Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia Horrifica: The Terrifying TRUTH! About Vampires, Ghosts, Monsters, and More

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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

ENCYCLOPEDIA HORRIFICA is the perfect book for anyone who loves the spooky, the eerie, and the downright weird. Want to know about ghosts, vampires, ESP, werewolves, or anything else even partially paranormal? Then this is definitely the book for you!

The book is broken down into four main parts: Real Nightmares, "That's the Spirit!", Every Day is Halloween, and Fearsome Fates.

In part one, you can read about vampires, sea creatures, aliens, and werewolves. Part two covers ghosts: where to find them, how to catch them, when they've been caught on film, and animals who could have been extras on the movie Pet Sematary. Part three includes weird shops (where you can even buy a three-pound jar of dead flies), ESP and other psychic abilities, phobias and superstitions, and the most horrific books you could ever find on a bookshelf. Part four covers zombies, pixies and faeries, mummies, and everything death related.

This book is hilariously horrifying. Although that may sound like an oxymoron, author Joshua Gee has made sure to make the facts he covers interesting, funny, and entertaining. Besides being a reference book, this is one tome that you'll find yourself reading over and over again for its pure entertainment value.

Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"

This is a surprisingly good book. I ordered it out of my niece's school's book order for a laugh, then started reading it and was enthralled! It has a Guinness Book of World Records feel to it, including a ton of information pertaining to each subject and interesting facts about everything surrounding the subjects. This book has cool pictures and illustrations, is easy to read and jam-packed with information on the superstitions and lore that have been part of our culture since the dawn of time. One of the cool things is that the book doesn't claim these figments of lore are real, per se, but rather, provides one with the facts and stories related to the topic so that one can make their own decision, or just be entertained and become more informed. I would definately recommend this as a cool book to own if you have any interest in the supernatural and cultural history :)
Schematics: cool holographic cover, thick book

In spite of the `horrifica' in the title, this author's tongue was tucked firmly into his own cheek during the compilation of this witty encyclopedia. Joshua Gee never comes right out and says, for example, that vampires really exist. Instead he leads his reader on with teasers such as, "If we could ask Stoker himself whether or not he believed in vampires and werewolves, what might he say? Well, hopefully nothing. After all, he's been dead since 1912!"

Mindful of the age of its intended readers, this encyclopedia doesn't go into too much shocking detail. For instance, it never does state what Vlad Dracula a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler did with all of those six-foot wooden stakes. Mr. Gee just drops a big hint: "It [impalement] is best described in a foreign language that the reader does not understand..."

Nevertheless, there are lots of interesting bits of folklore and science to entertain your young Buffys and Van Helsings. For instance, did you know that vampire slayers had to ride a horse "...as black as the blackest ocean" or that vampire bat spit contains a substance called `draculin' that prevents its victim's blood from clotting?

Although this is a standard, hard-bound book with multiple pictures (in gory color) per page, there are lots of interactive features to engage the computer-savvy reader, such as a quiz on the `real' versus movie Dracula: "Who would win in a furious fight to the (un)death? YOU decide."

I'll go with the real Dracula whose "victims accumulated on his front lawn like `a mighty forest'!"

"Encyclopedia Horrifica" has something for everyone who is interested in the supernatural, from aliens to zombies. It's not really arranged in an encyclopedic format, i.e. A to Z, but there is an index if you need to look up, say, "The Call of Cthulhu" or `fugu sashimi.'

This review wouldn't be complete without mention of the many wonderful pictures that adorn this book, from the holographic spider that crawls in and out of a skull's eye socket on the front cover, to the scariest photo of all: an eyelash mite in its natural habitat on your skin, magnified 240 times to look like a wormy alligator. Ugh!

The cover of this great book will attract you to pick it up, the content inside will make you buy it. The cover which is actually referred to inside the book so obviously must be on all published editions has a fanged skull with a spider in its eye socket in the traditional skull mouth closed pose. When you open the cover to begin reading the skull opens it mouth terrifying the spider which flees its shelter. Gimmick covers often mean average content with the gimmicky cover needed to sell the average work, not so with Encyclopedia Horrifica where the content is also very good.

Inside the reader will learn the differences between many a Hollywood or fiction novel version of a creature, myth or tale and the original historic creation. Topics covered include vampires, zombies, ghosts, aliens, sea monsters, witches and psychics. The information is laid out in an entertaining and easy to read format complete with colour photos on every page. There are also quizzes and other interactive features of the book to further grip the reader.

A very good book. If you want other good entertaining and educational books covering these topics also check out Creepy Stuff, Ripley's Believe It or Not! Encyclopedia of the Bizarre (Ripley's Believe It or Not!) and the brilliant Informania: Vampires or Spine-Tingling Tales (Info Adventure).

I bought this book for my 12 year old brother who hates reading, and he tore through every page! And then he read his favorite parts over again! He also chose to use this book for a school project. I was amazed by his response, and have since given ENCYCLOPEDIA HORRIFICA to three other children and one fear-seeking adult -- and everyone has been thrilled. The book is fun, informative, and painstakingly crafted -- I can't recommend it highly enough!!!

The best way to sum it up:
X-files + Ripley's + Tales from the Crypt = ENCYCLOPEDIA HORRIFICA

I read a five-star review of the book somewhere and I couldn't understand what the fuss was about. But then I bought it as a gift for my nephew, and I liked it so much that I had to buy another copy for him! It PULLS you in like a hand from the grave......

The author ("Investigator Gee") has maybe achieved the impossible by creating a book that appeals to readers of all ages, but in different ways. There are plenty of facts and pictures for early Ripley's/Goosebumps readers like my nephew who love all things gross, but the look and feel and humor of the book are a lot like a My Chemical Romance video or a Tim Burton movie.

There are also a million "blink and youll miss it" references to grown-up stuff like Stephen King and Neil Gaiman plus "unexplained" science, etc.

And YES it even has a holographic cover!!!
:-)

Was entertained from cover to cover. My children and I love all the stories.
Worth every penny. Joshua dedicated a huge amount of time and energy to make this book perfect and it shows from the content and even the cover.

I bought this for my 7 year old son and he loves it. We had fun reading all of the stories about vampires, werewolves, and ghosts. This is a good book for younger kids that want to learn the basics about monsters. This is not an in depth book as you might think by the title.

Joshua Gee's ENCYCLOPEDIA HORRIFICA: THE TERRIFYING TRUTH ABOUT VAMPIRES, GHOSTS, MONSTERS AND MORE packs in evidence, special explorations, interviews and eyewitness accounts to probe the facts behind the fictional representations of mermaids, ghosts, aliens, Dracula and more. Eye-capturing color illustrations accompany `strange case' biographies and historical facts, making this much more than your usual Halloween-oriented fright title - and suitable for any collection seeking to inspire recreational nonfiction reading in kids.

This book is jam-packed; each page literally brims with photos, history, mysteries, and just plain fun writing. It's the kind of book that you don't want to put away on the shelf!

Also there's a hologram on the cover.