Book Review: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

Ever since the success of Dan Brown’s ‘Da Vinci Code’, the number of historical fiction novels in bookstores has increased dramatically. Everyone wants to do it now, hoping to become instant millionaires as well. And it wouldn’t be so annoying if it weren’t for the fact that, on a shelf with 14 titles, 10 of them would most likely be historical fiction, with the words ‘Better than ‘The Da Vinci Code!’ or ‘As good as The Da Vinci Code!’ emblazoned on the cover.

To start with, this novel doesn’t make any such claims on the front cover, which is just as well, because though it does touch historical avenues once in a while, it is nothing like ‘The Da Vinci Code’.

The novel is basically about a young teenage girl, whose father disappeared while searching for his mentor. Both her father and his mentor were historians, studying well, history, but more specifically the fact and fiction of ‘Vlad the Impaler’, or more widely known to this generation as ‘Dracula’. The girl then sets off with what she knows, hoping to track her father down.

The story is told in layers. It goes back and forth between two different stories- the story of the girl looking for her father, and the story her father told her about his time at university, when he was first introduced to his mentor and how he subsequently developed an interest in researching Dracula’s roots in history. Although this slows the story’s pace somewhat (to me I had to get at least a hundred pages in before it started getting exciting), to the patient reader, it is well worth the wait because once the book starts picking up the pace, it develops into a good thriller/horror story, keeping you turning the pages just to see what happens next.

Personally though, to me the only flaw in this book is its ending, which I find rather unsatisfying after the long buildup. But then that’s just a matter of perspective. I know other people who would disagree, and say that the ending was perfect. Either way, I found the book well worth the read. The language the author uses is not too complicated, and she keeps you guessing by leading us up to events which lead on to other events, and so forth.

Keep in mind, however, that all this excitement only happens AFTER the first hundred or so pages, so you're going to have to be really patient to enjoy this book. Stephen King fans would be used to this sort of treatment by now, so you should find this book okay, considering it's not just historical fiction, it's also relatively slow paced, but intricately detailed, and it delves into the horror genre as well every so often.

I still think the ending could have been better. More...tragic. But then I know some of you saps like endings where everyone's happy and dancing in the moonlight. So... there.

7 out of 10.