Customer Reviews

The "Supernatural" Book of Monsters, Spirits, Demons, and Ghouls

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is not just for those who are fans of the CW show Supernatural. Eric Kripke, creator of the show, prides himself on the validity of the legends and myths he uses in his show. This book gives background information about things encounted by the Winchesters with a few new critters added in. The text uses Sam and Dean's voices for each section and fans of the show can easily pick out which Winchester is speaking each time. This book is a must for those who want to learn more about urban legends and things that roam the night.

This is a unique book and well worth the read, even if you are not a "Supernatural" fan. It is purportedly written by Dean and Sam Winchester, and they, of course, cannot refrain from making smart remarks about one another. This makes the book fun to read, but what makes it truly interesting is the fact that writers didn't make up the stories for the TV series and then publish them in a book; this folklore, myths and legends have been around Man started putting sounds together to make words. As you read this book, you cannot help but wonder where such folklore and legend originated. What did someone see, hear or feel some dark night that lead to such tales as Bloody Mary, the wendigo, werewolves, hellhounds, sthriga, or the thousand other creatures or demons we've read about? I highly recommend this book for its uniqueness and its peek into that dark, frightened corner of the human mind.

I'd first heard about this book on a "Supernatural" fansite, and right away, I knew it would make a great read and it was the kind of book the series begged to have written: something that cataloged and expanded on the lore of the dozens of creatures which the Winchester brothers have tussled with over the course of the series -- and a few they *haven't* tussled with yet, which makes me wonder what lies ahead for next season! The first person POV makes it seem like the boys are relating their experiences to you first hand, and the excerpts from John Winchester's journal give you all the details you could ask for on the creatures he's dealt with and the life of a hunter. An excellent addition to an excellent series!

I wish I could have given this more stars but I just couldn't. This is poorly-written, inconsistent and a dull read - and to make anything to do with 'Supernatural' dull is quite a feat in my opinion. Irvine has just taken a random collection of creatures that have appeared on the (superlative) show, and written a litttle about each - sometimes no more than a paragraph. There's also entire pages of possibly 'real' historical quotations - not exactly riveting - and almost three pages of untranslated latin exorcism rituals..cut and paste much? The worst aspect is that Irvine has tried to write in the 'voice' of the Winchester brothers, failed, and this makes it a little embarassing. Also - let's be honest - what's the point of a book about 'Supernatural' with no photos? Especially an authorized one. There's fanfic out there that's far more interesting and better written than this...I mean, not like I know but I'm just, you know, guessing. Supernatural: The Official Companion Season 2at least has great photos, and In the Hunt: Unauthorized Essays on Supernatural (Smart Pop Series)is at least witty and very readable.

Anyone who is any sort of fan of the show Supernatural will like what this book has to say, but it really isn't as great as I had heard. Most of what they talk about are common things from the show, like salt and silver and such, and they don't even list everything the show has mentioned (note that this book only goes through about half of season 2). It's fun to have and to read, but not very useful as a companion to the series (and I STILL don't know what the heck a chupacabra is! >.<)

i hvnt bought this yet,but by looking at the preview..it says that dean was 5 when their mom was killed..when in fact, he was 4

SOme of the stuff in there is real folklore, it is a bible for the supernatural fan... the show or the real thing!

Although this book had the potential to be a very interesting guide to all the monsters faced on Supernatural, the author rather squandered this potential through choosing to include a list of monsters that was largely arbitrary and only loosely related to the show itself, although all the legends did make for some interesting reading. What was painfully bad about this whole thing, though, was the writing itself. The book attempts a first-person plural perspective, which I had never seen before in a published work and for very good reason: it is impossible to tell who is speaking and when and where, and creates a sort of bizarre mental image of the two main characters standing hypnotized and chanting out the narration in unison, except when one or the other takes a break to talk in the third person. The writing was so distractingly bad that I can't even say for sure how good the completion of the book was, because I couldn't even follow what it was saying enough to make it all the way through.

If you don't want to take the time, and page through books on monsters, spirits, demons and ghouls yourself, this is a fun little read. I didn't get a sense of Sam or Dean while reading this, seems to me the author just culled a bunch of stories from other sources he researched and regurgitated them.

I thought this book was really cool, and being a huge fan of the show, it was awesome to see some of the back story associated with the creatures they encounter. It was a fun read, and having it told from Sam and Dean's perspective along with the snippits from their dad's journal was a great idea. It made me want to learn even more about the crazy monsters, spirts, demons and ghouls they descibe.