The Last American Vampire

by Seth Grahame-Smith

[readingwithwrin]

“A man can be whip smart and witty and caught up in the gale of life, chatting up roomfuls of people and making them laugh till their teeth damn near fall out, and at the same time, he can be the world’s loneliest, most miserable creature.”

Years ago I read Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and I really enjoyed it. It was fun to see Lincoln in a different way than we normally do. After waiting years to read this book I surprisingly remembered a lot of the first book, I had just forgotten a few of the minor details.

The Last American Vampire is all about Henry and his life. We go back and forth between Henry’s present and the past. Which means we get to see how he was changed, and what happened before and after Lincoln in the first book. I really liked Henry as a character he is very matter of fact when he’s talking about his Vampireness. He knows that what he does is ‘bad’ to some people and how he is considered a devil and all that. He admits that it’s harder to be a vampire as the world changes and how he is able to adjust with the world as it changes. Henry is one of those vampires that truly does embrace change and the way he is able to do that is pretty nice in my opinion. I liked seeing all the different little adventures he goes on and all of the side characters we get to meet along the way.

“In a way, it was the beginning of something I’d long feared: that vampires would become part of the popular culture. That people would be too busy worshiping them or imitating them or even laughing at them—and forget to fear them.”

All of the little pieces of history that Grahame-Smith was able to make seem like vampires were real was just as entertaining as they were in the first book. I loved all of the little side stories that these created and how they kind of make you think. With one particular tale, it also seems plausible? I know its just coincidence but with all of the tales surrounding it already, I mean why not.

Overall I did find this book enjoyable. Historical Fiction is one of my favorite genre’s to read and adding in paranormal elements on occasion makes it even more entertaining at times. Seeing Henry’s life and all that he was able to be apart of was entertaining. Having said that though there were some parts of this book I didn’t really care for namely when he slept with a certain someone. I feel like it actually took away from the story and made me not like Henry or the book as much as I had up to that point.

“But I promise you… this country will never be destroyed from the outside. Not by any ideology or foreign power… and certainly not by you.”

I did really like a lot of the side characters we get to meet and how we got to see a lot of good and bad vampires as well as ones from all over the world. I really liked seeing how they all interacted with one another and the different philosophies they had about being a vampire and how they handled certain things. That was probably one of my favorite parts as well as just all of the little pieces of history throughout the years being added in. A lot of thought had to go into making them all fit together in some way and fit into what Henry did and was doing and was all very well thought out.

I do feel like there was a possible set up for Henry’s story to continue on at the end of this book, so I am interested to see what happens in the next few years. Or maybe we will get a spin-off that follows a different Vampire that we had the pleasure of meeting.