The big selling point of this book was the artwork. Depicting scenes that seemed to be derived directly from the twisted mind of H.P. Lovecraft, allowed me to fall into this title like it was a warm blanked on a damp and dark evening.
I will be gifting a copy of this to several friends who thoroughly enjoy Lovecraft.

As a collector of behind-the-scenes art books and illustrated guides like this, one doesn't need to be an Arkham Horror fan, or even a fan of Lovecraft, to enjoy the artwork here. Fascinating dives into lore, from game masters to the every day art fan (with a penchant for horror), folks will find something to dig. For those who are inspired by darker imagery, this will leave you feeling ready to take on whatever is crawling around in your mind.

As a long time lover of the Arkham Horror both board games and Card game and the Arkham Horror universe overall I am always excited to see the books come out. This one however especially caught my eye as it is expanding upon to lore and locations in the games. I have already pulled it up while plying the game to read to get more of the correct vibe for the location I was in, using it almost as a tourist's guide book while playing the game to flesh the world out and learn new little tidbits I may have missed about the location in past plays.

This book is lovingly written and illustrated with over 100 locations featured and over 500 illustrations. I have enjoyed reading it both on its own as a guide book through the locations I love in Arkham, and as an easy thing to add to my sessions when I sit down with the card or board game. If you love the art work on in the games you will love this as it is clear they had game illustrators work on the art for this book.

I would recommend this as an addition to any collection of an Arkham Horror lover, and as a great starting add on for someone just getting into this world who would like an easy jumping in place. Also a great idea for a gift for an Arkham Horror lover who seems to own all the games as it will just add some color to the world they clearly love.

I was fascinating and like travelling into a book. Great illustrations, a book that must be read in paper.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I've yet to actually play an Arkham Horror game, having not found anyone who knows the game or has interest in playing it. I have however, come to really enjoy the world of monsters, cults, and daring heroes that the game has created thanks completely to the work of Aconyte Books. Yes, I have experience with the works of Lovecraft, but the Arkham Horror novel series has been one of the best places to take the concepts that he created and expand upon them; and they've been some of my favourite Lovecraftian reads.

But, when you've got the foundation of Lovecraft himself, the creations from the game and it's various updates and expansions, and the books, it can be a lot to keep track of. It's not the biggest and more lore heavy tabletop game around, but it is a pretty expansive one in its own right. Rather than keeping copious notes and spreadsheets trying to keep track of everything, Aconyte offers fans a much better way with Welcome to Arkham: An Illustrated Guide for Visitors.

Written by the Arkham Historical Society, this travel guide for new visitors to the town is the perfect thing to pick up to help you learn more about the city, or to prepare yourself for a visit. The book is written within universe for the most part, acting like a regular travel guide to Arkham and some of the surrounding areas in the Miskatonic River Valley, including infamous locations such as Dunwich, and Innsmouth. Each location is given a write up, telling you about its history, and notable buildings and locations in each area, accompanied by beautiful full colour artwork that show of the beauty and horror of the place.

But the book doesn't just cover geographic locations, but includes a ton of easter eggs and nods to the wider world. This includes stuff like playbills, restaurant menus, newspaper and magazine articles, and other bits and pieces that have been collected together to give a wider view of the area. Care and attention is given to making the book feel as real as possible, and each of the pieces included in it is given a little bit of age, weathering, and general wear and tear in order to make it feel like something that someone could have put together themselves rather than the glossy new publication that it actually is.

For those eagle-eyed readers, however, there's a little something extra hidden amongst the pages of this guide. We all know that Arkham isn't a normal place, that the world of the paranormal and extraordinary seeps through around the edges of your perception. And this book is no different. Early on there's a hint of a missing person case. Scattered throughout the book are bits and pieces that add to this mystery, hinting at answers waiting for an intrepid reader to discover.

Whether you're new to the world of Arkham Horror, or if you're an old hat at the game and know every piece of lore and detail there is, Welcome to Arkham: An Illustrated Guide for Visitors is sure to delight and enthral. Having only read the digital version I can only imagine how good the book looks in person. The digital version is fantastic to read through, or even just flicking through the pages to stare at the gorgeous art. But this is definitely a book that I'm going to want to see in person too. It has the feel of something a little bit special, something that elevates the world of Arkham Horror in new and creative ways.

This is a great book for any fan of the Arkham Horror games and novellas. As a massive fan of the games, especially Eldritch Horror, and a collector of the novellas, I was really keen to read this book. The world building in the Arkham Horror games have always been their greatest appeal and this book builds and extends on that world building.
Not quite a travel guide, not quite an encyclopaedia, I find it hard to discribe this book but I definitely think it's a fan collection of.lore that any Arkham Horror fan would enjoy.

