The Supernatural Book of Monsters, Spirits, Demons, and Ghouls by Alexander C. Irvine

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

• 
  NAT.orious reads ☾

  3.75 hunting ★★★✬✩
  
  ⇝Overall
  This is a cute little beginner's guide on supernatural monsters, spirits, demons, ghouls, revenants and the like. I think it is smartly structured and the tone it is written in literally made me feel like I was at a hunter convention where Sam and Dean were giving the introductory talk on all things supernatural. People who like an easy read and are in for reminiscing "the good old" days, please go ahead. (Personally, I am a fan of the times where angels were not such a big deal.) I do however feel like this book could need an updated version with more of what the Winchesters have encountered in the other 10+ seasons :)
  
  

  This book is for you if…you enjoy Supernatural and would like a fun little book about the universe of Supernatural. Spoilerwise I would recommend you to not read this book until you've finished Season 3, if you want to make sure.

  
  
  ⇝A little bit on racism: It's Native Americans, not Indians.
  There are passages in this book where Alex uses the word Indians instead of Native Americans or even the correct name of the tribe he's referring to with this case. It's simply not acceptable. I don't care that this book was written 10 years ago.
  
  ⇝Do not expect too much adequacy if you have any expertise on the cultures and lores mentioned in this book.
  I was completely aware of the fact that most times, Supernatural borrows and adapts most lore to fit the action frame of the show. I especially noticed this when they were talking about Celts as if they were some group of humans easily identified by certain makers. They weren't. To this day, scholars underline the fact that what scientifically could be described as Celtic civilizations stretches from Ireland over Scotland to France, Spain, Germany to even Greece and parts of Turkey. This is, of course, just the example I know something about. I mainly wanted to give you a heads up :)
  
  ➺The book is structured as follows.
  

  SPIRITS
  The Woman in White
  Water Spirits
  Urban Legends and Vengeful Spirits
  Land Spirits: Native and immigrant
  Vanir
  Lawrence
  Death Apparations
  
  MONSTERS
  Wendigo
  Shapeshifter
  Tulpas and Other Created Beings
  Homunculus
  Golem
  Rakshasa
  
  GHOULS, REVENANTS, ET CETERA
  Ghoul
  Shtriga
  Draugr/Draug
  Vampire
  Zombie
  How to Kill a Zombie/Revenant
  Other Revenants
  
  WITCHES, FAMILIARS AND BLACK DOGS
  
  DEMONS
  Succubus/Incubus
  Jinn
  Tengu
  Abiku
  Pishacha
  Acheri
  The Yellow-Eyed Demon
  Lesser Demons We Have Known
  Reaper
  Goofer Dust
  
  APPENDIX A: HERBS, OILS, AND HOODO HANDS
  APPENDIX B: NAMES AND ATTRIBUTES OF EUROPEAN DEMONS
  

  
  
  Ready to hunt some monsters? Hope you don't catch the Ghost Sickness, or else, you'll end up a little something like this on your next hunt:
  
  _____________________
  Writing quality + easy of reading = 4*
  
  enjoyability = 4*
  
  insightfulness = 3.5*
• 
  Ashley

  I am an unabashed supernatural fangirl. My husband communicates with me through text with Dean memes and gifs all the time 😂. I have half of season 14 left to go & then, the end, one & for all, Season 15. 😭😭😭
  I think I took a break from watching because I don’t want it to end. 💔
  
  I’m excited to read this! All of the supernatural...
  beings (?) in one place! Woo!
• 
  KK

  I had to read this one because Supernatural is one of my favorite TV shows... I liked it for most parts. It brought back the adventures from first two seasons and that was awesome. Also the appendix with the herbs and oils was cool. The only thing that i didn't like are the parts from the "John's journal", they were written in cursive and i had a bit of trouble reading them smoothly.
• 
  Lina

  An interesting book for Supernatural fans, but I definitely lacked sources for anything.
  The book is written from Sam and Dean's point of view, but also shifts to 3rd person perspective, which is extremely strange. It also feels a bit out of character, but hey! I did not read this book for the writing of Sam and Dean. I read it because I wanted to know more about the monsters, spirits, revenants, ghouls and demons.
  
  There were plenty of interesting ghost stories and lore from all over the world, and I enjoyed reading them. I wish there would have been less interference by Sam and Dean (so to speak) and more "meat on the bones" in terms of really covering the story. Being very accustomed to the Swedish urban legend about myrlingar - I barely recognized what the author was trying to convey about them! So that was a bummer. Also don't get why the character åäö was neglected in a novel; because no matter what - "bäckahästen" and "backahasten" just ain't the same!
  
  The font was a bit annoying (too similar to Comic Sans or the Harry Potter font!), especially during the drafts from John Winchester's journal. I found them pretty hard on the eyes to read.
  
