Under the lens “Book Reviews” takes a deep look at books by focusing on one or two particular areas of the work that helped to define it for better or for worse.
The X-Files: The Official Archives: Cryptids, Biological Anomalies, and Parapsychic Phenomena is a 2020 book written by bestselling author, Paul Terry, and fully authorized by Twentieth Century Fox. This very special book is an in-world, specially-compiled archive of Special Agents Mulder and Scully’s actual X-file reports from the show, such as field reports, autopsy results, newspaper clippings, sketch artist drawings of eye-witness testimony, evidence ripped from books on the occult, security camera footage printouts.
Under The Lens: Style/Layout, In-Universe and Content Quality
Style/Layout: The X-Files: The Official Archives is the type of book where a lot can go wrong, when it comes to the style of the content and how it’s laid out. The placement of photos, wording, and even down to the seemingly innocuous positioning of the in-universe items like fingerprints, witness statements, and redactions can cause books like this to be difficult to read.
However, I was pleased to see that this was absolutely not the case when it came to The X-Files: The Official Archives. The book masterfully uses its layout to best effect by using the various pieces of information to highlight what it whats the reader to focus on. What may look like a jumbled file from the FBI has been laid out to be anything but jumbled.
In-Universe: When it comes to books about popular shows, we generally get episode breakdowns, interviews with cast and crew, behind the scene stories, and lost content, which makes for a deeper look at the program in question. The X-Files: The Official Archives takes a very different route, this books is framed as actually existing within the world of The X-Files, this is not a compilation of facts, but the case reports for the wild and terrifying cases of Agents Mulder and Scully.
The reader takes on the “Role” of Agent Leyla Harrison, who is helping Director Skinner archive The X-Files. We see reports to Director Skinner, hear the musings of Mulder, and see the burn and tear marks from old Newspapers and even handwritten addendums by Agent Leyla Harrison from years later.
Its a very immersive experience, one that also showcases the logical and factual presentation of the cases to the FBI, when I watched the television program, I often wondered what the reports to the FBI looked like and how some of these WEIRD cases were explained! Well, now thanks to this book I can see exactly what they looked like.
Content Quality: I was very happy to find as I read through this book that the content quality was very high! The X-Files: The Official Archives is not a cash grab or an effort to rush out something to the show’s legion of fans. The photos are clear (When they are meant to be, remember this is a case book) the drawings and crime scene images are suitably gory and chilling. The maps were placed in the files for particular cases and helped to further immerse the reader, each case is cataloged with a case report cover page that details some of the content, such as who investigated, notes, and dates as well as the case status.
Highlights
Author Paul Terry included many handwritten notes by Agent Leyla Harrison that involved her follow up work on some of the cases, it was fun to have a few questions answered about what may have happened later.
This book clearly was created and written by a huge fan of the show and shows love for its mythos and characters.
The in-universe reason for the existence of the book is interesting and adds some mystery
Quotable Quote
Walter Skinner: While I am dedicated to what the FBI and this country stand for, there are forces at work, even within the walls of the Bureau, that I do not align myself with, or trust.
Conclusion
The X-Files: The Official Archives is a well put together book that seeks to catalog and archive the cases of the X-Files while providing an in-universe reason for it. Its well laid-out and provides the reader and especially fans of the show with a heavy dose of nostalgia. It’s filled with easter eggs, and clues and seeks to provide the reader with more than just “Episode Summaries”, Paul Terry seeks to immerse fans into the wild and strange world of The X-Files. If you are a fan of the show I highly recommend you pick up this book, you will not be disappointed.
Perhaps after reading The X-Files: The Official Archives: Cryptids, Biological Anomalies, and Parapsychic Phenomena you will say as I did the famous words of Agent Mulder, “I want to believe.”