Thank you to Netgalley, the authors, and Aconyte for allowing me to read a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Welcome to Arkham: An Illustrated Guide for Visitors is an incredible find. It's a great resource for both players of Arkham Horror (or anyone wanting to develop characters further in that world) and for fans of Lovecraftian fiction, and it's also an absolutely gorgeous art book.

This book acts as a travel guide to important places in Arkham (and, to some extent, the nearby and also-important towns of Dunwich, Innsmouth, and Kingsport), with elaborate write-ups of each location. Fans of the Arkham Horror games and novels will note familiar names and faces scattered throughout the pages; after all, why would they mention the Arkham Advertiser without calling out Andy, or Rex Murphy, or Millie Klein? But simultaneously, the entries never rely on these references, nor do they overplay them. You can read this book completely blind to the Arkham Horror franchise and still come away with a rich, lush world.

By far and away the best part of this book is the ephemera included with it. Overlaid on every single page are photographs, tickets, restaurant menus, cutouts of articles, playbills, coinage, letters, postcards, and so much more. At one point, a file folder is 'inserted' into the booklet, to allow greater detail into certain supernatural horrors than an in-world travel guide would generally permit. These are all treated with a great sense of realism, to the point that letters show the faded inverted writing on the other side, and every piece of paper is aged a different amount; there are stains, creases, tears, and ink blots. The pages of the artbook themselves are laid out to appear to be loosely bound, well-used, and torn. The graphical designers and layouters absolutely went above and beyond, and the whole thing feels incredibly grounded as a result.

Adding to this is a secret, hidden story that is told across the pages. You're clued into it on the first page as a "Miss Todd" gets the news that her uncle has gone missing, and on subsequent pages, you'll notice writing on some of the ephemera -- circling relevant information, adding her notes as she reviews them, and so on.

This book is incredible, and I cannot wait to own a physical copy in my house to leaf through all the time -- which I'm going to get, because many parts of it are harder to access digitally (some of the ephemera is sideways or even upside down!), and I anticipate many long hours paging through it and discovering new things.

Thank you to Aconyte Books & Netgalley for access to this ARC.

𝗜 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄!

Welcome to New England in the roaring Twenties!

The Book encompasses whole parts of the Lovecraftian Universe around the Cthulhu Mythos. Do you feel at ease with cities and towns named Arkham, Dunwich, Innsmouth, and Kingsport or the infamous Miskatonic University? (Hopefully not, but that’s another story for another time.)

Then this will be your happy place—a book to thumb through if you’re not playing the game itself. A book to explore the different places that you also encounter in the game.

This book, as a companion to the ‘Arkham Horror’ series of tabletop games, is well thought out. Whether it is the cover art, the design itself, interior art, or choice of fonts, everything was put together in quite a balanced manner. As a graphic designer, I have to say that there are only a few things I would have done differently.

One of my absolutely favorite bits is that in the design of the pages, you see ephemera like theater cards, old photographs put in place by paperclips, recipes, newspaper scraps, and so much more added while fitting the topic.

I hope it's okay to add one of the pages of the Book as a sneeak peak into the last slide of this Post
It has an atmosphere… I don’t know, like a mixture between a junk journal and an investigator’s diary.

I have had the fortune to be gifted the ARC of this book as an eBook, but I am thinking about getting the hardcover edition for myself. I enjoyed reading about and exploring this little world through this book.

𝑰 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒕𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒓.

Welcome to Arkham is a picturesque view into the legendary New England town of Arkham, Dunwich, Innsmouth and Kingsport. Each page details a specific location, providing the history and how it is viewed now.

As someone who has never heard of the Arkham horror games, I was drawn to this book since I was born and raised in New England. Although the towns are mythical, I did enjoy the way each location was brought to life with the vivid descriptions and the additions of pictures, handwritten letters, receipts, etc.

I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys stepping into a scene and glancing around to soak up all the details.

Thank you Aconyte Books, A.P. Klosky and David Annandale for the ARC via NetGalley.

Utterly brilliant for Lovecraft fans. While a PDF version might be useful for reference, this is clearly going to have to be on my shelves in a physical version, as it feels just like leafing through a scrapbook complete with ephemera.

In advance, I’d like to thank the publisher, and Netgalley for the free review copy in return for an honest review, no other inducements have been received by me for this, my words are my own.

