Superstition's title and introduction suggest it is about superstitions and their practical (or impractical) origins. The intro describes the social impact of believing black cats are unlucky, and the possible source of the belief that it’s bad luck to open umbrellas indoors.

If the author remained focused on these everyday superstitions and elaborated on them, I would have gotten what I expected and been glad. It would be enriching to dig deep into even a few weird beliefs, the way Aja Raden’s Stoned approaches the preciousness of certain jewels through story.

Instead, Superstitions is a loose global encyclopaedia of gods, monsters and *some* superstitions, divided by region. That's ambitious—impossibly ambitious, even—and this attempt to generalise the pantheon of human storytelling, in such a limited format, has numerous setbacks.

These local-ish surveys are organised thus: A description of an area’s historical context, followed by a selection of its mythological gods, monsters, and superstitions. This format is not always strictly followed, and inclusions can feel arbitrary: In “African Mythical Monsters,” the Agogwe of East Africa directly follows Ghana’s Adze. It is not clear how or why either was chosen from their respective canons.

Building on that, categorisation can feel callously broad: A section labeled “Hindu Monsters” includes the Penanggalan of Malaysia, Buddhism’s Kalavinka, and Laos’ Phaya Naga. None of these are Hindu and it is unclear why they are there. You can potentially argue that some creatures, like the Phaya Naga—dragons believed to live in moving water sources in Southeast Asia—share characteristics (even origins!) with the Hindu naga, female serpent princesses. But that doesn’t make this specific iteration Hindu to contemporary users.

Some information is incorrect. Under “Hindu Superstitions” lies the passage, “Take a bath after attending a funeral. This one makes good sense. Decomposing bodies release a number of toxins and bacteria into the air, which may contaminate mourners.” This is false. Decomposition in and of itself is not pathogenic. The unquestioned belief that it is pathogenic has created an exploitative funeral industry in which we seek to distance ourselves from the dead, and dispose of them, as quickly as possible—often in environmentally poisonous ways.

What’s more, the Middle East section, for example, has no superstitions at all, though these are ostensibly the primary subject of the book.

I think the author is working on the assumption that myths generally are a form of superstition, and these are best represented by the creatures that populate their stories. I hope I’ve done a good job of illustrating the limitations of that approach in terms of rigour and organisation, but also hope people who do buy Superstitions appreciate the jewels hidden within, despite these caveats.

You will learn a lot of funny stuff, like the Philippine belief that sleeping with wet hair causes blindness. And while you'll encounter well-known creatures, like Bigfoot or succubi, others I didn’t know at all, like the succubus-like Qarînah; or Akaname, red-skinned demons of dirty bathrooms in Japan. I learned the charming story of Yhi, Australia's Dreamtime goddess who gave life tangible form on Earth, but a little too whimsically (hence platypi and kangaroos). And I liked that spiritual beliefs of African-American origin are treated as a separate subset of belief within the Americas.

Lastly, there’s a feeling the author’s greatest ambition is to show people there have been, and continue to be, other ways of imagining reality. I’m into that. “One of the primary—if not the most important—tenets of Hinduism is truth. But Hindus don’t believe that truth is didactic,” McElroy writes. “Instead, truth can be found in many places and all truth is relative to the place, time and culture of whomever espouses it. Therefore, modern Hindus believe strongly in the need for tolerance and the broad-based search for knowledge from disparate sources.”

Superstitions can best be described as one person’s cryptozoological field notes. In no way does it reflect an expertise in its topics of predilection, not even superstition, but I don’t think it wants to do that. I wish it had been clearer about that; a better framing of what I’d encounter would have made me happier with the text. I also think that such a broad scope does a disservice to its central premise: Because it covers so much ground, even when you do learn a few odd superstitions, no time at all is spent examining why they exist at all.

On the other hand, lots of people like wide surveys of mythology—as other reviews demonstrate—and it works just fine thus. I'd recommend it as a starting-point, or an imagination engine. It’s also beautifully illustrated and would make a great coffee table or bathroom book. I can see parents using this to come up with new story fodder for kids at bedtime, or curious people using it to fall in love with new mythologies they never knew existed.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review, "Superstitions" by D.R. McElroy. I love the cover art. I liked the drawings and artistic features of this book. I liked the content of the book but felt there was very limited information on each continent. A different title may be more fitting for this book.

This book isn't as focused in superstitions as I thought, it's more mythology and gods, but there's interesting superstitions from around the world which really appealed to me. I like that it tries to get a sense of different cultures and mythologies, not focusing on only the more famous ones.

