Book Review: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

I love reading. It's kind of my thing. Since I read a lot, I figure it might be useful for myself and anyone reading if I reviewed the books I've finished. We'll start with one that kept me busy throughout a good portion of June.

Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian is a book I've been wanting to read for a long time. I had only a fuzzy idea of the plot, but remembered reading the summary around the time it came out and thinking it was a book for me. When one of my roommates dumped a copy into our communal donation bin during moving week, I snatched it up for myself. And I am rather glad I did.

First of all, I am an absolute sucker for historical fiction. History is most certainly my "thing" and I love any piece of historical fiction which can suck me into a time and place other than my own and paint an almost tangible portrait. Kostova does this with a detail and intricacy rarely seen. Her research guides every word, as she takes us from 1970's Amsterdam to 1940's Bulgaria (among other places and time periods). At the center of this story is a father and his daughter, and their relationship with history. Though they occasionally share the narrative with others, the bulk is told through their recollections. Dracula is the guiding force of the storyline, and I think Kostova manages to refresh the oldest of our modern vampire myths in a way that sticks true to their historical origins. In a time when most people's idea of a vampire is something between Buffy's spike, True Blood's Bill, or (god help us) Twilight's Edward, there is something to be said about the author's ability to make the Dracula of history - the real Vlad the Impaler - terrifying and very real. No sparkles here, just a nightmare of freakishly realistic proportions.

The only complaint I have about The Historian is its density. While this makes for a truly compelling and excellent read, if it takes a history-loving and voracious reader such as myself more than two weeks to read then there's a likelihood of many others putting it down for good after struggling to get through the extremely slow first section. Even at the height of the action, the volume of prose kept the pace steady and slow. However, I would urge anyone with an interest in history and vampires to give this book a read because it is well worth your time. It certainly kept me slightly chilled during several warm June nights.

My Overall Rating: A