My name is Bobby Singer. In twenty-four hours I’m gonna lose my memory. So here’s everything you need to know.
Monsters, demons, angels, vampires, the boogeyman under your bed: I’ve seen it, I’ve hunted it, I’ve killed it. I’m not the only hunter out here, but there aren’t as many as there used to be. Not near as many as there need to be. I’ve learned everything I can about every damned critter that walks, crawls, or flies, and I’m not gonna let that all be for nothing. I’m not going down without a fight. I’m not letting everything I’ve learned disappear. So that’s what you’re holding in your hands—everything I know. Anything that’d be useful for Sam, Dean, and the hunters that come after me.
It’s a guide to hunting...it’s a guide to me. My last will and testament. Ya idjits.
This book succeeded by miles what the other Supernatural books failed at- a real emotional connection. John's was too distant most of the time, and the guide narrated by Sam and Dean was severely lacking in either of their respective personalities, but Bobby Singer's Guide to Hunting was just right.
First of all, the voice of narration is spot. fucking. on. You read it in Bobby's voice- his cadence, his vernacular, his razor-sharp wit on top of a "good ol' boy" demeanor. All of it is perfect.
But to return the main point, the big victory for this book is that it provided ample back story, a surprise (sad) detail at the end (although I admit I kind of saw it coming, it didn't make it any less tragic), and a deeper look into a gloriously complex and sympathetic character. Bobby's importance in the story of SPN cannot be overstated- he filled in the holes of fatherhood that John left behind, provided moral guidance and support and was the ace in the hole of any difficult case. It was nice to see a book that did not attempt to minimize that in an effort to keep the Dean-Sam bipartisan hierarchy at the forefront of the reader's mind that often dominates any side-stories. The nexus of Bobby's descent into hunting, how he learned Japanese, and what really happened in Omaha that caused the great schism between himself and Rufus- if you've ever wondered, prepare to find out.
Supernatural is one of my favorite shows. Ever. The moment I found this book on goodreads, I had to have it, I just had to, and I am glad I did because it was AWESOME!
If you are still behind in Supernatural, then this review might spoil the show for you
Bobby is.. was… one of my favorite characters on the show & despite the fact that I love Supernatural all 9 seasons of it, it just hasn't been the same without Bobby.. :c
Kudos to the writer because his writing of Bobby's character is spot on! I could seriously hear Bobby's voice while reading and imagine him saying all of those things on the show… If he was still alive
The book is very enjoyable, it had me laughing out loud a lot of times, there were a lot of sad moments as well. Finally learned the real story about what happened in Omaha between Rufus & Bobby and what caused a huge rift in their friendship. It was really sad when Bobby started talking about how all his hunter friends were dead.. Ellen, Joe, John, Rufus and the list goes on. It made me miss the old seasons of Supernatural a lot!
The case that Bobby was working on was pretty interesting.. While working the case something happened to him and it effected his memories and he started losing bits of them, so he wrote down everything he knew about hunting, monsters, demons..etc
I'm not even going to deny it, I am biased. I love Bobby. I love Supernatural, so damn right I loved this book!
That'll happen as soon as my ass grows wings and flies to Jupiter. I guess flying to Uranus woulda been a funnier joke, but I think there was enough asses in that sentence as it was.
This is such a fun read. Not because it isn't dark or heavy (it is) but because it's Bobby. I could imagine every sentence from this book read in Jim Beaver's grumpy voice because it's perfectly written for his character. We find out more about Bobby's past, about his wife, about Rufus while a suspenseful amnesia-plot is kind of going on in the back and keeps up the tension until the last few pages. If you've watched the show (which you should've when you're reading this book, duh) you'll know most of the monsters mentioned, but that doesn't make it boring to read. Personally, I enjoyed the re-caps and wrap-ups of cases in the life of Bobby Singer a lot. So if you love this old drunk, this book captures him just as well as the tv show and I'd strongly recommend buying it. There are beautiful scribbles, photographs and illustrations too - and while it goes easy on the mind, you'll still get enough of them classic Supernatural feels. My favourite quote definitely was If you have kids, retire. They need you more than the world does. This book basically is a big giant roast of John Winchester, another reason why it was very much enjoyable. Just read it to be reminded how great of a character Bobby is. Thanks.
