A review by oddly
Shapeshifters: A History by John B. Kachuba
2.0
I picked up this book mostly with an interest in learning more about werewolves in history and lore. While I wouldn’t expect a book that’s less than 200 pages to be any kind of authority, this book is definitely more of a primer on the topic of shapeshifting.
I appreciated that the topics covered ranged from antiquity to modern, discussed real stories and fiction, and came from all over the world. I definitely learned about some shapeshifting entities that I didn’t previously know about, and it has prompted me to do more research of my own.
Since it is what I came to the book for, I was disappointed that the short chapter on werewolves felt especially lacking. I was disappointed that the rougarou only got a mention and was not connected to the Canadian Métis traditional story. Further, the inclusion and exclusion of certain information seemed wholly arbitrary. The werewolf movies mentioned were all the most obvious choices (The Wolf Man, American Werewolf in London and similar) with only a mention of Twilight for more modern iterations. This is barely scratching the surface! I can’t say that I learned anything new about werewolves from this book.
There is a (to me) strange amount of time put into the topic of vampires, which are not, at least primarily, known for their shapeshifting ability. I’m not saying they shouldn’t have been included, but a discussion of the vampire as a shapeshifter of sorts because it was originally human but now has only a human-like form is conspicuously absent. Additionally, the focus of the vampire chapter, along with lengthy mentions in other sections, did not seem primarily focused on the bat, wolf, etc., iterations but more on the blood-sucking and seductive qualities, the origination of Stoker’s Dracula from Vlad the Impaler (an oft-contested theory anyway), and how suspected corpses-turned-vampires were often dug up and burned or beheaded. Interesting, but I don’t think I’d consider these discussions to be on-topic.
I was especially intrigued to read the chapter “Fluid Shapeshifters, Gender, Sex and Identity,” but instead of offering any sort of in-depth or even compassionate look at gender expression it floundered around without giving many specifics and then mostly focused on cosplay. The chapter completely omits even a mention of drag queen culture, which felt like a miss.
In general, I wish the author could have done a bit less summarizing and a bit more analysis and in-depth discussion. For the most part, I took notes on figures or legends that intrigued me so that I can go on and do my own research. This is in part due to the fact that I found more than a few factual errors, leading me to be generally suspicious of the facts in general. (It is plenty clear if you have read the Harry Potter novels that this statement from page 163 is wholly inaccurate: “In their third year Transfiguration class, student wizards at Hogwarts learned how to become Animagi, that is, wizards—witches too—who can transform themselves into animals.” Wrong, Mr. Kachuba, wrong, and the following paragraphs about the series continue to boldly state inaccurate facts.)
For the most part, I found the book to be overly patchworky, a collection of interesting tidbits and summaries of legends or book and movie plots that constantly shifted direction without offering much of any analysis or true discussion. It is inexcusable to me that a nonfiction book would include factual inaccuracies that are easy to check, so it really does throw into question the accuracy of the book in general. While it wasn’t a total loss, I will keep looking for a better volume on the topic.
I appreciated that the topics covered ranged from antiquity to modern, discussed real stories and fiction, and came from all over the world. I definitely learned about some shapeshifting entities that I didn’t previously know about, and it has prompted me to do more research of my own.
Since it is what I came to the book for, I was disappointed that the short chapter on werewolves felt especially lacking. I was disappointed that the rougarou only got a mention and was not connected to the Canadian Métis traditional story. Further, the inclusion and exclusion of certain information seemed wholly arbitrary. The werewolf movies mentioned were all the most obvious choices (The Wolf Man, American Werewolf in London and similar) with only a mention of Twilight for more modern iterations. This is barely scratching the surface! I can’t say that I learned anything new about werewolves from this book.
There is a (to me) strange amount of time put into the topic of vampires, which are not, at least primarily, known for their shapeshifting ability. I’m not saying they shouldn’t have been included, but a discussion of the vampire as a shapeshifter of sorts because it was originally human but now has only a human-like form is conspicuously absent. Additionally, the focus of the vampire chapter, along with lengthy mentions in other sections, did not seem primarily focused on the bat, wolf, etc., iterations but more on the blood-sucking and seductive qualities, the origination of Stoker’s Dracula from Vlad the Impaler (an oft-contested theory anyway), and how suspected corpses-turned-vampires were often dug up and burned or beheaded. Interesting, but I don’t think I’d consider these discussions to be on-topic.
I was especially intrigued to read the chapter “Fluid Shapeshifters, Gender, Sex and Identity,” but instead of offering any sort of in-depth or even compassionate look at gender expression it floundered around without giving many specifics and then mostly focused on cosplay. The chapter completely omits even a mention of drag queen culture, which felt like a miss.
In general, I wish the author could have done a bit less summarizing and a bit more analysis and in-depth discussion. For the most part, I took notes on figures or legends that intrigued me so that I can go on and do my own research. This is in part due to the fact that I found more than a few factual errors, leading me to be generally suspicious of the facts in general. (It is plenty clear if you have read the Harry Potter novels that this statement from page 163 is wholly inaccurate: “In their third year Transfiguration class, student wizards at Hogwarts learned how to become Animagi, that is, wizards—witches too—who can transform themselves into animals.” Wrong, Mr. Kachuba, wrong, and the following paragraphs about the series continue to boldly state inaccurate facts.)
For the most part, I found the book to be overly patchworky, a collection of interesting tidbits and summaries of legends or book and movie plots that constantly shifted direction without offering much of any analysis or true discussion. It is inexcusable to me that a nonfiction book would include factual inaccuracies that are easy to check, so it really does throw into question the accuracy of the book in general. While it wasn’t a total loss, I will keep looking for a better volume on the topic.