A History of the Undead: Mummies, Vampires and Zombies

I was so excited to read this book, and dive a bit deeper into the popular culture that has arisen around mummies, vampires and zombies. There has been no shortage of books or films about the subjects, which opens so many more doors to other possibilities.

While I enjoyed the book overall, the first part seemed to really fly by - engaging, interesting, and full of some fabulous information. I did find that the book felt really slow and tedious on the last half - which in no way detracts from the beginning, but just made it harder to sit and finish out the final portion.

Overall, decently done and well rounded. A fun look into how this morphed into popular culture and what we have today!

Thank you to Pen and Sword and Edelweiss who granted me an e-copy for an unbiased review.

My review of this book will be for a copy of the book that I borrowed from the local Library.
I would of prefer it if the author did include world mythology, folklore of beliefs about mummies, zombies and vampires, it would be interesting to know, hopefully the author will write about that in another book.
For all the authors, short stories, or gothic horror stories about Egyptian mummies how could the author not even mention Nyarlathotep by H.P. Lovecraft even once?
It is related to what the author has written about Egyptian mummies and the fictional story is about the Egyptian mummy Nyarlathotep in his Cthulhu Mythos.
I'm going to read the vampire chapter next then read the zombie chapter, since I love vampires so much. Anything about vampires (except Twilight) is something I will love.
The chapters about the mythology, folklore and beliefs about vampires is really interesting.
People that are part of the Vampire Community/sub-culture fit into various subcategories and obviously the Sanguinarian, Psychic, Tantric or sexual vampires don't want to be associated with or confused by the “Vampire Lifestylers” or people that roleplay as a vampire.
There are various types of modern day spiritual vampires that exist and fit into a niche or sub category, some are spiritual, some practice witchcraft, some interact with people physically in-person or astrally.
I don't agree with the author that real vampires only drink human or animal blood, vampires have always fed on the blood, life-force energy and sexual energy, prana energy absorbed into the aura from the sun. The energy and life-force or soul energy/essence of a living person.
A vampire and their donor have a psychic bond and there is a energy exchange when the vampire feeds on the consensual donor (for blood or energy to feed the vampire)
Psychic vampires are just as prevalent as sanguinarian vampires, other types of vampires such as tantric vampires aren't even mentioned.
Vampires astral projecting to interact with and feed on the energy/sexual energy of a willing person that gave their consent is also never mentioned as well.
There are not a lot of books that include world mythology, folklore of vampires, so it would be interesting to read about it.
I will definitely buy a copy of this book.