The Mammoth Book of Man-Eaters: Over 250 Terrifying True Accounts of Predators from Pre-History to the Present

by Alex MacCormick (Editor)

Man-eating creatures roam, stalk, crouch, wait, leap, slither, swim, crawl, perch, and attack in the pages of this gripping Mammoth Book. Drawn from newspapers and autobiographies, the compelling real-life stories in this volume begin with "Danger in the Home," which includes not only accounts of attacks by domestic pets and farm animals but also shocking tales of cougars invading towns in Montana and polar bears terrorizing Alaskan suburbs. After exploration "Out on the Plains"—with riveting narratives of big cats from nonfiction adventures like Beryl Markham's West With the Night as well as of buffalo, bison, dingos, and rhinos—editor Alex MacCormick, herself the author of Shark Attacks, surveys the perils presented by marine predators like orcas, octopi, jellyfish, and giant clams "Beneath the Waves," including a gory meeting between a shark and a member of the British royal family in the Caribbean. MacCormick then travels "Up the Creek" among alligators and terrifying varieties of river snakes. An extract from David Fletcher's hair-raising tale with a vengeful 1200-pound grizzly in Hunted highlights the treacheries that lie "In the Wilderness," while "Jungle Stories" takes the reader into nail-biting accounts of man meeting man-eating enemies ranging from tigers to soldier ants.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Anthologies, Animals

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Kirsti]

Is it bad that long before the end, I was sick of reading about people getting eaten? I mean with that title, I should have known better. However, I do have some legitimate complaints.

Firstly, there is so much cannibalism in this book. Yes, I understand that 'preying' on another human to eat them is legitimate, but somehow people eating the flesh of dead relatives was not what I thought I'd be getting from 'terrifying tales'. I was bored! and it didn't help that this book has no consistency- couldn't they put all the cannibal stories in one chapter? Instead they cropped up every few pages. I really didn't need to know every time in history one human ate another.

My second complaint is the lack of editing. There are so many spelling errors in this book. One story had three errors, and was only a page long. Third, all these stories are in different formats, from newspaper articles to first hand interviews. It makes for difficult reading, when one story is all flowery and the next unemotional. It drove me nuts!

I bought this book on impulse, first hand from my local bookstore. I expected more animals, since it was in the animals section (yes, humans are animals, but somehow I just didn't expect it as much) Not the kind of book you can read in a single sitting, more of a besides the loo book, or waiting for the bus book. Thank god I've finished!

[Beka]

An interesting book. Most of the stories are more like a brief paragraph of unreliable veracity, but they are interesting nevertheless. The book covers a wide variety of man-eaters, including cannibals.

[Deanne]

Some interesting accounts, but there also seemed to be lots of cannibals within the pages of the book.

[Nipun Sohanlal]

Pure time pass!!