Customer Reviews

The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Blah, padded, bloated, vague, rambling and pointless are all words that readily jump to mind after reading Steiger's attempt at penning a werewolf encyclopedia. Steiger has pulled exactly the same trick that inadequate students use on term papers. He substitutes length for research, and he does it by adding extraneous sentences, paragraphs, and adjectives, as well as randomly bringing up every topic that might possibly be seen as related to the assignment, and then subsequently rambling on about that subject. Even when Steiger is discussing werewolves, cat people, coyote people, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde or other shape-shifting beings, he regurgitates a handful of the simplest facts concerning said subject and then plays a game of seeing how long he can ramble on without adding any new facts to the mix. The writing varies in quality, but too much of it is either terribly vague or rambling yet pompous without actually saying much. At 397 pages in length, one would expect that the subject would eventually be covered adequately, but such is far from the case. It seems that everything other than shape-shifting beings ended up being irresistible fodder for Steiger's research agenda.
Let us examine one section and the nature of this tome shall readily show itself. In the "A" section alone, out of twelve entries, Steiger includes six highly questionable entries, namely three paragraphs about an English Abbot who claimed he found a demon corpse (it was all black and twisted because it had been struck by lightning, but nobody said it had shape-shifted), three pages about the "Abominable Snowman" (a subject that is redundantly brought up no less than five times in the remainder of the book under alternative names such as yeti, yet Steiger fails to establish any link, however slight, to prove, as he states, that "Folklore has cast these mysterious monsters as werewolves..." [this quote from page 4]), two pages about aliens, three pages about the almasti (a Russian yeti), a three-paragraph biography of Evelyn Ankers (an actress who played a minor part in one werewolf movie), and two paragraphs about Anubis (the jackal-headed Egyptian god, whom Steiger rambles about in an exceptionally pointless way). Thus, fully half of these entries for the "A" section have so little to do with werewolves that one wonders why Steiger even bothered. Ah, yes, because he was being paid!
A short perusal of the table of contents brings to mind many other entries that made me desire that this was a term paper, and I Steiger's professor, that I might give him an "F." The entry on blood is terribly pointless. It would be more appropriate to a treatise on vampires, yet a more dedicated author could have done a better job with this topic choice than Steiger did. His rambling jumps from one subject to another, including the historical tale behind the Jewish Passover, Native American rituals to appease blood-shedding, and Steiger's own (completely unfounded) ruminations about fossil evidence, ancient humans, green leaves, and wolfskin-wearing cannibals. I shall spare you the exact details. The next galling entry that leaps out at my eye is titled "Dahmer, Jeffrey." Despite the fact that this famous serial killer was never labeled a werewolf, Steiger emphatically states that he indubitably was one. The evidence? Dahmer was unusually quiet during his trial, therefore he was possessed by a demon-beast, and ergo he was a werewolf. The entry itself contains nothing more than a hurried summary of the basic facts and Steiger's bizarre rambling. Numerous entries on other cannibals and serial killers all follow the same line.
I could go on, but I being to sicken myself as I look over this waste of a book, and I believe you have the point. Don't buy this piece of trash unless you are a dedicated fan of this author or you absolutely must have every single book that is published on this topic. Looking over the irresolutely cheerful reviews below mine, spaced evenly every few days, each praising this book as highly as I have ever seen a book praised and using the same style and phrases, I cannot help but conclude that Steiger himself has been writing these reviews in volume so as to push his book in this venue. I regret that little can be done to impede such cheating, and can only hope that my review will stay on top for a week or two before a new flood of phony reviews submerges it.

_The Werewolf Book_ is entertaining, but I am going to have to go with the "too many serial killers" critics. I can understand Steiger including one entry about serial killers, but the book seems overrun with inappropriate information. I can even understand including entries for killers labelled "The Werewolf Killer" or whatnot, but many of the killers featured (such as Albert Fish or Charles Manson) have no connection whatsoever to the subject at hand, werewolves. Human monsters should only be included when they have a connection to the shapeshifting beast of film and folklore. Steiger's personal beliefs linking unconnected serial killers to the werewolf legend should be confined to the introduction, or perhaps an entry of their own. What's truly annoying is that more appropriate information has been excluded.

The introduction to "The Werewolf Book" states, "We have met the Werewolves and they are us." Unfortunately, this pompous, pretentious volume does little or nothing to support that statement.

Less than 20% of the entries in "The Werewolf" Book have anything to do with non-fictional lycanthropes. There are multiple articles on movies, actors, actresses, various aspects of the paranormal, mythological monsters other than weres, and an almost nauseatingly complete reciting of infamous serial murderers. However, usable data relating to the phenomenon of lycanthropy and werewolves is conspicuously scarce.

There can be no doubt that Mr Steiger is very accomplished in the conducting of research and compiling of data. It would have been more useful were he accomplished in sticking to his stated subject.

As a brief reference to occult/gothic/mythological terminology, "The Werewolf Book" has some value. As a study of the history of the werewolf phenomenon, it is useless.

