In the Hunt: Unauthorized Essays on Supernatural

by Leah Wilson

A relative newcomer to the paranormal-teen drama scene, the hit TV show Supernatural has already developed a rabid and deeply committed fan base since its debut in the fall of 2005. When their dad mysteriously disappears, brothers Dean and Sam Winchester join forces to bring him home and are pulled headlong into the world he knew best-one full of demons, spirits, monsters, and ghouls. Featuring essays from three lucky fans as well as leading writers and pop culture experts, this insightful anthology sheds light on a variety of issues, including why such a male-centric show has such a large female fan base, "Wincest" and homoeroticism, how Supernatural can be interpreted as a modern-day Brothers Grimm, and the questionable nature of John Winchester's parenting habits.

Genres: Supernatural, Nonfiction, Tv, Horror, Fandom, Paranormal, Essays

298 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 10, 2009

About the author

Leah Wilson is Editor-in-Chief of the Smart Pop imprint of Dallas-based publisher BenBella Books. She graduated from Duke University in 2003 with a degree in Culture and Modern Fiction, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Fall season premiere schedules make her a little giddy.

(Her author blog is the main blog for Smart Pop's website, and she'll be using this Goodreads account in part to do some Smart Pop pre-pub giveaways, and more!)

Reviews

[Lea · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a big Supernatural fan, this was such a chore to read! I enjoyed 2-3 of the essays, and found the other ones either boring or strongly disagreed with them - mostly both. Of course, this book was written after season 3 of a show that has 15 seasons, but that's not its main problem. Instead you get to read about how John Winchester is a great father because, um, well, a lot of fathers mistreat their children. Was that the point? I'm not sure. Because the structure of most of these essays was horrible. I want to gift the authors a book on how to write essays.

There's a lot of great SPN Meta out there on the internet, and I'm grateful for it. I can appreciate it even more now.

[Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The biggest problem I had with this book started in the Introduction. They mention how the boys drive around the country in a 1968 Chevy Impala. Please - it's 1967. Simple fact. Baby's one of the main characters and they got her manufacture date wrong. Listen to Chuck. Watch the episode Swan Song ... ;-)

[Sarah Maddaford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book mostly for the essay on fanworks and Wincest. That essay was absolutely brilliant, although it could have been longer, and several of the other essays were equally well-written and interesting. A couple of the essays were confusing, including the one that had so many parentheses. The one from the point of view of hypothetical monsters watching Supernatural was really kind of awkward for some reason. There are also a good portion of these essays that have been made incorrect or obsolete in regards to the current show. A reader thinking back to only the first three seasons will find themselves agreeing with much that is said. I, for one, hope that they come out with another set of essays, at least some with similar themes or subjects, that account for the canon information given in seasons 4 and 5.

[Brittanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's basically a book of meta which I really have no interest for. I thought it was going to be more academic.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is fantastic - Aside from how it only covers the first three seasons, which, while terrific, don't TOUCH how amazing the show becomes once angels are introduced. Badly in need of a sequel.

[Anomaly · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 15%

So, I decided to take a trip down memory lane, to a time when I actually really enjoyed the show Supernatural. I picked one of the books I bought but never read and dove in, hoping to be reminded in a fun, nostalgic way of all the things I used to love about the show. After all, this particular book is a series of essays written during the timeframe that I actually loved the show. What could possibly go wrong?

Apparently, the answer to that is: literally everything. Not a single piece of writing I encountered before giving up was thought-provoking, entertaining, or even objectively well-written. It was just a giant crap cake with disappointment sauce. And because I'm feeling bitter about it, you get to suffer along with me as I provide commentary on the pieces I read.

Foreword by Keith R. A. Decandido

While Supernatural isn’t as heavily serialized as, say, Heroes or Lost, the show is aggressively aware of its own continuity. When something is established in one episode, it remains true thenceforth.

If only, my dear man. If only. This was written between seasons three and four, so it's hardly the author's fault, but wow that aged like milk.

That said, the foreword itself is more or less just filler. It reads about like a desperate fan's attempt at turning the show into a required high school essay. Blah, blah, he's a heterosexual male who likes the show because it's more than just the pretty male leads. (Cool story, bro.) Blah, blah, themes of found family, blah, good music, blah... This is nothing you won't have read time and time again on fan blogs while teenagers gush about why they love Supernatural. I don't see how it has a place in an actual, published work.

Introduction by Dawn (Kittsbud), Webmaster of Supernatural.tv

It may not have huge ratings, but it has grown a loyal fan-base that will stop at nothing to protect it.

