I was so excited to start reading, as conspiracy theories & national works are some of my major interests! I find myself getting lost in the google rabbit hole when it comes to a case or story I’m particularly interested it. So, when I saw this book I KNEW it would be up my alley! It had the potential to be gripping and informative, however, the choppiness of the storytelling made me lose interest quite quickly. I wish some cases would have been more fleshed out. Overall, it just felt unorganized and rushed. Still interesting which is why I gave 3 stars, but not the kind of read I would pick up again!

The audiobook is almost 14 hours long, but it goes pretty quickly since it’s a collection of short tales. Each mystery is 20-30 minutes and some even shorter, so I listened to one or two on my morning drive to work and it felt like listening to a podcast.

Each story is different, and they span across the United States. I really liked the hoax stories and how they were debunked, the true crime ones (there are for sure bodies in the Hoover Dam, nothing can convince me otherwise), and the aliens and haunting stories.

Overall this was fun, historical, and engaging. I really loved the audiobook!

Mysteries of the National Parks is a collection of 35 nonfiction mysteries that occur in national parks throughout the United States. The stories are divided into sections by region, each section containing at least 5-6 mysteries.

The stories were of varying interest and length. I found some compelling, others I just skimmed. The travel advice was useful and important for visitors, but those paragraphs were inserted at odd times within the telling of the stories. Since each chapter is a self-contained story, this can be read a bit at a time or all at once. Not all of the stories appeal to me, so I just read the ones that did. The focus is definitely more on the mystery than the history, so something readers should take into account depending on preference.

These books should be at every National Park gift shop.

~Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for giving me access to the ARC of this book.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. I enjoy visiting and hiking the national parks when I get the chance and try to read everything on national parks that I can. This book was right up my alley and an interesting read. I’d heard about a few of these mysteries in the national parks but most were new to me.

A collection of urban legends and disappearances surrounding the national park separated by regions. Some of these stories I had heard of by some were completely new and I had not heard. I did enjoy the use of fact and some of the speculation to tell a relatable stories that were easy to read and digest.

I particularly enjoyed the south and north east regions as they are regions that I had lived in before and had some experience with the stories.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy.

Mysteries Of The National Parks by Mike Bezemek is divided up into four sections north south east and west I love mysterious stories about our national parts from missing people to UFOs and more but this one was a little bit different although they do have those hot topics in the book 1st he announces the park then he announces the mystery that he tells you about the park and then More than not the conclusion to the mystery but the mysteries are more than just the wuwu and unexplained he explained the myths of calamity Jane the mammoth caves the strange parks in California so do not write this off as your average book about the same old mysteries because there were so many I didn’t know I couldn’t wait to read this book and Mike Bezemek made it so worth reading. this is not a copy and paste collection of stories but well told definitely investigated tales. #NetGalley, #TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview, #MikeBezemek, #MysteriesOfTheNationalParks,

This could have been an interesting book, but the subject matter that was introduced, and the way the author presented it ruined the book for me. Bad writing.

Thank you Netgalley & publishers for the ARC of this book! I loved the idea behind this book, and that the stories were separated by different regions. I also really enjoyed that the author included information about the parks that each story took place in, further encouraging people to visit. Unfortunately the stories were difficult to follow, and read like a collection of unedited essays.

If you love mysteries, unsolved and solved, sinister and curious, you'll love this collection of stories. Learning about the giants of the Redwood Forest, the eerie disappearance of a blink crew, the Hoover Dam's tangled history, and so much more. This book was so well researched and very well written.

This was a fun excursion through the parks. Most of the stories I had never heard. I liked the little inserts that told you about the park or the area as well. The mysteries were all pretty interesting and well researched.

I do wish there were more pictures because I found myself googling people and places because I wanted to see them while I read about them.

Mike Bezemek provides a series of mysteries for readers to explore. He breaks down the phenomena along with stories of the actual part. While the stories have a huge range from UFOs to stagecoach robbers to who climbed Denali first, there are a lot of options for the casual reader. Yet I personally found myself bored while reading it. One major cause might be the fact that I listen to a lot of different podcasts on a similar topic and felt like the title here did not justify a lot of the "mysteries." A lot of them felt bland and disengaging. I would've been happy reading one or two as a little article but a whole book, no thank you.

