The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova, is a sweeping historical fiction about, well, historians. This epistolary novel takes you on an adventure spanning centuries, hunting for the truth behind the myth of Dracula. If that isn’t enough for you, there’s romance, mystery, and suspense on every page. Click here for the entire review.
A healthy dose of indifference and melancholy
So these two books round out my catching up on lost reviews. I feel like I’ve read a hundred books that I’ve had to force myself to review, because I either didn’t like them enough to form opinions, or couldn’t organize my thoughts well enough to fairly elucidate them. But, now that the pressure of playing catch-up is over, maybe I’ll do a better job going forward. 11. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (3 stars) Merricat Blackwood, her older sister Constance, […]
Bite Me
The Historian is like a cross between The Da Vinci Code and Dracula. It’s partially an update of Stoker’s classic tale, utilizing the scarier-than-fiction stories about Vlad “The Impaler” Tepes-the man upon whom Dracula’s legend is based. It’s also about a Robert Langdon-esque race to find priceless historical relics…before the bad guys get to them first. Throw in some father-daughter bonding, centuries-old secret societies waging quiet but brutal war and an old fashioned-love story, and you’ve got a pretty thick book. If that sounds intriguing, […]
The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
I alternated between really liking this book and being very annoyed by it. I think if it had been one or two hundred pages shorter, I would have liked it a bit more. But with the hardcover clocking in at almost 600 pages, it didn’t have enough story to justify the length, which led to lots of filler to drag through. “He can’t really love anyone, you know, and in the end such people are always alone, no matter how much other people once loved them.” […]