Tag Archives: Book Reviews

November 5, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of Deal’s Worth

Title: Deal’s Worth

Author: Jeffrey Robert Palin, Jr

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: May 26, 2026

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy

Length: About 73 pages.

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 2.5 Stars

Blurb:

Eric is given the opportunity to create and modify a simulation-world. Eric’s world includes unique features, intertwined systems mechanics, and it connects to other user-created worlds. After falling into a unique medical condition, the VRC, a virtual reality corporation, offers Eric a deal to enter and be a creator regarding the Simulation-multiverse. The Simulation-multiverse is a man-made nexus in which Eric, AGIs, and others are able to interact. Later, in Eric’s Universe, a character named Jeff searches for Eric. Eric’s completed world creation process had set the foundation for later adventures to occur, enabling Jeff and others to engage with Eric’s world and it’s elements and features. The Simulation serves as a recreational pastime activity and is “”also designed to prevent individuals from experiencing extended periods of isolation and missed life opportunities whereby it prevents such by addressing the concern of hospital patients who may awaken after prolonged hospitalized states, such as a patient regaining consciousness after 30 years unconscious, only to discover they have limited time remaining (perhaps 15 years) to accomplish their life goals”. Without such a simulation, these individuals might feel profoundly deprived of three decades’ worth of potential experiences, relationships, and achievements they could have enjoyed had they remained conscious during their hospitalization”.

Review:

There is no cure, but there is a treatment.

This bent so many of the rules related to how to tell a story that I was intrigued to see how the author managed to include character development in the exposition. It is something that readers have to dig for in order to uncover, but I interpreted this to be a side effect of Eric’s transformation into someone whose life was so heavily entwined with virtual reality. Kudos to Mr. Palin for pushing the envelope of the science fiction and fantasy genres.

A large portion of this book was written in the style of a synopsis of the plot. It was never entirely clear to me if this was done on purpose in order to show how emotionally and intellectually disconnected Eric was from his user-created world or if some other explanation was more plausible. As interested as I was in the blurb, this writing style made it difficult for me to emotionally connect with the protagonist or his journey. If only the author’s intentions had been communicated more clearly. I was so hoping to give this tale a much higher rating.

With that being said, I did appreciate the thorough set of rules that Eric created for the governance of his world. He genuinely thought of just about every possibility and how his simulation ought to deal with both pleasant and unpleasant surprises. Even topics as esoteric as the existance of souls were included. It was also interesting to see how the list of rules appeared to evolve over time through the usual human and machine process of trial and error.

Deal’s Worth had a creative premise.

A Review of A Curious Presence

Title: A Curious Presence – an Exploration of Ghosts and People Who Haunt Them

Author: Margo MacDonald

Publisher: ECW Press

Publication Date: October 6, 2026

Genres: Nonfiction, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 372 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

A spellbinding, inquisitive journey into the nature of the unseen for anyone as curious about the afterlife as they are about life

Hauntings happen. But why? Are they caused by ghosts, or something else? What is a ghost, anyway? After centuries of ghost-hunting by experts and amateurs alike, are we any closer to knowing?

Like many, Margo MacDonald once believed that all hauntings were the work of restless spirits, but after two decades spent engaging with firsthand accounts of paranormal encounters — and having a few of her own — she has more questions than answers.

MacDonald asks: Why are we haunted by tragedy but not by joy? If a ghost lives in a house but no one experiences it, does it make a haunting? And what does our desire to believe in ghosts say about us?

With insight and humor, A Curious Presence explores the theories that have shaped MacDonald’s understanding of hauntings and the paranormal. Told through conversations with skeptics, sensitives, parapsychologists, investigators, and haunted-house dwellers — interwoven with vivid accounts of real experiences and visits to famously haunted locations — MacDonald proposes an unsettling idea: Perhaps it isn’t the places that are haunted, but the people who move through them. Perhaps we have more in common with ghosts than we think.

Review:

The science of haunted places is as interesting as it is hazy.

I especially enjoyed the Canadian twist to this book as I’ve visited many of the sites mentioned here and even been on a few of the ghost tours the author talked about. This is a good pick for readers who want to learn more about some of the many historic places in Canada, albeit from a slightly different perspective than can be found in the average history book. In my opinion, there’s something to be said for exploring history from many points of view, including folklore and other topics that aren’t generally considered to be serious, in order to get a more well-rounded understanding of what a particular time and place were like.

