The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

​“When the FMC finds a strange book with a wood-cut of a dragon in the center and a stack of letters addressed to, "My dear and unfortunately sucessor" in her father's study, she's instantly curious. When she asks her father about them, she's suddenly thrown into a staggeringly detailed account of her father's life as a young man and his desperate search for his missing professor, who he fears may be in danger from the one and only, Dracula.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Pros: Though this was a monster of a book, Kostova was a master at pacing/Every reveal was subtle but mind blowing. 

Cons: The narrative became arduous about 75% of the way through/The ending was really rather anti-climactic. 

Full Review: 

The FMC of the novel has only known life with her father. He's some sort of foreign diplomat and travels extensively and often times she accompanies him on his trips. One night, when she's in his study, she finds a small, strange book that when opened, reveals a woodcut of a dragon, with huge wings and a long, looping tail. She doesn't know what to make of it, nor the stack of letters that accompany it, addressed to "My dear and unfortunate succesor." 

On one of their trips, she finally admits to her father that she found his book and those letters and asks him about them. The tale that he tells throws her into the past where her father, Paul, is a young, Graduate student, studying under the tutelage of Bartholomew Rossi. 

Paul is working on his dissertation and one night, while in the library, a small book with a strange woodcut in the center of a dragon just appears among his things. He goes to Professor Rossi and tells him of this mysterious acquisition and it turns out that Rossi, has the exact same book. The next day, Rossi has disappeared and Paul, ever the faithful friend, feels that it must be connected to the book and the letters that Rossi gave to him. 

What follows is a 700+ history lesson of Paul's search for the missing Rossi. He's accompanied by the sometimes acerbic but undeniably intelligent, Helen, who is also Rossi's daughter. They're led from one end of Eastern Europe to the next, finding allies and enemies alike.  

When on one trip, the daughter returns to their hotel room to find her father gone and only a note, apologizing for his disappearance but that it's time that he goes off to find her mother, well, the daughter knows that now it's her turn to find her wayward father.  

Though I read this book mainly for the Marathon Readers Goodreads Badge, it turned out to be a detailed (sometimes unbearably so) and unique book about Vlad Tepes, Dracula, the end all be all of Vampires. Kostova handled pacing well, at least at the beginning and every reveal was suble yet pseudo-mind blowing. It wasn't until about 75% of the way through that I really started struggling and wanting the book to be done. 

Though the end was rather anti-climactic, after the 650 pages of build-up, overall, I enjoyed the book for its true individuality and Kostova's passion and depth of research was truly astonishing.