This was perfect for October, it was a fascinating look on the Undead, including Mummies, Vampires and Zombies. It was a well-written read and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

This book was pretty good in the beginning and I was enjoying it, but it became rather dry toward the middle. I liked the subject matter for the most part, but when it devolved into discussions that were mostly about films, I kind of lost interest.

The author writes in a clear and concise voice and the book is easy to follow, I just don't think it was quite what I expected it to be. For people who are majorly into movies and TV shows this would be a really good choice, but for me, I was hoping for more about the actual history of belief in these creatures.

Overall, it was worth the time to read and there were some portions of it that I truly did enjoy. It is worth checking it out.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Fascinating look into the history of mummies, zombies and vampires. Lots of facts about finds, films and more. Well worth a read if you enjoy the undead!

I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.

It's a well researched, entertaining and interesting book that I enjoyed.
I liked it and it's recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

A History of the Undead: Mummies, Vampires and Zombies by Charlotte Booth is a nonfiction book currently scheduled for release on January 31 2021. Are you a fan of the undead? Watch lots of Mummy, zombie and vampire movies and TV shows? Have you ever wondered if they could be 'real'? This book unravels the truth behind these popular reanimated corpses. Starting with the common representations in Western Media through the decades, we go back in time to find the origins of the myths. Using a combination of folklore, religion and archaeological studies we find out the reality behind the walking dead. You may be surprised at what you find.

A History of the Undead is an informative, entertaining, and engaging read. I like that the author acknowledges the amount of information of the subjects in the world, and that they are only tackling a fairly small segment of it. By focusing only on the subject in one part of the world she was able to get a great deal of detail about the undead in Western culture. If they had tried to tackle the whole world this would have had to be a multi-volume set. Although, I would not mind seeing this fleshed out to a more inclusive and expansive series including all cultures. I enjoyed seeing stories I knew from history, and some of the entertainment items I have enjoyed get mentioned. I was sad to see some things I thought would have added to the book left out (particularly a couple zombie books that stood out to me) and mentioning certain movies (like Dark Shadows) without referring to the television series that it was based on. However, I also got a chance to get the names for some books, movies, and games that I have missed over the years and will now get to enjoy. These subjects are vast, and while there where some missing things along the way, and some chooses in wording of information here or there that had me less than thrilled, I think the author did a good job of getting the information compiled in a readable and engaging fashion. The recovered English major that I am, I was thrilled to see proper citing of sources, et all. Way too often I see nonfiction materials for a variety of audiences that fail to do so.

A History of the Undead is a well written and researched introduction to the evolution of mummies, zombies, and vampires in western cultures, entertainment, and media.

I received a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review
This was kind of dorky but I enjoyed it very much. It made me giggle a lot.

Yet another exciting sounding book from a publisher that seems to be adamantly against publishing nonfiction that’s exciting in any way other than the title. It’s quite peculiar, actually. They’ll take on fascinating subjects (like history of the undead) and turn them into something like a thesis, seemingly saying to the world…behold, we are a serious press. We press our books until all the juiciness is gone.
What remains are facts. Most of which are accurate. Mind you, that sentence should be all of which are accurate and it isn’t and I’m not even going to go into all of it and obviously this book isn’t large enough to cover all of it, but there were some glaring omissions…how does someone talk about modern day vampire fiction/cinema and not mention the excellent Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist and it’s Swedish and American movie adaptations. In fact, the kid vampire angle is barely mentioned at all. Or…how do you discuss zombies and not mention the singular awesomeness of Word War Z, the seminal work of zombie literature. The inferior movie adaptation get coverage, but the author seems to not even be aware of the superior book it’s based on. On the tv shows…izombie isn’t a Netflix show, it can be watched on Netflix, but it is a CW production originally. There’s another show that got the cast completely wrong. Twilight is listed as five movies in total, presumably counting the extended versions, which are categorically not separate entities. Also, reader beware, a lot of endings revealed, though oddly enough mostly in the vampire section.
One sincerely hopes the historical accuracy and inclusiveness in this book was of a greater quality than the media sections. It seemed like it was, though I didn’t fact check.
So having all that been said, for a horror fiend, this is an interesting read. Maybe not a fun read as such (and I do prefer my nonfiction fun), but it’s educational and covers all the basics. I loved the three tier social class composition with mummies, zombies and vampires.
I knew lots of the material covered and learned a few new things too. It’s a perfectly serviceable primer for existing genre fans or those just daring to boldly go there. It’s just so freaking serious…the only hints of the author’s personality are in passing judgements, otherwise it’s just facts, complied and arranged facts, stats, data. Really much too bland for a genre that roars and growls and goes Boo in the night. And definitely not enough photos. But it’s a quick read and as a genre fan I appreciated it, so there’s that. Whatever creature of the night speaks to you or haunts the dark corners of your mind…if it’s one of the three covered here, you might enjoy learning a thing or two about them. Thanks Netgalley.

My thanks to Pen & Sword History for granting my wish for a review copy of ‘The History of the Undead: Mummies, Vampires and Zombies’ by Charlotte Booth.

This work of nonfiction combines history, folklore, and popular culture to explore the concept of reanimated corpses from ancient Egyptian mummies and Haitian zombies, both of which only relatively recently became part of the horror fiction genre, and vampires that have a longer history, especially in European folk legends.

I have enjoyed horror literature and films for most of my life as well as have an interest in folklore and mythology, so had encountered much of the information contained within. Still, it was interesting to have it gathered in one place.