There were times when I found the ghost hunts to be a little repetitive, and this is something I’m saying as a reader who normally loves this kind of storytelling. The author repeatedly switched between describing various ghost hunts they had been on and asking deeper questions about what is truly happening in these scenarios. I preferred the latter and would have liked to see even more time spent debunking hauntings that probably don’t have anything paranormal causing them as well as exploring the portion of them that deserve to be researched even more closely.

With that being said, I was intrigued by the theories the author came up with to describe what could make a place feel haunted without any actual ghosts being involved. They had some interesting ideas about other phenomena that might be responsible for all of the sensory experiences that don’t seem to have good scientific explanations for them yet. While I can’t go into detail about them in this review without sharing spoilers, they were explained well and included the author’s thoughts about what percentage of all hauntings may fit into this category.

A Curious Presence – an Exploration of Ghosts and People Who Haunt Them was a mesmerizing Halloween read.

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Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2020s, Book Reviews, Contemporary, ECW Press, Margo MacDonald, Nonfiction, Paranormal

October 22, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of Fallow

Title: Fallow

Author: Sarah Anderson

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Publication Date: September 15, 2026

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: 433 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Slyly funny and disarmingly tender, Fallow is the story of a young woman who signs up to be the world’s first in-house corporate surrogate, then finds herself caught up in a social experiment of another kind.

Natalie knows one truth: There is no such thing as a good job.

As the clock ticks away at the workplace harassment call center, she tries to ignore the increasing pain in her jaw. She has no dental insurance. She has no skills or ambitions. She has student loans. And, minute by minute, she hears the many ways workers are not just not getting by, but actually getting hustled.

Then, at the blood bank where she sells her plasma, a mysterious flyer leads her to The Company. Natalie turns out to be the perfect candidate for their pilot in-house surrogate. The Company pitches it as an opportunity to help women access greater gender equity, motherhood without maternity leave. Finally, she will be adequately—generously—compensated.

For years, her every need is stacks of healthy meals in the refrigerator of a luxury condo, fitness coaches and nutritionists, around-the-clock healthcare. Between deliveries, she takes time off—no obligations or expectations. For the first time in her life, she is good at her job; for the first time, she feels free.

But just as she’s about to fulfill the terms of her contract, a staffing decision upends everything and drags her deep into another social experiment. There she meets new questions about her future, her freedom, her purpose, and what she can expect from the world.

Woundingly funny and deeply moving, Sarah Anderson’s Fallow is a tender, hilarious, alarmingly real vision of a woman balancing on the knife-edge of capitalism as she comes to realize who she wants to be.

Content Warning: Commercial surrogacy. References to abortion. Birth. Forceps used in a difficult birth. Kidnapping.

Review:

Fertility is a gift.

I appreciated how much time the author spent exploring the many ways in which surrogacy can go wrong, particularly commercial surrogacy. This is a complex topic that can’t possibly be fully covered in a review, but there are many ethical and medical dilemmas that can come about when someone is paid to carry another person’s fertilized egg. For example, Natalie dealt with multiple couples who wanted to control every facet of her life while she was pregnant, from which precise combinations of foods she ate every day for nine months to which medical tests and procedures she was either forbidden from doing or forced to do. There were much darker moments of the influence they expected to have over her mind and body as well, but I’ll leave those passages for other readers to discover for themselves.

There was a plot twist a little over halfway into this book involving the main character that I found difficult to believe due to how passive she was during what should have been a terrifying ordeal. It almost felt like a completely different story altogether because of how much the tone changed and how little the protagonist’s personality shone through those circumstances. It would have been helpful to have some foreshadowing about what was going on there, particularly as it was related to Natalie’s plans for the future once her seventh and final pregnancy was completed.

It was nice to have such realistic world building, especially given some of the later developments in the storyline that may have otherwise seemed a bit far fetched. This felt like something that could really happen in our world in a few years, albeit with a few slight shifts to the ways western society works. There is definitely something to be said for science fiction that nudges things enough to create interesting conflicts while still feeling true to current societal trends in so many different countries, so kudos to the author for that.

Fallow was thought provoking.

