The Weiser Field Guide to Cryptozoology: Werewolves, Dragons, Skyfish, Lizard Men, and Other Fascinating Creatures Real and Mysterious

by Deena West Budd

The Weiser Field Guide to Cryptozoology includes information, interviews, and stories about forty different cryptids seen in various places all over the world by credible eyewitnesses like policemen, rangers, and doctors. Readers will learn where and how to find flying humanoids, hairy humanoids, giants of all kinds including rabbits, bats and spiders, goblins, vampires, werewolves, demons, aliens and ghosts. In the third book of our 'Weiser Field Guides' series, Bella online paranormal editor, Deena West Budd, surveys the stillemerging field of cryptozoologya term coined in the 1950s by a French zoologist named Bernard Heuvelmansthe study of "hidden" or "unknown" animals not recognized in standard zoology. From traditional cryptids like Big Foot, the Abonimable Snowman and Nessie, to mythical cryptids like unicorns, vampires, dragons, and werewolves, to lesser-known cryptids like bunyips (waterhorses), Encantado (Dolphin Men of Brazil), thunderbirds, mothmen, and chupacabra, these creatures are very much alive, says Budd, if beyond the realm of normal perception. The Weiser Field Guide to Cryptozoology includes a brief history of the field of cryptozoology and surveys all the creatures for which any credible amount of research exists. Budd gives readers tips on how to spot these creatures, as well as cautionary advice on how to interact with them. Two dozen line drawings rendered from eye witness descriptions accompany the text.

Genres: Nonfiction, Cryptozoology, Paranormal, Supernatural, Mythology, Reference, Occult

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Mike Kleine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Trash! If I could give this book no stars, I would. A complete waste of time. Other than a semi-decent list of creatures, there is nothing to like about this book. The writing reminded me of the worst Scholastic books. All you will need for this book is a grade four reading level (maybe even less). Each section begins with a personal note from the author: "As a lover of..." or "I love..." or "When I was a kid..." or "My favorite..." I shit you not, each section begins with one of those. There is literally no effort put into the writing. It's like the author read a Wikipedia page for each creature and then created a summary. You are literally better off reading individual Wikipedia pages than this book.

[VeganMedusa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read during the readathon.
I started off enjoying this book, but quickly got sick of it. The author writes/edits the paranormal section of a website and is coming at the subject from the point of view of a believer (she has seen a giant spider, had a vibrating bed that was banished by reading excerpts from the bible, and some other weird experiences I can't recall). She just lists sightings and descriptions and legends of the cryptids. I would have liked a skeptic's point of view - some of the sightings are laughable.. There may well be giant bats in Borneo, but when they're listed alongside frogmen(first sighting after a horror film about frogmen monsters), mothmen and the like, I feel the book's credibility is zero.

[Reading Bifrost · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book in no way can be called a ‘guide’ on cryptozoology. For starts, the author is too bias to be writing a book such as this. She makes it too personal, often adding her own stories (such as owning a pet lizard as a child or her many, many road trips) before each article. She has too much belief in what she is writing to give facts, such as when an encounter has been proven fraud or scientific evidence that disproves of a crypts existence.

The articles themselves are no more than brief descriptions of the cryptid and its legend, followed by recorded sightings and what the blurb states are “line drawings rendered from eye witness descriptions” (stock photos?).

But she must have done a lot of research to get this book together, right? Talked to experts and professors, read books, talked to people who may have had sightings themselves? Not quite. On the reference pages at the end, answers.com, wiki pages, youtube, and a slew of other sketchy sites (some privately owned geocities, angelfire, blogspot) are the MAIN resources.

Overall I was hoping to get a book of cryptids and the science (cryptozoology) behind them, but this is just a bad and disappointing.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was fascinating, I mostly picked it up because it had in the full story of the Oscar the turtle from a town nearby to were I live Churabusco aka Turtle Town. I've always just heard very brief tellings of the story and I didn't know that they had actually caught the turtle at one point and that he escaped! or that anyone else had ever witnessed the turtle other than the farmer whose land he lived on. Anyways it was great to read the official story of what happened other then a vauge slightly wrong story told from down the chain. Of course the other crypto accounts in this book are amazing to hear as well

[Taylor Friese · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a solidly okay book. I love reading about crytids and the paranormal, so when there was actual information I really enjoyed it. The first section about rods was the first time I’d heard about them, and I liked it. Most of the other sections didn’t have a ton of info. I would also not call this a field guide, it’s more like a series of stories. I wish they had spent a little bit more money and gotten good pictures and drawings as well. Deena West Budd seems like she’d be a fun person to get a beer with.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely a great starting point for research with tons of reported sightings. I also appreciated that there was a mix of well-known and lesser-known cryptids. My main complaint is that sometimes it felt a bit biased, like it was automatically assuming that all the cryptids were real rather than addressing some of the more plausible scientific theories. Overall, it was a fast and informative read.

