I really enjoyed reading The Watkins Book of Urban legends. Who didn't grow up hearing an urban legend or two? I thought this book had the perfect balance of urban legends I had heard (and made me reminisce) and those that were new to me. The author provides context and cultural variations to many of the legends which are really interesting. There's discussions of phemonena that you may be aware of but not necessarily realise are urban legends, like the 27 club and swallowing chewing gum. I learned a thing or too as well. Who knew there were people our there thinking the lyrics of Hotel California. are cursed?
This is a fascinating read at any time of the year, but I think it would be especially apt to have this book around for the lead up to Halloween, or for those camping trips where you know you're going to be telling spooky stories around the campfire.
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to review an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

interesting book with some awesome urban legends, both known to me and unknown ones, paired with descriptions of backstories.

My thanks to NetGalley and Watkins Publishing for an advance copy of this collection of legends, conspiracies, tourist traps, lore, and warnings, how we tell them, why we share them, and what they tell about us as humans.

My small town had a big house that was old, had a name, and was of course haunted. Deserted for years this place had ghosts that dated to some atrocity committed during the American Revolution. Slaves were mistreated, and their ghosts lit windows, and made strange noises, that scared people. Bootleggers hid hooch their during Prohibition, and one night a rival gang wiped them out, their ghosts singing and dancing to the thunder of the Thompson guns. Kids were known to disappear into a hole that led to hell. My Scout leader was also a member of the Historical society and he took us in one day. It was a big house built after the war, owned by a guy who owned a newspaper, and whose family died out probably forty years before it was torn down in the early nineties. No murders, no ghosts. But we all knew stories. The house was rickety, with a bad staircase, and things a kid could hurt themselves on, so that's maybe why the rumours started. Or the fact that no one wanted to pay for tearing the building down. Even if there had to be a cop stationed there on Halloween for curious teens. Every one knows a legend, a friend of a friend tale. They warn us, entertain us, confuse us, can be used as propaganda, or to bring in tourist dollars. And chances are Gail de Vos has heard them all. The Watkins Book of Urban Legends is the book I would have loved as a kid, a collection of stories from around the world, all told by a friend of a friend, for many different reasons.

This book is big in a lot of ways. There are lots and lots of tales, all drawn from around the world. Many will sound familiar. Ghost stories in some ways, stories used by parents to keep their children out of dilapidated houses, or make-out lanes. The hook on the car door handle, the call from inside the house, the reflection behind the couch. Many different stories that seem to make people come and spend money in far distant towns. Stories of conspiracies that seem almost quaint in comparison to what is going on now. de Vos will include many different versions of the story, showing how a myth has grown and expanded as time has passed, or social mores have changed. Some are quaint, some are really disturbing, and a few makes one wonder what was in the water that made people think that these stories could be possible.

As I said this is a big collection of stories. One of the most complete that I have read. In addition the commentary that de Vos is sometimes more interesting then the legend. How a story could come about, what was happening in the world that made this possible, and how it left the crib and became a major story, that even newspapers and television shows might cover it. de Vos looks at small town tales, ghost stories, Internet hoaxes, chain letters. Really there is little de Vos misses. Which is great as de Vos is a very good writer and story teller. de Vos is very nonjudgmental about certain things, and leaves the disbelief or belief to the reader.

I would have loved this book growing up. Also de Vos talks about giving readings at schools, and I would have loved that. One can tell that de Vos is a natural bard, sharing stories, including information and thoughts where these ideas might have arisen. I great book for people interested in urban legends, the supernatural and scary stories. Also a great source for writers, maybe as a prompt book, or role players, to add spice and ideas to an adventure.

If you love urban legends and hope to learn more, this might be the book for you! Inside, you will find a collection of urban legends across nine chapters based on how they’ve been categorized. It was so interesting to discover the inspiration behind some well-known fictional characters while reading this book! It was also really fun reading different versions of urban legends I grew up listening to. For example, the version I always heard of the babysitter and the man upstairs involved a clown statue that was actually a man dressed as a clown.

All in all, this was an excellent read. It’s very well researched and covers urban legends from around the world. While it can be information heavy at times, I don’t think it will be overwhelming for most people as long as they don’t try to read a large chunk of the book in one go. This reads as more of a text book than an anthology, so keep that in mind if you plan on picking this up.

I love a creepy story. As a kid, every night my dad would read to me and my sister. These weren't normal fairy tales with happy endings. All of the stories came from "The Red Book" and were tales full of blood, murder, ghosts and the like. Why he chose that to be the book he would send us off to sleep, I'll never know.

That said, I appreciate horror probably more than the average person. Urban legends fall into this category for me so this booke by Gail De Vos was perfection.

Digging in urban legends, myths and other campfire-told tales, De Vos explores the history and origin of many of these. The KFC rat is one. Various monsters, creatures and things that go bump in the night are more than a post on Reddit. The origins of so many come from all over the world.

This is a really insightful and entertaining look at urban legends and I will be re-reading it for years to come.

Now, I gotta go look in the backseat to make sure there's no one hiding back there...

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I don't read nonfiction very often, but this was right up my alley! This book covered all different types of urban legends that have been around for generations as well as ones that were born from the start of the internet.

The format was super satisfying to read, it was really organized and referenced back to previous stories when needed. It also makes it easy for the reader to find what they're most interested in learning about!

