Monsterology: Fabulous Lives of the Creepy, the Revolting, and the Undead

by Arthur Slade, Derek Mah (Illustrator)

Monsterology: Fabulous Lives of the Creepy, the Revolting, and the Undead is the most fun anyone can have with some of the nastiest creatures ever imagined! Who can resist morsels like the fact that “Drakul” means “son of the dragon” in Romanian, that the first Golem may have been Enkidu, who appeared in the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh, and that Frankenstein’s Monster was first inspired by Mary Shelley’s nightmare?

Governor General’s Award-winner Arthur Slade has gathered together fifteen scary critters, ranging from Dracula to Golem, from Frankenstein to Baba Yaga and even a zombie. He provides facts, real history, imagined history, and lots of jokes to make these creatures come to life. Slade’s hilarious text presents delicious imagined gossip, favorite blood types, favorite movies, and even favorite haunts (you should pardon the expression) with character descriptions and thoroughly researched background information.

Lively black-and-white illustrations by Derek Mah make this a book that is sure to be a hit with every monster-loving reader.

Genres: Monsters, Young Adult, Zombies, Horror

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 11, 2005

About the author

Arthur Slade was raised in the Cypress Hills of southwest Saskatchewan and began writing at an early age. He is the author of the bestselling The Hunchback Assignments series of books, Dust (which won the Governor General's award), Tribes and Jolted. He lives in Saskatoon, Canada (which really is a real place). Join his creative & somewhat clever newsletter at: what a zany newsletter!

Reviews

[Paper Ghost ☾ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think Mr. Slade is a brilliant writer and the stories were accurate with a Slade twist to them. This was informative as it was funny and as a horror fanatic I couldn't ask for anything more.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute younger reader book on the origins of popular (and some not-so-common) monsters of legend. I enjoyed how the author combined the actual legends of these creatures and gave their stories a more modern spin to attract the interest of a younger reader. The author took stories that younger readers could possibly find as scary & made it approachable and even funny. One of my favorite things about this book (besides the origins stories of each of the monsters) was the beautiful main illustrations of each monster. Medusa was my absolute favorite! Cute book for younger readers or those who enjoy monsters in general!

[Gayle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious! Funny and grotesque by turn!

[julianna h · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favorite book of all time. idc.

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 ReaperIn 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.

Read the review on my blog Book Reviews and More and reviews of other books by arthur Slade. As well as an author profile and interview with Arthur.

[Lenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Monsters from all over the world are explained in a bibliographic way. The author uses satire to explain the origins of these beasts and mythological creatures. I found it very informational, yet the style of writing was a bit over the top. Teenagers don't use words like "hip".

[Shellee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highlights 15 famous monsters, containing a chapter for each. The book is packed full of information about the origin of the monster, mapped monster sightings, likes and dislikes, with a bit of humor thrown in. Would recommend to any monster lover, not all may get the humor.

[Curriculum]

Fabulous lives of the creepy, the revolting, and the undead
fiction/legends/myths/humor

[Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

It has it's moments, but overall I felt it was a little too silly...even though it is a kid's book.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn't too bad, although it was great reading up a bit on some commonly looked over monsters.

[Jason Bloom · Rating 1 out of 5]

The WORST. This book was an insult to all of the amazing books about monsters out there, of which there are so many this one did not need to be written AT ALL. Just...NO.

[Cristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just bought it at a library sale for fifty cent, it was ok a little boring