5 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2020s, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Farrar Straus and Giroux, Novels, Sarah Anderson, Science Fiction, Surrogacy

October 15, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Case of Elmwood Ranch

Title: The Case of Elmwood Ranch

Author: Deanna Grey

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: July 15, 2026

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, LGBTQ+, Horror, Contemporary

Length: 432 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Elmwood Ranch is Octavia Daniel’s dream. A safe place to land after years on the road. But once she signs the paperwork and receives the keys, the nightmare begins.

Shadows move on their own, strange accidents become the norm, and injured ranch hands refuse to work a second longer. Octavia doesn’t believe in ghosts, but she can’t deny something’s wrong with the land she’s sunk her entire savings into.

Rae Jones is in the business of ending nightmares. She comes from a family of successful paranormal investigators. But she’s set herself apart from the Jones sisters by making their legacy into a commercial success.

After years of enjoying said success, she’s hit a wall. Whether it’s burnout or a full-blown existential crisis, she doesn’t know. One way to try to avoid a downward spiral? Take every interesting job she can get. And that includes one from a very stand-offish, nonbelieving horse rancher who thinks she’s a scam artist and the things she hunts don’t exist.

Octavia and Rae must figure out how to work together if they have any hope of solving what’s truly going on at Elmwood. As they build trust, they begin to build something more. Something that could either help or harm their chances of making it out of this haunting alive.

The Case of Elmwood Ranch is a sapphic paranormal romance featuring bisexual leads. This book is intended for 18+ readers.

Content Warning: Childhood bullying, neglectful parents, paranormal violence and injuries due to said violence, parent’s death by helicopter accident (not depicted), character paralyzed by by a car accident (not depicted), and sexual content.

Review:

Not every haunting is easy to resolve.

I loved the main paranormal storyline and thought it was well executed. It’s difficult to know how much to share about it in my review as the blurb skirted around the lore surrounding it and I don’t want to accidentally share spoilers. What I can say about it is that the characters took a methodical approach to gathering evidence about the haunting using both their intuition and certain types of modern technology that made it fairly easy for them to take note of the odd things happening on the ranch. It was nice to see how seriously they took this mission. Sometimes characters in this genre become so wrapped up in figuring out what’s happening that they lose track of their common sense, so it was nice to see an example of people remaining cautious and sensible while also attempting to figure out what is actually happening on a property where people who have been left alone there have been harmed on multiple occasions.

As excited as I was to read this tale, the slow pacing made it difficult for me to justify a higher rating. I sometime struggled to remain highly interested in the storyline due to how much time it took for everything to develop and how often the protagonists focused on things that didn’t seem to be advancing any of the storylines very well. In my opinion, trimming back on those sections heavily would have made this a five-star read as the concept itself was incredibly intriguing and I did like the character very much as well. I hope to read more from Ms. Grey in the future and that I will be able to give her next book a much higher rating as she had a creative and descriptive writing style that was otherwise right up my alley.

Most of the storyline was concerned with who or what was haunting Elmwood Ranch. The sapphic romantic subplot, while obviously important for both plot and character development reasons later on, took longer to develop and was rarely if ever the main focal point. This was a good decision in my opinion as I tend to enjoy romantic works more when they are a small part of a book instead of the main course, but it is something I wanted to take note of in my review for readers who may or may not agree with my preferences there as this is definitely a subjective topic.

The Case of Elmwood Ranch made me wish for a sequel.

2 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2020s, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Dark Fantasy, Deanna Grey, Horror, LGBT, Paranormal, Romance, Self-Published

October 8, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of Galatea

Title: Galatea

Author: Madeline Miller

Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks

Publication Date: August 13, 2013

Genres: Fantasy, Historical

Length: 27 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

An enchanting short story from Madeline Miller that boldly reimagines the myth of Galatea and Pygmalion.

In ancient Greece, a skilled marble sculptor has been blessed by a goddess who has given his masterpiece — the most beautiful woman the town has ever seen — the gift of life. Now his wife, he expects Galatea to please him, to be obedience and humility personified. But she has desires of her own and yearns for independence.

In a desperate bid by her obsessive husband to keep her under control, Galatea is locked away under the constant supervision of doctors and nurses. But with a daughter to rescue, she is determined to break free, whatever the cost…

Content Warning: Sexism, emotional abuse, and imprisonment.

Review:

Possession isn’t love.

