Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an Arc!

Secrets of the Vampire is a supernatural sourcebook of vampire lore and legend and it was an incredibly encapsulating read! The POV/voice of this book was also interesting as it was told as if there was a vampire narrating — I thought this was very clever and added to the feel of the book. This book was informative, entertaining, and had the most beautiful illustrations. I enjoyed every aspect that this book had to offer, from the different histories of the vampire, to the definitions of the names, weapons, and symbols and emblems, to my favourite part the pop culture references. As a big popular culture fan myself, I devoured the sections detailing Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, and Dracula!

Overall, it was a great and educational read and one which I would recommend to anyone who is fascinated by vampires and would love to learn more!

I became interested in vampires at 13 years old in 2008 when the Twilight craze started. I would have loved this book at that age. This is perfect for a middle school/high school library. It's informative while being entertaining as the book is written like it is being told from a vampire's perspective. The illustrations are enthralling, and I definitely will be purchasing this to display with all of my vampire books on my shelf.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Secrets of the Vampire is a book about the history of vampires throughout the world. It was beautifully illustrated throughout, and the illustrations really added to the overall feel of the book. I really enjoyed the different aspects of the book, from the history of vampires to different names for vampires, and the weapons used against vampires, to various interesting examples of pop culture vampires. I especially enjoyed the references to Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire. I found this book to be very interesting, and although it was a short read, I found it to be incredibly informative and wanted to read more! I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in vampires, spooky/gothic novels, or illustrated novels.

I was struck by the art of this book. This book is a window into some of the history of vampires, from myths and legends all the way into modern interpretations in popculture. The voice is fun, I like that the author decided to take the perspective of a vampire digging for their own roots, it adds a layer of story to the collection of information provided alongside achingly beautiful illustrations. Personally, I did not learn any new information from the book as I have done, a LARGE amount of research on the topic of the undead, and vampires myself, but I still enjoyed this! I do disagree with some of the examples provided and how they are described based on my own research but that does not change that this is a fun, and beautiful book for someone who is curious about vampires, looking for a short spooky read, and it is a nice collection. Honesly. I want a physical copy just to add to my collection and I think other vampire collectors like myself will find that this book is a very approachable and easy to share collection, making it easy to give to someone who wants to start talking about the roots of vampires, and other "monsters". Would make for a fun Halloween read, and I think I would have loved to find this book as a child/teenager.

This was a delight to read. It's a rather informative short book about the history of vampires. It's told through the eyes of a vampire, and she takes us through folklore and literature, from Antiquity to today. With her, you learn about the first creatures resembling vampires in different regions of the world, as well as the history of the word itself. You get to the final forms of vampires, heavily influenced by Bram Stoker's Dracula and Hollywood. Beautifully illustrated by @lauraperezgranel, I recommend it if you want to add a bit of knowledge about vampires to your shelf.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

This is a fantastic little book about the history of vampires! I was shocked to see just how far back in history the book went; back to before vampires were even called vampires. It also even briefly covered what, in pop culture at least, has long been the "natural enemy" of vampires, werewolves! I never knew that at one point in history, werewolves were viewed as basically the same as vampires, just with the ability to change into an animal form. There was a lot of historical information about vampires and the creatures that are akin to them, that I didn't know. I also loved that it didn't have strictly a European focus on the details about vampires, but also vampires from every culture that they existed within worldwide. The book also talks about the intersection of vampirism and how they were viewed within Catholicism, as well as other religions. I also found it very cute that this book is formulated as if a vampire themself compiled the information and they were narrating it. The illustrations were gorgeous and honestly elevated this book to the five-star level. I look forward to when I get a print version to have on my coffee table!

Secrets of the Vampire is an interesting encyclopedic piece of writing that would be a great starting point for readers that are looking to get into the mythology and literature of vampires. While the information in this book is mostly things you could find in a simple Google search, it is all compiled in one place and structured in a way that is easy to digest and motivates the reader to continue with learning. This book is worth picking up for the illustrations alone! They are absolutely gorgeous and some of the renderings of popular vampires are spot on. I will be purchasing a hardcover of this to place in my collection of vampire books.

"Vampires are the reflection of the evil that we all hold in our hearts. That's why we believe in vampires." - Jacques Sirgent

"Just like you invented the devil, it is you who created us, and in telling our story, I'll also be telling yours."

Love the illustrations! Great introduction to all things that go bump in the night. I especially enjoyed the history & progression of the vampire in literature and film.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advanced reader copy of the book for an honest review. Any quote(s) used in my review have been uncorrected.

Vampires have always been fascinating/terrifying for me so when I saw this book available for download on Netgalley I just had to read it. This is a dive into the history of the vampire from all the way back from ancient blood drinking gods, through strigoi of Romania, past Vlad the Inpaler and Countess Bathory, all the way to modern vampires like in True Blood and Twilight.

I absolutely loved the is book. It covered a lot of ground for such a short book but it had so much information in it while presenting it in a super readable/interesting fashion. There was a lot of info I already knew because of my interest in the subject but there was also a lot of information that was new to me. The illustrations were absolutely stunning and I think they really added a lot to the work.

Overall I would have to say that I highly recommend this for horror fans and fans of vampires of appropriate age (I would say a good point is the middle of the young adult age demographic.) I loved reading this and I would love to see more from the author in the future.