This is a guide to the world of Arkham Horror, fully illustrated and annotated. It’s broken down into give different sections, Arkham, Miskatonic University, Dunwich, Innsmouth, and Kingsport. Within each section are details of all the locations within the larger place, and within those descriptions are details of the things that you might find within each of them.

As a lifelong fan of all things Lovecraft, I know well all the locations, and so while the book doesn’t hold anything new for me, this would make for a superb primer for anyone just getting into the setting and wanting a more in depth look on all the things that go on there without having to find them in all the different books.

The illustrations are first class, and the descriptions are clear, enough of a hint of things without trying to cram everything in, which would have been an error. While the full details of what goes on in this setting couldn’t be covered in a single book, there’s enough here to make the suggestion that there’s more than meets the eye, and that in turn is enough to spark curiosity.

And that’s always how trouble starts out here.

I was excited the check out Welcome to Arkham as a fan of the Call of Cthulhu TTRPG and similar Lovecraftian horror games and media. It did not let me down.
The art in this book is amazing. It pops like old pulp fiction covers with loud colors interspersed with dreary, faded documents. Each page is like an exploration in an old case file.
It was really rough to get into as an ebook however. Readers will be much better off grabbing this one in physical form not only for easier reading but also if you wanted to use any pages of it in a game you are running, it will be easier to photo copy or send a picture of the page you want your players to see.

Received as an ARC from Netgalley:

This was such a fun little treat, with only passing knowledge of HP Lovecraft's body of work this captured all of the captivating things about his work, whilst wisely removing all of the elements that made me uninterested in reading more.

As such we have a beautifully illustrated travel guide that really keeps everything creepy and mysterious. There is a throughline story being told in the margins so be sure to read all of the little tidbits hidden within the guide.

Fantastic idea that was executed extremely well.

High recommend.

Whether you are a fan of the role playing game, table top game, or just the lore behind Arkham and the Cthulhu Mythos, you will enjoy this book. It's beautifully illustrated and full of fun information about a world in which H.P. Lovecraft greated. As a hug fan of Lovecraft and his mythos, I had a lot of fun with this book.

Thank you to net galley and the publisher. Definitely a good book for fans of the game and book series. Definitely a favorite read of books involving games like this

Definitive is a strong word. While the book provides a fantastic amount of material, and is a boon for new Keepers looking to borrow some atmosphere, it may be a little thin on the ground to be called definitive. Very useful for sure.

I've said in past reviews that I'm all-in for the new Arkham tales that both use the world and mythos of HPL while expanding far beyond what he would be comfortable with! Because here we are, in the 21st Century, in a similar world of fear and uncertainty. This books reflects that perfectly.

First of all, this book is gorgeous! I will be looking for a physical copy, because even though the PDF is as sharp and colourful as can be, this is just so tactile. The streets of Arkham and its surroundings, the districts and key buildings, are all painted in words and pictures that allow us to explore as effectively as any guidebook. I smiled as I recognised certain areas from the aforementioned recent books, and am certainly inspired to play the adjacent roleplaying game in order to delve deeper.

The undercurrent of plot in the text is fabulous too, with a lost traveller being sought by a loved one. Little pieces of 'found footage' such as letters, tickets and suchlike give this additional life beyond the pages. A slightly-less drug-induced relative of 'House of Leaves', perhaps?

If you enjoy the Arkham-verse, this book is essential - whether as a viewer from afar, or a traveller in its darkness. Even if it doesn't exactly give you a free pass through those mysteries...

Definitely recommended.

This was an enjoyable guide to the world of Arkham Horror, this has been one of my favorite series overall. It does a great job in introducing the reader to the world of Arkham. I enjoyed how good of an addition this was and that it was a joy to read.

When I saw this on NetGalley I was immediately drawn to it as one of the few mainstream RPGs and gaming settings I still like is Call of Cthulhu.

I’ve loved reading through this guide to Arkham, it’s locations, and the surrounding areas but feel that the hardback would be more satisfying to actually own as it would be easier to explore the additional panels and such on the book.

Set out as a guide from a fictional historical society to right the wrongs perpetrated by a neighbouring towns unfavourable write up of them, this takes us around the various areas of Arkham.

Each area of the town gets a little tour highlighting the more important locations and characters in those locations, all the while hinting at darker goings on in the background.

This would be a great source book for setting adventures in and around Arkham using the places and people described but it also gives the reader more than that.

There are a few brief introductions to the mythology of the Lovecraft universe and shows that these myths and creatures are universal.

Overall a good read for those used to the Cthulhu settings and a great little introduction for those new to it.

I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting look behind the desktop game. You learn more about the towns and history behind the game. This book encouraged me to check out the game and other aconyte titles