Not recommended.

As a fan of Mr. Steiger's other books, I can assure you that `The Werewolf Book' is far from his best work. The whole book has a rushed, padded feeling, as if Mr. Steiger were desperately trying to produce a book of a certain length before his deadline hit. Mr. Steiger's eclectic nature usually helps him produce works where ever-varying strange vistas beckon to you, keeping your appetite whetted and boredom at bay. His roving habits work against him in `The Werewolf Book,' rendering him unable to keep his focus. I have to agree with what so many other reviewers are saying: this book has a serious problem of wandering far from its topic.
Too many serial killers, way too much about Bigfoot, and why are aliens even here? It is true that a few of the serial killers earned nicknames such as "the werewolf killer," and it is quite common to mention them in other werewolf studies, but Mr. Steiger goes overboard. His reasoning seems to go something like this: `serial killers kill people, and werewolves kill people, therefore all serial killers are symbolic werewolves and this somehow has something to do with the evil that lurks inside all of humanity.' I've seen the same point made far better in other books, and in far less space. Bigfoot, Yeti, Sasquatch and other "mystery primate" stuff is also pretty thinly connected to the main topic. He doesn't even cover any sightings of Bigfoot-like creatures that do actually shape-shift (yes, there are reports of such things, read `Story in the Snow' by Lunetta Woods). Instead, Mr, Steiger's reasoning seems to be: `movie werewolves look a lot like Bigfoot, therefore every critter of this type is closely connected with werewolves and my readers won't mind if I fill one-sixth of the book with a standard rehash of all the basic Bigfoot facts.'
Then, I became really upset when I saw the aliens. The werewolf movie guide in the back of the book was padded heavily with alien movies. Why? Well, in most cases, it was movies about aliens that looked human or could take over human bodies, so even if there was no shape-shifting in the movie proper, it was sometimes theoretically implied as occurring off-screen or before the movie began. Also, Mr. Steiger considers mind-control to be shape-shifting, which it is not. While triumphantly padding his film directory with alien movies, he ignores many movies in which the aliens actually physically shape-shift in the movie proper, seeming to favor highly questionable entries such as `Lifeforce' (based on the novel `Space Vampires' by Colin Wilson) and also favoring older alien films. He also throws in plenty of movies about monsters that do not shape-shift, such as lots of "Swamp Thing," "Gill Man" and "Bigfoot" movies.
In summary, the author spends far too much time discussing creatures only slightly related to werewolves, and even then, he usually just discusses the basic facts about these creatures rather than examining the connections to shape-shifting lore that do exist. I hope that if `The Werewolf Book' is ever republished in the future, it will have a less misleading title. In format, `The Werewolf Book' somewhat resembles another book of Mr. Steiger's that, in my opinion, is much better: `Out of the Dark,' a compilation of folklore, mythology and cryptozoology, concentrating on monsters. I think that a title similar to `Out of the Dark' would have been more appropriate for `The Werewolf Book.' With a different title, it might have been a halfway decent general monster and horror encyclopedia, the kind aimed at a teen audience or those adults looking for an introductory work, and in this case it would have merited three stars. But with the misleading title and the author's inability to focus, I'm afraid that I can't give it more than one star. There is nothing I hate more than buying a book and then discovering that it is mostly about something else.

Brad Steiger has been cranking out monster books since at least the 1960s. Most of his stuff was published in the form of lurid, mass-market paperbacks, heavy on breathless prose but light on actual research. This book is no different. For an indication of the level of research in this book, consider that Steiger actually footnotes articles from The National Enquirer! The editors at the publishing house should have had the good sense to remove those passages. They didn't, so you should take this book with a big grain of salt. The tome feels like a cut-and-paste job. Why all of the irrelevant junk about serial killers? What does Jefferey Dahmer have to do with werewolves anyway? This book has one saving grace: It contains a lot of good data about werewolf movies (although someone needs to tell Steiger that "The Howling" was not quite the "Citizen Kane" of horror films that he seems to think it is)--and it does have a lot of cool photographs in it. Overall, though, it's a disappointment. It's a shame because werewolf lore is interesting, and there's certainly no shortage of material. This could have been a good book. Sadly, the project was turned over to the wrong man.

This is one of the worst put together books I've ever seen.

Consider Steiger's author blurb on the back - "more than 150 books to his credit" and "his interest in werewolves was piqued when he saw ... The Wolf Man". There you have it - his main qualification is that he likes werewolf movies, and, considering how many books he has to produce, he writes in a hurry. So what does he do in this book? Flings in everything he can find that has the slightest possible connection with anything occult, violent, animalistic or just badly behaved. The book cost me #11.99, and there's about three pence worth of thought in it.

His information comes mostly from movies, all of which are more entertaining than this book, and Eisler's "Man Into Wolf" - a very intelligent book, well worth reading, which Steiger doesn't understand at all and has mangled into an inane pop-psychobabble mess. Just read Eisler and save yourself some time.

A complete waste of money.

