I'd like to pretend I read this ironically, but I was genuinely interested. I will be reviewing it completely seriously, though, as a piece of textual analysis—as funny as that is if I take a step back. (For reference: I was a huge fan in middle school, moved on, then revisited the show in the past year in a "this show isn't necessarily good, but was a big part of my life, and can be analyzed in interesting ways" way.)

Overall, this book was better than I expected: well-researched, didn't fall into as many pop-psychology traps as I thought it would, and interesting. Most chapters read like good college papers—not badly-written, but the style got old.

It was clearly written for die-hard fans or people looking for analysis completely free of critique. There aren't any even close to negative thoughts or criticisms of the show's plot/direction or how it handles the issues analyzed. It takes everything at face value, as if these were real people in real situations, and goes from there. There's definitely a place for that kind of analysis, and it was genuinely interesting, but I would have liked to see more varied opinions about how the show portrayed the concepts they're identifying.

While it has better analysis/research than I thought it would, it rarely brought up anything I (or a Tumblr mutual) hadn't already thought about. Mostly just provided psychological terms & research for already thought about concepts among fans. (Again, not inherently negative, and there's a place for it, just would have liked to see more.)

I was pleasantly surprised by the book's discussion of mental illness, including psychosis. There are countless fan/pop-psychology takes (often about this show/similar fantasy shows) that are deeply harmful to mentally ill/psychotic people, and while it's a low bar to not cause harm to minorities, it's often hard to find good takes. In my opinion (as a mentally ill person who experiences psychosis), this book, while not revolutionary, discusses these topics with lots of research/background knowledge and respect. It clearly and clinically describes disorders/symptoms, and goes from there. Again, this is rare! So many analyses of fantasy forget that real people experience these things in our world, and this book doesn't fall into those traps. 

It's primarily-Winchester focused, which I guess I should have expected, because only in the past few years have I seen any proper fan attention/analysis towards other characters. It ends up feeling like it's mostly about Dean, but I'm aware there's definitely an argument that Dean is written as the main character in many seasons, especially the early ones. It includes Sam pretty often (often to compare/contrast with Dean), and provides small analyses of John, Charlie, Bobby, and Crowley. My main problem with the character inclusion is Castiel, who is mostly relegated to anecdotes, parentheses, descriptions of things he did with/to Dean, or simple comparisons. This is a crime in my eyes, because even though he wasn't introduced until Season 4, he's clearly a main character. The story cannot be told without him and he's unarguably a fan-favorite. I would have taken even one chapter primarily about him and his character journey. Please.

My favorite chapter was entitled "Bro Moments," and addressed gender roles, masculinity, and communication between men. I'm aware that expecting the book would include any queer readings of the text is too much to ask, but I thought the chapter did a good job with the subject matter, seeing as the bar is pretty low for mainstream fan/pop-psychology (the term "heteronormative" even shows up in one of the footnotes!). 

Obviously the book was published before the show ended, and it's interesting to see how the conclusions held up (or didn't) in light of the finale. The last few chapter's emphasis on The Hero's Journey is especially intriguing when looking at the lack of closure the text provided in Dean's journey. It also, whenever it talks about symptoms/issues/etc., discusses how people heal from them, and it's especially frustrating to realize that the person they talk about for most of the book does not heal/recover/move on. 

Overall: A good starting point. Not a bad book, not wholly necessary either. Have fun, kids.