A review by lisamchuk
Cryptids, Creatures & Critters: A Manual of Monster Mythos by Rachel Quinney

4.0

I'm not overly familiar with cryptids et. al. so went into this book hoping to learn new tidbits and I certainly did! This is more of an encyclopedia: the entries are split into three parts (Cryptids, Folklore, and Mythology), and also includes a lengthy reference list. Each entry includes a full colour illustration, description, and geographical information. I do think the author tried to be as comprehensive as possible covering global locations and cultures. It's a very visual book, though I think it could've included even more illustrations as some pages do have larger blank spaces between entries, and a map would've been a nice addition. In some cases the descriptions were quite expansive yet others were sparse, but kudos to the author for all the information gathering as this must have been an extensive amount of research (on topics where not a lot of information is always available or reliable for obvious reasons).

I appreciated the explanation at the beginning about cultural appropriation, misrepresention, and colonialism, and thought the author did a good job at curating the inclusion of entries, including content warnings, and explaining problematic elements throughout.

This is one to buy and keep around to dip into, and could be considered a Kickstarter win for those lucky enough to back it before it was traditionally published.

Thank you to Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.