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Bill Cipher is back, foolish mortals, and things about to get even weirder around here. Set on telling the villain’s “real” side of the story that happened in Disney’s classic animated series Gravity Falls, this lore-packed book written by creator Alex Hirsch dropped into our dimension on July 23 — and it’s already dominating the charts.
The Book of Bill is now No. 2 on the Amazon best-sellers list as well as No. 1 on Amazon Hot New Releases chart, only displaced from the throne by Vice President-hopeful J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy. But how is this Big Bad reigning supreme against non-fiction competitors? Don’t mess with this interdimensional god of chaos — the book details how the demon came to be involved with the series’ Pines family, and sheds light on his bizarre origins as well as the key to overthrowing the world (laid out in a handy step-by-step guide).
Right now there are enough versions of the book to melt our feeble human brains, including the regular hardcover, where the titular character is shown off in a menacing red colorway, and the second being a special Barnes & Noble edition showcasing Bill Cipher in his usual gold. This exclusive version is packed full of 16 extra pages featuring (terrible) life advice from the demon himself. Right now, you can get the “memoir” of this awful enigma at a 33% discount as of publication time. Normally $26.99 you can buy the hardcover edition of The Book of Bill for $18 while Amazon’s promotion lasts.
Gravity Falls was famous for engaging its audience with secret codes and hidden messages strewn throughout the episodes that entire fan communities attempted to crack, and The Book of Bill is no different. As per the Amazon description, “this chaotic and beautifully illustrated tome contains baffling riddles, uncrackable ciphers, lost Journal 3 pages, ways to cheat death, the meaning of life, and a whole chapter on Silly Straws.” But most importantly, they say — “The Book of Bill is deeply, deeply cursed.”
As well as deepening the lore of the show, Hirsch’s has used his macabre humor for some seriously fun promotional bits for the book. These include a fake billboard that says “Injured? Good! Call Cipher to hear me laugh at your pain” which features a real number you can dial to hear Bill’s signature laugh, and a Stranger Things-core Barnes & Noble book display where The Book of Bill seems to have “infected” all the other books in the vicinity with inky black goo and pages with nothing but “HA HA HA” written on them.
Even the “reviews” on the back of the book are made to make you wary (and chuckle), including one from “Guillermo del Torro” stating, “‘I found this arcane volume in a musty aisle at the most accursed of libraries. Nightly visitations by foul spirits commenced almost immediately. It has infected my mind and my dreams, and it will destroy your sanity. For all that is good and holy—stay away from it, and whatever you do, do not read it.’ —Guillermo del Toro”
The Book of Bill is the latest entry into the Gravity Falls canon, and while you can’t currently read it on Kindle or listen to an Audible audiobook version, you can order the hardcover or the exclusive Barnes & Noble edition online now.
