The Book of Werewolves by Sabine Baring-Gould

A very comprehensive book, written in the nineteenth century, regarding berserkers, werewolves, other metamorphic changes from humans to animals, witches, ghouls, and particularly, cannibalism, which riddled the pre-Victorian Age, lingering in some isolated communities when the writer was collecting his research. There is so much cannibalism it could be retitled The Book of Cannibals.

The last third of the book loses its lycanthropic focus for the cruelty of torturers, the bathers in the blood of children, the killers and eaters of children, and ghoulish misdeeds in cemeteries. All are very disturbing. Each of the later scenarios are given to excessive details that seem almost as filler to bulk up the pages and could have easily been excluded.

The first third was far more interesting and I give that 3 ½ stars, while the later runs between 2 ½ and three, thus disappointing.