Did she misspell "cult"? Because that's how you make a fandom sound like a cult.

Sometimes our hunters need saving too, and it’s this element that grips fans, often to the point where we actually don’t want to draw a line between fantasy and reality. When Jensen Ackles jokingly pleaded with viewers to write to Eric Kripke, the show’s creator, and ask to save Dean from his demonic deal, you just knew that the CW’s mailbox was going to be full for a few weeks to come.

This one also aged about as well as unpasteurized milk left out for a month in the summer heat. Considering all the damage done by the rabid fans - both to other fans and to cast and crew, including but not limited to death threats - this takes on a whole new meaning. People who rabidly rush to insist writers change a show are some of the scariest and most obnoxiously entitled fans out there, and I find it gross that someone can both acknowledge the actor was joking and praise the fans who acted on it anyway. It's a little unnerving to see such proud bragging about being so obsessed, here.

Also, this once again mentions how attractive the male leads are, to the point it starts to feel weird. I was part of the fandom at this point in time, and I frankly remember most people who weren't fans thinking the fans were exaggerating how attractive Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki were. With one exception - hilariously, my grandmother - most non-fans I encountered asked me what the hell I saw in Jensen while acknowledging that Jared had the whole 'kicked puppy who needs a cuddle' thing going on that was all the rage back then.

Seriously, though, they're hot but not that hot - certainly not enough to warrant mentioning it several times within the first two textual segments.

"We're Not Exactly The Bradys" by Tanya Huff

Good men don’t just happen, they’re made-and to see how we have to go back to the beginning.

I could have sworn that the entire point of Supernatural's family dynamics was to show that, despite growing up in shitty conditions, the brothers managed to come out the other end as good people. Especially back in season three, the show absolutely was not going all-in on the John Winchester apologetics like this author seems to be. (In fact, there was a lot more abuse and negligence retconned into the mix before they decided to back-pedal and insist he was Dad Of The Year, but that's a gripe with the atrocious decline of the show - not these essays.)

He trusts a four-year-old with a baby. He knows Dean will do exactly as he said. Why? Because his father asked him to. Four-year-olds who obey instantly, who have their entirely justifiable fears calmed by their father giving them a job and trusting them to do it, are rare.

Yeah. In case you didn't notice, this essay is an unapologetic attempt to forgive John Winchester for being negligent and abusive by insisting his sons became good men because of him rather than in spite of how he raised them. And, hey, cowing a toddler into blind and unyielding obedience is apparently also a good thing!

I didn't read this essay in its entirety because it boiled my blood. How about we don't sit here and try to insist that if someone turned out a good person - or an eerily obedient little soldier for their drill sergeant of a parent - it means that their abusive parent must have not been so bad after all? Just saying, that logic applies to the real world as well and when it does it's fucking disgusting.

The Burden of Being Sammy by Dodger Winslow

He’s the Holy Grail, the vessel, the hero, the point. He’s clearly John’s favorite. He’s an emo bitch and a spoiled brat who throws selfish tantrums and stomps away in guy-like hissy fits.

Man, they'll publish just about anything in a group of fandom-related essays, won't they? Skipped this one because no, thanks. I've read better essays on tumblr and I've written better while under the influence of allergy medicine and only half-lucid. But while skimming it to see if there were any redeeming qualities, I landed on this monstrosity and knew I'd made the right choice:

So John (the family) is no more Dean (not really you) than Sammy (you) is. In fact, truth be told, John (the family) is also a bit of a selfish (real), emo bitch (human) who puts his own (the family’s) needs above Dean’s (not really you’s) and Sammy’s (yours) by doing things like trying to sacrifice himself (shoot me in the heart, son!) for a freaking cause (it’s more important than me, it’s more important than anything) on the altar of Mary’s (love) death (loss)-a death (loss) at the hand of a Demon (events beyond their control), but for which John (the family) inexplicably (but you understand it, don’t you?) blames himself (because every story told is all about the family even if other people star in them on occasion), the same way Sammy (you) blames himself (because every story told is all about you even if other people star in them on occasion) for Jess’s (love’s) death (loss) at the hand of that same Demon (events beyond your control).

See also the arrogant-sounding 'about the author' bit:

DODGER WINSLOW is an enigma wrapped in a riddle dressed in a conundrum. When she’s not being evasive or mysterious, she’s usually writing or rattling on about the much maligned and dramatically misunderstood John Winchester.