I loved the fact that Galatea’s perspective was explored in this short story as the original included some pretty sexist ideas about how women are supposed to think and behave in order to be considered good members of a family. Flipping those notions on their head was an excellent way to explore why they were wrong and what might have actually been going on with Pygmalion.

As much as I wanted to give this one a higher rating, there were too many underdeveloped ideas here for me to feel comfortable doing that. If only this had been turned into a novella or full-length novel so that the protagonist not only had more time to explain what her life with her creator was actually like but also to further solidify her plans for true independence.

One of my favorite moments occurred at the very end when the conflict was at its highest point. It involved Galatea attempting to escape and her husband attempting to capture her again and bring her back to the room where she was being held against her will. While I can’t go into any more detail about that scene, I will say that it contained kernels of what could be an excellent sequel if the author ever decides to write it!

The author shared a brief summary of the original Galatea and Pygmalion in her post-script for readers who may not be familiar with that tale, although this version does stand up on its own without that background information.

Galatea made me curious about reading more Greek myths.

A Review of Grief Eater

Title: Grief Eater

Author: Emma Osborne

Publisher: Interstellar Flight Press

Publication Date: June 1, 2026

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, LGBTQ+, Contemporary

Length: 94 pages

Source: I borrowed it from my local library

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

Visceral, gritty, and unforgiving, GRIEF EATER is a zombie story like you’ve never read before.

When Kristina rises from her violent death, she’s not the same fragile woman her family once abandoned. She’s rageful, powerful, and hungry—for the blood of the ones who were supposed to love her. With a newfound craving to see vengeance and grief served, she launches into a once-in-an-undead-lifetime journey across blood-slicked highways to the scorched Australian bush and her hometown. As her body fails and her mind fractures, she’s left with one final question: Is she here to forgive, or to feed?

A transgressive, gory examination of queer identity and found family, GRIEF EATER sinks its teeth into trauma and what it means to be devoured by grief.

Content Warning: Domestic abuse, violence, dismemberment/gore, stalking, homophobia, and death of a parent.

Review:

Some things can never be forgiven.

One of the first things I noticed about this novella was how much time it spent telling readers what was happening instead of showing them, but I eventually came to the conclusion that this may have been done on purpose in order to illustrate Kristina’s intellectual and emotional limitations. Zombies have thoughts and feelings in this universe, but they are pretty muted when compared to how a living person would react to the same situations. Things that would have made me recoil in horror barely registered as a blip on the protagonists radar, for example, and her priorities in life – or undead life, as the case may be – were wildly appropriate for a zombie but would have been incredibly odd for the living. This isn’t a criticism, then, but it is something to keep in mind if you read this for yourself as I’d love to hear other perspectives on what should and shouldn’t be expected from the recently deceased.

Strong world building would have propelled this to a five-star read to me. While I learned a lot about the life cycle of a zombie in this universe, the bigger question of what was happening in Australia, much less the rest of the world, went nearly entirely unanswered. This was something I found surprising due to the fact that the protagonist managed to survive the first few waves of attacks and was doing pretty well for herself right before she was turned. Had she shared some more details about what she’s learned about human society’s reaction to this threat in general, this would have been just about the perfect horror novella for me.

Zombie fiction is only something I’m interested in on rare occasions these days, but seeing the world from the perspective of one of these individuals definitely piqued my interest. Kristina had an abusive and traumatic childhood that so deeply affected her as an adult when the events of this tale began that she couldn’t sustain romantic relationships with any of the women she was drawn to. I thought the combination of blatant horror themes and the more subtle but still easy to discern journey she experienced as she confronted her violent beginning in life worked well together and added a much-needed layer of meaning to her quest.

Grief Eater was a wild ride and a good introduction for more Halloween season reads.

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Tagged as 2020s, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Emma Osborne, Horror, Interstellar Flight Press, LGBT, Zombies

September 24, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of Intercepted Wishes

Title: Intercepted Wishes

Author: Mike Sutton

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: March 10, 2014

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 7 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 2.5 Stars

Blurb:

Wishes are made. Some take time to be granted. Getting in the way is like walking into traffic.

Content Warning: Rape.

Review:

Luck is real.