  The appendix of herbs etc. and known demons was also a nice thing added to the book.
  
  So in general; I enjoyed the book. Don't expect it to be some amazing piece of fiction, it's just a good read if you're curious and enjoy the show, I guess! (Also, this book was published around season 2 or 3. I smiled when "the Winchesters" mentioned that dragons definitely don't exist!)
• 
  Svenja

  Das Buch ist ein cooler Rückblick in die ersten Staffeln/Folgen von Supernatural.
  
  Ich bin nicht unbedingt eine Person, die viel auf englisch liest, aber mit diesem Buch kam ich sehr gut zurecht.
  
  Für Fans der besten Serie der Welt ist das Buch auf jeden Fall eine Bereicherung.
• 
  TIffany Hubler

  *SOME SPOILERS TO THE TV SERIES READ WITH CAUTION*
  
  PERSONAL RESPONSE:
  I really enjoyed this book mainly because it is based off of the best tv show ever (Supernatural). I really liked how the book has the Monsters, Spirits, Demons, and Ghouls each in their own section. Another thing I liked is that in each section they list some of that thing that they hunted. I also liked that their is a table of Constance so the reader knows what the book is talking about.
  
  PLOT SUMMARY:
  The beginning of the book introduces you to John (the father), Sam and Dean Winchester( two brothers and also Johns sons). John, Sam and Dean hunt many things that are only in most people's nightmares and dreams. John made it his life after Sam and Deans mother was killed by a demon. Dean and Sam stared looking for their father and trying to kill the demon after Sam's girlfriend Jessica was killed by the same demon. Finally they meet up with their dad but John sacrifices himself to the same demon to save Dean. After that Dean and Sam look for the demon that killed their family. Along the way they meet new people. Their are many types of spirits like The Woman in White, Water Spirits, Urban Legends and Vengeful Spirits. Land Spirits: Native and Immigrant that includes Native American Curses, Amityville, Rout 55, Wisconsin Lake Curse (oh, and the bugs), and the curse of Kaskaskia. Vanir, Lawrence, and Death Apparitions are more spirits. Spirits will sometimes attach them self's to an object, that can make it hard to get rid of the spirit. The best way to get rid of a spirit is to salt and burn the remains and/or burn the object they are attached to. Their are many monsters that Dean and Sam have hunted the Wendigo is one of them. Their are many different kinds of shape shifters, Yenaldooshi, Bearwalker, Leszy, Nahuakes, Puca, The Animal Wife (Selkies, Swan Maidens, and Kitsune), and the Lycanthropy. Homunculus, Golems, Rakshasa, Tulpas and other created beings are more of the monsters they have hunted. Ghouls, Shriga, Draugr/Draug, Vampire, Zombie, and others. They have hunted Withes, Familiars and black dogs. Sam and Dean have meet many demons. Succubus/ Incubus, Jinn, Tengu, Abiku, Pishacha, Acheri, The Yellow Eyed Demon and more. Reapers Goofer Dust are some more that are hunted.
  
  RECOMONDATION:
  I recommend this book to anyone in middle school or higher. This book is also great for any Supernatural fan who wants to know more about what they hunt in this book. I recommend this book for only Supernatural fans.
  
• 
  BumfuzzledNerd

  
  http://www.julias-wunderland.ch/2017/...
• 
  nana

  Playing around with cultures and religions like that didn't age well at all. (Neither calling native-americans "indians.")
• 
  Oceana2602

  To be honest (and you wouldn't believe how much it pains me to say this), I was a bit disappointed by this book.
  
  First of all, the writing style didn't work for me at all. The book is written like a "How-to" from the Winchester boys, and nothing about it convinced me, starting from the ever-annoying "we" to the whole idea that the Winchesters would tell someone in such a fashion about the monsters they encountered. I picture Sam and Dean sitting in their motel room at the evening writing "we did this" and "we saw a ghost" style essays, and I just laugh (and not in a good way.)
  
  Second, the actual "information" in this book was rather boring for me. It really is how-to (kill demons, ghosts, other monsters etc.) and there's tons of information. Some about the monsters we saw on the show, some general information about the history or tradition of a certain kind of supernatural occurence, be it a ghost or a monster or any other kind of lore. This is probably interesting to the people who believe in this sort of thing (which I don't), and must be immensely useful to fanfiction writers (which I am not), but to realists like me who are here just for the pretty, it's rather useless. I was hoping there'd be more actual canon, something we haven't seen on the show, but it was mostly just short references to some of the monsters from the show, and then tons of information. Not bad, but not what I expected (or wanted).
  