I absolutely loved all of the little anecdotes and ways the author told each legend when she did. A lot of them brought back memories from when I was a kid and was either told these stories or told them myself. When I started reading the story and it felt familiar I was like "OMG I REMEMBER THIS ONE" and it got me so excited to see the differences in the way it was told.

A lot of these legends had back stories related to cultures and it was refreshing to hear them explained when I only knew the modernized versions. The author also would tell the legend multiple times in different ways if it appeared different for each culture. She would explain how the story developed differently in different parts of the world which I think was fascinating.

I took a star off only because a few of the legends I had to look up to get a better idea of. The descriptions of creatures or monsters, etc were lacking sometimes. The other reason I took a star off was more my personal preference: I did not care for some of the contemporary legends in the beginning, like the phone scams. I felt like some of them just didn't fit the rest of the book.

Overall, it took me awhile to get through this because each story was quick and I was always able to read them completely. So I was never really compelled to pick it back up again, but I think that's just an informative nonfiction thing for me. I really enjoyed this as a whole and it'd be such a cool book to own and reference or show to guests!

As a big fan of urban legends I have to say Gail De Vos’s The Watkins Book of Urban Legends was a blast, even if it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. And I mean that in a good way. This book was loaded with so much more information than I expected. Heck given how in-depth the analysis is of these legends it almost feels like a textbook for a college class on urban legends. Definitely recommend this one for anyone with an interest in urban legends. Thanks so much to Watkins Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

I have always been fascinated by Urban Legends, everything about them is alluring to me. I went into this book wondering how many of them I’d know. There were surprisingly a lot that I didn’t. I devoured this book over a couple of days and was sad when it came to an end. Definitely pick up this book if you get a chance!

I was really looking forward to this but found the writing style and organisation very off putting, the whole thing felt very cut and pasted without any real flow to it

Not for me at all got 25% in then DNFd

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me at 36%. I loved the concept, and there was a great variety of urban legends in this book, but the structure and writing style just didn’t work for me. It wasn’t always clear what part of the chapter was the legend, and what part was the authors commentary on it. Sometimes portions of the urban legend seemed to be just copied and pasted from the internet, which made it confusing to read.

really fun and interesting look at a whole bunch of urban legends, organised into categories, with the author's own experiences threaded throughout. i recognised some f them while others were completely new to me and so interesting, especially different cultures

A mishmash compendium of urban legends, (dis)organized as they are because that's how the author thought of them. Unfortunately the formatting and text surrounding the legends themselves is poorly done, making this a hassle to parse. I'd have liked more information on the legends and their variants than the author's personal anecdotes about telling or hearing the stories. Possibly useful or enjoyable for kids and storytellers.

I really tried to get into this book, as I love a good spooky story or urban legend, but I found this just isn't a book for casual reading, it's very much more of an academic book, maybe for someone in a college course looking for more information of the origins of stories, as it contains some source citing.
The story retellings themselves were dull and lacklustre. Not worth reading in my opinion. It might find an audience somewhere, but definitely not with me.

I enjoyed this book of urban legends. Some of them were familiar to me, others were new. The author did a good job explaining the backstory of these legends.

Thank you to NetGalley and Watkins Publishing for an eARC copy of The Watkins Book of Urban Legends.

I love reading and learning about urban legends, and I am a full on believer of a lot of them. But, this particular book throws a lot of information and it reminds me of a textbook rather than a collection. I would have liked it more if it had more of a collection feel.

Not your everyday book of urban legends, Gail DeVos provides history and local customs that lend an extra sense of how the legends came to be. The legends are from various segments of the world and give a small snapshot of life outside the normal. Whether an old legend or a contemporary tale, every one of them will leave readers looking for another story. 5 easy stars.

This is a fun read but I honestly don’t think this is a book that you decide to read from start to finish. I feel like it’s one where you read a chapter here and a chapter there, if that makes sense? I love how there’s a section of stories that are appropriate for even younger readers. I was able to read a few of the urban legends to my almost 9 year old and I loved getting to include her!! I do agree with a few other reviews that there’s a lotttt of information packed into each chapter, which sometimes was really hard for me to stay focused at times. All in all I enjoyed it!

Gail De Vos' "The Watkins Book of Urban Legends" was a fun read that was well written and well researched. I really enjoyed the variety of urban legends from around the world and the history behind them.

My complaint about it was that sometimes I became overwhelmed at how much information was shoved into chapters. That's not a BAD thing necessarily, but as a reader, I had to read it in shorter spurts or I'd get burned out quickly.

This is definitely a great resource material for any fans of things that are seriously strange. I want to thank Netgalley for a copy of this book, and if you're interested in urban legends-- you can buy it in November of 2024!

I was not able to complete this book. I found the topic very interesting. but the delivery felt lacking. I was hoping this would be a collection of some of the most common legends and stories. This book is more a collection of the history urban legends. It seemed to be well researched, but I found reading it to be dry. Some of that might be due to my expectations. I thought it would be fiction with a bit of explanation, but it is largely explanation with a basic rundown of the story. Also, I wasn't quite following the organization. There were not really chapter breaks. So campfire stories blended in with scams and chain emails. Overall an interesting topic, just not what I was looking for.

I loved this book. I love collections of stories and this was perfect plus I grew up with the "Urban Legend" movies of the 90s & 20s so I was the perfect audience. I do with it was more connected like the movies were like a whole story woven in between the legends but this book was amazing either way. I give it 4.5 stars