I am confused about the intended audience of this book. At first, I thought it was aimed at children. It makes sense. Cute drawing, content warnings under the labels mentioning innocent things like "alcohol" and less innocent such as "Animal Death" which gave me the initial impression of an parent reading to an child and deciding to skip the entry with the Chupacabre because it was said it caused multiple pet deaths.
But then the Goatman entry arrived with the "bestiality" tag and that gave me whiplash. I can just imagine a child looking at their parent and going "what is bestiality?". Which, maybe I'm clutching my pearls here but that isn't something I want coming out of anyones mouth. The actual entry was rather innocent saying that some tales said the goatman was "the offspring of a farmer and a goat" which.. is a lot more acceptable than seeing the word bestiality somehow.
(Other content warnings I wouldn't want a child to see include Sexual Assault and Genital Mutilation)

The cover also goes under this. It is like a book made by two people and both thinking they're making the book for different audiences. The actual text in the book feels like it is written like non-fiction, it features reported sightings, even going as far as naming people who has stated they've seen the creature. There is even some entries (like the Chupacabre) where the author points out arguments over what the creature might actually be (A dog with mange). However, the cover doesn't say "here is a nonfiction book about creatures we might be sharing the earth with", it says "here is a cute little book about imaginary beings". Even ignoring the art style (which I personally love), it features a creature that isn't very well known and is on the more whimsical side. (Why the artist decided to draw it like an alien thumbelina when the reports mention a creature several meters tall I don't understand either)

The content warning wasn't always consistent either, the Jersey Devil didn't have any but mentioned multiple sheep killing. (So should have had the Animal Death warning like the Chupacabre did, but it seems the Chupacabre got that because it mentioned sheep, farm animals and pets. Seeming to value the pet part a lot more than the being accurate part).

Featuring around a 100 different creatures, it's obviously an selective bunch. Most of these types of monster manuals are. I was pleasantly surprised to see several I wasn't aware of (which is saying a lot considering how big of a fantasy fan I am). But, if the intended audience is younger, why include the two bestiality entries? If it's aimed at an adult audience, why not choose a more serious cover?

Personally, I love cute things. So I enjoyed this book. I'd personally rate it at an 3.5

A cute look at cryptids, folklore creatures, and mythological creatures around the world! I liked how this one was organized into the very clear categories, plus there are such great illustrations. This is a fun pick and read a creature or two book to have.

As a big fan of mythological creatures I was intrigued by the premise of the book, but unfortunately it's more of an amateur project than a fully fleshed out compendium.
I guess it's okay enough as a basic introduction for people, who don't know much about the topic. It's quite the random assortment of creatures and the structure of the book itself is rather weird. I'm not sure who the intended audience is supposed to be, as it's written too dry and unappealing for younger readers, while the artwork is more on the immature side.
Generally I find the quality of most of the various art styles, as well as the information, to each creature quite inconsistent and unrefined. The information just seems pretty dumped and presented as dry blocky text, lacking appeal visually and contentwise. It's partially not well researched with rather mismatching artwork and a complete lack of graphic design elements, aside from the full page artworks of varying quality. Even Wikipedia texts are oftentimes written more engaging and better structured.

This review is for an advanced reader eBook from NetGalley.

The art in this book is fantastic! There are images by the author and by guest artists. I love that there are so many images, one with each description to bring the creature, cryptid, or critter to life. I'd give it 4.5 to 5 stars for the fantastic artwork alone.

There was a lot of time and energy put into this book and it shows. There are end notes, acknowledgements of changes in the mythos given colonization and expansion, and many warnings for readers who need or prefer possible TW, though nothing is particularly detailed in graohic language.

The reading level and readability is a bit hodge-podge and piece-meal. I assume it's because the author is trying to stick to the research, but it reads as a better fit for kids or young adults (minus the content that can be TWs), giving this book for me a 3-star rating on written content. I would love more details on each of these creatures.

I'm not overly familiar with cryptids et. al. so went into this book hoping to learn new tidbits and I certainly did! This is more of an encyclopedia: the entries are split into three parts (Cryptids, Folklore, and Mythology), and also includes a lengthy reference list. Each entry includes a full colour illustration, description, and geographical information. I do think the author tried to be as comprehensive as possible covering global locations and cultures. It's a very visual book, though I think it could've included even more illustrations as some pages do have larger blank spaces between entries, and a map would've been a nice addition. In some cases the descriptions were quite expansive yet others were sparse, but kudos to the author for all the information gathering as this must have been an extensive amount of research (on topics where not a lot of information is always available or reliable for obvious reasons).

I appreciated the explanation at the beginning about cultural appropriation, misrepresention, and colonialism, and thought the author did a good job at curating the inclusion of entries, including content warnings, and explaining problematic elements throughout.

This is one to buy and keep around to dip into, and could be considered a Kickstarter win for those lucky enough to back it before it was traditionally published.

Thank you to Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for the digital early copy!

Honestly, this is definitely a Book Shane and Ryan from BuzzFeed Unsolved would enjoy so much!
And I absolutely loved it as well! The art is stunning and there are many amazing creatures that I have never heard of before.
There is also a lot of interesting information. I never got bored reading this book.

Reading this really got me into the cryptozoology rabbit hole...

This is a really cute book on some of the wackiest beings that human suspect exist or existed.

The variety of artstyles are fun and make some creatures look utterly delightful.

As a fan of the Fresno Nightcrawlers, I was quite pleased with their illustration.


As for the actual writing, it's standard cryptid fare, but with the variety and obscurity of the beings in this book, I'm certain that most will find something that they had not learned before.

