The Historian
Ratings237
Average rating3.7
I consider this one a bit of a thriller. I definitely enjoyed this book. I am currently reading her second book.
I couldn't get through this book. It was a little to slow for me. I probably missed a fantastic ending.
I just can't anymore. I've trudged through 47% of this and I absolutely refuse to go any further.
First things first, I LOVE chunksters, history, incredibly detailed descriptions (when they actually work towards furthering a story or deepening my understanding of a character/culture), and especially books with multiple POVs. But I HATE this book.
The wild coincidences alone were enough to have me rolling my eyes, but then Kostova expects me to believe that someone would write down every minute detail of what they had for each meal in a letter that's supposed to be explaining why they've disappeared looking for Dracula?!? What are we even doing at this point?
The characters have zero personality, I had to sometimes reread sentences when I realized the author had switched characters POVs. Then there's the quotes within quotes bit. Why these weren't just written normally and somehow labeled at the beginning with a letter date or something, I'll never guess.
An excruciating read that I honestly should have bailed on back at page 100. Why some people sing this books praises is beyond me.
Initially, I had this rated more highly, but upon further reflection, I'm downgrading it a bit. I think I'm landing it on being a book that, despite my enjoying it very much while I was reading it, isn't really very good. Spoilers ahead.
It's fun while it's going on. The story is told in three different decades, the 1930's, 50's, and 70's, as historian Rossi, then his student Paul and daughter Helen, and finally their daughter pursue Dracula. There's a search for the tomb of Vlad Tepes, menacing vampiric visitations, multiple interesting European settings, an adventure that feels half vampire novel and half cold war spy story, a heretical order of medieval monks, an Ottoman secret society devoted to killing Dracula, and lots of mysteries. The problem is, none of it ever really hangs together.
As a prime example, the book spends a lot of time extremely concerned with a series of maps that purportedly show the location of Dracula's tomb. Our protagonists are constantly worried that they might be lost, worried that they might fall into the wrong hands, intrigued by the warnings inscribed around their borders and by the mysterious legend “Reader, awaken him with a word” written on the most detailed one. They spend a ton of time chasing after them, protecting them, copying them, wondering where they came from. Their ultimate significance? Zero. The protagonists arrive at the valley where the tomb is located, not by using the maps, but by following an unrelated lead (someone tells them that they learned the lyrics to a folk song that appears to reference Dracula in a particular valley). As they arrive, one observes that the valley sort of resembles the one on the map, and then never brings it up again. They discover the location of the tomb not by checking where within the valley the maps show it to be located but, again, by following an entirely different lead (they coincidentally arrive just in time for a peasant festival during which a religious icon that appears to reference Dracula is displayed, then break into the basement of the church where it is stored). When you hang a gun over the mantle in the first act, and then your characters spend the majority of the second act talking about that gun, taking it down to polish it, verifying that ammo for it is close at hand, etc., then, inevitably, in the third act, someone will get smacked over the head with the fireplace poker, I guess.
Similarly, Dracula's secret plot turns out to be...lame? Also, incoherent? As far as I can piece it together, it goes:
1) Entice promising academics by giving them, under mysterious circumstances, an old book, blank except for a ‘DRAKULYA' woodcarving.
2) When these academics begin researching any topic related to Dracula, intimidate them, using means up to and including deadly violence against people close to them, until they stop. I suppose we can infer that this is meant as a test to see which among them are really serious about the research, but that's never explicitly stated, or even strongly implied, and, further, it makes no sense, given who is actually chosen.
3) Eventually, one of these academics will demonstrate their worth. That one will then be spirited away to be converted to vampirism and spend eternity...uhhh...cataloging Dracula's library? That's seriously the endgame. Dracula has an extensive collection of antique books and needs help organizing them.
So...what? And why? In the earliest timeline, Rossi receives one of these little books, gets pretty close to finding the tomb, has his mind partially wiped by Dracula for some reason, and gives up. In the middle timeline, Paul is given his book, tells his academic advisor Rossi about it, Rossi admits that he once pursued this quest as well, and then Rossi is more or less immediately abducted and taken away to organize Dracula's card catalog. What the hell, Dracula? Did you forget about Rossi in the intervening twenty years? Did you change your mind about him? Was saying, “Oh, yeah, I used to research Dracula too” the final test?
Further, how is Dracula managing all this book distribution, grad student intimidation, and abduction? Is he zipping back and forth across the Atlantic himself to do it in person? Does he have a network of minions? We only ever meet one minion, referred to as the Evil Librarian by our protagonists, and this guy constantly shows up no matter what continent we're on. And what's his deal anyway? He's explicitly not a vampire, since he walks around in broad daylight, yet he bites Helen, to apparent supernatural effect. He sometimes seems to be working for Dracula, sometimes at cross purposes with Dracula, as he's angry that Rossi was chosen instead of him. Why does Dracula even need Rossi when this dude is ready and willing to be his librarian of the night?
