The Historian

The Historian

By: Elizabeth Kostova

This is a must-read book. I wish I was able to write my book review right after I finished the book because I was obsessed. I wanted desperately to find out what was going to happen next, but at the same time didn’t want the book to end. It was one of those.

I originally picked this book up after finishing The Twilight Series. Admittedly, I was on a vampire quest. I wanted to read more Twilight and a friend told me this book was about vampires and might ease my pain from the series’ end.

So I bought the book, but didn’t end up reading it until a full year later. I’m glad I waited. This is not your average Twilight saga. There are no love-struck teenagers and cheesy romantic clichés. This book is a thriller with a historical edge.

The main narrator is a young girl, but the story isn’t really about her—it’s about her father and his long history with vampires, specifically Dracula. The girl finds a strange book in her father’s library and from there the story of the strange book and how it came to be begins. And it never stops or slows down once.

Throughout the book you go back and forth from her father’s more youthful days and discovery of real vampires to his daughter and her current struggles. There is a bit of love, but it’s nothing like Twilight. And there is a ton of travel! This book made me want to travel to long far-off, remote places in search of something riveting. I wanted to unravel a mystery. Instead, I settled for following Paul (the father) and his daughter along their travels. Their descriptions of the places they visit paint a very clear picture for the reader.  

I would classify this book as a mystery, thriller with a historical twist. It’s very long (600+ pages), but by the time you reach page 200 you’ll never want the story to end. I wasn’t disappointed with the ending (my initial fear), but I was sad to say goodbye to the book. Pick it up today and you will not be disappointed.