Well, everyone’s favorite three-sided freak and supernatural small town is back with a bang. On July 23rd, Alex Hirsch released the long-awaited Book of Bill that flipped the slowly shrinking Gravity Falls fandom on its head. Personally, I had this book pre-ordered way back in February and have been waiting anxiously ever since. I’ve been a fan since the show first came out in 2012; I rewatch the show every summer. This was an extremely welcome surprise for a lifelong fan. I got the book… and truthfully? Nothing has ever been the same since, especially regarding information on the book’s titular character, Bill Cipher.Â
The actual contents of both the show and the book are great for any age. I was around seven or eight when I first started watching the show, so as long as you can handle slightly scary themes, it’s a great watch. The show takes place in the sleep town of Gravity Falls, Oregon where Mabel and Dipper Pines – twins – go to live with their Grunkle Stan in his house-turned-tourist-trap. The kids have to face monsters, interdimensional demons, and, of course, mysteries. It’s at the end of the first season that we get to officially meet the yellow triangular demon, Bill Cipher.Â
If you don’t know, Bill Cipher is the three-sided freak I mentioned in the beginning. He’s a merciless triangle demon of the show that haunts the kids and their family, creating the apocalypse and ultimately being exorcized out of existence. But out of sheer spite, he’s back again to tell us a couple of different stories… and the information in the book is groundbreaking. Bill Cipher is ready to reveal all for one simple price- your immortal soul. He answered so many questions that were left unanswered in the show.Â
In addition to the book, Alex Hirsch released a website that you can find here. When you put in different words into the computer, you get to see even more secrets that answer some long-standing questions about the TV show. I sat on the website for hours before it officially went live, watching and waiting. I even got a pretty popular TikTok video from it. I even read through the eternity of The Great Gatsby for this website… I’m extremely dedicated. I was even on it on my computer at work. But once that website went officially live, I found every single secret. I scrounged around the website like a mouse searching for cheese. I was extremely impressed with the contents of the website.Â
Besides the website and the book, I want to discuss the boom to the fandom. The fandom had been pretty dead at this point. I would pop in and out every once in a while. It seemed to pick back up in the summer but when that timeframe would end, people would disappear, and the fandom would remain stagnant until next summer. Once this book came out, however, the fandom completely exploded. I have never seen a fandom come back so quickly it was almost like whiplash. The community came back in a fervor, including old and new fans. Art, writing, and videos came out all at once. Included into this are celebrities such as MatPat from Game Theory and even Weird Al Yankovic.Â
Now this is extremely exciting for a lifelong fan who hasn’t seen so much activity since the trenches of 2014-2016. It was like standing in a quiet room that all of a sudden filled up with people ready to party. The fandom has been revived and almost better than ever, especially with the invention of TikTok. Everyone has been brought together under a triangular roof. A community back from the dead with a website and a book. Luckily, the fandom doesn’t show any signs of slowing, so if you’re looking for a community and haven’t ever heard of Gravity Falls, I highly recommend watching the show and buying the multitude of books.Â
As a fan since the beginning, it’s so good to see things coming back to life. It’s such a well-written show that has many themes that I’m only really discovering now as I grow up. Also, getting to slowly grow up with this show as the creator makes things a little darker is such a pleasure and privilege.