The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova

A very interesting take on the myth of Dracula. The book, unfortunately, was abridged, but I didn't realize this until I was done reading it, and thinking back I couldn't think of any specific points in the book where I felt like I was missing information.

This might be because I thought it was unabridged, and therefore wasn't paying attention or even thinking about missing sections in the story line, or because there are sort of two parallel stories going on and one was barely touched upon in the book, but I just assumed that that's the way the author envisioned the book. Maybe, she just decided to cut one of the two stories out almost completely in order to leave the other one in as much as possible. Or maybe it was just good editing. Whatever the case may be, it still bothers me quite a bit knowing I didn't hear the entire book.

I am still at a loss when it comes to justifying or even understanding authors' decisions to allow the release of an abridged audio version of their works, since I never see abridged books in bookstores. I guess I never will understand why they do it.

Anyway, the story is intriguing, interesting, and at times gripping. The characters are mostly well fleshed out and this is the first audio book I read with multiple readers. They were all very good, especially the guy doing the British accent, which was very pleasant to hear.

It's also the first book I read that uses sound effects and motifs here and there, mostly to underscore a particular character or event.

It's the story of a young woman looking for her father, who might be on a quest that could spell his doom. The reader is taken through time and space by memories, letters, books, stories, all in a whirlwind of occurrences that eventually fit together quite nicely. But I don't want to give away any details of the story and therefore I'll just end this post here. A good book. I'd recommend it.

Grade: 8