Brian genuinely came across as a happy-go-lucky teen or maybe young adult to me. He had clearly had a pretty good life up until this point, and his assumptions about how the world works were as naive as they were cheerful. While I was obviously disturbed by his decision to steal money from the fountain, I was curious to learn more about his justification for doing so and about what he decided to spend that pocket change on.

This short story needed more development in my opinion. There were some fascinating ideas packed into it, including the thought that stealing coins from a fountain can affect someone’s fate in ways that they couldn’t possibly have anticipated, but they were never fleshed out enough for me to fully understand what was going on. This was particularly true for the ending which I found confusing and disturbing. As much as I wanted to give this one a much higher rating, I had too many questions about the world building and plot development to justify doing so.

The paranormal elements were memorable and sometimes funny. I liked the fact that Brian didn’t have any warning about the consequences of his actions as this piece was honestly too short for that sort of foreshadowing to be effective in my opinion. Instead, he faced the consequences of his actions rapidly and in increasingly surprising ways. Had the ending matched the humorous tone of the beginning and middle, this would have been an even better read. This is sometimes how things play out in real life, too, so it was interesting to see natural consequences in action.

Intercepted Wishes had a creative premise.

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Tagged as 2010s, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Fantasy, Mike Sutton, Paranormal, Self-Published

September 17, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of Catch-All Drawer

Title: Catch-All Drawer

Author: Manuel Sánchez

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 9, 2025

Genres: Science Fiction, Alternate History, Historical, Contemporary

Length: About 97 pages.

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

A delight for the senses that will surprise you on every page. A journey filled with irony, sensuality, and human passions. Catch-all Drawer is an anthology of eight fiction stories where the author transports us with vibrant language to a world full of sensations, fantasy, and extraordinary situations: A fascinating woman in ancient Egypt, Virgil’s curious pet in Imperial Rome, the animal jungle of modern multinational corporations, the sensual dream of a red lantern, a mischievous worm, the circus of politics, the madness of a selfie in Australian waters, or the misadventures of a couple in the solitude of erotic contact social networks immerse us in stories of wild and addictive beauty.

Content Warning: Brief references to sex and infidelity.

Review:

A little bit of everything can add up to a full meal.

I loved the satirical take on modern workplace politics in general in “The Gazpacho.” Honestly, this was my favorite story of the collection because of how well it described both the joys and frustrations of working with the same group of people over a long period of time. While the specific setting here was in an office, I think the vast majority of the plot would have turned out more or less the same had it been in a restaurant, medical setting, warehouse, store, or just about any other place of work because of how keenly the author focused on the personalities of the characters as they interacted with one another and dealt with sometimes ridiculous rules.

Kudos to the author for experimenting with the science fiction genre so much in this book. While not every tale was to my taste, most of them were and I must tip my cap to him for being so willing to try new things and see what may or may not resonate with his readers. “A Selfie,” which followed a couple who decided to swim with the sharks on their honeymoon to Australia, was one such example of this. I struggled to understand why these characters were not only willing to take so many risks with their safety but also unwilling to learn from their past mistakes. It would have been helpful to have more character development here so that I could understand their perspectives better.

The email format of “The Worm” made me smile. It’s a writing style that pops up on occasion in what I read, and I’m always interested in seeing where new authors take it because of how much it reminds me of the old epistolary novels that share so much in common with this newer form of storytelling one message at a time. Another interesting thing about this piece was related to how trustworthy I found the protagonist. Other readers should decide for themselves what they think of him, of course, but I thought this was a good example of how to create a main character who is simultaneously fascinating and deeply unlikable (in my opinion, of course).

Catch-All Drawer was my introduction to Mr. Sánchez‘s work, and my curiosity has been piqued to see what else he might write in the future.

1 Comment

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as Alternate History, Book Reviews, Collections, Contemporary, Historical, Manuel Sánchez, Science Fiction, Self-Published, Short Story

September 10, 2026 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Corner of My Eye

Title: The Corner of My Eye

Author: Rudolph Kohn

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: February 14, 2023

Genres: Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 7 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

Moving into a new house can be stressful, and it can be refreshing. But what do you do when you start to hear strange sounds and see hints of motion out of the corner of your eye? What happens to your mind when all of your efforts to get to the bottom of these strange phenomena comes up with nothing? A short Lovecraftian story about figments of your imagination, or perhaps reality.

Review:

Always ask questions if something seems too good to be true.