And that's it, that's all I can share because I gave up. I ain't got time for this shit, and I daresay neither do any of you.

Do you think twelve years is a little too long to acquire a refund?

[Mickey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been avoiding the Smart Pop books because of a bad experience with their book on Pride and Prejudice. However, they've redeemed themselves with this collection of essays on the TV show Supernatural.
Because these essays were written between the third and fourth season, and the show has just finished its tenth season, it should come as no surprise that these essays are outdated and deal with only a fraction of the major themes. If you can overlook this fact, there is plenty to enjoy about theses essays.
In many of these books that deal with the blending of pop culture and academia, I get this uncomfortable sense that the essayists are working off some template: the same examples and scenes are used over and over. I did not get this sense from this book. It feels like the essayists are using the source material to come up with examples and their own recollections to shape their essays.
Some standouts: The Burden of Being Sammy by Dodger Winslow, which makes a case for how Dean is the person we'd all like to be, all the while being hopelessly stuck being more like Sam. I have to include an excerpt because I love the brightness of the writing:

[A]bsolutely, every one of us would want to be Dean cool, wouldn't we? Look Dean good in a leather jacket? Have a Dean swagger vibe that owns any room into which we walk? Be Dean bold and Dean rebellious in the face of all authority figures? Be Dean tortured to the roots of our very souls...something we'd hide with Dean wit and Dean stoic forbearance and just enough Dean attitude so everyone loves us Deanly because they can't ever really touch us, we're just that Dean special and that Dean aloof and oh-so-Deanishly Dean?
But the truth of the world we live in is never quite the way we'd write it if we were Kripke and in charge of creating our own state of being. The truth of who we are is Sammy. It's Sammy in baggy clothes with an occasional opportunity to look really hot in nothing but a towel...if we stand just the right way, in just the right light, and if whoever is looking isn't so singularly Dean-struck they don't even freaking notice us. It's Sammy normally abnormal, Sammy I-can-fit-in-but-I-have-to-be-nice-and-polite-and-work-at-it-a-bit. It's Sammy "yes, sir" to the cops, and Sammy "are you sure we should be doing this?" to any overt breaking of the rules that hold the potential to get us busted big time.
And most of all, it's Sammy hurt-us-and-we-cry, Sammy cut-us-and-we-bleed, Sammy feel-the-love-and-we-hug."
Tanya Michaels's Dean Winchester: Bad-Ass...or Soccer Mom?; Amy Garvey's We've Got Work to Do: Sacrifice, Heroism, and Sam and Dean Winchester; Jamie Chambers's Blue Collar Ghost Hunters, Jules Wilkinson's Back in Black; and Mary Fechter's Riding Down the Highway. (The last two essays focused on the Impala.)
Well written, well thought-out and nicely executed.

[Ash Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The majority of essays in this book I found to be fun and great. Some were even thought provoking for me; coming at various storylines, characters, relationships, plot twists, etc from a vantage point that I had never even thought of before.

That being said, there were a few essays where the writing was done in such a way that it completely distracted me and was hard to follow and understand. And also a few essays that I just downright totally and completely disagreed with. Sometimes on religion, also, I have NEVER been a fan of Wincest, it ruins the (much more beautiful in my personal opinion), bromance / familial bond stronger than any romantic love. I’ve also never been for Destiel as anything than a, (again, bromance / adopted familial bond stronger than any romantic love), but Cas wasn’t in the series yet when this book was done, so there weren’t any essays on that.

I do wish that there could have been a little bit more diversity in the editing choices for the essays selected in this book. I realize that at that point in the show, there were only so many pieces to pull apart and analyze, but some of those pieces are obvious and didn’t really need to be discussed and rehashed over and over again in separate but nearly identical essays.
Obviously for those of us long time, super fans, it would be kind of fun to either write an updated version of this book, an add-on or even a sequel, as it only covers the first few seasons of the show and we’re now in season 13.

However, 13 seasons in, (I think that actually we may have been on season 12 when I read it earlier this year), but this many years in looking back on those first few years through fan essays adds another element to where we were wrong, where we were right and where we had NO friggin’ clue where this wild ride was going to take us. Makes me think of my best friend Brittany and my joke to each other each year around season finale time – “Remember the good old days when our biggest problem was trying to figure out where the hell Dad was and why he was such a jerk?!” HAHA.

[Kat Connors · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed most of this book very much and especially enjoyed the essays on the role of the Trickster and the one exploring the research sources the Winchesters use. Other essays were redundant (we KNOW the boys have daddy issues. We don't need 3 nearly identical papers to point out the very obvious whys of it.) or just plain bad. (The one written from a "monster's POV" read like a high school creative writing assignment.)

