Thank you NetGalley for this free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. I was very intrigued with this book. The author explores the topics of science versus pseudoscience. The topics in the book are often the subject of conspiracy theorists. I always enjoy reading about topics from different points of view.

A book for our times? It seems we are awash with conspiracy theories from the banal to the ridiculous - a former First Lady eating babies!? Some of our current con theories are dangerous, found believable by some and insane by most who apply logical thinking.

But as is shown “the crank is a true believer, convinced that they alone have seen through the myopia afflicting common society.“ Cryptids are a good example and to my mind a fairly benign one. There is nothing for anyone to gain by believing in Nessie. Of course, the capture of such a creature would probably create great wealth for the captor, but the likelihood is slim to nonexistent.

But in these times we have lies and falsehoods that spread like wildfire and have serious effects and consequences. The Soviet interference in our election system is not a theory it is a fact and the more we seriously study such subterfuge the better for all of us.

So maybe The Unidentified is a book of times which teaches us when to think adroitly or simply hit 'delete'.

I'm not sure that I will be able to find a purpose or time to adopt this text, but I am sure going to actively try to find one. I loved this text. there are so many books out there that outline various elements of the supernatural or conspiracy theories, but such a limited amount of texts that look at why people believe them. The book was also very well-written with an easy to read flow that made the text accessible without feeling dumbed down. Really nice.

When the supernatural remains a mystery decades later, it becomes part of the local mythos. The stories told here, some explained and some still incomplete in their logical explanations, describe a ingrained belief in the mysteries still waiting to be discovered and explained. Many individuals today have a story or encounter with an unidentified entity. Whereas these events may remain unexplained or the witness choose to forgo any logical conclusion to keep a sense of mystery, this book sheds a vital light on who we are as humans and how we choose to perceive events beyond our understanding.

The Unidentified is a look in to various topics like aliens and cryptozoology and explores why and how people come to believe these stories with little proof. The author is a thorough researcher and includes many stories of unidentified occurrences throughout history while attempting to understand how these beliefs come to be within society. Dickey also explores how various beliefs shift and change throughout history while taking a deep dive in to various topics. For example, he looks at UFO sightings and alien encounters throughout history and how the sightings evolved over time and how they were impacted by society and world events. While I enjoyed the book, parts tended to be a bit dry and very information/quote heavy. Dickey often traveled to the different places across the United States, but very little of his own journey and impressions made it in to the book and so it felt very heavy on the research aspect. While this was interesting, it was a little slow moving and certain threads such as the Lemurians and the Kentucky meat shower were mentioned in the beginning and then not again until the very end which was a little confusing in my opinion. I will recommend this book to people interested in history and many of the different unexplained events that Dickey covers in his book or to those that liked his previous book.

A fascinating look into the psychology, history, and folklore around cryptids and conspiracy theories. Definitely a must-read for anyone with an interest in anything unexplained, just as Ghostland is a must-read for anyone interested in the American paranormal.

I read Dickey's Ghostland and enjoyed his writing style so I wanted to give this a read and this did not disappoint. The author never tries to convince readers to choose one opinion over the other, but just lays out well researched stories and lets readers decide what to believe.

Colin Dickey does a masterful job of tracing the roots of conspiracies, cryptids, and UFO sightings back to the schism between religion and science in 19th century American life. It's a great topic, full of fascinating stories to pick and choose from, and Dickey remains skeptical but never snide or superior about the people whose beliefs he examines. He can sometimes be a little dry, but I found myself highlighting multiple passages about how the supposedly harmless indulgence in fringe beliefs has gradually eroded our ability to discern fact from fiction in our political discourse. Government conspiracies don't end with little grey men, they lay the foundation for those who refuse vaccines, claim mass shootings are theater enacted by "crisis actors", promote unproven medical quackery, and even perpetrate violence in the name of an anonymous message board poster. I was expecting this book to be creepy and fascinating - which it is - but I was pleased to find it timely and insightful as well.

I continue to be impressed by Colin Dickey’s unique perspective on the psychology of belief.