Length:: 2:48 Mins

397 pages of werewolf stories, films, folklore, history, and everything else. This one delves further into the human mind then the absolutely necessary Vampire Book that preceded it. There are several historical figures and serial killers within these pages that had a bit of a wolf fetish and manifested lychanthropic behavior to match. The obvious psychological and instinctive animal nature we all live with is perfectly encompassed by this particular horror metaphor. Also along for the ride are the requisite filmographies and lists of books, stories, historically relevant reports of werewolfism, and much more. From the real-life mystery of the Beast of Gevaudan to Hitler's delusions of lycanthropy there is a lot of fascinating material.

Granted, a large portion of this volume is dedicated to things other than werewolves and shapeshifters such as serial killers like Jack the Ripper and accused vampiress Elizabeth Bathory; but to be fair, there just isn't that much werewolf material out there compared to vampires and the book needed padding. Think of it as bonus horror material. This is still a step down from "The Vampire Book" any way you look at it, though. But I appreciate the thought.

Werewolves have always been a close second to vampires as far as my favorite horror creaures go. Interestingly, while vamps have all the sex appeal, popularity, and supernatural powers it's the werewolves who always win when the two fight in the movies. This is particularly interesting because more often than not, the lychans are servants of some kind to the vamps. I guess it's just our nature to root for the underdog (or wolf, as it were). Then there's always the fact that vampires are a metaphor for corrupt upper class nobility while werewolves -the beast within- are something we can all relate to. A working class monster.

Well, if you are a fan of the man-eating shapeshifer then this book is for you. It's not as jaw-dropping as the vamp edition, but it is still a gotta-have reference for anyone who wishes to increase their horror knowledge.

4 1/2 stars rounded up for lotsa pretty, pretty pictures.

There are numerous unforgiveable errors (miscaptioned horror stars etc.), irrelevant entries, and general bad writing and research. There is a link between serial murder and the werewolf myth, but Steiger's either unaware of it, or doesn't trouble himself to investigate it in his copious pointless coverage of sundry random serial killers. The real tragedy is that given the space in terms of generous pagination, and budget evinced in the prolific illustration, there was the space here for something definitive. Instead, this is a mess. This needs more than exposure to the full moon to transform into a good book.

The author seems to forget that this book is supposed to be about werewolves, werebears, weretigers, and so on. The material that has some actual relation to shapeshifters fills less than a fourth of the book. Bigfoot, the Abominable Snowman and Yeti are not werewolves or shapeshifters of any kind, yet the author spends an amazing amount of time on them. Likewise with the serial killers, cannibals and other criminals. Their histories may be interesting and gory, but they have nothing to do with werewolf mythology, superstitions, or beliefs. Also, a whole bunch of vampire stuff was thrown in. If the author had cut all the off-topic material out, it would have been a halfway decent werewolf book of about 100 pages. Alternatively, the author could have changed the title to something not so misleading, such as "Extreme Violence, Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters". It's not a bad book other than this off-topic problem. If you want to read about all those other things in addition to werewolves, you might very well enjoy this book. I just don't want anyone to buy it while under the wrong impression, as I did.

This shouldn't be called the Werewolf Book, really. It's more or less "The Big Boring Book of Unknown Creatures, Animal-like Behavior, Animal-related Myths, Horror Movies, Serial Killers and A Bit About Werewolves Here and There". Why is this?

First, let's start off with the good points about the book. The book is very well-researched and has a nice appendix of websites, movies, and other books about werewolves. The articles on Peter Stumpf, the Moon, and real wolves are very informative and detailed. The book's cover and format is easy-to-read, attractive, and is the companion to "The Vampire Book" by J. Gordon Melton.

Unfortunately, this book is an overall dud because the authors spend so much bloody time talking about things only REMOTELY related to Werewolves. Serial killers may act like savage beasts, but if I wanted to research them I'd get the Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. Werewolves may shed blood when they attack, but there is no reason for there to be AN ENTIRE ENTRY all about blood, haemotology, etc. And what the heck are Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and Chupacabra doing in here?! de Sade, Edgar Allen Poe, and von-Mascoch don't need to be in here. Nor does anything about necrophilia, grave robbery, Frakenstein, animal sacrifice, Romulus and Remus, black magick, suicide cults, or LaVeyan Satanism need to be in here.
Now that we've got that taken care of, let's go on to talk about the parts of the book that are actually ABOUT werewolves. Well, to put it bluntly, they're not much better. They're usually very short, simple, and leave out a lot of information. They barely touch the subject of how one becomes/slays a werewolf, and the reports about werewolf sightings and werewolf trials during the Inquisition are usually boring and do not tell very much about the sighting/trial. Do I need to mention that a lot of the information is INACCURATE?!

Take my advice and just buy "The Vampire Book". "The Big Boring Book of Unknown Creatures, Animal-like Behavior, Animal-related Myths, Horror Movies, Serial Killers and A Bit About Werewolves Here and There" is something to leave in the dust.

Overall Rating: 1 1/2 stars