  This book would have worked a LOT better if it had been written for example from Sam's POV. It could have been Sam's Guide to Monster, Spirits and Demons, because you just know that Sam sits down in the evenings and writes down all his research results and everything else that is useful for hunting, in case they ever encounter anything like it again. (whereas Dean just says "shot it last time, shoot it again this time, and if that doesn't work, shoot it again.". Oh, no, I'm being unfair! Poor Dean, but you look so good witha gun in your hand, I cannot help but use those images for my pleasure!)
  
  Right, where was I? Oh, yes, so the book would have been better if it was written from a different POV and in a different style, but I think most fans will still enjoy it.
• 
  Pandora Lapin

  I was tempted to go for the half-star option but that seemed a little harsh. 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.
• 
  Nicky

  The Supernatural Book of Monsters, Spirits, Demons and Ghouls is quite interesting. It's put together by the same guy who later put together John Winchester's Journal. It's not as fun as that, since it's mostly just information about the monsters (et al) that they encounter in canon. It is kind of fun, it's written from the boys' point of view, but it's hard to imagine them actually sitting down and writing a how-to guide like this, so I wouldn't take it too seriously. It's a good resource for plotty fanfiction or roleplay, I think, and there's some nice background information, but I don't think I'd really sit down and read it just for fun.
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  Sammiimunster

  I read this a while ago and at the moment I am looking for the person who illustrated this book for a drawing project I am working on.
  I think I can separate books and the shows they are based on because no matter how much I want it to be like Sam and Dean are the ones telling me this information I know that it's not and no matter how much research Alex Irvine does he would have never been able to capture the personalities that these actors convey so well.
  I thought this was a decent read and the information that was provided was pretty well researched. I loved all things supernatural before this show and I will love them well and truly after this show is gone.
• 
  Alessandra

  I can't give more than 2 stars because I didn't expect a guide within a journal that switches badly between the Winchesters and a 3dr person. Moreover, it is not that informative. Lots of "trust us" and "we got the job done", with no detailed adventure. The only part that is informative is at the end, when the author decided to add 2 appendix for herbs and demons.
  I guess I expected more from the book.
• 
  Tara Lynn

  Thanks to Jackie for feeding my obsession!
  
  (Seriously, though...two obnoxiously hot guys travel around in a mint classic car and use weapons to kill bad guys and save equally hot girls from the forces of darkness...It's like Buffy, but with guys. Did I mention obnoxiously hot?)
• 
  Jediraven

  Kind of boring. Most stuff in there is already in John Winchester's journal. But I loved it.
• 
  Lucky

  Recommended for fans of Supernatural, I think the best time to read would be after either season 2 or 3.
  
  As far as movie books go, this was pretty alright! It was a really easy read, and offered a lot of extra info on the monsters in the show. It also includes snippets from "John's journal", alongside a lot of bits from old books and texts on the origins and whatnot of monsters, ghosts, etc., which I thought was super interesting!
  I was a little bit disappointed by some of the things mentioned not being in the show, which is more of a "show" issue than a "book" issue. But for example, the end has a huge index of plants and lesser demons, but as far as I am in the show (Season 8), I don't think we've encountered any of the demons mentioned. They all have interesting things, like summoning, how to get them to leave (More than stabby stabby), and what they do. So it's sad to see all this reach demon lore be recognized and associated with the show, but the show itself always resorts to, well, pew pew, stab, magic demon gun! Magic demon dagger that was never explained! Pew! Stab!
  I was also confused about whose perspective I should have been reading this from. Sam and Dean are both mentioned, so unless they're speaking from the third person, it's probably not them, right? But then it straight up mentioned "dad's journal, mom, etc.", which makes me think it has to be one of them. It would be nice if that was a bit more clear.
  
  Overall, it was a fun read! I'll be looking into the other Supernatural books as I watch the show!
• 
  Beatrice

  (⭐⭐ e mezzo, DNF al 30%)
  
  Il problema che ho avuto a leggere questo libro è proprio che libri come questo non sono fatti per essere letti.
  Sono fatti per essere consultati.
  È lo stesso problema che purtroppo avevo avuto con il Codice di Shadowhunters: ben fatto, ma come può essere ben fatto un manuale universitario.
  
  Questo libro dedicato a Supernatural in sé non ha niente di male, è diviso in capitoli e sottocapitoli dedicati ai vari mostri e spiriti e creature soprannaturali viste nello show, ma trattandosi di una guida non ha alcun andamento narrativo, e stanca dopo una decina di pagine. Io ne ho rette 70.
  Non me la sento di dargli un giudizio completamente negativo perché:
  1) il libro è esattamente quello che promette di essere, una guida alle creature e un recap degli episodi delle prime stagioni.
  2) la caratterizzazione è impeccabile. Le voci dei Winchester sono molto realistiche, e anche l'idea del diario di John è molto carina e ben sviluppata (anche se il font scelto non è leggibilissimo).
  Consigliato agli amanti dello show e a chi avrebbe intenzione di consultarlo di tanto in tanto, o tenerlo lì perché la copertina è molto carina (AKA piena di salsa Winchester )
• 
  Antonia

  If you're a fan of Supernatural definitely check this one out! It involves most of the supernatural beings that were featured in seasons 1+2 with brief descriptions. I liked the appendix on herbs and oils, but grew tired when reading the appendix on demons. I liked the parts that were supposedly from John's journal. There were also information taken from legends and mythology which was cool and interesting! It features some pictures from the actual show too!
  