I think it's really cool because it doesn't just give you cool facts so you can finally get an A on a supernatural quiz but it ads personality to the book of how bobby singer is in the show
I'm a big lover of the Supernatural TV show, and this was a great addition to it! Bobby Singer is one of my favourite characters on the show, and I thought that the writing style and the way it was wrote fit his character really well. It would be amazing if there was an audiobook with Jim Beaver, the actor who plays Bobby, doing the voiceover!
One of my favourite things about this book was that we got to learn a lot about how Bobby got into the hunting life, and his early days as a hunter in Japan. Some of the chapters really felt like mini episodes! I also liked the way demon/ghost/monster lore was explained and put into the book but in Bobby's words. It definitely made it a lot more interesting. This book was entertaining, and I really enjoyed reading it.
If your a Supernatural fan, then this is a must-read! Ride along as Bobby Singer takes us through past cases, the current case he's working on and all the monster lore he can remember. Something is messing with his memory and if he doesn't figure out what it is soon, he has a feeling he's not long for this life. You get all of Bobbie's surliness, and a few tidbits that they don't go into too much on the show. Like a lot of his past with John Winchester and Rufus Turner! Thoroughly enjoyed this book!
It was so Bobby that it really did feel like Bobby was talking to me, which is so rare in a novel because you're so self aware of the author and you praise them for their excellent characterisation and you thank them but rarely is the voice so on point and so good that you totally forget an author is behind it. I am so utterly amazed.
My fave part had to be when he was talking about Rufus, when he mixed up an hex bag in making all the women fall for him so that he just thinks everyone is forward in that town and is getting all this action and thinks nothing of it. It was just lol. Or maybe when he talked about Dean and Sam, because you could see how much he cared for them, how he felt like they were his sons that he never had and to them he was their second father. Just the feels man.
This book contains spoilers for season 1-6 of the tv show. This review is spoiler-free!
If I had to point out one single series as my absolute favorite of all-time, I would choose Supernatural. I’ve been a fan since I was too young to even watch the show. I’ve seen some episodes close to 10 times, and I’ve done multiple rewatches of all 15 seasons. For Christmas, friends that I’m watching the show with at the moment, gave me this book.
And I absolutely loved it. The book contains one overall story, a typical monster of the week case. Bobby was on a hunt, but now experiences memory loss. He tries to figure out what kind of monster/creature has done this to him, while writing down all of his knowledge about the supernatural: in case he loses his memory completely. There are some more personal background chapters, giving some insights into Bobby as a character, and the other chapters are him sharing information about supernatural creatures, their characteristics and how to kill them. I also loved to read the stories behind some things mentioned, but never further explained in the show, for example how Bobby learned Japanese and what happened with Rufus in Omaha.
There are some beautiful illustrations in the book, and overall this is such fun to read as a fan of the show!
A lot more entertaining than I expected it to be. I didn't realize this was written as a story/novel and not really as a how-to-book, but that's a good thing. You probably wouldn't get much out of this, if you haven't watched Supernatural, but it's a pretty self-contained story anyway.
A great adventure through Bobby’s life of hunting and otherwise. Throughout the book I could hear Bobby Singer’s (Jim Beaver’s) voice. The writer worked on Supernatural, and the style of the book clearly shows it. Even the last little section from Dean’s perspective felt like Dean, and I could hear Dean (Jensen Ackles) in my head. The pieces about Bobby’s past were just as much fun to read as the sections that caused me to reminisce over the show’s actual events. I’d recommend this to any fan of Supernatural. I read it over a few weeks in chunks to savor it.
A fun brush-up of the lore of Supernatural as well as an interesting glimpse into Bobby's past, relationships and character. Without a doubt my favorite of the "extra" books.