The Tizzie-Whizie is one that I had never heard about until reading this and it's so cute!

I did appreciate the content warnings before more sensitive entries and the definitions in the introduction for cryptid, spirit, and creature.

I expected a book to flip through and see new art of cryptids I'm familiar with. I was pleasantly surprised that this is so thorough! There were many new creatures introduced to me (and I can assume to any reader). The organization of mythical vs cryptid is great, as well as the physical descriptors.
Overall, this is a step above other cryptid books in the amount of information, organization and artwork.

Thank you to NEtgalley and the publisher for giving me this eARC to review.

I love mythology and Cryptids, Creatures and Critters is the sort of book I know I would love. The illustrations were nice and the information was pretty fascinating. Some Cryptids/Creatures/Critters had content warnings which was great because sometimes you don't want to read a section that has animal death.

It was nice that it wasn't just focused on one area of the world for its creatures as sometimes books like this can be focused on one country or continent. I would recommend this to people interested in Cryptids, Creatures, Critters and Mythology/Folklore and I think it could be an interesting reference book for TTRPGs and creating or using creatures.

Great illustrations and insightful information about Cryptids, Creatures & Critters!

I loved the introduction and the how to read sections at the beginning of this book; they really helped frame the information moving forward. The illustrations were great, and brought life to the information being presented. I will definitely be purchasing this book for my shelf at home.

LOVE!!! This is a very informative reference book with pretty much any kind of cryptid/creature you're looking for. The descriptions are great and the art is top tier. I'm going to have to buy a hard copy because I have a feeling it'll be a wonderful reference in my writing ;) Plus it'd just be fun to look through the pictures every once in a while!

Thank you, NetGalley and Rachel Quinney, for providing me with a copy to review.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy for an honest review

I really like it , really good illustrations and I liked it

Rating 4 1/2 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Cute introductory anthology to creatures from myth, folklore and legend. It has more text than I was expecting but the illustrations are magical and the descriptions really bring it to life. A perfect book to dip into and inspire further reading.

This book takes a look at a lot of cryptids and monsters from around the world. It gives you a brief look at the creatures without overwhelming you with information about them. It also gives you an illustration of the creatures to give you an idea of what it looks like. If you're looking to dip your toe into the cryptid pool, this book would be a great place to start. It may make you curious enough to research more about these creatures.

I love this book!! I always enjoy finding movies and novels that feature cryptids, but I had no idea there were so many different kinds. The entries are fantastic, with a brief explanation about the story behind each cryptid and bright, fun pictures. This is fun to read on its own and I would also highly recommend this for budding writers who want inspiration. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

This was a really interesting compendium of cryptids! There were so many cultures represented, and it was interesting to see how similar creatures evolved in varying areas. I thought it was very helpful that nearly every entry had trigger warnings on it. That is a great addition. I found the commentary on how outside forces (usually Christianity) affected the story of the cryptid to be fascinating. Many of their stories changed dramatically with the influx of Christianity and sin doctrine. It’s also very interesting how many cultures around the world have wronged women spirits/demons who lure men to their deaths. I liked all of the images, it was very helpful to bring them to life. I will note, they look a bit weird on a kindle. They were clearly meant to be viewed in color. I will probably go back and look at them on my phone so I can enjoy them as they were meant to be.

A really interesting and fun way to show how mythology and crytids are connected. I enjoyed the explanation to how lore changed based on region. I also really enjoyed the different regions that were covered in the book. It has many ive never heard of before and others i have with a twist. The art throughout the book was really pretty and cool as well. A super fun read.

Such a cute and informative book.
The illustrations are magical!
More of a reference book, bringing attention to a few critters I had never heard of.
Opens up the opportunity to deep dives and other cultures.

As a long-time lover of cryptids and cryptid books, it's always a treat to read a new one, especially one that introduces me to some cryptids I was not previously familiar with!

I enjoyed the art throughout the book, though I do think it would probably land better as a physical copy instead of digitally (as you lose the 2-page spread of art and text together in several places).

I also appreciate that the author was sensitive to their position as an outsider to a lot of these legends, and the prejudices that can seep into how they are portrayed. The introduction did a good job to show the care that Quinney seems to have put into organizing the structure and stories to be respectful towards the cultures and people these stories are pulled from - I am not part of any of the groups that could really speak to the success of this, but it seems at the very least a promising attempt.

I did appreciate the inclusion of content warnings throughout for some of the more grusome stories, though I did find it a little inconsistent (death probably could have been included on 50% of them, due to the nature of a lot of cryptids).

My only major gripe with the book is I feel like the information on a few of the cryptids was lacking - while some had multiple pages, others were limited to not even a full page, or simply described the appearance but didn't have much information on things like sightings, behavior, or stories. It is not too much of an issue if you're taking this as more of a beginners guide/overview, but I would have loved a little more info on some pages where there was already more room available on the page. Additionally, I agree with some points I've seen in other reviews that formatting some things like size or time period more consistently in a list like location was could help a little with placing some of the creatures into their context upfront. I also would have loved artist credits on the page for the guest artists - especially as some of them left comments on the page already! (They are credited fully in the back, it is just harder to flip back and forth in an e-book!)

Overall, I enjoyed it! Definitely recommend checking out a print copy to enjoy the art, and I will be researching some of the new creatures that I've learned about!

This digital ARC was provided by the publisher Andrews McMeel Publishing through NetGalley. This is an honest review.

Loved this book! Super cute nonfiction look at cryptids, creatures & critters! I would recommend for a lighthearted view at some of history most famous stories