Hardcover review: Definitely the way to go, versus the audiobook experience. For one, the audiobook weaves in and out of the chapters so you cannot follow with the book, which is a bit baffling. For another, the artwork is just fantastic and obviously beats descriptions. It’s a shame that you pretty much just can’t predict where the audio is going and marry the experience; it would be the absolute best to browse the fantastic artwork while having the interviews and print voiced. It does, however, remain somewhat of interest if you don’t know anything about where the magic and lore comes from. But if you do, it’ll have but a few tidbits you don’t know, and not much else. Gorgeous layout too.


Audiobook review: So, I turned on the audiobook because I have the physical edition and I wanted to hear it read as I turned the pages and looked at the artwork. That… wasn’t possible, because the audio production is basically completely different. It’s got interviews and a different structure. It’s not concerned with merely narrating (via the fantastic Natalie Dormer) just the text, it’s helpful to think of it as a completely different thing. Im going to read my physical copy too… so I guess I’ll separate the reviews somehow in this same space.

As far as the actual content, aside from the production values which are really high, what with interviews of illustrators and audiobook narrators and the curators of the actual museum exhibit this book is concerned with. Substantively though, I think maybe there’s a few tidbits you’d be surprised with, but if you know about the real-life folklore and mythology of Britain, you probably won’t be surprised at all. It’s actually kind of funny because a criticism of the Harry Potter series is that it’s so vanilla with it’s magic system and folklore and stuff, whereas the exhibition celebrates that; using it as a means of point-of-entry for people who don’t know anything about it, but have read the books.

So, it’s fine. Historical points I didn’t know were welcome, but yeah, does what it says on the tin, basically.