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True Blood: A Field Guide to Vampires
Not everybody likes the vampires, werewolves, faeries and other supernatural creatures that call Bon Temps, Louisiana home. The sweet-talking, bible-thumping, vamp-hating Steve Newlin leads the charge. In this hilarious scrapbook, Steve records all he knows about these 'Creatures of Satan.' Through kidnapping and torturing 'supes,' Steve has figured out a lot--their strengths, their weaknesses, their bylaws and, of course, how to kill them. Sadly, Steve's journal was stolen by Fangtasia vampires Pam and Eric who have defaced it in a most disrespectful (and snarky) manner. Recreated here for True Blood fans to savour, The Field Guide to Vampers is packed with untold insight into our favourite tv characters, along with cast photos, recreated letters, postcards, handwritten notes and Steve's own idle doodles in a scrapbook that perfectly captures the tongue-in-cheek camp that makes True Blood such a widely watched show.
- GenresParanormal
144 pages, Hardcover
First published November 26, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 13, 2026
i honestly wasn’t expecting a tv tie-in book to go this hard, but it’s genuinely an elite read.
co-written by michael mcmillian (literally steve newlin himself) and associate producer gianna sobol, this isn’t just some lazy cash-grab episode summary. it’s structured as an actual in-universe artifact. specifically, the unhinged research journal/scrapbook steve was putting together during his human era right after season 2, while his marriage to sarah was imploding and right before he got turned.
what makes this book work so well is the layered unreliable narrator setup. our base text (printed on faux-graph lab paper) is human steve trying so desperately to be an academic authority on "supes" vampires, werewolves, faeries, witches, even randomly visiting the moon goddess emporium before marnie got possessed.
watching him try to sound objective while aggressively projecting his religious hypocrisy is lowkey a masterclass in character voice. you can literally track his messy divorce from sarah in real time because he’ll be in the middle of explaining supernatural bylaws and suddenly spiral into a multi-page bitter rant about his ex-wife. plus, the subtle (and not-so-subtle) clues about his repressed obsession with jason stackhouse, paired with steve’s own idle doodles in the margins, make the dramatic irony hit ten times harder knowing how his arc ends up later in the show.
that said, the real reason this is an automatic five stars is the framing device: pam and eric confiscating the notebook off a fellowship of the sun / avl protestor outside fangtasia and treating the margins like their personal group chat. color-coding their handwriting: steve in black, eric in blue, and pam in red creates this chaotic three-way dialogue across time. instead of just telling us steve’s lore is wrong, the book lets eric and pam fact-check him with pure, unfiltered disrespect.
pam’s one-sided beef with steve’s mere existence is easily the highlight of the whole book. every time steve writes something mildly self-righteous or factually brain-dead about faeries or vampire weaknesses, pam comes swinging in red ink like a ruthless english teacher grading her least favorite student’s essay. eric’s annotations have that classic thousand-year-old, effortlessly condescending amusement, whereas pam is just straight-up disgusted that a human this annoying was allowed to own a pen. their back-and-forth banter in the margins doesn’t just add comedy. it actually grounds the campiness of true blood by contrasting human paranoia with ancient vampire apathy.
even the mixed-media scrapbook details like the fellowship of the sun pamphlets, anubis air emergency leaflets, recreated letters, postcards, and a bon temps tourist map make the worldbuilding feel super tactile rather than just text on a page. it’s hilarious, self-aware, and captures the exact tongue-in-cheek camp that made the show iconic in the first place.
if you love pam and eric being professional haters for 144 pages straight, this is mandatory reading.
co-written by michael mcmillian (literally steve newlin himself) and associate producer gianna sobol, this isn’t just some lazy cash-grab episode summary. it’s structured as an actual in-universe artifact. specifically, the unhinged research journal/scrapbook steve was putting together during his human era right after season 2, while his marriage to sarah was imploding and right before he got turned.
what makes this book work so well is the layered unreliable narrator setup. our base text (printed on faux-graph lab paper) is human steve trying so desperately to be an academic authority on "supes" vampires, werewolves, faeries, witches, even randomly visiting the moon goddess emporium before marnie got possessed.
watching him try to sound objective while aggressively projecting his religious hypocrisy is lowkey a masterclass in character voice. you can literally track his messy divorce from sarah in real time because he’ll be in the middle of explaining supernatural bylaws and suddenly spiral into a multi-page bitter rant about his ex-wife. plus, the subtle (and not-so-subtle) clues about his repressed obsession with jason stackhouse, paired with steve’s own idle doodles in the margins, make the dramatic irony hit ten times harder knowing how his arc ends up later in the show.
that said, the real reason this is an automatic five stars is the framing device: pam and eric confiscating the notebook off a fellowship of the sun / avl protestor outside fangtasia and treating the margins like their personal group chat. color-coding their handwriting: steve in black, eric in blue, and pam in red creates this chaotic three-way dialogue across time. instead of just telling us steve’s lore is wrong, the book lets eric and pam fact-check him with pure, unfiltered disrespect.
