The author picks a larger-than-life hero: the legendary 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. After striking gold with his gimmicky mash-up between Jane Austen and grindhouse horror, Grahame-Smith takes a stab at creating an original plot with this new historical aberration. The latest literary experiment from the author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009). Holst aligns his pace with the mood of the text, slowing down at vital moments, e.g., when good vampire Henry Sturges informs a young Lincoln that he was born to "free men from the tyranny of vampires." This audiobook will serve as a nice contrast to the big-screen adaptation of the book, which, inevitably, substitutes explicit gore for the listener's imagination. This decision-and his fine performance-accomplishes more than over-the-top histrionics would in delving the listener into this remarkable alternate history, in which the blood-sucking undead play a part in the Civil War (on the side of the South, supernaturally) and the fatal events in Ford's Theater. And in this audio edition, narrator Scott Holst does just that, reading with measured delivery and a calm demeanor. Given the zany conceit of Grahame-Smith's latest novel-that a young Abraham Lincoln vowed to become a vampire slayer upon learning that his mother died after being tainted with vampire blood, and then made good on that promise-performing the story as if it were completely unremarkable is essential to the listener's suspension of disbelief.
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