Art and narrative combine with unusually broad scope to guarantee many a sleepless night.
A lurid, leering gallery of bone-crushing, blood-sucking flesh rippers from many lands, times, and cultures.
A skinless Boo Hag and many other truly terrifying creepy creatures, depicted in garishly lit detail, lunge and grimace directly at viewers in this unusually wide-ranging set of supernatural horrors. Organizing his entries into eight alliterative general categories—beginning with nine “Heinous Hags” and ending with assorted “Dark Divinities”—Forst pairs each full-page, and occasionally full-spread, portrait with an equally chilling description or scenario: “Her fangs and long, claw-like nails are the last things you see before the Pontianak sucks the eyes out of your head, digs her sharp nails into your stomach, and begins to feast on your blood.” Though his subjects are drawn from traditional folklore or urban legendry, he frequently brings them up to date with helpful side notes on comics or video games in which they figure and also tucks lists of recommended creature features and other modern media in at the end. For all the familiar boojums haunting these pages, from the closet-dwelling Boogeyman to a blood-spattered La Llorona (dragons are, oddly, absent), it’s the large array of lesser-known threats that give this a leg up over many similar scare catalogs. “A lot of them have pretty sharp teeth,” the author warns with fantastic understatement.
Art and narrative combine with unusually broad scope to guarantee many a sleepless night. (bibliography, index) (Folklore. 11-13)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2026
ISBN: 9781419780615
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
A readable précis that offers a decidedly mixed message.
A case study in the tension between scientific objectivity and human nature.
Not quite convincingly trying to position herself on the side of science, podcaster and science journalist Krantz opens with lucid discussions of taxonomy and human evolution but then runs through the circumstantial evidence—“thousands” of outsized footprints, “thousands” of sightings in every state except Hawaii, numerous blurry photos dubbed “blobsquatches” by aficionados, a set of mysterious ground “nests” discovered in Washington state. And while Krantz acknowledges the so far total lack of “irrefutable proof,” she highlights the importance of keeping an open mind and recognizing that there are still unsolved mysteries in the world. On more personal notes, she records an exciting (but fruitless) overnight expedition with a group of experienced “squatchers” and the (negative) results of a DNA test on a sample taken from one of the aforementioned nests. Along with showing that she’s done diligent research, the backmatter includes an inventory of camping supplies for would be squatchers (including a “camera—to get blurry blobsquatch photos”) and a quick list of Bigfoot relatives worldwide. Still, notwithstanding Krantz’s claim that the real prize is the search itself, prospective cryptid hunters will find a better, if even less skeptical, overview in Kelly Milner Halls’ In Search of Sasquatch (2011)—with photos rather than the fanciful graphics of shadowy monsters sitting on a modern toilet or posing as caped superheroes.
A readable précis that offers a decidedly mixed message. (glossary, notes, sources, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 11-13)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4197-5818-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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