadows of man and those who want to enslave humans into a never-ending food source.  It is interesting to see how Grahame-Smith turns one of America’s greatest Presidents into an ax-wealding vampire killer, along with creatively weaving historical facts into supporting the existence vampires in America’s past.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter has been reviewed in Library Journal. Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Kirkus.

John Grahame-Smith is also well-known for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

If you are interested in historical or classic fiction with a twist of horror and the macbre, you may also like:

Pride and prejudice and zombies : the graphic novel by Seth Grahame-Green

Sense, Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H. Winters

Dracula in Love : The Private Diary of Mina Harker by Karen Essex

Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter by E. A.Moorat

–Melissa the Librarian