Bobby Singer is my favorite character on Supernatural, so when I heard there was a book that was all about his life as a hunter, of course I had to read it. I devoured it faster than the tie-in novels, that for the most part have a tendency to be missing something that makes me feel like it could be set within the timeframe of the show. This book actually feels like an episode of Supernatural, and David Reed does an excellent job of capturing the voices of Bobby and Dean Winchester.
If you're not already a fan of the show, you're probably not going to get a lot out of this book. While the monster lore occupies as much space as Bobby's tale does, its spotty, directly tied in with the show itself and assumes that you already know a good deal of the information from the show. That said, it is nice to have some of the show's lore not only written down, but told from the perspective of one of the hunters. Within the book, Bobby covers monsters from odine, okami, werewolves, vampires, banshees, and demons, all the different garden varieties of them. It's both informative and entertaining.
Mixed in with the lore is the story of Bobby, and things that were only mentioned in the show. It starts with Karen and ends with Dean and Sam returning to him in Season 1. It's the story of Bobby, from why he was a hunter, to how he learned to speak Japanese, to his falling out with Rufus. More than that, it's a testament to how much Sam and Dean became his family. It's an excellent companion piece to the Season 7 episode Death's Door. If you are a fan of the show and more specifically, Bobby, I cannot recommend this book enough, despite it's minor flaws.
Despite my love for this book, and my love for the show, I feel I do have to point out the few flaws it has to the die hard fans. First of all, the composition is terrible in places. At one point, the diagram was actually covering the words on the page. It wasn't enough to make it entirely unreadable, but it should have been caught long before it went to print. More importantly, the narrative that frames Bobby's back story does not fit into the show timeline. At all. I've studied it from all angles, and there is absolutely no way to fit it into the story, despite the fact that it reads so well like an actual episode. For instance, most people assumed it took place between My Heart Will Go On and Mommy Dearest which makes sense since they mention what Balthazar did and they are still on the hunt for Eve. However, in the chapter on Angels, Bobby mentions Angels are the only thing he knows of that can alter memories and he specifically mentions Castiel making Lisa and Ben forget about Dean. Which does not happen until Let it Bleed, a full two episodes after Mommy Dearest. Balls. Also, the book seems to contradict itself on whether or not Crowley is a demon. Chalk it up to Bobby just not knowing any differently, and the fact that the show doesn't seem to know anymore. But that's a story for a different day.
Time frame quibble aside, the book is well worth it for any fans of the show who love Bobby and want to learn more about his story.
I actually enjoyed this book and didn't want to put it down. It was a little better than John Winchester's Journal as there wasn't any difficult bits to read like Latin. It was interesting to see Bobby's journey of becoming a hunter and what he did to get over having to kill his wife. He had gone through a lot but gained much more in the way of gaining Sam and Dean as family and being able to help other hunters that needed his help with things that they didn't know. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves supernatural and who wants to know how Bobby became a hunter in the first place and how he got to where he got.
For what it is, this is actually really good. The author captures Bobby's voice perfectly. As he is part of the script writing team for the show, this isn't all that surprising, I guess. However, I don't think he did as well with the bit at the end supposedly written by Dean...
There's some real laugh-out-loud moments, and some familiar stories (from a different point of view), as well as some great new backstory on Bobby (and Rufus!).
If you're a fan of the show, you'll enjoy it. If not, don't bother, as you'll have no clue what's going on...
If you ever find yourself missing Bobby Singer read this book. One of my favourite episodes of Supernatural is “Weekend at Bobby’s” because it gave us a look into Bobby’s life outside of helping the Winchesters. What’s better than one episode of this is having an entire book to read of his stories and memories; and that is exactly what this book is.
I read this in Bobby's voice because the way it was written exactly portrays him. I haven't read many other Supernatural books but this one was exceedingly better than the others!
I love the show, Supernatural, and have a handful of books written about the show. I don't bother with the fiction books, but go more for the informational books, like The Supernatural Book of Monsters, Demons, Spirits and Ghosts. I collect info on all sorts of paranormal info and add books like that to my quite large collection. (If anyone ever needs to know anything about some supernatural monster/being/creature, I've got notebooks full of info and research books highlighted and underlined!!) I wouldn't make much of a hunter, but I could definitely do Bobby's job as researcher for the Winchester Boys. Of course, if you don't know the show, that means nothing.