One of my favorite things about this tale was that almost nothing was revealed about the protagonist. The first paragraph mentioned that they had just bought a new home, but this was really the only piece of information shared about them. Everything else, including their sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, race, ethnicity, and a million other descriptive adjectives that could be used to paint a mental image of who they were as a person, was left blank. This meant that basically any reader out there could imagine themselves in this character’s shoes as they closed on their new home and gradually began to realize they weren’t the only occupant there.

I did find myself wishing that the last scene could provide a deeper explanation of what was already inhabiting the narrator’s new home, especially given the other knowledge this individual had acquired by that point. While I wouldn’t have expected to know everything by the final sentence, having even a few more sentences explaining what was going on would have encouraged me to choose a full five-star rating for this short story.

This started off as a fairly typical paranormal story but soon shifted into something a bit more frightening than is usual for this genre. I loved seeing the protagonist react to each new development as they attempted to figure out how to best handle a situation that was rapidly spiraling out of control. As much as I wanted that final scene to provide a little more guidance, it did end on a deliciously scary note and was well worth the read.

The Corner of My Eye made me shiver.

A Review of The Bloody Road to Castle Dracula

Title: The Bloody Road to Castle Dracula – Explore the History of Vampires & the Inspiration Behind Bram Stoker’s Masterpiece

Author: Steven J. Rolfes

Publisher: Llewellyn Publications

Publication Date: August 8, 2026

Genres: Folklore, Nonfiction, Historical

Length: 324 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

With the inquisitive heart of an adventurer and the rigor of a scholar, this spellbinding work leads listeners through centuries of dark folklore, lost legends, and the wild inspirations behind Bram Stoker’s immortal classic.

Volcanic cataclysms, secret aristocratic scandals, mysterious societies, and ominous landscapes all converge to cast their spell. Historian Steven J. Rolfes skillfully untangles a web of real events, eccentric creators, and uncanny myths that shaped and informed Stoker’s Dracula.

Rolfes’s writing is lively, immersive, and unfailingly engaging, inviting listeners to make sense of what is fact, what is fable, and how the two entwine to birth the world’s ultimate vampire. For those compelled by the timeless mystery of the undead, this book is both an exploration and an adventure, reviving forgotten tales and reimagining the legendary Count for a new generation.

Content Warning: Death, of course. References to epidemics like cholera and tuberculosis. Dead bodies being dug up and mutilated for religious purposes in cultures who believe the recently dead can become vampires.

Review:

Stories can be the gateway to the past.

One of the things I enjoy most about reading about vampires and vampire-like creatures is imagining the real-life events that might have inspired people living in the distant past to come up with such folklore and legends to explain how the world must work when they encountered things they didn’t yet have the technology or medical expertise to understand in other ways. This book did an excellent job of explaining the many possible origins for vampires from a wide variety of cultures, beginning with hunter-gatherers in Africa tens of thousands of years ago and moving forward through time from there as various aspects of these legends gradually coalesced into what we now know as Dracula.

I did find myself wishing that this book had been given another round or two of editing. The author went on many tangents, some of whose connections to Dracula and legends about vampires in general were sparse at best. It would have been a far more compelling read for me had it been about 20o pages instead of well over 400 as there simply wasn’t enough material here to justify such a long read in my opinion. This is something I’m saying as someone who was extremely interested in the premise and who thought I’d be giving this one a much higher rating.

It was interesting to read the connections the author made to similar supernatural creatures like golem and Frankenstein that shared some similarities with Dracula. These sections were among the best in the entire book, and I would have liked to read about even more creatures from other cultures that exist in that liminal space between life and death. There’s definitely something to be said for collecting these tales and comparing them, especially from historical and public health perspectives.

The Bloody Road to Castle Dracula could be a good pick for the most hardcore fans of this subject.

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Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as Book Reviews, Folklore, Historical, Llewellyn Publications, Nonfiction, Steven J. Rolfes, Vampire

Tag Archives: Book Reviews

A Review of Deal’s Worth

A Review of A Curious Presence

A Review of Fallow

A Review of The Case of Elmwood Ranch

A Review of Galatea

A Review of Grief Eater

A Review of Intercepted Wishes

A Review of Catch-All Drawer

A Review of The Corner of My Eye

A Review of The Bloody Road to Castle Dracula

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