The premise to this nonfiction work sounded interesting, but the writing was unfortunately extremely bland and wooden.

5.5/10 stars

Another case of unfulfilled, or perhaps misplaced, expectations, De Vos’s book is not an insightful analysis of urban legends, along the lines of Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale, that I was hoping to get, but rather a magpie-approved collection of disparate items haphazardly put into half-functional categories. Had this been a scientific text I’d been tasked with reviewing, it would not get a pass mark from me. The approach “I see and describe, and I’m done” had been vaguely considered scientific in the 18th century, but certainly not anymore.

However, this is not a scientific text, and it does not pretend to be one.

It is a gathering of urban legends from all over the world, with special emphasis put on the U.S. and Canada. This is not surprising, since the author is Canadian, self-described as storyteller first and foremost, with a degree in Education and Legal Studies (at least that’s what the internet thinks M.L.S. stands for). The urban legends she describes range from ghost stories to conspiracy theories, from the 19th century to today. The “urbanity” of the legends is somewhat questionable, it seems like De Vos is simply intrigued by the infinite human capacity for stories – their creation, modification, diffusion, reenactment. She groups the many stories into more-or-less functional categories and tries to provide as many examples as she can. The Watkins Book of Urban Legends has consequently a feel of an info dump at times – there are many, many stories included in this collection, some very short, perhaps a page of text, and some quite long. De Vos does a solid job of retelling them, adding enough detail to make them interesting and sometimes revealing her storytellers’ tricks in a little meta commentary. While this is certainly not a book to consume in one sitting, and the repetitiveness of the format does get tiresome after a while, it does contain some interesting stories, kernels of modern folk tales, at times with strikingly similar structure and meaning.

For someone interested in learning a bit of contemporary folklore or appropriating some of these stories as a base for their own, this is a veritable treasure trove. For someone who is more interested in the origin of these stories, the constant human need for creating, retelling, modifying and disseminating them, or perhaps in the social foundations of storytelling-related behaviors, this book is not what you’re looking for.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this book but it was set up like a dictionary or encyclopedia more so than a narrative nonfiction which was kind of off putting. I was hoping for a more comparative nonfiction book and that is not what this is. I you want brief overviews of lots of different urban legends than this is the book for you.

From chilling tales to internet-fueled conspiracy theories, The Watkins Book of Urban Legends is a fascinating deep dive into the stories that haunt and captivate us.

Gail De Vos masterfully compiles urban legends and folktales from around the globe, giving each tale historical context and analyzing its evolution in the age of social media. From classics like "The Babysitter" to eerie modern myths about organ theft and wildfires, this collection shows how folklore adapts to reflect our fears and anxieties.

Richly researched and highly entertaining, this book is a must-read for anyone fascinated by how stories spread, evolve, and shape cultures.

Thank you to NetGalley and Watkins Publishing as well as the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
#NetGalley #WatkinsPublishing #GailDeVos #TheWatkinsBookofUrbanLegends

Title: The Watkins Book of Urban Legends
Author: Gail De Vos
Format: eBook
Publisher: Watkins Publishing
Publication Date: November 19, 2024
Themes: Non-Fiction, urban legends, psychology, rumors,
Trigger Warning: paranormal, ghosts and haunting, death, tragedy, fictional tales, child death

I love, love, love every word in this book!! I’ve always loved urban legends and this book was a real treat to read. Each chapter explored a different urban legend. Many that I’d heard of and many that I hadn’t. I enjoyed hearing the origin and back story of each. I also enjoyed hearing the different iterations of some of them. I have heard of the legend of The Hook, as have most people, I assume. I’ve only ever heard one version of it though. I read several more fun iterations in this book. I learned similar things about the game in which the object is to summon Bloody Mary in the mirror. There are different ways to do it and different reasons. Very interesting and enjoyable. I felt like I learned a lot of history in the process. One of the chapters talks about haunted tunnels, one in particular that’s located in Sweden taught me some history of Sweden and its culture.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in urban legends, ghost stories, or history. The chapters have a lot of information in them, but they’re compulsively readable. I recommend this book for some fun holiday reading. Grab your favorite blanket, curl up by a fire, and enjoy.

This book is a fun and spooky collection of urban legends from all over the world. It’s amazing how similar some of these stories are, even if they come from places thousands of miles apart. Tales about strange things in the backseat or warnings near cemeteries seem to pop up everywhere.

