Book Reviews and More: Monsterology: Fabulous Lives of the Creepy, the Revolting, and the Undead

Friday, 16 July 2010

Monsterology: Fabulous Lives of the Creepy, the Revolting, and the Undead - Arthur Slade and Derek Mah

Monsterology: Fabulous Lives of the Creepy, the Revolting, and the Undead
Arthur Slade (Author)
Derek Mah (Illustrator)
Thunda Books
ISBN 9780887767142

Arthur Slade is an amazing author. He is like a cross between Chuck Palahniuk, Christopher Moore, and Douglas Coupland but without the jaded cynicism, and with a great sense of humor. His books are also written for a younger audience, but can really be enjoyed by readers of any age who like a good story.

In this volume there are profiles of 15 monsters they are:
Dracula
Golem
Medusa
Loki
The Giant
Tera
Frankenstein's Monster
Sasquatch
Loch Ness Monster
Zack (Not the one from Saved by the Bell)
Baba Yaga
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Quasimodo
Loba
The Grim Reaper

In a very tongue-in-cheek fashion, Slade presents a short biography of each of these characters. Mixed and mingled with fact, lore, fictions and outright embellishments, the profiles will be fun for children of all ages. And of course if you read this book you will need to read the companion volume Villainology: Fabulous Lives of the Big, the Bad and the Wicked. Together they pack a better punch than Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolfman together. Derek Mah does an amazing job illustrating this book; the character portraits are some of what you would expect but with a new and unique interpretation on them, and the smaller illustrations that add to the profiles are wonderful. An excellent book and I highly recommend it.

Books by Arthur Slade:
The Dragonfly's Journey (1996)
John Diefenbaker: an Appointment with Destiny (2000)
Dust (2001)
Tribes (2002)
Monsterology (2005)
Villainology (2005)
Megiddo's Shadow (2006)
Jolted (2008)
Shades: 17 Startling Stories (2011)
Flickers (2016)
Crimson (2018)
Death by Airship (2019)
Mr. Universe (2021)

...