# 'Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter' - Premise sounds nuts, but friend raved about the book. Is it good? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 18, 2012, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492 "2012-06-18T05:46:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/21 "2012-06-18T21:05:29Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > There’s no such thing as a period-correct vampire. They’re fiction, a correct vampire is whatever the author wants it to be. Unless they’re all sparkly. That’s just wrong. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/22 "2012-06-18T21:12:06Z")
> [@](#): > > ‘Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter’ - Premise sounds nuts, but friend raved about the book. Is it good? > Just wondering if anyone read it, and what they thought. Haven’t read the other responses to the thread yet, but yeah…I read it. I enjoyed it as light reading (though there are some pretty grim parts). It seems relatively ‘internally consistent’, i.e. it’s not nuts if you buy into the books internal logic (i.e. that there are vampires, that they directly affected the early Lincoln, that he then dedicated much of his early life to fighting them, that they had an over-arching plan for the US, that the US provided fertile ground for them that Europe lacked, etc etc). I don’t consider any of this to be a spoiler, btw, as you could get as much from any of the commercials for the up-coming movie based (I presume) on the book. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/23 "2012-06-18T21:22:45Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > ETA: I don’t recall how much blood an AL:VH vamp requires, but this is the crux of the book: a slave society provides easy, ostensibly legal sustenance for vampires, and the Confederacy is substantially vampiric in its motives. In this, I have to respectfully disagree with **Max Torque** : it is actually surprising how FEW historical liberties are taken in the novel. Given the above slave/blood dynamic, as well as how much tragedy Lincoln endured in his life (losing his mother, lover, and three sons at young ages), the vampire angle fits the historical narrative way better than it should. I was thinking primarily about Abe being buddies with Edgar Allan Poe. But there were some others, such as Abe’s only education coming from his vampire friend Henry, and Abe confronting Jefferson Davis in Mississippi. However, one thing cannot be denied: Abraham Lincoln invented Facebook. [Really](http://natestpierre.me/2012/05/08/abraham-lincoln-patent-facebook/). Okay, not really, but it was a good hoax. **Anaamika** , that’s one of those devices you just have to learn to tolerate when an author is quoting liberally from someone else’s diary. Even though, of course, the diary he’s quoting is fictional; I suppose he did it for “verisimilitude” or something. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/24 "2012-06-18T21:41:23Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Is it better than _Pride and Prejudice and Zombies_? That was a good one-joke the author ran into the ground. Would have made a funny magazine piece, but the writer was not deft enough to make it into a whole book. It was vastly better than _P&P&Z_, which would have been a much better book if the author had completely rewritten the book in his own voice. At least, the differences in his skills with prose and Jane Austen’s would have been less glaring. The Lincoln book will never be mistaken for literature or anything, but it was fun and the premise remained interesting throughout the story. It did stretch my suspension of disbelief a bit that nobody he told his secret to ever tried to have him put in a padded room somewhere, though. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/25 "2012-06-19T01:38:00Z")
I’m still waiting for [This One](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1811315/) ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/26 "2012-06-19T01:59:40Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#): > > It was vastly better than _P&P&Z_, which would have been a much better book if the author had completely rewritten the book in his own voice. At least, the differences in his skills with prose and Jane Austen’s would have been less glaring. Yeah, I received a copy of _P&P&Z_ as a gift and put it down after only a couple of pages for that reason. I’m a big Austen fan but not a purist or anything and I’m not opposed to people having fun with the material – there’s a cheesy but entertaining series of mystery novels where Elizabeth and Darcy solve crimes, often involving paranormal elements – but these attempts to stick extra scenes in always seem very obviously like an entirely different author stuck extra scenes in. It also seems cheap and lazy to me to “write” a book where a good chunk of the text is lifted directly from a beloved public domain classic. ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/27 "2012-06-19T07:53:19Z")
> [@Johnny\_Q](#): > > I’m still waiting for [This One](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1811315/) You need to upload that pic to Facebook…_snort_ ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/28 "2012-06-19T13:00:50Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > **Anaamika** , that’s one of those devices you just have to learn to tolerate when an author is quoting liberally from someone else’s diary. Even though, of course, the diary he’s quoting is fictional; I suppose he did it for “verisimilitude” or something. I know. Actually, the book is good enough where I read it even though I don’t generally like diary-writing. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/29 "2012-06-19T13:32:06Z")
> [@Johnny\_Q](#): > > I’m still waiting for [This One](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1811315/) I’ve been trying to come up with more “President - Mythological Creature” combos. So far I think my favorite has been **Chester Arthur: Yeti Wrestler**. Although there’s also something to be said for **Theodore Roosevelt: Chupacabra Catcher**. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/30 "2012-06-19T13:38:17Z")
**Herbert Hoover - Hippogriff Hustler**. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/31 "2012-06-19T14:11:34Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > I was thinking primarily about Abe being buddies with Edgar Allan Poe. > > But there were some others, such as Abe’s only education coming from his vampire friend Henry, and Abe confronting Jefferson Davis in Mississippi. I absolutely agree with your first point. Beyond any distortion of history, including that character really didn’t add anything to the story. They got enough milage out of the people Lincoln really DID know, which is what I mean by how close the book hewed to reality. If you read Donald’s biography of Lincoln and then read AL:VH, I think you’ll be more impressed by how much history Grahame-Smith was able to use as opposed to how much he fancified in a book that has every right to be ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/32 "2012-06-19T16:02:35Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > I’ve been trying to come up with more “President - Mythological Creature” combos. So far I think my favorite has been **Chester Arthur: Yeti Wrestler**. Although there’s also something to be said for **Theodore Roosevelt: Chupacabra Catcher**. How about Theodore Roosevelt: Alien Hunter? 🆒 In one of the stories in [this short-story anthology](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Worlds:_Global_Dispatches), TR encounters, hunts, and kills one of the “War of the Worlds” Martians while in Cuba. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/33 "2012-06-19T16:15:22Z")
That whole depressed drunkard persona was all an act, Franklin Pierce was the **real** Vampire Hunter. Can’t stand all this historical revisionism! ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/34 "2012-06-19T18:29:34Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > **Herbert Hoover - Hippogriff Hustler**. **Grover Cleveland: Ghost Choker** ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/35 "2012-06-19T19:09:25Z")
[George Washington](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbRom1Rz8OA). That’s all. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/36 "2012-06-19T22:47:26Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Is it better than _Pride and Prejudice and Zombies_? That was a good one-joke the author ran into the ground. Would have made a funny magazine piece, but the writer was not deft enough to make it into a whole book. I think you should write a novel that will draw on your love of silent film, an old acquaintance, and tap into a genre that will make you rich: _Lillian Gish and Golems_ ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/37 "2012-06-19T23:26:46Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > That whole depressed drunkard persona was all an act, Franklin Pierce was the **real** Vampire Hunter. Can’t stand all this historical revisionism! Talk about revisionism, Pierce was more like a Vampire Enabler! ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2012, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/38 "2012-06-20T02:34:30Z")
I am reading this book now, more than halfway through, and it is surprisingly good. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/39 "2012-06-20T15:40:43Z")
I just started it too, and it’s better than P&P&Z, which I didn’t bother to finish. And the vampires in the book do have fangs and can apparently change their appearance at will, depending on whether they want to “pass”. I haven’t gotten that far in yet though. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2012, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492/40 "2012-06-20T16:08:04Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > Talk about revisionism, Pierce was more like a Vampire Enabler! As Pierce was a pro-slavery Democrat, I agree with you. Thank you for catching this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-premise-sounds-nuts-but-friend-raved-about-the-book-is-it-good/625492.md?page=3)