AUDIO BOOK REVIEW: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (read by Joanne Whalley etc..) ★★★★☆

February 24, 2020

AUDIO BOOK REVIEW: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (read by Joanne Whalley etc..) ★★★★☆

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (read by Joanne Whalley, Dennis Boutsikaris, Rosalyn Landor, Martin Jarvis, Robin Atkin Downes, and Jim Ward)

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?

Overall Rated: 4/5

Narration Rated: 5/5

Story Rated: 3/5

There are some books that make you feel so utterly frustrated that you want to throw it out of the damn window. I attempted to read this novel back in 2016 and I was fed up with it. Four years later, I gave it another chance, this time through audiobook and I was amazed, taken back by this assemble cast that brought this drivel fest to life. its

Not everyone who reaches back into history can survive it.

I can only praise the cast and music of The Historian. I was swept away through various European locations, felt the thrill and fear when the characters encountered something huge. The music was suspenseful, kept me on my feet. I couldn’t believe nearly 11 hours went by as each chapter was under 10 minutes. I did increase the speed to 1.25x and could still perfectly understand what was going on.

It was not the brutality of what occurred next that changed my mind and brought home to me the full meaning of fear. It was the brilliance of it.

When I initially read this, I was utterly bored, like for the life of me, I couldn’t continue reading this and I think it had to do with many coincidences in the plot, like an uncanny coincidence of so many people all over the world that happen to bump into one another who are doing the same research and inexplicably want to help. There were too many detailed letters, flowery prose and lack of distinguishing character. I felt that there was too much going, almost like a Russian doll concept of a story within a story. It starts with the daughter in her old age recalling the time when she was a teenager, she found a series of letters describing some mysterious event. She questions her father who tells her the story about his friend professor Bartholomew Rossi who before disappearing was researching about Prince Vlad III Impaler of Walachia aka Dracula. The other side of the story is the mystery surrounding the mother who coincidently disappeared researching the same topic.

I've noticed Dracula was often as practical a fellow as he was a nasty one.

But the audiobook worked a lot better, with six narrators performing with European and American accents. Its an intelligent concept that makes you question the existence of Count Dracula and asking yourself who really is the historian? It’s a clever, brilliantly researched, unravelling fantasy loosely inspired by an old Eastern European vampire folk tale. There’s supernatural suspense with fascinating history weaved through fiction. Anne Rice’s vampires set a foundation for mediocre vampire genre but Kostova’s vampire raised the bar. For those who hated this book, I highly recommend the audiobook.