Author Joshua Gee has risked life, limb, spirit and soul to bring readers this extensively researched tome of all things you should know better than to ask about.

And Gee opens up with the biggest horror act of them all: Count Dracula. No, not the fictional character immortalized by Bram Stoker on paper and Bela Lugosi on celluloid -- I'm talking about the real deal, Vlad Tepes, late of Wallachia, Romania. He ruled over five hundred years ago, and earned the title of Vlad Dracula -- Vlad the Devil -- because of his bloodthirsty ways and dastardly means of dealing with his enemies. And to edge up the creep factor, Gee describes what you'll find if you visit present day Romania:
     ...Proceed to nearby Snagov Lake as the sun begins to set... and pay no attention to the howling of Romania's wild wolves.
     Soon you will spot an island. As you peer into the fog, you might hear somebody cry, "Nu intra!" ("Do not go there!"). For upon that island lies the tomb of Vlad Dracula -- terror in any language.
     The most unsettling fact about Dracula's tomb is not its owner's name. Far scarier is what archaeologists discovered there. In the prince's most likely burial spot they found... nobody at all. When they finally dug up some princely remains nearby, those oddly vanished, too.
     Could it be because Vlad Dracula still needs his body today? Some locals believe the answer is a bloodcurdling yes!
Gee delves further into the stories of vampires, with pictures of antique vampire killing kits and reprints of old newspaper articles of attacks. But he doesn't stop with vampires: sea serpents, space aliens, and werewolves all have pages upon pages of entries in the Encyclopedia Horrifica, and that's just in the first of four sections, "Real Nightmares".

In "That's the Spirit!", Gee focuses on a favorite of all spook-fans: ghosts. Ghost stories, EVP, and photographs abound here. Once you explore the entries recounted in this chapter, you'll begin to believe that faint glow coming from your closet may not be a reflection of your night light after all!

Proceed from there, if you dare, to the third section: "Every Day is Halloween." This is a nifty little vacation planner, showing you where the some of the best places to visit are in the country if you want to take a little terror-trek, at any time of the year. But it's more than a travelogue. You'll also learn about experiments in ESP, with an interview with a former government agent employed by Star Gate. His job? To psychically read enemy agent's minds and pull out their secrets! You'll also find out about superstitions and phobias, and explore a plethora of other books dedicated to explaining the unexplainable -- as well as books that are downright unexplainable themselves!

The final chapter, "Fearsome Fates," is the end of the book and is devoted to, rightfully enough, the end. Period. Some lives end up as zombies, if they're poisoned with the right stuff. Some disappear as the result of faerie trickery. And some lives carry a curse with them beyond death, like the mummies of ancient Egypt.

And overseeing the end? Death himself!

This handsome hardcover volume -- with a lenticular frontispiece -- will surely delight young boys and ghouls. In depth without being graphic, informative about the frightening without being too frightening in the informing, the Encyclopedia Horrifica is a must have for your reference shelf.

Put it right next to your vampire killing kit.