Arc Netgalley Review in the app.

Easily enjoyable by anyone that like Vampires and anything related. From the unique style of art work that really brought the book together in a way I haven’t seen in a book of this style, making it I feel appealing to all ages. The author did not miss a beat when putting together this book.
Definitely wanting to add to my bookcase ass well as gift to a few of my friends as a gift.

This was absolutely incredible from the art, the writing style and the incredible depth of history and work that has gone into this. Although this is only a short book, Secrets of the Vampire is jammed full of history, vampire tropes, lore and the exploration of media. I thought this was a genius idea and read it in one sitting, I would love to have this as a physical book if only to look at all the illustrations again. However the writing is also incredibly entertaining told from a vampires point of view trying to learn about her history and starting from incredibly early on in time. Overall this is amazing and definitely a must have for any vampire or folklore lovers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wide Eyed Editions for allowing me to read an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a fun and quick little encyclopedia of the vampire. It defines different cultures' vampire stories alongside gorgeous illustrations. The history of the vampire is condensed into about 74 pages and I thought it did a good job of explaining the international and multimedia history of the vampire. I took a horror film and lit course in my undergrad and we spent quite a lot of time on vampires and I thought, again, that this did a fun and quick job. I think one of the best points of this is the illustrations though; each page had some kind of beautifully drawn illustration to accompany the text. It made the reading experience extra delightful.

I'd love to have a hardcover copy of this just for the illustrations but i do think if you're a vampire lover, this is a book that would fit in comfortably with your vampire-themed collection.

Really cool book that sits somewhere between informative and just a picture book. I loved all the myth and vampire lore I learned!

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Quarto Publishing Group – Wide Eyed Editions for an advanced copy of this book on the fascination that the creatures of the night have had on humans, in both the real world and in fiction.

Death is a scary thing. To escape it is something that should be saluted. But to be a servant of death, to exist on the life source of the living to cheat the reaper, that is something that should be hated. Hunted. And feared. Creatures like vampires exist in almost all the legends of people all over the Earth. Religions have made quite a lot of money protecting people from creatures like vampires, and many an innocent soul has gone to the grave for being suspected of using the living as sustenance. Pop Culture was quick to embrace the idea of vampires, even back in ancient times, with rites and rituals to stop the vampire from hunting. Today vampires are popular in everything, comics, books, youtube, streaming services. Even music, songs from Concrete Blonde to Bauhaus celebrate the night stalker. Secrets of the Vampire: A Supernatural Sourcebook of Our Legend and Lore written by Julie Légère, illustrated by Laura Pérez and translated by Elsa Whyte is a primer on vampires and their ilk, from all over the world, both fictional and real, all lavishly illustrated.

The book begins with tales of vampires from antiquity, from Japan, China and Egypt and other parts of the ancient world. The book discusses the draw of the undead, the fear, the fascination, the use of them by religions to control people within the faith. The book looks at famous vampire scares in Europe, the ties with lycanthropy and even zombies. Fictional vampires are also discussed, early appearances of vampires in poems, novels and plays. The origins of Dracula by Bram Stoker with a look at vampires from movies, music and television, Buffy, Twilight and Lestat.

The book is not very big, but is very interesting, and works as a good overview of vampires, classic stories, and vampiric creatures from other lands and myths. This is a perfect book for precocious young readers who want to follow up on information they learned in Bunnicula say. I would have sucked this book up as a kid. There are brief capsule introductions to world vampires, with longer sections of up to 3 or 4 pages, for history and famous cases, along with the fictional retellings of the vampire myth. In addition there is a hand glossary of vampire terms for further investigation. The translation is quite good, I don't notice a strangeness in the text, as sometimes seen in publishing books from other places. The illustrations are quite nice, and really compliment the text. I would love to see more from the illustrator, especially horror pieces. Laura Pérez has a real skill and a style that is quite unique. Almost a Jon J. Muth style. The illustrations make this book.

A great book for people just getting into vampires, both young and old. Also a great gift for Halloween as the book hs plenty of cool ideas for scaring people, including the reader. A good starter book on the supernatural.

I picked up this book completely out of curiosity. I did grow up watching Buffy the vampire slayer as a teenager, so I was interested in knowing a bit more about all the folkore surrounding these creatures (and I thought it was fun to see the series mentioned near the end).

This illustrated book would be a great read to delve into around the Halloween season. It contains a lot of rich spooky visuals, tons of information about the history of vampires throughout centuries (from past pandemics across Europe to the reinvented vampire in pop culture).
It's a quick, interesting read.

Very good reference for basic vampire lore. There wasn't much in it that I wasn't already aware of but it's so well put together and fun that it doesn't matter as much that I already knew a lot of the information that is in here.

The illustrations in this book are great and perfect for a range of readers. Interesting to find out about the origin of different vampires around the world.

I loved this one, the illustrations are truly beautiful and even though I did not learn a lot (I had to write a whole 20p paper on vampires so of course I di my research) it was still lovely to read about how vampires came to be. I loved that the beginning included vampires from around the world. This is perfect for younger but also older readers, I highly recommend.

I never knew there were so many variations to a vampire 🥲 the illustrations were so pretty 😍 it was a fun and informative(?) read