Finally, less a complaint and more just something that amused me, is the fact that the entire story is told as a series of conversations Paul is having with and, later, letters he has written to, his daughter. Incredibly long, exhaustively detailed conversations and letters. I assume we're just sort of supposed to imagine that she starts reading a letter, then our mental image gets blurry and fades to Paul's first person perspective, and that everything we see there isn't explicitly in the letter, but I prefer to imagine Paul laying out in excruciating detail for his daughter the exact content of every meal he ate on a trip he took twenty years ago, along with every horny thought he ever had about her mother.
This book was truly a masterpiece of slow burn horror. It probably could have stood to be just a little bit shorter with some snappier pacing in a few parts and some really crucial scenes were much shorter than expected, but still probably the best example of this genre I’ve ever read. Absolutely worth the read.
3/5. This book was way too long for what it wanted to do. A lot of plot developments in it was pretty unbelievable as well. I will just say that the book did make me want to keep on reading though - up to a point. There was a good amount of suspense, but also just too much description of landscape and nature scenery. The whole mystery and hunt for Dracula was definitely my favourite part of the book, it unfolded almost painfully slowly but it was so atmospheric that I didn't quite mind that.
It often felt like Kostova was mainly interested in writing a sort of history/travel literature piece about the Eastern Europe to Turkey region, but with some Dracula flavour to it to... give it some mass appeal? Unfortunately, I didn't really quite appreciate a lot of the Eastern European bits of the book, simply because it isn't a region I'm familiar with.
I also couldn't really get behind a lot of the character decisions, particularly the two main romances in the book. Paul and Helen's romance I already found a bit contrived because they had nothing in common besides being colleagues on the same academic journey, but what I really couldn't understand was the narrator's romance with Bartley. It felt completely random? I can understand if, as teenagers, they decided to sleep together or have a fling because they were just thrown together for a while and found each other attractive. But by all accounts they seem to have actually developed a romance despite their rather short relationship. I didn't understand why the protagonist's name had to be kept secret. Literally every other character in the book is named, and plus the narrator isn't even an important part of the story at all! It just felt like a meaningless and unnecessary gimmick. Ending spoilers: I didn't understand why Helen decided to abandon Paul and their baby daughter so suddenly and dramatically out of nowhere just to go hunt for Dracula. It again felt really unnecessary. Even if she decided she had to leave, couldn't she at least write to them telling them what she needs to do and why she needs to be away from them, and just keep her location a secret? Unless she doesn't trust Paul to do the right thing and abandon their daughter to search for her. I didn't even get why Dracula had to kidnap Rossi of all people. Rossi himself raised a good objection. Dracula says Rossi was the first scholar to find him, but Rossi's like, uh no I didn't, you brought me here. and Dracula's like, yeaaah details. His reasoning is that Rossi decided to try investigating him a second time but... I don't believe Rossi's the only scholar who reopened the investigation into Dracula a mere second time through like 500 years. Scholars are notoriously curious people! So it all just felt like a gimmick to get Paul and Helen on their epic journey too.
Anyway... I'm glad I finished it. If this book was more focused on one thing - either the hunt for Dracula or history/travel literature - I feel like it'd have been much more successful in finding its audience.
I've probably listened to this book 5 times and it's like my spooky little comfort food =)
Even though I have a couple issues with this book, I still loved it and it kept me guessing, so 5 stars.
The biggest problem I had was with the ending. I still like the concept of the ending, and don't think that should change, it just felt a little rushed and too tidy. Also...isn't that vampire librarian still out there somewhere?
The other thing that kind of bothered me was the portion of the story told via letters from her father. I know that if it was written how an actual giant set of memoir letters were written it might be a little less immersive than the narrative style it has. However, maybe it would have made more sense not to have chosen to write that part as letters? No one remembers full conversations and feelings that in-depth 18-20 years after the fact. So did he just make up what is likely close enough to have filled the gaps? Or is he some freak genius with an amazing memory that actually was able to remember all of that?
A beautiful velveteen bag of word syrup. Bit boring in the middle but overall, mildly satisfying.
