mikerickson reviewed United States of Cryptids by J. W. Ocker
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3 stars
Urban legends and hyper-local word-of-mouth stories have always interested me, and what are cryptids but a smaller niche of that already limited subculture? I had thought that I was well-versed in all the different kinds of critters that may or may not be roaming this country and going bump in the night, but apparently there are a lot more than I realized!
I did enjoy the premise of this book more than the execution however. There are interesting glimpses at why some towns embrace their local cryptids with annual festivals and statues, whereas others are embarrassed by supposed sightings from decades ago. I wish there was more exploration into the anthropological and cultural aspects of how unsubstantiated creatures can affect local communities, but chapters were too short and there was too much ground to cover to really allow for that kind of deeper analysis. Just when things were getting interesting, …
Urban legends and hyper-local word-of-mouth stories have always interested me, and what are cryptids but a smaller niche of that already limited subculture? I had thought that I was well-versed in all the different kinds of critters that may or may not be roaming this country and going bump in the night, but apparently there are a lot more than I realized!
I did enjoy the premise of this book more than the execution however. There are interesting glimpses at why some towns embrace their local cryptids with annual festivals and statues, whereas others are embarrassed by supposed sightings from decades ago. I wish there was more exploration into the anthropological and cultural aspects of how unsubstantiated creatures can affect local communities, but chapters were too short and there was too much ground to cover to really allow for that kind of deeper analysis. Just when things were getting interesting, the chapter would end and we'd be launched into another anecdote starting with teenage boys riding around the backwood roads of their small town in the middle of the night (a surprising number of cryptid sightings begin this way).
This also felt like it was aimed towards maybe a slightly younger audience than I was expecting, so I'd recommend this for younger readers or just anyone looking for a broad but shallow understanding of Bigfoot, Mothman, the Jersey Devil, and the rest of the gang. Anything more substantial than that, maybe look elsewhere.
