Reviews with content warning for Animal death - The Historian

this was an interesting tale about Vlad the third, i really enjoyed learning about the different history/customs/culture of eastern europe, turkey, and them in the cold war. i think the author is a capable story-teller but omg this book was so slow, the ending was so rushed, the narrative style was very confusing, the main motive at the end was random. glad i read it but wouldn't recommend unless someone likes learning

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liteartha's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

hate to say it but this was boring. i love history and research and dense goddamn books but in this case i kept waiting for excitement that this just didn't deliver. the characters didn't feel like fully fleshed out people with their own motivations and relationships and though i hesitate to say this book was multi-pov, it did revolve around a "main" character (who remained nameless and added virtually nothing to the plot), her father recounting much of his past, and written correspondence from various characters with no notable stylistic difference between them

i did like the history elements around vlad iii and could see this being an ideal autumn read but all around this just missed the mark for me

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lilifane's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I just read the best and funniest 1 star review for this book and I agree with everything in it. I still give this book 4 stars just because it satisfied a very very niche interest of mine.
If you want to read a scary vampire story, some kind of Dracula retelling or a fast paced adventure. This book is not for you. If - like me - you love reading, research, solving mysteries by visiting old libraries and reading old books and travel. Well, this is perfect.
The structure of this book is a little complicated. Basically it's a story within a story within a story, told mostly in letters and book excerpts, spanning several decades (between 1930s and 1970s) and countries (UK, Netherlands, France, Greece, Turkey, Ukraine, Bulgaria...). It's about the search for the grave of the historical figure Vlad III, Dracula, but also for some historians lost during their research. (Basically Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones for people who hate action. ^^v)
This book is extremely slow paced and looooong and story driven. The main characters are some of the flattest characters I've ever encountered (I had trouble remembering who was telling parts of the story because their voices were basically identical) but I loved most of the people they met on their way and got help from. And when the story is the main focus of the book, I don't mind when there is no character development. Maybe the book also could have been a little shorter by eliminating the daughters story line... completely? That didn't interest me very much tbh. And my main problem with the book was the writing. I didn't enjoy it at all. But after reading some quotes from the English original, I think the issue is with my German translation.
I get btw that the whole resolution why all of this happened in the first place was a little ridiculous. But I thought it was refreshing and I like how it explains the book title. :D (I alsway love when the book title has more than one meaning)

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mariebrunelm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Fun fact: for the first few days I started reading this book, every time I joined my parents for meals (I live with them) I'd tell my mum: "Holy guacamole, did I tell you how amazing this book is?". Despite her feeling a bit fed up after the first couple of times, I needed someone to shout my love for this book at.

The beginning of April marked a new step in my PhD thesis, with the beginning of the redaction phase. This is a dreaded phase, mostly because it's the beginning of the end, so I wanted a book that would encourage me and spur me on. For that, I picked up a dark academia novel that I'd been saving for the Autumn, Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, and sweet Eru was I right! This is the perfect blend of nerdiness, academia and Gothic vibes with tons of travelling involved, which soothed my lock-down self beyond words.

The cast of characters isn't too big, so that even though the story is split over 3 different time periods (the 1930s, the 1950s and the 1970s) I had no trouble following each narrative, which is saying a lot for me! They all revolve around historians or historians-to-be who discover a mystery surrounding the character of Dracula. As the size of the book may suggest, the pacing isn't too fast and leaves room for enchanting descriptions of all the locations the protagonists travel too across Europe and a bit of the USA. This book definitely soothed my wanderlust and put me in the right mood for my own academic pursuits!

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