  The writing was weird. At some points it had Sam and Dean's perspective, but it then switched to a 3rd person narrative (which was weird? and annoying?). However, even Sam and Dean's perspective was not convincing at all! I think it would have been better, if the whole book was written in a 3rd person POV. Another issue I had, had to do with an exorcism written in Latin, which covered 3+pages and it was completely unecessary. I would have understood it, if the writer had translated it, but he simply copy-pasted the whole thing.
  
  All in all, I give it 3 stars! It has some minor issues, but I am a fan of Supernatural, so I definitely recommend it to the fans of the show!
• 
  Tamara Anne

  I give this book a rating of 4.
  
  First of all the Pre-face was very intriguing, and I couldn’t wait to read more.
  This book was written through the Winchester Brothers and is in a chapter-like form. Separated into Categories and Sub-Categories; each having an introduction with overall and basic details; as well as ways of recognising the signs for each and what warding, spell or substance can be used against them. The Author pulls you in by including different Cultural folklores on each too. He often refers back to John Winchester’s Diary which helps you understand a little more. Irvine gives a lot of information as well as; adding a detailed list of both spell/ritual oriented Herbs; and different Demons with their appearances and personalities well described.
  
  Overall I definitely enjoyed this book, and appreciated the amount of information collected and given. It was hard to lay this one down.
• 
  Robyn

  Bookperk Deal | Interesting, unless you're looking for a book well connected with the show. | If you just want to read about various creatures, legends, etc., and don't need sources or strict reliability, this is an interesting read. But as a Supernatural book, it falls flat. The voice is way off --there's nothing here that feels like the boys, and especially not the boys of the time it was written--and it would try to bring things back to the show by summarizing experiences the boys had had with these creatures, but that just felt like word padding. If you're a fan of the show, you know the experience with Constance Welch, and you don't need it retold in a couple paragraphs. If you're not a fan of the show, a) you probably didn't pick up the book, and b) you're not going to care about these very brief synopses.
• 
  Malachite

  If you ask me this book is something that Hunter Corp Dean and Sam Winchester would right. While I can see canon Dean and Sam writing something like this for future references, I imagined it to be somewhat journal like. I am not saying it's not good enough, it actually made me feel like a hunter in training or a scholar. With that in my mind, it's actually fun to read.
  
  One thing that amazed me though is how the author manage to write from two different perspective. Sure, it something that isn't new, a lot of authors do that sometimes with more than two perspective. But in here, I sometimes don't have any clue where Sam's or Dean's start. I just knew which brother's perspective they are using.
  
  I skipped on the appendix though. Because it is like reading a dictionary, I don't do that unless I need to find the meaning of something real quick.
• 
  Afra

  Honestly a disappointment. I read both John and Bobby’s journals and they are much better. This one is supposed to be from Sam and Dean’s point of you but it seemed like it was written by someone who doesn’t know the show. Also there were so many inconsistencies. Like, it’s written from the boys’ perspective but will not say which one and will still refer to each other. So kind of like if Adam was the one to write it. But this book way before Adam. And doesn’t mention him.
• 
  Crow NoYami

  The only reason this is getting any stars at all is because it is SPN related. I didn't like John's Journal however I thought I would give this a try. I'm sorry I did. Maybe this book will appeal to other people, I don't know but I don't enjoy this style of writing and while I will keep this on my shelf for collection purposes only.
• 
  Venecia

  Por supuesto que me tenía que leer este libro una vez que termine de ver la serie. Bastante informativo e interesante, el único inconveniente personal que tuve es por el tipo de letra del diario de John Winchester, no era tan legible esa letra cursiva, aún así, es una joyita para todos los que amamos Supernatural. Join the hunt!.
• 
  Esther López

  I think this book is one of the best acquisitions you can have if you are a big fan of the tv series. I enjoyed the format that was used (the cover, the drawings, the pictures...). The only thing that made me disconnect was that everything was narrated as if Sam or Dean were the writers, but then the narrator's voice changed to third person.
  
• 
  Peter Greenfield

  Just basically perused this book, sorry can't give five stars as it was being narrated instead of just placing the monsters etc. in condensed format. Was interesting in parts, but for the most it was just short of full rating.
• 
  S.E.

  The author wrote the lore well, but it did seem that sometimes he forgot whose point of view he was writing in. Other than that, I loved every bit of this book. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Supernatural.