Abraham Lincoln

I'd say this is definitely worth reading. Unlike some other reviewers, I didn't have any problem at all with the way Lincoln's important life events were altered to involve vampires. Honestly, I don't understand how anyone who would read this book can be upset or surprised by that. Again unlike other reviewers, I felt the pacing was fine as well, for a book of this size. Yes, of course, a book about vampire slaying maybe should tend towards being fast-paced and action packed. However, a book about history probably should not. So I see no problem with this being somewhere in between, and in fact the dialogue and other slow bits were quite enjoyable.

Now, where I did have a problem was the narration. The book jumps back and forth between perspectives so often it's jarring. Typically you have just seconds to become engaged in, say, a thoughtful Lincoln monologue, when suddenly it's back to the narrator, or some other character. Moreover, it's usually with no transition to speak of. The premise is essentially that the real main character, a failed author, has been given the chance to edit and publish Lincoln's secret journals, detailing his life of vampire hunting. We're given to understand that the collected books and letters span Lincoln's lifetime, and clearly must be significantly larger than this book, the finished product. Why, then, must this in-book author waste the majority of his text not reproducing the original journals? Why not let the journals speak for themselves, considering they were written by a man timelessly famous for his skillful oratory? Why have them edited by this character at all? I can only imagine the real author might not have felt up to the task of recreating such capable prose. This is unfortunate, since what lines he did invent for that purpose were quite enjoyable.