Lupa's book is exactly as it says: practical and straight-forward with no hand-holding exercises. Don't expect prefab spells or "this is the way you should do it." She gives you ideas, starting places, and the results from her own work, then turns you loose with the knowledge to do it your own way. No stone is left unturned with chapters on the standard totemism and familiars, moving on to invocation and evocation of animal entities, the creation of animal entities, shapeshifting, and even the heretofore taboo subjects of the use of animal parts in magic and animal sacrifice. Even these branch off into subsections dealing with everything from mythology to cryptozoology and therianthropy.

The art is beautiful and the writing is clear and easy to read; I devoured it the night I got it (something I almost never do with any book). Elements of paleopaganism, neopaganism, and pop culture (including a guest appearance by Moro no Kimi and mentions of such seemingly random and unrelated subjects as "Pokemon" and "Star Wars") blend together to bring something completely new to the standard fare currently ascribed to books on animal magic. Even the chapter on totems alone is well worth it, going far more indepth than any I've read so far.

In short, for those of you (be you magician, witch, whatever, or not) tired of reading the same totem dictionary in fifteen different covers by thirty different authors, this book is for you.