Stranger Than Fiction: Weird Stories and Ghostly Happenings

by Martin Walsh

Book by Walsh, Martin

Genres: Nonfiction, Horror, History, Short Stories

109 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Jakob J. 🎃 · Rating 3 out of 5]

An adequately amusing—if obviously dated—summary of some legends from yesteryear. I would have loved this as a kid with a budding interest in cryptozoology and spooky goings-on. I appreciated that, no matter how hokey, the stories were presented with an earnest reverence for its subject matter. As gleefully enticed as I once was toward the mysterious, the supernatural, and the paranormal, I wouldn’t be able to abstain from a cartoonish irony if I were tasked with writing about monkey men or ghost pirates.

For example, if I wrote the following lines, I suspect you would be able to hear me snickering through the pages I had written:

“But Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin know that deep in the northern woods Bigfoot is waiting. Soon they plan on returning to the place where they saw and photographed the creature.”

Huh? How do they know that Bigfoot is waiting? Did he text them, “ETA?” If they did ever return after this book’s publication, it was certainly to no avail, and why would they return, to retrieve the gorilla suit they left behind after staging the photograph?

See what I mean? I’m a hopeless cynic who still adores imaginary beasts.

Or take this quixotic declaration:

“Long ridiculed by most as mere coincidences or even as a form of witchcraft, ESP has slowly been converting its doubters into believers.”

Who? Where? Was there some mass conversion of psychic devotees in the ‘70’s of which I had never heard? I know we are distressingly racing toward technology-aided mind-reading devices, but where is the source on suggesting that belief in purely organic ESP had gone mainstream? I’d sooner believe more people still attributed it to witchcraft than the infinitely more reasonable coincidence—seeing as the Satanic Panic raised Hell only a few years hence.

Nevertheless, I will always hold on to a part of that inner child that revels in sincere wonder. Suspending that disbelief and cynicism is required to enjoy the dreadful splendor that is Legend and Folklore. I’m content with the imagination it has fostered.

[Aya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like this book was written by my friend as a prank. The bibliography was icing on the cake.

[Chase]

I've been looking for this book for years! I read it as a kid and was mesmerized.

[Super Piss Baby · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a good book. Gives small chapters to different strange things.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun book to read, quick to read and with most important information on each of these stories contained. There are no pictures in this book but I would recommend this book to parents wanting to read a book to their kids which is educational with short interesting stories (careful though as some stories might cause some scares in the night) or to young children just starting to read to themselves.

This book and the information contained within it's pages are a bit dated now so this could lead to further research into these areas. but definately a good starting place for children's interest, and adult's interest as well. Most of the stories end with a question surrounding the strange stories.

[Benjamin Elliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ran across this book recently and remembered having read it as a kid (probably third grade). All of the topics are fairly well known, not having some of the more obscure anecdotes I remember in other unexplainable events books I read at the time.
I really wanted to believe in a lot of this stuff when I was that age and read it originally. Looking through the book again, it was made to be received in that fashion. While it does a pretty good job at only reporting facts, it is definitely couched in a light of believing over skepticism and actually makes claims that some of these debates may be solved soon. Forty years after the book was written, those all sound pretty trite, but it was fun at the time.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

a guilty pleasure read as a kid , maybe 12 yrs old.