Charlotte Booth is a British archaeologist, who has written a number of books on Ancient Egypt. She brings a scholarly approach to the book; so it contains copious notes, a bibliography, an index and a number of illustrations.

There is no doubt about Booth’s academic credentials yet there were a few errors linked to popular culture that jumped out at me. These came from referenced works but did make me wonder how knowledgeable she was about the subject matter to not have noticed the mistakes made by the other writers.

Overall, I did feel that it find it provided a useful overview of the subject of the undead. However, I did feel that it was rather dry in places, something that might be linked to Booth’s academic approach but didn’t make the book particularly zing with enthusiasm.

I love learning about mummies, vampires, and zombies so this book was right up my alley... however, very little new information or perspectives were included (which is fine, especially if you haven't read much on them). The first section, Mummies, was more historical and, in my opinion, great to see someone discussing all the ways Victorians used mummies. Note that most of the book is Western-focused, and so I wouldn't really consider this a "history" book. The use of contemporary television, movies, and books was fun but also dated the author's manuscript as actors and popular shows change. Overall, this was a nice, quick read.

Thank you NetGalley and Pen & Sword History for the opportunity to read an advance reader's copy.

Subtitle: Mummies, Vampires and Zombies

I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

As stated in the subtitle, this book examines mummies, vampires, and zombies. For each of those three topics, the book delves into their portrayal in popular culture and the historical underpinnings for each type of monster. For vampires, there is an additional chapter about people who have chosen to pursue the vampire lifestyle.

While I enjoyed the pop culture chapters the most - movies, books, television, etc. - I was surprised at how much I learned from the historical section on mummies. Before reading this book, I'd never have suspected that ground up mummies were so popular for medicinal purposes that a shortage of available mummies resulted in the mummification of freshly dead human and animal corpses. I also know more now about the history of voodoo zombification and the burial/re-burial of suspected vampires than I did beforehand.

I gave A History of the Undead four stars on Goodreads. While some of the historical portions made for repetitive and sometimes dull reading, I can't deny that I learned a lot from reading this book - and that counts for something.

A History of Undead: Mummies, Vampires and Zombies by Charlotte Booth sounded like it would be right up my alley since it's about mummies, vampires, and zombies in media, legends behind them, and the real life history connected to them. There are some elements I liked about this short read. I liked looking into the progression of these monsters on the big and small screen, and some of the behind the scenes information - real history and legends behind them. My main issues are that it's quite dry, the errors and jumping around, and the overall feeling that I got while reading that the author isn't all that familiar with some of the subject matter. I was expecting this to fun and lighthearted read, but at times it reads like a dry college paper. I also noticed some factual errors, especially when it comes to the movies and tv shows she discusses and pretty much all of them could be solved with a quick googling. For example, she talks about the BBC's Being Human and mentions that Annie is played by Andrea Riseborough and Mitchell is played by Guy Flanagan. I'm a fan of that tv series and was really disappointed to see that she got even that basic bit of info about casting wrong. Those two actors only played those characters in the pilot, not the actual series that was greenlit based on the idea of that story. By the way, pretty much everyone except Russell Tovey's George was recast. That wasn't the only thing I noticed unfortunately, but that was the one that stood out the most to me. I also caught typos, but since this in an ARC that doesn't quite bug me as much. Like I said, based on some of those factual errors and how she talks about certain aspects of the movies and tv series which are a major part of this book it's makes it look like she doesn't know as much about her topic as she ought to be. Overall, those issues combined really interrupted my reading experience. I really wanted to enjoy this, but it just wasn't for me in the long run.

This was a fairly interesting look at Mummies, Zombies and Vampires both in fictional representations and the legends that they are based upon. Charlotte Booth devotes 2 chapters to each Undead figure (3 for vampires), covering books and movies and then delving into the folklore and legends of each. Whilst the structure was compelling and the research was obviously detailed, I did find this to be a bit pedestrian in pace, with the fictional chapter often feeling like a chronology of books and film adaptations with little explanation as to why these representations were important and the folklore chapters feeling a bit muddled, jumping around from point to point with limited cohesion. Overall, this didn't break much new ground for me, but it is definitely a good jumping off point for those with an interest in the horror icons of the past.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A History of the Undead is a great book on everything undead. From pop media, to cultural phenomenon, to ancient myths and superstitions, this book has everything you need to know about zombies, vampires, and mummies. Many basic myths and superstitions about these restless souls are covered, as well as many other fascinating facts that are not as commonly known.

Charlotte Booth clearly demonstrates she is a tour de force on all things undead. Of course the mainstays are covered from pop culture like Bram Stoker's Dracula, Dawn Of The Dead, Twilight, The Mummy, Nosferatu, Vlad The Impaler, Walking Dead, and everything in between. There is also a lot of history into the processes that were created and the beliefs that were held that eventually propelled these creatures to what we know them as today. With Zombies originating in Haitian history and culture, mummies of course being mysterious enigmas with terrifying curses wrote amongst their tombs, to the belief of individuals raising from the dead and strangling their neighbors and stealing their life-forces.

This intriguing and fun history will have you turning page after page, devouring the knowledge of the undead like a zombie devouring brains,

I really liked the premise of this book, but I felt that there was nothing really new or groundbreaking in the book and in some places the writing was a little dry for the subject matter. Still, it was an interesting read, and I think this book will appeal to many people, it just wasn't quite what I was looking for.