megshulse's review
4.0
Feels like sitting around a campfire with a quirky and class-clown-y fellow camper. A fun read and fantastic overview of local lore from across the USA.
skmcwood's review against another edition
slow-paced
2.0
I was really excited for this and I just did not enjoy it. There was little detail and it felt more like a Google search of each state written in the style of a book.
sarah_fodots's review against another edition
fast-paced
2.0
This book was just not for me. It felt like a 200 page BuzzFeed article and the audio book narration felt very much like an Entertainment Tonight sting. Very disappointing overall.
nattycran's review
3.0
While interesting and certainly entertaining, Chasing American Monsters is more of a reference book than anything else. Organized by state, some passages are as little as one paragraph while others are closer to two pages. Some states have many legends, some only a handful. And some monsters like Big Foot, Wendigo, and Thunderbird and referenced under multiple states.
I appreciated that everything was cited and that Native American cultures were given credit for their origin stories. What I really wanted was more analysis and connection with immigrant stories and influences. What happens when Scottish Loch dwellers move into an area populated with Native Americans who have lake legends? What about an Italian immigrant in Alaska where there are less terrain similarities--how does that change and shape these oral traditions and reports?
TLDR: Great for reference, not enough details to be more.
I appreciated that everything was cited and that Native American cultures were given credit for their origin stories. What I really wanted was more analysis and connection with immigrant stories and influences. What happens when Scottish Loch dwellers move into an area populated with Native Americans who have lake legends? What about an Italian immigrant in Alaska where there are less terrain similarities--how does that change and shape these oral traditions and reports?
TLDR: Great for reference, not enough details to be more.
bookdeviant's review
4.0
I don't know if I hide it well or not, but for a while I've been really interested in cryptids and monsters like Bigfoot, the Jersey Devil, Chupacabra, and even a few in my state of Wisconsin. When I saw a book basically dedicated to these monsters, I was ecstatic. I was slightly concerned that the voice might make the book dry and hard to get through, but I was proven wrong nearly immediately.
Check out the rest of my review on The Book Deviant!
Check out the rest of my review on The Book Deviant!
howlinglibraries's review
2.0
I'm so disappointed in this book, and I'm not even sure if it's fair for me to be this disappointed, but here we are. I love cryptid stories and literally spent countless late nights as a kid/teen (okay, who am I kidding, I'm 26 and it still happens frequently) digging through cryptid forums and sites and blog posts, devouring any stories I could find. Even if the stories took place thousands of miles away from me, it didn't stop me from loving them (though my favorites, of course, are the ones that took place in my home state of Georgia or surrounding states).
All of that said, as you can imagine, I was super excited to read this, but it wasn't what I expected at all. It's broken up by states, which was a cool formatting, but each state only has an illustration of one of its cryptids, and... honestly, I'm not convinced some of those illustrations weren't traced over old Neopets designs. Sorry.
Artwork aside, instead of giving history on established cryptids that a lot of people actually believe in, most of these were nonsense (one of the Georgia cryptids' sections claims that it's a widely held belief in this particular area, and having lived very near that region as a kid and knowing a ton of people from the town? No, it's not). Half of the stories given were basically just like, "This ONE PERSON in *insert year* claimed they saw this and now everyone believes it!" and, frankly, that's not how cryptid stories work from my experience. Maybe Offutt's circles run a little differently, but ask anyone in mine, and we'll all agree that a cryptid story isn't fun until there are enough corroborating stories to make it plausible.
Sigh. I didn't mean for this review to become a rant. I'm sure the author is a great person who thought they'd write something really fun and kooky, but the delivery wasn't there for me at all.
Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
All of that said, as you can imagine, I was super excited to read this, but it wasn't what I expected at all. It's broken up by states, which was a cool formatting, but each state only has an illustration of one of its cryptids, and... honestly, I'm not convinced some of those illustrations weren't traced over old Neopets designs. Sorry.
Artwork aside, instead of giving history on established cryptids that a lot of people actually believe in, most of these were nonsense (one of the Georgia cryptids' sections claims that it's a widely held belief in this particular area, and having lived very near that region as a kid and knowing a ton of people from the town? No, it's not). Half of the stories given were basically just like, "This ONE PERSON in *insert year* claimed they saw this and now everyone believes it!" and, frankly, that's not how cryptid stories work from my experience. Maybe Offutt's circles run a little differently, but ask anyone in mine, and we'll all agree that a cryptid story isn't fun until there are enough corroborating stories to make it plausible.
Sigh. I didn't mean for this review to become a rant. I'm sure the author is a great person who thought they'd write something really fun and kooky, but the delivery wasn't there for me at all.
Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
discocrow's review
1.0
I have a lot of love for cryptozoology. If I see a book on the subject I'll probably pick it up. No matter how outlandish the story, how ridiculous it all is... I tend to eat it up. Even if the story makes next to no sense, there's usually a lot that can be drawn from it. Sociologically, anthropologically... Just the way that various indigenous cultures have seen their stories perverted over the years to fit the various whims of the less than honest cryptozoologists is a fascinating thing. What I mean to say with this is that most monster books inevitably have value - even if the value is only in learning something about the author and how they view the world.
This book... not really so much.
This book is a compendium of cryptozoological creatures found in the United States. There is no distinction made between the more interesting creatures (i.e. Mothman and all of that phenomenon, unknown birds) and the purely hoax made creatures (i.e. jackalopes, Jersey Devil, living dinosaurs). All are given space along with a winking speculation as to their reality. Did I mention every single state has a Bigfoot entry? Did I mention that these Bigfoot entries make no effort to distinguish regional variations? Did I mention that the Bigfoot encounters also include known hoaxes that are called hoaxes in the book? What?
This book makes no effort to be a viable compendium of creatures. It treats it all like a joke, all the while saying "maybe x is real, I want to believe" which loses its meaning when it's placed alongside a taxidermy gaff. This could've been fun, could've been great. Another reviewer mentioned that the illustrations bear a striking resemblance to Neopets and... they do.
I expected something better from this publishing house, as normally their books are quite fun. Oh well. Look to [a: John Keel|18452|John A. Keel|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1247843969p2/18452.jpg] or [a: Loren Coleman|6482810|Loren Coleman|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] for more entertaining Cryptozoological creatures.
And if you want real science based cryptozoology look at Karl Shuker's blog ShukerNature
This book... not really so much.
This book is a compendium of cryptozoological creatures found in the United States. There is no distinction made between the more interesting creatures (i.e. Mothman and all of that phenomenon, unknown birds) and the purely hoax made creatures (i.e. jackalopes, Jersey Devil, living dinosaurs). All are given space along with a winking speculation as to their reality. Did I mention every single state has a Bigfoot entry? Did I mention that these Bigfoot entries make no effort to distinguish regional variations? Did I mention that the Bigfoot encounters also include known hoaxes that are called hoaxes in the book? What?
This book makes no effort to be a viable compendium of creatures. It treats it all like a joke, all the while saying "maybe x is real, I want to believe" which loses its meaning when it's placed alongside a taxidermy gaff. This could've been fun, could've been great. Another reviewer mentioned that the illustrations bear a striking resemblance to Neopets and... they do.
I expected something better from this publishing house, as normally their books are quite fun. Oh well. Look to [a: John Keel|18452|John A. Keel|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1247843969p2/18452.jpg] or [a: Loren Coleman|6482810|Loren Coleman|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] for more entertaining Cryptozoological creatures.
And if you want real science based cryptozoology look at Karl Shuker's blog ShukerNature