I'm in love with this book! It has myths, gods and superstitions from every corner of the worlds. Very insightful and curious read. I'm definitely gonna reread it soon.

This book describes different myths and legends across different cultures and continents. It talks about where certain things like tossing salt over your shoulder cane to be. I found it very fascinating and interesting. I read a lot of different types of fiction books that reference some of the folklore listed in this book, which is why I found it fascinating. It goes in depth on Asian, Egyptian, Irish and other cultural folklore. If you've ever been curious about legends and superstitions, then you should read this book. The illustrations are great.
I received this arc for my honest review. #Superstitions #NetGalley

A brief introduction to different myth animals/persons and a few superstitions from around the world. Categorized mainly by continent - with a few countries specified with own ones. Nice for those who have an interest in something like this, a nice jump off point.

One could say that I a biased because I am always curious reading about this topic but I loved this book regardless!!!
Apart from the variety and diversity of folklore tales and superstitions, the design is impeccably done and I just wanted more of everything!

I would definitely recommend this one and I hope to read more of it by author D.R. McElroy!

I can't wait to buy this book it was so amazing addition to the library that I work the amazing like stories from around the world was just unbelievable to read

I have to admit I requested this book mainly because of the adorable mystic cover. Yes, I judge a book by the cover and I usually get disillusioned but this was not the case for this one despite the disappointment created by the misleading title. This book encapsulates some beautiful drawings and illustrations BUT it contains too little information when it comes to superstitions and their origins. The content mainly revolves around gods, goddesses, monsters and myths of various cultures prevailed on all seven continents. It is a very well-thought and researched book and I throughly enjoyed it even though it was not what I expected at first glance. I was also quite surprised to learn that even the most distant cultures have common superstitions, shared customs and mythical creatures. Overall an intriguing and reading experience for those fond of myths, legends and superstitions and their origins.

A brilliant collection of myths, legends, superstitions, god/goddesses, spirits and fairies.
I particularly enjoyed reading the English origins like Friday the 13th and the term "bless you".

A decent collection of monsters, superstitions, gods and goddesses! I enjoyed skimming through this and looking at other cultures' takes on mythological concepts: the variety is fascinating to behold. Loved the little illustrations and the occasional stabs of humour scattered throughout.

Really enjoyable and interesting read. I liked that the author was respectful but also had a sense of humour. If she can now write more in depth books on the different mythology and superstitions in cultures that would be great!

I absolutely love this book!
It's gorgeous and filled with folklore and mythology from all around the world.
I'm so excited to keep learning from this, such a big fan of the illustrations as well!

This book is a fantastic introduction to a wide variety of myths and legends from around the world. I truly enjoyed the short, yet satisfying descriptions of the various dieties and mythological creatures. Although it would have been impossible to fit a full analysis of the origins of each diety/creature into one book, I appreciate that the author did separate the book by regions and provide some cultural context.

I loved this!!! I loved how the author went into detail about the different places around the world and went through all the different superstitions. I rather liked going though the Egyptian Gods and superstitions that was really neat! I definitely recommend this book! This author really knows his stuff and I loved it will definitely look into more by this author

Unfortunately I can't review this book since the file format is unreadable (this is not a pdf, I have no problem with those). A Kindle version would be highly appreciated.

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Firstly, not being available as a kindle download made things extremely difficult as I was unable to read it like other books I have reviewed. The content was good however, I like how it was broken up by regions. and included local unknown and well known myths. This def gives a new perspective to certain tales in different areas of the world. Overall very good!

I have learned some cool superstitions from this book. Don't worry about black cat crossing the street, worry about mirror breaking or interesting other tales from various countries.
Interestingly enough one bad superstition might mean luck in another country.
This book was fairly easy to read. I just wish it was available in Kindle format.

I really love the concept of this book as an encyclopedia of superstitions.

Unfortunately I am unable to offer further review due to technical difficulties with the file. I tried several times to download it. Each time, it took ages and when it finally completed, all I could see were two blank pages. If the file is amended and I am informed of such, I am happy still to read and will update this review accordingly.

I was very disappointed with this book. There was only one page per chapter about superstitions in each culture and the explanations very vague. This was a book mostly about gods and goddesses which was not what I was expecting. I wanted to learn about the origins of superstitions such as why it's bad luck to open an umbrella indoors or why someone can incur 7 years of bad luck if they break a mirror? Instead there were 1 sentence descriptions of mythological gods and creatures. I wanted to learn about superstitions and unfortunately it didn't actually discuss them.