The information in this book is so inconsistent. One minute it's saying the first sighting of a particular monster was in 1812, the next it's saying it's been terrorising people since the early 1700's, then it says the legend was born more than 265 years ago, and then it says the creature was born in 1735! Which is it?! OK, information about folk creature and cryptids is bound to be vague and undocumented by its nature, but why then try and put historical dates to it at all? It just makes the whole book look inaccurate and badly researched, which to be fair I don't think it is since there are a lot of creatures listed, not all of them that well known.

I would have liked to read real accounts of alleged sightings of the creatures, rather than a whole lot of samey fictional accounts of "person meets a monster and is scared/eaten". As it is, the book is just a list of monsters from around the world with some nice illustrations.

If you needed an encyclopedia for nightmarish creatures, this is your book. Chalk full of folk tales of scary creatures along with pictures. I love that it is divided into areas so you can see what is considered local to you, but still read some of the lore from other parts of the world. Amazing.

DNF. Starting off a book with a creature that Indigenous folk say shouldn't be named is a bad look. Even worse when another creature that shouldn't be named is featured pages later. (Only putting 1 star since I can't put zero stars.)

I went into Freaky Folklore a little bit concerned by the title, in all honesty. As a historian and lover of anthropology, with a specific interest in the folklore and mythology of cultural circles, hearing the word freaky be used next to folklore set off some red flags. However, I feel like this book approached the subject of mythology with a delicate and mindful approach. I especially enjoyed how they accredited folklore creatures from Indigenous circles to their specific peoples and didn't lump them under the title of cryptid.

Freaky Folklore has beautiful illustrations and is an excellent coffee table book to flip through. Sitting at a solid 4/5 rating, I wish the book had included excerpts or interviews from real "witnesses" of some of the folkloric figures, rather than fictionalized short stories. These short stories grew repetitive, and largely followed the same pattern of: [person] is in [situation] where [bad thing happens] because they see [folklore figure]. I felt like I started skipping over the short stories after a few of them.

Love both the layout and the illustrations in this book. It has a great combination of quick facts and longer format details. Kind of makes me think of a D&D monster guide.

Freaky Folklore has interesting information and cool illustrations. However, I wish there was more information or myths or actual recorded sightings, instead of the short stories that were part of each section.

Freaky Folklore is a collection of stories about legendary and mythical creatures spanning the globe.

Each creature includes the history, location, spooky tale, and illustrations. I was aware of most Americas-based creatures, but loved reading about all of them. I was aware of a few of the international creatures and found myself immersed in those that I'd not heard about before.

I do wish there was more information about each creature. An interview with someone from the culture in which these creatures hail would be great, as well. I love reading folklore told by those that know about them the best.

Freaky Folklore is well-written and visually appealing. Lovers of mythological folklore will enjoy Freaky Folklore: Terrifying Tales of the World's Most Elusive Monsters and Enigmatic Cryptids.

I really enjoyed this. The details were thorough and interesting and the pictures were very detailed. I especially enjoyed the “freaky facts” for the individual creatures. This would definitely be a fun coffee table book for anyone who loves spooky things.

"Freaky Folklore" is an intriguing collection that delves into folklore creatures from around the globe, ranging from Bigfoot to Baba Yaga to the Yeti. What sets this book apart is its comprehensive coverage, including entries from diverse regions like Asia, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. As someone who's delved into cryptozoology in the past, I appreciated the variety and lesser-known mythos explored here.

However, I couldn't ignore some concerns raised by other reviewers regarding potential cultural insensitivity and the lack of confidence in the references provided, mostly from websites rather than published articles. While the fictional stories accompanying each entry were entertaining, I found myself wishing for more detailed information instead.

Despite these drawbacks, "Freaky Folklore" serves as a solid introduction to cryptozoology, offering ample material for further research. While I'm unfamiliar with the podcast or author behind it, I believe fans of the podcast would find this book enjoyable and informative.

I admittedly didn’t care for the short story bits and ended up skipping through them partway. I wish more room had been given for the background and tales of the cryptids instead. I loved the art in this book though! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley!

Freaky folktale was different to my usual reads; it’s an illustrated compendium of mystical beasts, organised by location across the world. It’s accompanied by beautiful illustrations, a fact profile and then a quirky short horror story.

As a previous Zoologist, I enjoyed the “scientific” way the monsters were described, and the dungeon and dragons fan in me, was thrilled with all the new monsters I learnt about! It reminded me of the lore books you can buy alongside dungeons and dragons campaigns, and I think would suit a DM in designing their own realistic monsters for their own campaign.

The short stories were a nice extra touch, and short enough to be skipped, if you prefer factual reads to fantasy, but I personally, felt it was nice to have that folktale aspect to it. The stories could have benefited from being developed further, but that is just a personal taste; I prefer my fantasy deeper rather than the R.L.Stine goosebumps vibes it gave me.
I think this book is one that would more benefit being brought as a physical copy, as the artwork really was stunning, and I was surprised by the length of the book.

I think it’s fair to rate the book a 4/5 stars; but I feel it is very much a book that will have mixed reviews based on taste and reading preferences. The graphics are truly stunning, and for that alone, I'd love to have it as a physical copy for fantasy writing inspiration.

Thank you to the author, and netgalley for providing a copy for me to review!

Woah! So many creatures I had never heard of! My curiosity has been peaked with this book and I imagine a deep dive into this topic is in my near future! I want this to have on hand for a quick resource into some of the creepy beings in legend!

I was lucky enough to get an eARC for this fun folklore book! This covers notorious folklore monsters from 6 continents, each with a history of the creature, a story, and a drawing. You will find such creatures as the Yeti and Mothman to the Kelpie and Yukon-onna. It was a fascinating read and I enjoyed learning about all of these creatures!

This is a beautiful book but I was disappointed by the content. I enjoyed the sections where I could learn about the cryptids and monsters but the story sections were unexpected and I didn't like them at all

This was a DNF for me unfortunately. I really wished that the book had more detail about the folklore instead of the one or two small paragraphs that we got. The stories that went along with the folklore seemed to drag on for a bit and the artwork sometimes felt a bit cheap but not always. I couldn’t get past a few pages a sitting without getting burnt out.

This book was full of interesting and fun stories. The only reason it’s getting 3 stars is because I have already read a book that was pretty much the exact same as this one.

Overall, this is a really neat book. I love the illustrations and the layout. The "Freaky Facts" followed by the history was great; however, I wish that it was a little more in depth. I really enjoyed the short story that followed each creature and think that it would make it where you could easily pull this book to use in a folklore unit and use as an anchor for students researching their own creature where they can find additional information and/or more of the history. I do plan on purchasing a copy for the library for students wanting an introduction to different types of cryptids and will be checking out the Podcast to see how else the two could be used as lessons.

Wonderful information and illustrations, I really enjoyed reading though this eARC and can’t wait to buy a physical copy for my shelves.

Is there anything in this entire world more fun than cryptids? The art was perfection! I want to buy a copy to be my coffee table book!
I am enamored.

I felt like the author did a great job of researching the folklore of these different areas and portraying their origins well. I do wish there was more information for each creature. I also felt like the short stories associated with each one was not necessarily needed. They occasionally provided more context into the mannerisms of the creatures, but I found myself skipping some of the stories and focusing on the history. The artwork was beautiful and the blurbs about similar creatures was a nice comparison. Overall, I enjoyed reading about folklore that I was familiar with, and being introduced to folklore that is not mainstream.