The Watkins Book of Urban Legends

The Watkins Book of Urban Legends is a collection of contemporary myths compiled by author and storyteller Gail De Vos. It focuses on modern tales with some emphasis on internet and social media culture.

I loved this book. I only have good things to say about it!

I love how the author encourages others to adapt these legends according to their own experiences. It really shows that she cares about legend itself as a high concept, as oral storytelling—a very popular way for legends to spread—leads into the creation of variation. I also like how it reads casually, with occasional little interruptions like the reader is listening to the author tell these stories in person as the author stated she has lots of experience with. I especially love the historical/cultural/psychological research that accompanies each legend to provide context. It’s fascinating to read how and why these legends are created and evolve (The fears of the microwave, for instance, changing from pets to phones).

It was interesting to see just how many of these legends I’d heard before. It was more than I’d expected, as I realized many times I’d just heard a different variation of them. There is one included about a KFC order being rat instead of chicken, and while I don’t think I’ve heard that tale specifically, I’ve seen memes of the same variety. A lot of these legends have been morphed by meme culture (and a surprising amount were only floating around my brain because of SpongeBob episodes specifically). Stories I thought originated as Creepypastas turned out to be significantly older. Storytelling and legends really show how humans have always been humans.

I enjoyed the legends from other parts of the world than North America. There were especially many from Eastern Asia, namely Japan.

As a lifelong reader of books like this one, I have to extend my recommendation. This collection is highly researched, accessible, and has to be my favorite I’ve read so far. I’ve looked so long for a centralized place with a list like this, and finally I’ve found it. The author, unlike many others in this genre, doesn’t treat her reader as if they’ve never heard of bigfoot (for example). You’ll never feel talked down to or babied. You WILL learn something in virtually every entry. If you’re into urban legends, cryptids, ghost stories, conspiracy theories, or even the history of legends and storytelling itself, this is a great piece to pick up from an author who clearly knows what she’s writing about.

Honestly I thought this was just going to be an encyclopedia style book about urban legends. Boy was i pleasantly surprised!

I love how the author shares their own twists on the stories and legends within. It really hits home with nostalgia for me and helps me remember tales long forgotten so I can tell my children.

Super impressive and extensive collection of urban legends. Like another reviewer, I thought this was going to be just an encyclopedia situation. Not this collection! It also included different derivatives of the story that you may have heard. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book!

This book is fantastically written and is a great way to share some contemporary folklore! Gail is clearly passionate about her work and I have enjoyed her previous work as well.

I love reading these sorts of books. Finding out about urban legends from around the world, the history, where they started, how they’ve changed overtime with each re-telling.
I’ve read similar books before, but they’ve always been more of a summarised bullet point format. The basics and nothing else.
Where as this one gave me everything I wanted to know and more I didn’t even know I needed!
Would definitely recommend this to everyone.

If you're interested in Urban Legends, then this book is for you!

There's an extensive number of legends included within, all with references and source details. There is a lot of information within these pages to the point of saturation.

Overall, this would probably be more of a reference book on my shelf, but I would heartily recommend this to anyone who is interested in Urban Legends.

*I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley, and I'm voluntarily leaving a review.*

Thank you for this eARC!

A fascinating collection of urban legends—in an expansive use of the word, also dealing with conspiracy theories, hoaxes and scam emails.

I particularly liked the way the author talked of their personal connections to each story. This book was clearly well-researched and covered a vast range of different urban legends. Having read this book, I’m really keen to check out others in the series!

Well written and engaging this in depth look at urban legends is well worth reading.

Showing how legends have adapted to the age of social media and the internet, along with research provides context for each legends and it's iterations over the years

The only issue was misspellings and formatting errors but this could have been due to the ARC I was provided with.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. While I'm already fascinated by topics like urban legends, myths, and hauntings, I didn't expect reading about them to be so captivating. The author does an excellent job of providing background and various versions of the stories covered. When I started naming my favorites, I realized I was mentioning almost every section, so I had to narrow it down for this review. My favorite sections were about haunted paintings, ghost tourism, ghost lore, cryptids, and creepypastas, especially since they mention one and provide an accurate history of my country. There was one section that didn’t resonate with me due to cultural differences, but it was still well-written and interesting. Overall, this book offers something for everyone, especially if you're into mysterious, paranormal, or curious phenomena. I loved the whole book.

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!

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