However, strangely enough, I was delightfully surprised when I first began to read. This book didn’t turn out as bad as I initially thought it would be. In fact, it turned out to be actually quite good. First of all, the plot was very original and different from anything else I've ever read. In short, one man disappears, leaving behind only a mysterious letter, beginning with the words “to you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history…” His teenaged daughter, the main narrator of the story, accidentally finds this letter and after reading its contents, sets out on a quest to find her father and learn more about the horrors written about in that book.

So, what was this letter all about? Well, it turns out that a mysterious old book appears, almost magically, in the possession of several different professors around Europe. The book itself is very old, filled with blank pages and a terririble drawing of a dragon. It seems that all of these books somehow are connected with Vlad Tepes, the man who later became known as Vlad the Impaler, or, Dracul. These books, combined with a map, can somehow show the location of the supposed burial place of Dracul.

Soon, one after another, the professors start disappearing, and close friends of them are found dead from loss of blood from two small holes in the neck. Finally, the narrator’s father, Paul, sets out to search for one Professor Rossi, who disappeared from his office one stormy night. Together with Rossi’s estranged daughter Helen, they travel to Turkey, Hungary, and Romania in search of Rossi and Dracula.

However, this latter story is only told through old letters, while in fact Paul has left his daughter in Amsterdam and has set out to search for Helen Rossi, his wife, long believed to be dead. His daughter, together with an Oxford student named Stephen Barley, leave Amsterdam to in turn try to catch up with Paul.

In my opinion, the book’s major flaw is all the conflicting stories mixed up. In one chapter you can read a letter by Professor Rossi, Paul’s account of his adventures with Helen, their daughter’s quest years later, and yet another letter by Professor Rossi. This left me very very confused, because I kept loosing track of the letters, the quotation marks within quotation marks, who is talking to who and what is happening when… It only straightens out in the very end, when the narrator, Barley, Paul, and Helen all reunite and kill Dracula.

Another thing which disappointed me is that Dracula was found and killed in just a few paragraphs. I mean, the whole book is about him, but his only major appearance is for several paragraphs and then, suddenly, he is dead! Nevertheless, I really liked the fact that the author describes Dracula as the man seen in the old paintings – long moustache, cap with feather… It was surprising that he wasn’t the old cliché type, with a black cape and tuxedo…

Yet another thing I enjoyed was all the detailed descriptions of cities, culture, food. When the author writes about the streets of Budapest or Istanbul, you can almost imagine that you yourself are there, because it’s so detailed, down to every street! The author uses as many details as possible in order to make the book more realistic and believable.

So, in conclusion, The Historian is an interesting book with an interesting plot, but the author overdid herself in trying an original writing style. It’s too confusing to really enjoy as a whole. I believe that if the book was re-written normally in correct time order with only several letters thrown in for variety, everything would be much simpler and enjoyable. Nevertheless it's a worthwile read, if only for the colorful language and originality.