I'm not going to pretend to understand why we're suddenly being inundated with zombies, vampires and werewolves in our bookstores. When I first saw
Pride and Prejudice...and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, I was almost offended. Isn't Jane Austen's original story good enough with out being embellished by the the supernatural? I haven't read it, but I did just finish reading
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by the same author and I'm almost ashamed to confess that it was a very fun read. Now, some folks may be disgusted by the idea that our beloved 16
th president could possibly be a vampire hunter but, just relax. This novel, although written as though it's historically accurate, is completely fang in cheek. Oh, calm down. The premise goes that vampires, tired of being hunted in Europe, immigrated to the U.S. where people in the fairly new country were less organized and frankly, had other things to worry about than the undead. Slavery, and part of the country's reliance on it in order to thrive, became an enticement to pose as wealthy plantation owners just purchasing "equipment" for the farm. In actuality, slaves were (according to this scenario) bought and bred as food for vampires. As if enslaving fellow humans wasn't horrifying enough! Fearful that the ever-powerful Southern vampires would soon move from Negroes to Whites, and eventually to ALL Americans (gasp!), the Union (Union of Northern vampire hunters, including some vampires who wished to live in relative peace and not take over the U.S.) trained and subsidized Abraham Lincoln and others to kill as many vampires as possible. To encourage the illusion, real photos are included showing zoomed-in closeups of previously described vampires with blacked out eyes (or wearing sunglasses to hide them) or real Civil War wet-plate photographs with one individual pointed out to be "obviously a vampire." There's even one where a soldier poses by some skulls, one sporting fangs. See? They were everywhere back then! Thank goodness for Honest Abe who, using his famous axe, cut down a good many of them bef
ore ascending to the White House and vowing to rid the country of every vampire he can find. There's some motivational background about Abe's mother being sacrificed as debt payment when his father defaults on a loan from a vampire. Obviously, the metaphors about evil bankers, blood-sucking slave owners (or vice
versa) abound. In the midst of all the blood and gore, I had to laugh out loud when Abe corners a suspected vampire who turns out to be Edgar Allen Poe (in real life born within weeks of Lincoln but with different upbringings), a fellow vampire hunter. Literary guffaw!! There's a surprise ending after Abraham Lincoln is assassinated (spoiler alert!) as his immortal mentor, Henry, seeks a replacement for his trained vampire hunter almost a hundred years later. Someone who is inherently good and also lives for the betterment of his country and who - grab your hats, folks - "has a Dream." Offensive? Possibly. Weird? Definitely. Suspension of disbelief? Are you kidding? Great read? Absolutely, positively something to sink your teeth into. No apologies. Bite me. mwuhahaha...cough, ack...thud.
I'm not going to pretend to understand why we're suddenly being inundated with zombies, vampires and werewolves in our bookstores. When I first saw Pride and Prejudice...and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, I was almost offended. Isn't Jane Austen's original story good enough with out being embellished by the the supernatural? I haven't read it, but I did just finish reading Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by the same author and I'm almost ashamed to confess that it was a very fun read. Now, some folks may be disgusted by the idea that our beloved 16th president could possibly be a vampire hunter but, just relax. This novel, although written as though it's historically accurate, is completely fang in cheek. Oh, calm down. The premise goes that vampires, tired of being hunted in Europe, immigrated to the U.S. where people in the fairly new country were less organized and frankly, had other things to worry about than the undead. Slavery, and part of the country's reliance on it in order to thrive, became an enticement to pose as wealthy plantation owners just purchasing "equipment" for the farm. In actuality, slaves were (according to this scenario) bought and bred as food for vampires. As if enslaving fellow humans wasn't horrifying enough! Fearful that the ever-powerful Southern vampires would soon move from Negroes to Whites, and eventually to ALL Americans (gasp!), the Union (Union of Northern vampire hunters, including some vampires who wished to live in relative peace and not take over the U.S.) trained and subsidized Abraham Lincoln and others to kill as many vampires as possible. To encourage the illusion, real photos are included showing zoomed-in closeups of previously described vampires with blacked out eyes (or wearing sunglasses to hide them) or real Civil War wet-plate photographs with one individual pointed out to be "obviously a vampire." There's even one where a soldier poses by some skulls, one sporting fangs. See? They were everywhere back then! Thank goodness for Honest Abe who, using his famous axe, cut down a good many of them bef
ore ascending to the White House and vowing to rid the country of every vampire he can find. There's some motivational background about Abe's mother being sacrificed as debt payment when his father defaults on a loan from a vampire. Obviously, the metaphors about evil bankers, blood-sucking slave owners (or vice versa) abound. In the midst of all the blood and gore, I had to laugh out loud when Abe corners a suspected vampire who turns out to be Edgar Allen Poe (in real life born within weeks of Lincoln but with different upbringings), a fellow vampire hunter. Literary guffaw!! There's a surprise ending after Abraham Lincoln is assassinated (spoiler alert!) as his immortal mentor, Henry, seeks a replacement for his trained vampire hunter almost a hundred years later. Someone who is inherently good and also lives for the betterment of his country and who - grab your hats, folks - "has a Dream." Offensive? Possibly. Weird? Definitely. Suspension of disbelief? Are you kidding? Great read? Absolutely, positively something to sink your teeth into. No apologies. Bite me. mwuhahaha...cough, ack...thud.
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