The book does a great job of covering many different legends, so there’s something for everyone. Whether you like creepy ghost stories or strange myths, you’ll find plenty to enjoy. It’s also cool to see how these stories show what people in different countries fear or imagine.

But the book isn’t perfect. Some stories feel more like short summaries, so they don’t pull you in as much. And the choices of which legends to include sometimes feel a little random—some are detailed, but others are barely mentioned. If you’re reading it on a device, missing pictures or broken links can also be annoying.

Still, *Global Urban Legends* is an interesting read. It’s a good introduction to these types of stories, even if it doesn’t go super deep. If you love hearing weird and creepy tales, this book is worth checking out.

In this book, Gail De Vos explores urban legends from around the world, grouping them according to their subject-matter. Many of these “contemporary folktales” are scary or unsettling stories, but the collection also includes surprisingly widespread conspiracy theories. The author’s background as a storyteller directs her approach. While the roots and context of each of the tales represented is explained in a scholarly manner, the retellings are also personal to the author, who also gives tips as to how these stories can be made new for younger generations. This underlines the fact that urban legends are part of a hallowed oral tradition, the modern-day equivalent of the legends of yore.

I love the idea of Urban Legend books, both "nonfictional" and "fictional"- meaning I love the mix of "true stories" and retellings of famous urban legends. I love to hear about the places that popular urban legends come from and particularly learn more about their histories. I love an anthology of any sort, so this book had my name written all over it.

I did enjoy this book, this brought so many memories from my childhood, and I mean that from before the internet, some of the stories shared in this book, I’ve heard some sort of similar story, and keep in mind that I am not from America, I am from Portugal, and I have heard the same kind of urban legends, so, does that mean a Mandela effect?, maybe not, before it was someone heard someone saying something about someone one, for instance that you shouldn’t look to your back seat when you pass some road or when driving by the cemetery, maybe all countries have that kind of stories…

but enough of rambling, I believe the end version of this book will be so much better than the e-book I was given for, pdf books in kindle always look a bit rubbish, and I say that with lots of love for this book, let me explain, all the stories, had links and maybe also pictures to help the reader understand better the stories, my version had the raw version, so I was missing the pictures and the links would not work, If I wanted to see more or even “click” the links I had to manually write those down in a browser.

I did enjoy diving into the stories told in this book, and like I said before, I knew some of the stories already, well maybe not the full story as introduced here, I enjoyed the experience and I will definitely recommend this book.


Thank you NetGalley and Watkins Publishing, for the free ARC and this is my honest opinion.

A plethora of urban legends and more, from Europe to the USA. I enjoyed the urban legends, some of which were familiar, while others were grand new to me. I particularly liked the ones that did the rounds when I was a teenager, and this had a sense of nostalgia for me.

Further on, conspiracy theories are explained and it’s quite alarming to see how quickly a false rumour can spread, because ‘it happened to my brother’s friend’s cousin’.

Themed chapters provide structured cohesion and detailed explanations are given first each entry - I didn’t realise there were so many reasons as to why shoes would be hanging from overhead cables!

Overall, a thoroughly interesting read that will appeal to many.

I really enjoyed reading about the historical context of urban legends, some of which I'd never heard before, as well as learning about the longevity of some of the legends and how they've changed over time. I'm very interested to see how the last couple genres included in the book, conspiracy theories and online legends/creepypastas, develop over time -- and what future genres will be created. The author is also a very enjoyable storyteller, which makes sense given the folklore background.

Thanks to NETGALLEY and Watkins Publishing for eARC

"Contemporary legends are defined as a fictional story about something that supposedly really happened , usually to a friend of a friend (FOAF), in a setting that is familiar and usually in close proximity to the teller and listener." - Gail De Vos

NOTE: Not compatible with Kindle, I recommend reading this in the NG app.