A nice, creepy, and well researched vampire adventure novel. The story starts out being narrated by the teenaged daughter of a world-weary diplomat who has dark secrets in his past. There's a transition to the world-weary diplomat narrating the stories of that past to the teenaged daughter. Then there are letters from the diplomat's graduate advisor, and letters from the diplomat, interspersed with clandestine train trips across Europe and interpretation of legends of Dracula. The frame of the letters occasionally gets confusing, but the story they tell is pretty gripping. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
I really thought this was going to be another cheap Dracula knockoff. Instead it was so rich and absorbing that you sometimes forgot you were talking about a character that has been written about and satirized from every angle. Excellent book. Would read again
Once I hit the button for 1.6x speed, I realized I should just stop instead of just trying to get through it. There's a lot that is interesting in this book, as well as writing I thought was wonderful. For some reason, though, trying to get through it was a slog. Stopped in the middle of Part 15 (out of 22).
I don't know, I just felt that as soon as I got super into the book the chapter ended and changed to another POV and time period and I would lose my momentum. I can definitely see the beautiful writing style though and it was an overall enjoyable read. But, it didn't wow me.
I may be over-cautious hiding this review due to possible spoilers since most of the plot is self-evident (vampires and Dracula) or on the back (mysterious and ancient books).
I love idea of the “Davinci Code” approach to using history with legendary tales and finished the book because I have a strong interest in Dracula legends. Otherwise I would have donated it to the library in frustration unread- a rare thing for me to not finish a book.
Most of the frustrations came from a basic idea that characters should act consistent with their descriptions. If you decide the main characters are researchers from major Universities with years (and decades) passing after receiving an ancient book then they need to act smart enough to belong at a University. Never do they question WHY the book was left. This would seem to be a very obvious question for anyone - especially for brilliant professors discussing the book and research with other brilliant professors.
If you decide your main villain is a brilliant tactician surviving over centuries, then he needs to act brilliant. So, if his goal is to stay hidden and out of sight, he doesn't leave books for gifted researches. If he is trying to discourage people finding him, he doesn't walk PAST them to kill the people helping them and then ignore entire trips around the world solely for the purpose of tracking him. He acts consistent with his goals.
These basic things are so common sense it made me very frustrated. Unusual to see that level of inconsistency (even in characters presented as erratic) and especially in a major, promoted book.
Just no. Why did I read this?
I was so very excited to read this, so when I finally got it, it was all ‘YAY, READ READ READ.' And then 50 pages in, it was more like ‘Why is this so boring? Oh well, /keeps reading.' Halfway through, ‘WHEN IS SOMETHING EXCITING GOING TO HAPPEN!' The big reveal, ‘SERIOUSLY. That's actually kind of funny though.' The ending, ‘What. Are you serious. Why.'
The only reason I'm giving this three stars is because I thought the plot was interesting, the execution, not so much. That's a lie, the book makes me too angry to give it three stars. Two stars it is! But seriously, the story could have been told in 300 pages or so if ALL THE EXCESSIVE DETAIL WAS CUT OUT. I can't believe I spent so much time reading this. Out of the 600+ pages, I'm pretty sure I only enjoyed about 50 of them, which were the parts that had Barley and those scenes weren't even that good! WHY DID I READ THIS. WHYYYY.
Also, WHY DO WE NEVER LEARN THE NARRATOR'S NAME? UGH.
An interesting twist to the Dracula story in the fact that Dracula, the person, only appears for about 30 seconds, and is promptly “bumped off”. And this is on disc 22 of 22.
The rest of the discs are a story line designed to allow the presentation of tons of information about the history of the real-life Dracula and the search for him thru old manuscripts and, strangely enough, monasteries. It gets a bit confusing at the beginning because it's a young girl recounting the story of her father, who is recounting the story of his mentor, who is recounting the story in his present time about things in his past. With a bunch of other people recounting their stories scattered thru out.
I'll be honest; I only made it to disc 16 before I reached my limit of information and suspense and skipped to the proverbial last few pages (disc 22) to see if they found the missing persons (the mentor and the vampire). One I'm not sure of and the other was quite anti-climactic.
Very delightful historical mystery about the always-fascinating Mr Vlad Tepes, who may or may not be hot, but he likes books, which is a point in his favor, even if he's evil and vampirey. But I digress. This is a delightful romp across Turkey and Europe in search of the erstwhile vampire as he maims people and makes them disappear–to what end? That's just what our heroes want to know.
My only complaint was the very end, which is a complaint in most things; can't be helped. Other than the patness and lameness, a lovely read. The mysteries of Dan Brown, but Ms. Kostova can write eighty circles around that hack. And now, I find I must read more about Mr Tepes...
I listened to this very long book on my drive to/from work...it took a while. It was a fun read and I think I might have enjoyed it more actually reading it. By the end, I forgot much of what had happened earlier. Fun, though!
A favorite of mine - a little slow at first but then it draws you in. Made me want to visit Eastern Europe.
I read this shortly after it came out. I loved the history and scholarship that accompanied the vampire story. I loved the structure of the narrative as well. Now I have listened to the audio book and that adds a whole new layer to love about this book.
