Reviews with content warning for Violence - Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Every POC character is some combination of unnamed and a prop. They only seem to exist to be victims of the vampires. If it was meant to be symbolic to how whiteness tries to dominate every culture after sucking out anything that could be 'of use' it would be somewhat clever. It isn't written like that is what the intent was. Every female character also serves as little more than a prop. The end effect is like watching a very long, dry monologue. There were jokes within the tale, they just didn't hit for me and I am hard pressed to remember a single one even though I finished the story earlier today.
Other than that, in my mind, major issue the story was okay. Some scenes were enjoyable, others were not. I suspect I am just not a 'history turned fiction' reader as had these characters been wholly fiction my enjoyment of it would have been greater.
If you like history but not enough to have read all about the events during Lincoln's life you will probably enjoy this.

Content Warnings

calamitymeat's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

What am I supposed to say? How does one review Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter? How do I begin this?

I guess I will start by saying I watched the movie first. My partner had an Abraham Lincoln phase for like 3 years when they were younger, so when we were doing a movie marathon on Letterboxd and found out that it fit the criteria for the list we were following and watched it right away. And I loved it in a "this is so ridiculous, it's tone deaf, it's a white saviour movie, it's perfect." I told everyone I talked to for the following week that they needed to watch the movie because it was truly one of the most entertaining things I had ever watched.

And I just downloaded Libby and completely coincidentally, it was on the front page of my local library's October reading list. And that's when I found out it was a series. So, when I was promised Jack the Ripper and the JFK assassination in the second one, I obviously needed to read the first one so I could read that one. The book is FAR from the unbelievably insane, kind of camp in a way masterpiece that was the movie.

Normally, I would be fine with this. I understand this was a ten and a half hour audiobook (the last 20 or 30 minutes is acknowledgements, sources, etc.) and to condense that into a two hour or less movie is going to involve a lot of cuts. And I'm fine with that. It definitely worked in the movie's favour. However, the main difference was that the book was trying to be as historically accurate as possible, while the movie was a blockbuster extravaganza that did whatever the hell it wanted, like having a vampire throw a horse at Abe's head and having his axe also be part gun.

The problem with trying to be as historically accurate as possible is that this is a white author talking about slavery. And bringing vampires into slavery. And saying the ENTIRE CONFEDERACY WAS VAMPIRES AND THAT WAS WHY THEY WANTED SLAVES SO BAD. And I could accept that for the movie. The movie was not serious at all and I was able to remove myself enough to laugh at it for being tone deaf, but still not let it hinder my experience of the movie. But because the book takes itself so seriously and was so dedicated to historical accuracy, I had a much harder time removing myself from that detail.

There are a couple more things that I think should have been given another thought, specifically, it should have been shown to some sort of sensitivity reader. These things include:

Abraham Lincoln writes in his diary, "So long as this country is cursed by slavery, it will be cursed with vampires." This is described as the greatest and most important thing he ever wrote in his life. The Emancipation Proclamation would beg to differ.
John Wilkes Booth hating Abraham Lincoln not because he was racist, not because he advocated that much for slavery, but because he was a vampire and Abe was a vampire hunter.
All Nazis also being all vampires and the Holocaust being a second vampire uprising.
Abraham finally realizing they need to do something and wage war against the south once he is told that ALL of mankind will eventually be enslaved by vampires. Just black people wasn't enough.

I just think maybe these things could potentially be left out of a revised edition.

Overall, this is a white saviour book and it is incredibly tone deaf, but I think you definitely expect that from the name and the premise alone. It works much better as a movie. It should not have taken itself so seriously. And maybe it should have been written by anyone other than a white man.

I will, of course, begin listening to the sequel immediately.

Content Warnings

purplepickle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was amazing. I seriously did not expect such a silly sounding title and interesting looking cover to contain such a well written and amazing book. Hands down my favorite book from this year. You wouldn’t think that it would work, but it just does. Abraham, you were an amazing man and president, but by God you were the most amazing Vampire Hunter to roam this planet.

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phillyhufflepunk's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The writing, the story, the metaphor of the vampire is really good. However, it is Abraham Lincoln, the president who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, so slavery and racism are a main part of the book. If that is triggering for you, be cautious.

Content Warnings

fjordpingvin's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Content Warnings

heather667's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Content Warnings

hunkydory's review

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dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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mickij's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This book, at least to me, was utterly fascinating. Perhaps it's due to the fact that I wasn't allowed to read vampire fiction when I was younger, or perhaps it's due the historical content. Either way, I very much enjoyed this book, due in large part to the sheer amount of research it took. There are many parts that I thought were embellished or simply untrue that turned out to be historically correct.

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