Review and Wear Wednesday: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

How's the book reading going, everybody? I'm nearly at 30 books, and my goal is 85 this year. Whew--being that it's halfway through the year and I'm at some point going to have a baby...I don't know if I'll make it. Maybe if I start counting picture books?

Necklace and bracelets - Fair trade store in the UK, Scarf - Necklush, Shirt - Destination Maternity, Jeans - Destination Maternity, Flip-flops - Rainbows

At some point, that's all I'm going to have the brain space for...But right now, I'm reading things like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. It's coming to theaters soon, and I like to read things before watching the movie.

So I can judge, judge, judge the movie.

For my outfit, I went with a gray background with red accents, to match the book cover.

This scarf from Necklush is one of my favorites.

This is a fun cover, right? I mean, as far as beheading covers go.

So am I going to watch the movie? Well, if I'm going to base it on the book...probably not. Even though I really wanted to like this one. I mean, who doesn't like Abraham Lincoln? Who doesn't like kick-butt vampire hunters? And when you put them together, you think it's going to be amazing!

Eh, maybe from a different writer it would have been.
Some good things (besides the main idea): I wanted to learn more about Abraham Lincoln. I spent most of the book actually annoyed with the vampire stuff because I just wanted to learn more about him. Um...other good things...?

My main problems. Ooph, I wouldn't say Seth Grahame-Smith is a good writer. He's fine, not good. The vampire stuff managed to get boring pretty quickly. Maybe because it just didn't connect for me. It felt so oddly shoved into the book, like Grahame-Smith thought, Oh, here's a hole in Lincoln's life, let's have him kill some vampires. Oh, surely the main motivations to put the States back together and end slavery are not good enough. Let's weakly connect it to vampires (**SPOILER** they feed on the slaves). Here's where it bothered me the most: Lincoln's young son Willie's death. In the book **SPOILER** a vampire dramatically crosses the White House lawn, and while everybody is distracted (by something else going on that I don't even remember), a vampire feeds on Willie. I wasn't bothered when Lincoln's aunt, uncle, and mother died at the beginning of the book because of a vampire. But a child. A child who was real. He has now become a vampire victim. This so went into the realm of disrespectful to me that I almost put the book down forever.

And finally the ending. Ugh, you guys. Lincoln had a hard life, and we'd like to think that after he was assassinated and his body toured the country, he was laid to rest with his family. I'm not even that sentimental of a person but I want this for Lincoln. What do we have instead (**BIG SPOILER**)? Lincoln is a vampire. (Not one of the bad ones, obviously.) Lincoln did not want to be a vampire. There is never any part in the book where Lincoln admires vampires or wants to be like them or sees really any good in them. If Lincoln was turned, he would have killed himself. I hated this ending.