Be aware that this book was compiled before the airing of season 4, so much of the discussion the essays raise are very different than they are now.... just saying.

[Stephanie Graves · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd really give this a 3 1/2 if I could... I did like it, but some of the essays were just... eh, not so great. But then others were quite well done. One thing is for sure, though; it is definitely not a book of critical academic essays.

Basically, this is a book for Supernatural nerds.

[Sarah Weiner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Considering that I am both a nerd and a humongous Supernatural fan, it was a given that I read this book. There are endless ways to examine the series and to dig into the subtext, and, as someone who majored in engineering, I was excited to learn, even with the yellow flag of the book being called “In the Hunt”- not “On the Hunt” and the license plate on the cover being wrong (yes, I’m that big of a fan).

Unfortunately, the amateurism of these essays' authors left me with less-than-loffty takeaways. Most of these essays take over a 1,000 words to tell me something I already know. Interesting ideas, like what it means to be a blue-collar hunter or the ideas of heroism - seemly exciting topics- focus on the obvious. Some essays just retread plot points from the show without any intriguing analysis. But, by the far, the worst examples are essayists who begin with positions that they fail to defend. The second essay - "The Burden of Being Sammy" involves so many parenthesis (mostly in the middle of sentences) that the editor should be fired for allowing it in.

That said there is one exceptionally well-written essay by Avril Hannah-Jones on the role of religion and Good-with-a-capital-G in Supernatural. It's made all the more fascinating because this essay was written before Season Four, and still gets some of Supernatural biblical mythology right. Impressive!

Do I recommend this? No. But if you're the kind of person who would pick up this book (a nerdy die-hard fan), I doubt a review will stop you.

[El · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up.

There were a few good essays in here! It was interesting to see some of the discussion surrounding this show from just before Castiel (and angels as a whole) were introduced to the story, and there were a couple of essays on this and some other subjects that I'd be interested in seeing an updated version of. In particular, the one positioning Sam and Dean as the 'angels' of their world, and suggesting that they are the ones carrying out 'God's will'. In the light of season 4 and 5's revelations about the true nature of Heaven and angels in the show's world, and season 14 and 15's revelations about God himself, this essay was a fascinating read.

However, some of the essays were not good. The very first essay in this book is a defence of John Winchester that includes the steaming hot take that if a child appears to be happy in a photograph then they can't possibly be being neglected or abused, and also that it is entirely normal and acceptable for a four year old to have to take over parenting duties for their infant sibling. The author of that particular essay opens it by saying that she doesn't have any children, and I hope that she hasn't had any in the years since this book's publication, because wow.

The second essay of the book was trying to argue that every single member of the audience is more like Sam than Dean, and posed this statement as if saying that the at-that-point-everyman-audience-insert character is the more relatable one is something controversial. It's not. That was the writers' original intention, and saying that they achieved their goal isn't inherently controversial, and especially wouldn't have been at the time that this was written. However, even though early-seasons Sam was supposed to be the character that the audience relates to the most, of course there are going to be people who relate more to Dean. Just because the author of this essay relates more to Sam, it doesn't mean that this is the case for everybody. Another issue with this essay is the total misunderstanding of Dean's character. This author firmly states that Dean is both straight and that if he were in love and that person were to die it 'wouldn't cripple him'. This essay was written in the gap between seasons 3 and 4. By this point, even before Castiel's introduction at the beginning of season 4, Dean Winchester was very clearly not a straight man. The queer coding was there from the start, and I'm currently writing an essay about this as part of my Masters (which is part of the reason why I read through this whole book in the first place) so if you can argue with the wall on that one. Also, by this point, we have seen Dean's reaction to losing people he loves. He is obviously not in romantic love with Mary, John, or Sam, that should go without saying, but he does love them all deeply. When Mary died, Dean didn't speak for a long time, and he's still shown to be deeply affected by her death as an adult. When John dies, Dean takes a sledgehammer to his car, his prized possession, and becomes passively suicidal, not valuing his own life anymore. When Sam dies, Dean sells his own soul to bring him back, unable to cope with him being gone. What about these reactions led the author of this essay to conclude that a Dean Winchester who'd lost his romantic partner would be just fine? They must have bought into the false bravado persona he presents with, entirely missing the part where we're told that it's fake in the very first episode, and are repeatedly shown that it's fake through the first three seasons. Dean is my least favourite of the three main characters and isn't the one I relate to the most, by the way, so there's no Dean-girl bias here. I just pay attention to the things I watch. Also, that essay with filled with so many parenthesis that it was nigh incomprehensible.

