Rosemary Ellen Guiley's
Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves and Other Monsters came out at a strange time in publishing. Released in August 2005, a mere two months prior to the release of perhaps the highest-sold vampire book in all publishing history (
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer), one looks at this book with a feeling that it loses something by being just on the precipice of a world-shaking event. It is certainly a well-made encyclopedia, with an eye-catching cover and style, as well as lots of photos. HOWEVER, the photos are black-and-white, and most of them are taken from old movies. Not that there's anything wrong with that--indeed, there weren't many good vampire movies being made recently until Twilight came out. But it does have an odd effect of making this encyclopedia seem "old."
I did learn interesting things though about vampires in many different cultures, from Armenian to Filipino to Russian to Gypsy to Mexican. They come in different names--
al,
tlahuelpuchi,
kalagkalag,
kathakano, etc. At the end of most entries are citations for further reading and at the end of the book is a full Bibliography and Index, both of which are nice and detailed (which is what I like to see). I was glad to see this encyclopedia treat at least a few instances of Native American lore about vampires and werewolves--Twilight fans will still find something good here! All in all, I'll give Guiley's book a break for being written at the "wrong" time, and give her a thumbs up for still executing a decent encyclopedia on the subject.
Dewey Decimal Number: 133.423
Rating: 4Q, 4P
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