I first encountered Dickey’s singular perspective in Ghostland and was excited to see him tackle something a bit different here, this time focusing on cryptids, aliens, and the roots of conspiracy theories rather than ghosts and folklore.

Dickey brings his same brand of careful research, riveting storytelling, and compelling observation to these topics that we encountered in Ghostland.

But while Dickey’s approach may be the same, the subject (and Dickey’s conclusions about it) are a bit less...let’s say harmless or folksy this time.

In Ghostland we met believers in ghosts, folktales, and traditional superstitions and legends. In most cases, the believers in such things are harmless, their conviction wrought from tradition, respect or fear of a higher power, or honor for elders or ancestors.

In The Unidentified, we meet a different and often more harmful type of believer: The conspiracy theorist. Unlike the folksy, old world breed of belief that says your grandma is still floating around in the attic in her old wedding dress, believers in alien conspiracies and cryptids tend to be paranoid and often seriously mentally ill. Unlike your typical ghost hunter, the search for government-concealed alien encounters or cryptids is often rooted in racism, mistrust of the government, and general antipathy towards others.

Cranks, as Dickey labels them, are fascinating to read about but far too potentially dangerous to not be taken seriously. It’s this that makes this book less of a fun read than Ghostland, if equally fascinating.

As someone who HATES conspiracy theories in any form, I didn’t expect to like this at all, and wished going in that Dickey had stuck to ghosts and other haunts. I was thus pleasantly surprised to find myself
quickly riveted by the new topic. A tribute, I think, to Dickey’s unique perspectives and ability to show a fascinating side of a subject that is often off-putting to this reader.

This is one of my favorite books so far in 2020. Colin Dickey explores belief in cryptids, fringe beliefs, and conspiracy theories, the reasons why it can be so appealing, and the people who do believe, but in an even-handed way. He reasons on the topics without being cruel, condescending, or judgmental. The book is essential reading in these times, both for those who believe in something unproven and those who care about someone who does--so, everyone.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a digital ARC for the purpose of an unbiased review.

Love this book. Another great one from Colin Dickey. My book club has been looking for a non fiction title and this might be it. I hope to read more books like these in the future.

I loved GHOSTLAND and this book is possibly even better. Dickey isn't so much trying to pick sides about these unidentified phenomena so much as he is exploring what it means that the phenomena exist altogether -- for us as a society, as a species, and so on. It's definitely a bit spooky still and I did at times long for more of these stories (sue me, I love the stories themselves) but damn this was a great one.

I was pleasantly surprised with this book. This book is a good mixture of narratives of believers and non believers and historical and modern stories. The chapters transitioned well from one topic to another. One thing that surprised me was that I didn’t think the book had an agenda—it wasn’t trying to make readers believe or not believe. It was simply presenting information. What they do with that information is up to them.

<i>"Go on up the mountain," he says, "and you'll see some shit. You'll see some shit."
[...]
The next day I went up the mountain to see some shit.</i>

Another brilliant entry in the "Colin Dickey Assures You Things Are, In Fact, as They Seem to Be" oeuvre, <i>The Unidentified</i> is a hilarious, well-researched, and - honestly - loving account and take down of mice, monsters, and little green men.

Much as in Ghostland, it's clear that Dickey knows his stuff. He doesn't approach cryptids, sunken continents, or UFOs as an outsider, but as someone who, at least a little bit, understands why people want to believe, and is never cruel when he finally demolishes your pet theories. No, he's never cruel, especially not about the people who do cling to Greys or Bigfoots as gospel truth, instead digging and and examining the capital-W Why people might desperately seek beyond our everyday experiences and into the realms of the preternatural and paranormal to explain what they've felt and thought and seen. It's never the people he makes fun of; instead, he tries to understand them, digging up roots of Cold War Paranoia, personal and institutional rejection, and sometimes simple racism to explain why people might, in his words, not go looking for, "the truth, [but instead go] looking for confirmation."

Told with affection, humor, and one hell of a reality check, <i>The Unidentified</i> will convince you once and for all that there are no aliens at Area 51 but, despite - or perhaps because of - that, things aren't always as they seem.