The Last American Vampire
1/13/15: Now Available!This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life.
4 Stars!
This book first came to my attention because of the cover which I absolutely love. I really enjoyed reading this book. I found some sections of the book were amazingly good while other sections seemed a bit tedious for me. Overall, I liked it and found it to be a worthwhile read. This is the first book by Seth Grahame-Smith that I have had a chance to read and while this is listed as a follow up book to [b:Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter|7108001|Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter|Seth Grahame-Smith|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1291165397s/7108001.jpg|6596168], I thought it read just fine as a stand alone novel.
I can't remember reading any other book that would be classified as an alternative history before reading this book so I went in not knowing what I should expect. I was not surprised that the book included a long list of important historical figures and events from the past several hundred years. I really enjoyed how so many people from the past found their way into this story. The author choose very well know people and events to include in this story and it was fun to imagine the possibilities.
I was a bit surprised by the style used to write this book. This book read very similarly to books that I remember from history class packed with photos, footnotes, and excerpts. I could not believe the number of footnotes that were a part of this novel. Sometimes, I felt like the footnotes didn't add anything to the story but just gave a tedious unrelated detail. I didn't mind that the book was written with footnotes but I do wish that only ones that really added to the story were included. The photos included in the book were really fun and I thought that they really brought a lot to the book. There were a lot of excerpts from Henry's journal so the voice the story was told in shifted often.
This book told the story of Henry Struges. Henry Struges was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln and I believe he had a major role in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Henry Struges is also a vampire and has been one for quite some time. This book focuses on his life and his encounters with many historical people and events. This book focuses mostly on the period of after the civil war until present day with some focus being given to the very beginning of our nation, actually when the English first started to settle in the New World.
One of the main problems that I had with the book was that it read very much like a compilation of short stories. We would learn about one event in Henry's life and then move on to the next with only a very small thread holding everything together. I would have liked to see everything tie together more strongly.
It was very nice to read a vampire book that had absolutely no focus on romance. I would recommend this book to others that like a good vampire tale especially fans of Seth Graham-Smith. This is the first book by Seth Graham-Smith that I have read and I do plan to read more by this author.
I received a copy of this book from Grand Central Publishing via Net Galley for the purpose of providing an honest review.