Anyway, I have the John Winchester Journal and is a fictional version of the "real" journal Sam and Dean have made by their dad. And it goes into detail and jobs he did, creatures he came across and how he "ganked" them. I thought this would be the same type of book, but I was wrong. This was actually a fictional tale where Bobby is losing his memory and is trying to write down everything he can think of before his memories are all gone (won't go into detail -- no spoilers!) Instead, this was really the story about Bobby and how he became a hunter and, altho it did cover some monster info, it was all Supernaturalized (not necessarily how things really "are".) I did enjoy the book because it covered a lot of back story about things mentioned on the show but never gone into detail. And if you like Bobby, you'll probably enjoy reading this. Just don't think it's another Monster info book like I did or you'll be disapppointed. And if you don't watch the show and know the characters well, you won't understand the book at all.
In keeping with my current Supernatural obsession, I just finished this, and did not expect to react to the ending the way I did. First, I cried, which, hello, this was supposed to be a book about hunting, not something that would make me cry. Regardless, I thought that the author did an amazing job of capturing Bobby's voice, and there were parts that were quite funny - I laughed out right in several places. So this takes place at some point during season 6, I think, so there are several things that have happened subsequent to the writing of the book that make some of Bobby's observations about Sam and Dean's characters incorrect. Additionally, at the end, when Dean proposes his theory for Bobby's treasured memory, season 7 gives us the answer, and Dean is wrong (but that didn't stop me from crying), but he's SO close. That doesn't change my enjoyment of the book at all, and really this only serves to solidify my thoughts on JW and his journal (see my review here). At any rate, I'm glad I picked this up, and if you're a Supernatural fan, you should read this too.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This book is described as fiction, and it is rightfully called so. It brings in a character from the show and brings a story that has happened due to the outcome of one of the "hunts" that the characters from the show go on. Bobby Singer is the go-to man for the Winchester boys when they need to find out what they are hunting and how to kill it. On one of these hunts that takes place in the book Bobby gets back to his house without knowing how he got there. The premise of this book is for him to try and recall how he made it back to his house and since he thinks he is losing his memory, he begins frantically writing down every known creature and hunt he has encountered, at least the ones he can still remember.
Despite the way that this book kind of wanders from story to story with no real correlation, it is meant to be that way and as you read it it makes complete sense. When reading this book you need to keep in mind that the view point that you are reading comes from a character who is rapidly losing their memory and is writing his life story accordingly.
As a Supernatural fan I was desperate to get my hands on this book as soon as I saw that it would be published in September. It's definetly my favorite Supernatural book and I read quite some.
If you know the show you can hear Bobby talk in this. That's the benefit of a Screenwriter writing a book - he just knows the charakter and write him pretty awesome. It's very interesting to find out more about the relationship of Bobby with Rufus and how and why Bobby learned Japanese. I laughed out loud pretty often (at least in the beginning).
I'd place this book somewhen after "My Heart Will Go On" and before "The Man Who Would Be King", but I'm not sure. I don't know if there's an official information 'bout that.
Good book, I'd recommend it to everyone who likes the show. Doesn't make much sense for people who don't even watch it.
I forgot how much I love Supernatural from my neglect of the TV show after season 9. The nostalgia has come back to me, especially helped by the greatly-achieved voice of Bobby, by the author. It had an actual plot too, which is surprisingly considering I simply expected it to be an accompliment to the series with just some information. I, somehow, didn't cry, but I was close. Overall, I am very happy with this book. Very happy indeed.
I was actually surprised by how much I liked this. Missing the show as I am (SERIOUSLY GUYS WHAT THE FUCK DID I DO TO DESERVE THAT CLIFFHANGER) I turned to this in the hope it would get me through. The emotional side of it was incredibly compelling and I really felt like it was a good exploration of Bobby and his past. It wasn't as connected as I would like and because of recent events in the show it was a little outdated. But still, a good addition to the series.