A curious daughter finds an even more curious book in her father’s library. After much prodding she slowly starts to understand the story of the link to the darkest character in history, Dracula, and not only her father, but her family.
To save her father from himself, she must chase after him and the history to save not only her family but possibly the world as well.
I felt the need to write this review immediately after finishing the novel.
I will start off with I would not recommend this book anyone. It is long winded. It is written by somebody with way too much education that has tried to romanticize a very interesting historical figure in a very uninteresting way. Most importantly, it is so incredibly long, but I’m not sure once you started if you’ll even want to finish it. Although it starts out well, suspenseful and sets up the reader for an exciting journey ahead … all that positivity is quickly overwhelmed.
Now that we got that out-of-the-way, I will say that I agree with most of the other lower rated reviews out there. I do not regret reading this. I found myself skimming certain parts, I will admit, due to the long winded writing. I don’t have many positive things to say about this story … Yet, I couldn’t stop thinking about the characters.
In the end, is this book about historians discovering more history about a real, yet mythical, character from history? Or would is this book about the supernatural? I was never really sure and once the book decided on a direction I felt slightly more entertained. (Carefully choosing my words to avoid spoilers.)
A a little editing, cutting and refining could go a long way with this book because it is a really great idea that was simply not executed well or ‘over executed’.
Amazon Link – The Historian By Elizabeth Kostova
Stats: 704 pages – First published June 14, 2005
cmacs paperbacks 
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