Chasing American Monsters: Over 250 Creatures, Cryptids & Hairy Beasts (Chasing Monsters, 1)

I loved the light hearted and humorous approach of this book. While not discrediting any of the phenomena related here, Mr offutt reminds us via his wit, not to take ourselves too seriously. Having said that, this is also a really good and comprehensive listing of America's most notorious critters and such, Whether mythic or percieved as real cryptids. Watch out for Cthulu and inebriated bears! Highly recommended.

This is a fun read that I used to come up with fun and unique monster ideas for tabletop RPGs. There are no rules or any actual connection to any game system in this book, but the way its organized is super easy and concise to find what you want.

Jason Offutt clearly had a good time creating this tour of states and their monsters, and readers will happily come along. All fifty state entries have some interesting nuggets, even for a well-informed cryptozoology fan who's read collections like this before. In my favorite spot, Alaska, he mentions some recent sightings of the Lake Iliamna monster I'd forgotten, although he's another writer who refers to early Russian reports without details or sources. On Stellers' sea ape, Offutt expresses a healthy skepticism that's too often absent here. To get the nitpicks out of the way, Offutt repeats some falsehoods (e.g., that a monster photo appeared in a certain issue of the Tombstone Epitaph when it's long been disproved), and some misstatements like the wels catfish being a species from Spain, when the wels is not native (it has been introduced) and has a far greater range. There are few primary sources here: almost everything is from media and online materials. Nothing wrong with that, but a bit more investigation is warranted before giving us, say, the supposed Loess not-quite-human skeletons. Some creatures presented here are clearly just tales not meant to be taken seriously (pretty much no one believes in fish-eyed Night People, complete with clothes and children) , but many are treated as animals, and it's not always certain which is which (to which the author would no doubt reply that's part of the fun.) All that said, this isn't meant to be a zoological text book,but it succeeds handsomely in being an enjoyable romp through monsters both familiar (Bigfoot shows up a lot) and obscure. Who knew a California woman had reported human-size roaches, or that a Georgia woman was shot as a werewolf, or that a lizard bigger than a Komodo dragon was once reported from Kentucky? Who has heard of the giant amphibious ape that supposedly attacks cars near Dewey Lake, Michigan? Oklahoma is home to more than just football and cows - it has a wolfman, an elkman, and a boarman! Vermont has a pigman, and West Virginia a big primate called the Stone Man. Getting to Wyoming, I never knew that anyone had claimed to see an actual live jackalope. You too, will have a great time reading through these tales. Offutt comments at the end he thinks a few of the monsters are real,but you don't need to believe in any of them to enjoy this book. Wonderful illustrations add to the fun.

On Time & as Advertised.

I bought this for my daughter who is really into cryptozoology. I read a review complaining that the information could be found on the internet. The same could be said for practically every piece of non-fiction! This book, however, is much more practical for a student who needs to focus on reading skills, not spending more time on the internet staring at screens.

This was a gift for my husband and he absolutely loved it. He loved the way the book was organized and read it cover to cover without putting it down.

This is my new favorite browsing book. It’s the sort of thing you can open at random and read a few entries when you have a few minutes to kill. There’s just enough information to get you started, and there’s a bibliography to find more.

I've been into cryptozoology and Fortean things for 50+ years, and this book would be great to frighten little kids around a campfire, but it's really not adult reading due to little research or detail. The author has a sense of humor, it is fairly well-written, and as something to pass the time, I would probably read it again in the future. However, I would only recommend it as decent reading for a 5 to 10 year old (if you can get a robot-kid of today to pick up a real book). The shipping was incredibly fast. Thanks.