The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history....Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor," and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of-a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known-and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out. It is a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the legend of Dracula. Generations of historians have risked their reputations, their sanity, and even their lives to learn the truth about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. Now one young woman must decide whether to take up this quest herself-to follow her father in a hunt that nearly brought him to ruin years ago, when he was a vibrant young scholar and her mother was still alive. What does the legend of Vlad the Impaler have to do with the modern world? Is it possible that the Dracula of myth truly existed-and that he has lived on, century after century, pursuing his own unknowable ends? The answers to these questions cross time and borders, as first the father and then the daughter search for clues, from dusty Ivy League libraries to Istanbul, Budapest, and the depths of Eastern Europe. In city after city, in monasteries and archives, in letters and in secret conversations, the horrible truth emerges about Vlad the Impaler's dark reign-and about a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive down through the ages.Parsing obscure signs and hidden texts, reading codes worked into the fabric of medieval monastic traditions-and evading the unknown adversaries who will go to any lengths to conceal and protect Vlad's ancient powers-one woman comes ever closer to the secret of her own past and a confrontation with the very definition of evil. Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel is an adventure of monumental proportions, a relentless tale that blends fact and fantasy, history and the present, with an assurance that is almost unbearably suspenseful-and utterly unforgettable.

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.

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 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