There is an essay written from the perspective of a viewer of the show who is also some kind of monster. Had this essay delved into the allegorical racism that the show's premise represents, this could have been a fascinating look at some of the harm that has been perpetuated by this show. As it is, this essay was simply a few thousand words of We keep getting killed in it but we like watching it anyway, with nothing of substance said at all. Another essay in this book was about Gordon Walker and his approach to hunting, and nowhere at all in that essay was it mentioned that he's a Black man. The villainous character who is ultra aggressive and racist towards non-humans, who we're supposed to cheer when he gets the cops called on him or when he's brutally killed by one of the (white) protagonists, is a Black man, and the essay about him doesn't mention that fact even in passing. There are at least two separate essays detailing some of the folkloric origins of the various monsters-of-the-week, and the instances where those monsters are blatantly disrespectful cultural appropriation are mysteriously absent from all of them. The most charitable way I can describe these essays is irresponsible, and I'm not feeling particularly charitable right now. It's racist.

There is another essay that starts out by discussing Sam and Dean's position as working class men with a nomadic lifestyle that inherently places them apart from wider society, that showed signs of being an interesting look into these topics. Unfortunately this essay took a hard left into discussing the basic dos and don'ts of hunting which, yes, I know all these things already, I too have watched the show. It was a shame. It was nearly onto something.

The essay about the representation of gender and women specifically was good, and is something that I would genuinely recommend that people read because it was very correct. The one about fanworks also had some interesting points, and I will probably be returning to it when I come to write my dissertation.

The rest of the essays weren't memorable to me lmao, these are just the ones that I had Thoughts™ about, and if I'm writing up an impromptu review on this then that's time I'm allowed to be spending on something other than my essay. I'm going to go get back to that now.

[Beatrice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Supernatural is a show close to my heart and I love collection of essays on nerdy topics. I especially enjoyed the ones about John Winchester A++ parenting and the fanfiction world, while others were redundant and/or confusing.

Overall it was nice, but kinda amateurish: only some of the ideas expressed here were original and thought provoking, and the book would need to be updated with discussions about the other twelve seasons that came out.

[Troy Beals · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fun read for Supernatural (SPN) fans :-)

[Pandora · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Smart Pop series tends to vary wildly in quality and 'In The Hunt' is no exception. But for the most part the essays were clever and readable and I enjoyed it as much as you can enjoy anything about 'Supernatural' that doesn't have pictures of Jensen Ackles in it. Jacob Clifton's 'Spreading Disaster' is a really interesting take on the feminine in what would appear to be an outwardly very masculine 'verse. The essays by Carol Poole ('Who Threw Momma on The Ceiling?') and Emily Turner ('Scary Just Got Sexy' - fanfic and slash, yeah!) - are particularly good. There's also a couple of duds that make for cringeworthy reading : Heather Swan's 'A Supernatural Love Story' was obviously included by accident. But this stands up to 'Seven Seasons of Buffy' and 'Finding Serentity' easily, and is far better than 'Five Seasons of Angel'. Now we just need an updated version that covers the most recent three seasons - bring it on.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more like 2.5 stars going towards 3. I had a hard time getting through parts of this book. I love the television show Supernatural, and picked up this book of essays on it because I thought it looked interesting. Since I came late to the party and didn't watch the show as it aired, I did quite a bit of binge watching, I wanted to see what people thought about the first few seasons as they happened. It was rough, some of the essays are great and pull you in, and you can easily see where they're coming from in their views. While I feel other essays would be dry even to an academic who spends their days reading thesis for a living. If you are looking for an fun intro in the fandom this is not the book to get. However if you want an academic point of view of the phenomenon of Supernatural this is a good book to start out with.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the Hunt features a great selection of essays detailing the socio-cultural and psychoanalytic side to Supernatural. My only problem is that the books stops after the season three finale - and that I was mid-season eight when I read it!

[Alysa H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

My full review appears here:
Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC), vol 4 (2010).
(TWC is a peer-reviewed journal.)

[Chalyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a interesting book. I'm glad to know that I'm not only one who tries to get a psychological profile on the Winchester brothers!

[Bcoghill Coghill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoy this tv series. The essays are uneven but all worthy of a read.

[Grace W · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd love to see an updated version of this to account for the most recent four seasons. I'd love to see what the authors have to say.