[Shana Foshe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cutesy stories of well known and some not so well known cryptids around the world. Interesting to hear of different encounters but not quite the level of information I was looking for.

While not advanced enough for some, it is certainly a good introductory to cryptozoology for those just getting into it.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have read better books than this. It did not help that most of the author's sources are from the internet and in one instance instead of saying calves she says veal. Also when describing one creature as being 'strong in front, more slouchy, sloppy-like in the rear.'

[Mitchell Stern · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent primer but I was a little let down by how concise it truly was and how much page time is given to the author.

[Jared]

Blog post prose. But I like the little sketches.

[Rodney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ridiculous!

Giving this a two is being generous. Most of what she covers in this book does not even fall in the category of Cryptozoology.

[Jasmine · Rating 2 out of 5]

unlike the gates this book belongs in the paranormal section, this woman buys into everything even tiny men which gates specifies as particularly ridiculous because they are. she is clearly aware of gates but doesn't mention his debunking of creatures she is specifically citing. she cites chucacabra sightings that have been discussed on fact or faked but weirdly suggests that there is not counter evidence such as one of the "specimens" was found genetically to not be one and instead says another couldn't be identified by looking, that doesn't make it real it could be a hybrid.

I do like the story of the fake momo print and you'd think in light of that she'd be at least a little skeptical.

[Sue · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this was going to be a interesting and ultimately fun read. I couldn't have been more wrong. I was hoping this would be along the same lines as "The Zombie Survival Guide" by Max Brooks, meaning that it was serious, seemingly factual and well written. This was boring, totally not helpful and was just terribly written. Budd writes like l did in the 2nd grade about housecats. She talks too mich about herself, her son and her stupid pets and uses! too! many! exclamation points! They're at the end of every other GD sentence. Horribly disappointing & just poorly written.

[Finn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Atrocious. A juvenile writing tone, complete with an overwhelming belief in every single possible cryptid, and a total lack of critical evaluation. If you look at the "bibliography", it is predominantly urls to wiki entries. This book is to cryptozoology what Twilight is to vampire mythology - a mediocre, superficial mishmash of what someone *thinks* cryptozoology is about. I can only hope this is some sort of deliberate misinformation ploy by the Sasquatch/Nessie Coalition to throw us off their trail!

[Leah · Rating 1 out of 5]

A somewhat useful guide to cryptids all over the world, but Budd talked about her own experiences which I didn't care for and since each creature only got a page or two (if they're lucky) written about them, her crack pot memories took away from other information that would have been more useful and interesting. Overall, it's an alright book for getting an idea about creatures, but if you already know a thing or two about chupacabras, you won't get any new information from this book.

[Lexie Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book on a trip to my aunts and tea a chapter a month, I loved the book, by I didn't like being creeped out every night. I will reread this book many times and I love the stories within each chapter. I love the amount of stories there are and although it may not show you how to find them I found each story interesting. A book I though would sit on my shelf had became my favorite book.

[Sheryl Nantus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up on a whim for my Nook and I'm going through it slowly, enjoying every catagory.

Did you know that there ARE Mongolian Death Worms? And not only on the bad Syfy movie? I didn't!

Full of great facts and very entertaining for anyone looking for something a bit off the beaten track - and for authors looking for plot bunnies!

[J.T. Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Opportunity for an interesting book about mysterious animals completely squandered by inclusion of ufology, folklore and obvious hoaxes and exclusion of Yeti, Nessie and other obvious cases. Daft personal anecdotes, lack of skepticism and bizarre suggestions (time travellers, inter dimensional travel) hardly help. A fun look at US folklore, but don't come to it expecting any science.

[Abraham Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice book of cryptozoology!

[Charlynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you are going to write a field guide about pretend animals, then you have to at least attempt to sound credible.

[Mathieu Gaudreault · Rating 1 out of 5]

A rather thin book on the subject. Read Brad Steiger or Nick Redfern cryptozoology guide instead , they are way more detailed.

[Mara Terrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

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