The Historian was suggested to me in high school, but for some reason I never read it. I recently picked it up and was very pleasantly surprised. First of all, this book is long! The edition I have has pages that feel like tissue paper - they are so thin! So from the outside, this book appears to be about 350 pages. It's really 676 pages. So despite the riveting, page-turning quality of this book, I did find myself checking to see how many pages were left a couple of times.
Kostova really does her research for this novel. She especially excels at painting the scenery for us without interrupting the actual telling of the story - which is essential for any novel that is going to be a favorite of mine. She describes monasteries and villages vividly enough that you are transported there- all over ancient and modern day Europe. It really is a treat.
The book follows an unnamed protagonist and her father Paul as he recounts for her his search for Dracula - whom is alive and well - in his college days. He speaks of this in the past tense until...one day he disappears from one of this diplomatic trips to pursue Dracula (and the love of his life) again. His daughter follows him, of course, and what ensues is one of the most satisfying endings you'll ever read. It resolves everything without being too "happily ever after" cliche.
If you like mysteries, this is for you. It has supernatural characters, history, a romantic subplot which is done perfectly, beautiful scenery, and action scenes that will get your heart racing. With all the vampire novels that have hit the shelves in the last decade, you would be doing yourself a disservice but not reading this one. The fact that Twilight has been made into a movie but this book hasn't is a bit depressing*. I'll take a cerebral vampire story any day.
*Apparently SONY bought the production rights to this book before it was even published but has done nothing since. I blame Twilight.
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