pam’s one-sided beef with steve’s mere existence is easily the highlight of the whole book. every time steve writes something mildly self-righteous or factually brain-dead about faeries or vampire weaknesses, pam comes swinging in red ink like a ruthless english teacher grading her least favorite student’s essay. eric’s annotations have that classic thousand-year-old, effortlessly condescending amusement, whereas pam is just straight-up disgusted that a human this annoying was allowed to own a pen. their back-and-forth banter in the margins doesn’t just add comedy. it actually grounds the campiness of true blood by contrasting human paranoia with ancient vampire apathy.
even the mixed-media scrapbook details like the fellowship of the sun pamphlets, anubis air emergency leaflets, recreated letters, postcards, and a bon temps tourist map make the worldbuilding feel super tactile rather than just text on a page. it’s hilarious, self-aware, and captures the exact tongue-in-cheek camp that made the show iconic in the first place.
if you love pam and eric being professional haters for 144 pages straight, this is mandatory reading.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 17, 2013
I'm giving this a two. I was strongly tempted to give it a one. It is really only getting two out of residual fondness for the show and for the author, who played the lovable-but-awful Steve Newlin.
"True Blood" is a terrible show that had promise. (Thanks a lot, writers.) I still love it, despite how awful it is and how angry it makes me.
The "Field Guide" is just a lightweight fan's ode to the show. You know those 20 page "books" dedicated to shows, filled with old and obvious stock photos and facts anyone who has seen the production already knows? That's the "Field Guide." It doesn't bring anything new to the table, really. The humorous asides by Eric and Pam aren't that funny and are not consistently in character. (Several are twisted to the side, which requires rotation of the book, by the way--obnoxious.) And worst of all, there's a major error in the text. I'm going to list this, despite a possible spoiler, because if you're buying this book, you already know this: In season 4, Eric loses his memory. In the book upon which this show is based, he gets his memory of his life back, but loses his awareness of what happened during his spell of amnesia. But in the show, when Eric regains his memory, he doesn't lose knowledge of what happened during his amnesia. Now here's what happens in "The Field Guide"--in a comment after a summary of Season 4, "Eric" notes he can't recall what happened during his amnesia. This is a flat-out error, and a huge one, given "Field Guide" is based on the TV show, not the Charlaine Harris novels (although I hesitate to describe the final book as even a novel--but that's a story for another day.)
Overall, for a fan, this book is just "eh." It isn't worth more than $5, though, so don't buy it above that price point.
"True Blood" is a terrible show that had promise. (Thanks a lot, writers.) I still love it, despite how awful it is and how angry it makes me.
The "Field Guide" is just a lightweight fan's ode to the show. You know those 20 page "books" dedicated to shows, filled with old and obvious stock photos and facts anyone who has seen the production already knows? That's the "Field Guide." It doesn't bring anything new to the table, really. The humorous asides by Eric and Pam aren't that funny and are not consistently in character. (Several are twisted to the side, which requires rotation of the book, by the way--obnoxious.) And worst of all, there's a major error in the text. I'm going to list this, despite a possible spoiler, because if you're buying this book, you already know this: In season 4, Eric loses his memory. In the book upon which this show is based, he gets his memory of his life back, but loses his awareness of what happened during his spell of amnesia. But in the show, when Eric regains his memory, he doesn't lose knowledge of what happened during his amnesia. Now here's what happens in "The Field Guide"--in a comment after a summary of Season 4, "Eric" notes he can't recall what happened during his amnesia. This is a flat-out error, and a huge one, given "Field Guide" is based on the TV show, not the Charlaine Harris novels (although I hesitate to describe the final book as even a novel--but that's a story for another day.)
Overall, for a fan, this book is just "eh." It isn't worth more than $5, though, so don't buy it above that price point.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 22, 2014
A book/ collectible look into the mythology of True Blood written by "Steve Newlin" with additions by "Eric and Pam".
Could have been funnier and not as arduous to get through (I admit I skimmed some of it).
BUT fun all in the same and I am happy I have it on my shelf, being a giant fan from the pilot episode on!
Worth looking at but probably not buying if you are a fan. Then again, maybe others will take more from it.
Could have been funnier and not as arduous to get through (I admit I skimmed some of it).
BUT fun all in the same and I am happy I have it on my shelf, being a giant fan from the pilot episode on!
Worth looking at but probably not buying if you are a fan. Then again, maybe others will take more from it.
February 3, 2016
This was a fun little read to kind of get to know Steve Newlin a little better before he became a vampire. It was exactly how I pictured Steve to be. I also really enjoy Pam's and Eric little commentary in the book as well. This is a fun quick read for those who like True Blood.
January 9, 2014
I LOVED this book! It sounds just like (pre-vampire) Steve Newlin wrote it, and the snarky 'corrections' made by Pam and Eric were brilliant. Such a fun read and perfect for any True Blood fan. ♥
October 11, 2014
It was fun for the sake of fun. And answers a few questions the show and books didn't answer. I liked it.
December 18, 2014
A funny read for any one who is a fan of the TV show True Blood especially those who liked the characters Eric, Pam and Steve Newlin.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews