Evie Wada

On June 15, 2012, writer and animator Alex Hirsch released a children’s show, Gravity Falls, to Disney XD. The story follows 12-year-old twins, Mabel and Dipper, as they get sent to their great-uncle Stan’s house in the middle of Oregon for the summer. What viewers learn from the very first episode is that Gravity Falls isn’t an average town, as it houses otherworldly creatures and mysteries only few can solve. 

Out of the many main characters, one is the most iconic: Bill Cipher. Bill Cipher is the main antagonist of the show. Taking the appearance of a yellow triangle with one eye and a top hat, he is described as a “dream demon.” He can enter people’s minds, take over their bodies with consent, and see the futures of infinite different universes. These powers may seem tame at first, but he is capable of destroying worlds. Bill is so popular that he has even been referenced in other TV shows, movies, and books.

The show ended Feb. 15, 2016, but that wasn’t the end of Gravity Falls. Alex Hirsch was still active on social media, posting about his show for years after its end, but only recently did he surprise fans with a new piece of media to absorb. In December of 2023, Alex Hirsch posted on Twitter, “Against all laws of physics, logic, and good taste, Bill Cipher has somehow managed to write a book. This can’t be good. The Book of Bill invades book stores this July! #TheBookOfBill”.

“The Book of Bill” is the newest addition to the Gravity Falls universe. In the story, the book can, and will, change depending on the person holding it. Its main goal is to appeal to the reader just enough to convince them to let Bill inside of their head. I had no idea what I was signing up for before I bought the book, and once I did, it wasn’t anything like I expected.

The first few pages of the book are a warning. The warning tells us about the book’s intentions, which are to make us let Bill into our mind, and that it is our own decision if we decide to take the risk and turn the page. So, that is exactly what I did. When we skip past the warnings, we are greeted by Bill himself. He is the one who wrote the book, after all, and it says so on the ninth page.

“WRITTEN BY BILL”

“PUBLISHED BY BILL”

“LICKED BY BILL”

When reading through “The Book of Bill,” there are a lot of good laughs, as well as pop-culture references, utter nonsense, mini activities to complete and celebrity cameos.

“I thought I liked things that were weird, but I was wrong. This book was too weird for me. I feel nauseous just thinking about the horrifying psychosis contained within. I’m legally changing my name to ‘Normal Al’ now and pushing all my Hawaiian shirts out to sea on a barge. Avoid this book at all costs!!” wrote ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, an American musician and comedy actor, in his review on the cover of the book.

Not only is the book supposed to be humorous, but there is also a lot of information to take in. It tells the story of Gravity Falls, but from Bill’s perspective, allowing us to get to know him and his background on a much deeper level. 

Between the funny pages of this book, there are hidden messages, codes and straightforward facts about the show’s universe that we never knew before. There are facts about the town of Gravity Falls, its citizens, its visitors, its monsters and even alternate universes where things didn’t end up as well as they did at the end of the show. Thousands of fans around the world are currently working together to decode some of the most disguised messages that lay hidden in each page of the book, connecting them and using them as pieces to puzzles that had been long unsolved since the show’s end.

The story of Gravity Falls has aged with its audience, and “The Book of Bill” does a really good job of showing that. For example, I was only four years old when the first episode aired, but now I am 16 years old while reading and analyzing this book. It is clear that it is not supposed to be appealing to children anymore, but instead to teenagers and young adults who watched the show when they were kids. It is relatable, weird and even states on the front cover, “Beware: This book travels to dimensions meant for older readers.”

The release of “The Book of Bill” has lifted Gravity Falls to the surface of the media once again. People are now continuing to write stories, make comics, draw art and even cosplay these characters again. This revival is long overdue, and Gravity Falls deserves all of the attention it is getting as of recently.