This book has 10 chapters and a plethora of urban legends, which I appreciated and soaked up. Just, it has a very strange, weird flow, and honestly, it's not completely what I was expecting. Still worth reading? Absolutely, though possibly a library rent for some, a must buy for others. Since this was an eARC, mine had a lot of typos, and just ended without the usual (author's note, index, etc), so I don't know what the end of the book will look like. And if any images are included in the final product, and I *really*, really hope there are, mine was without. :c

I was looking forward to this book as I am fascinated by the origins of Urban Legends, but sadly, this did not deliver. While I enjoyed the retelling of these tales and learning more about their variants, I was put off by the author's commentary. I went into the book expecting to learn more about these legends, how they started, how they are passed down, etc. Granted, we get this information for some of the stories, but not for all. The rest of the information is the author talking about how they've written about the story before, personal anecdotes, or frequently referencing other chapters the reader hasn't reached yet. The approach and the writing style were too academic for my taste. Maybe if I were doing a study of Urban Legends, this would be a great resource, but it doesn't work as a fun, casual read. That being said, there were some chapters that hit that sweet spot for me. I really enjoyed chapters about contemporary urban legends, chain mail, and internet scams. There is some enjoyment to be found here, but you have to work through dense chapters to find it.


Thanks so much to Watkins Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. These opinions are completely my own.

I love a good Urban Legend, so this is right up my alley. Very entertaining book that actually brought back memories related to some of the legends. Sitting and arguing in the hallway waiting for 15 mins to pass so we could leave.

The kicker was the principal coming to our class in 1st grade to tell us Bloody Mary isn't real.

The Watkins Book Of Urban Legends by Gail DeVoes, if anyone can describe the anatomy of a folktale and or an urban legend, it is the author. From her catalog It doesn’t take long to see she is well-versed in the subject, and after reading this book I can honestly say she’s a very talented writer as well. Something I cannot stand is a copy and paste book of stories that reads the same if you happen to find it in another book and that is not the case with this book. Not only does she tell us the urban legends but there origin stories. she even goes further to tell the different variations and whether there’s truth behind all of it. If you love, folk stories and urban legends then you will definitely enjoy this book. I certainly did. #NetGalley, #GailDeVos, #TheWatkinsBookOfUrbanLegends,

I have always been interested in myths and urban legends so this was a perfect read which definitely creeped me out at points even though I knew of a lot of the urban legends, it still had a scary element.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I really enjoy a good urban legend, and there's definitely more than enough out there in the world to fill more than a couple of volumes. I didn't mind this book, and it had a good focus on a more 'narrative style' of presenting the information about the legends. This approach was not my favourite, unfortunately, and I found myself slightly bewildered by this version of urban legends. In terms of a large anthology, generally the expectation would be fully factual - and the approach taken didn't really connect with me as well as I would have hoped.

I did struggle as well with the inclusion of some and the exclusion of others, to a point where sometimes the selections felt a bit odd. Japanese Yokai, for instance, were touched on, but some left out, and stories not expanded on quite as well as they could have been. I just felt like this book could have stood to be a little better in places, but with that said, as an entry level book on urban legends, it was definitely an interesting one. Adding to the list of other Watkins anthologies on similar topics, this one will fit neatly on the bookshelf along with other myths, legends, and tales of the bizarre.

Rating: 4.63 leaves out of 5
-Story: 3.5/5
-Writing: 5/5
Genre: Nonfiction, Paranormal
-Nonfiction: 5/5
-Paranormal: 5/5
Type: Ebook
Worth?: Eh

Hated|Disliked|Meh|It Was Okay|Liked|Really Liked|Loved

Want to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read this book.

I really liked reading the stories and am appreciative of the information we got with it. My only real complaint is the information given at once, but honestly that wasn't a big one!

Meticulously researched, and written in an accessible manner too, this was a fun reference book to dip into and feel spooky with. There were plenty of stories I recognised, but even more I didn’t and I had a good time exploring them.

Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy!

This book is a must-have for all lovers of urban legends. It serves as a mini encyclopaedia of urban legends from around the world. While reading it, I was surprised to discover how many of these legends have travelled globally. In fact, I recognised many of them, even though they originated thousands of miles from my country. Some of these were the very stories we used to tell around the campfire during summer nights with friends by the beach—tales that made you jump, question every shadow and sound in the dark, and sprint halfway to your front door in fear.

It’s a wonderfully eerie book to keep in your home library for reference. The only downside is that it can be a bit repetitive, with the same legends appearing in multiple categories. At times, it feels more like a description of the legend rather than an actual telling of the story, which can be a bit frustrating. Overall, though, it’s a spooky must-have!