Having read and thoroughly enjoyed Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, I was so excited to see a sequel. And, even anticipating the fact that it stars Henry Sturges. (Who didn't love Henry Sturges??) Having now finished The Last American Vampire, I can offer the following insights:
Wordsmanship equal to Book One? Check plus.
Visceral and Graphic violence? Sprinkled throughout... in gory detail
Meeting the most historical celebrities in one book? Probably set the record.
Embellishing the greatest historical events of our nation? Again, record setting.
BUT... I feel like I got let down a little. I had expectations of a tightly plotted story like Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter - about the life of Henry Sturges, yes, spanning a very long and extensive history, sure, but I was still expecting a little more of a connected and fast-paced plot. I think I would have been more pleased with the book if I'd gone into it expecting a series of loosely connected short stories detailing the life and times of Henry Sturges. Ultimately, there is a target villain, but most of the book is about Henry taking down various villains throughout the course of American history, while occasionally reminding you that he is still on the hunt for THE villain, but without really telling you much about that hunt. Furthermore, we get the villain's back story with Henry, but only a few years. Apparently they lose each other for centuries, and during that time we learn NOTHING about how THE villain actually ended up being THE villain, or why he turned to the dark side... then THE villain just pops back up from time to time without Henry actually knowing who he's even looking for for a large majority of the book.
That being said, I did absolutely enjoy the fact that Henry met an unbelievable amount of American (and world) celebrities, and that his stories are kind of like him telling you what the history books couldn't say about various events. The REAL stories as it were. Enough real history in there that I learned much in the way of details that I didn't know before, but mixed with enough Henry and vampires as to make his stories the tallest of tall tales to the average uninitiated person unaware of the reality (and apparently best-kept government secret) of vampires.
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