Thursday 9 October 2008

Book Review: WHITE THINGS by KURT MCCOY


In 2007 when my book MONSTER! THE A-Z OF ZOOFORM PHENOMENA was published I attempted, within its 400 pages, to categorise many bizarre creatures and monstrous manifestations across the world which clearly were not flesh and blood forms but something far more strange, and often malignant. Since then, not many zooform-related books have emerged which is a shame considering most regions throughout the world are littered with spectral beasts, animal appairions and other incomprehensible monsters. So, thank goodness for Kurt McCoy and his 100-page book WHITE THINGS: WEST VIRGINIA'S WEIRD WHITE MONSTERS, published by Ogua Books.

Even the most hardened monster-hunters will not have heard of some of the strange entries in this book which are simply presented as stories rather than matter of fact events. Sure, some of the entries in WHITE THINGS are vague, others are foggy legends, some mere whispers, but that's the power and the magic of zooform creatures, entities which over time have had the power to terrify us, to shape shift and then vanish, never to be heard from again.

McCoy looks at a true phantom menagerie of West Virginia monsters, from the Graveyard Dogs, to the monster of Morgan's Ridge, and not forgetting the Sheepsquatch and an alien ark of white anomalies, some of which made it into my book.

A majority of these tales are sightings which have been passed down as campfire tales, and you can imagine some of these stories being read by the glow of a flickering flame. Of course, you'll be familiar with the Mothman weirdness which is mentioned here, but most of the cases are brand new yarns of terror, so, if you want to read another classic zooform book, then fix your eyes on this before it slips away into obscurity, because I'm pretty sure that monsters such as The White Devil, The Beast Of Boaz, and the White Wolf Of Elkins will have you reaching for the light switch.

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