35 stories, each highlighting a specific National Park.

I see this book being stocked at National Park stores. Folks will buy it for the story tied to that particular park. Visitors to National Parks tend to visit other National Parks, so its a win-win ... plus you are on vacation and there is plenty of time to read (haha).

I won't rate a book unless I've read the entire book, cover to cover. I had to pace myself in reading Mysteries of the National Parks, reading 3 or 4 chapters a day. Glad I read this one. Some things I've read about already, but there are definitely some National Parks to move higher on the list. The author picked stories that wouldn't be short, interesting ... maybe a little quirky ... not the run of the mill stories.

There was a TREMENDOUS amount of research done in writing this book. I was very impressed with the number of articles reference. I also liked the end of the book, how the author had a little synopsis of why he selected that particular story and how he personally investigated it. Followed by the sources.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Publishing for approving my request to read the advance read copy of Mysteries of the National Parks in exchange for an honest review. 460+ pages. Release date is May 6, 2025.

This is a little dry for my taste. I love the stories but there was not a lot to break it up. I wanted to love it

The title alone, “Mysteries of the National Parks,” totally enticed me to select this book (which I think would look nice in a national park gift store). It’s a collection of 35 stories set in places administered by the National Park Service. Some are retellings of folktales, some are ghost stories (the JFK rocker in Yosemite mysteriously moving around the lodge after his assassination), and some are tributes to the indigenous tribes and locals who are culturally celebrated. If you have the time to read through all of them, you’ll have a pleasant experience and you’ll possibly retain some of the trivia for conversations about particular parks.

The organization of this book, however, was a mess. I received an ARC, so there’s hope that a detailed Table of Contents will be added beyond just the general geographic divisions. The chapter headings, too, need to be included upfront beyond just a number. I live in Utah, home of “The Mighty Five” and, of course, I wanted to go directly to stories about Zion, Bryce, Arches, Capitol Reef, and Canyonlands. But I need to page through the section simply called “The West” to find any references. So, as a reference book, this failed me. It’s a nice collection of vignettes and additional park information, but it would benefit from a restructuring for the casual reader. 2.5 stars.

Thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

Part fiction, part truth, part mystery, part travel guide, Bezemek takes readers to 35 National Parks across the US. The stories vary from tales about famous people (Calamity Jane and Hugh Glass - of Revenant fame) to more obscure stories about a kayaker going over Niagara Falls and the first known UFO sighting in the US. Interspersed with these stories readers will find helpful advice about how and when to visit these sites.

The stories were of varying interest and length. I found some compelling, others I just skimmed. Most had some historical context, but a few were more current. I found the travel advice useful and important for visitors, but those paragraphs were inserted at odd times within the telling of the stories. I found it sometimes quite jarring (for example) to leave the story of a man who survived a grizzly attack right in the middle to talk about trail access and weather in the park, then back to the survival story. I think that these "sidebars" would be better either at the beginning or end of the story. Just my two cents.

I've visited many of these Parks and hope to visit some of the others in the future. If history and nature and strange or unusual events are of interest to you, This is a worthwhile read. I've read better, but this was an interesting book. I'm glad I read it.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. I was very excited to read it because I am a lover of our country’s National Park Service (NPS) and have visited several of the sites. The book contains 35 stories that are related to different NPS sites. These stories range from the mystery of the Upheaval Dome formation at Canyonlands National Park to a US Air Force pilot’s disappearance in Kings Canyon National Park and everything in between. Some of the events the author wrote about are well known (Lincoln’s assassanation) while others are lesser known (the disappearance of the crew of an L-8 blimp). Each chapter also has snippets of information about the featured parks. Since each chapter focused on a different mystery, it was easy to set it down and pick it back up without any issues. I will admit that some of the stories grabbed at me more than others. Overall, I enjoyed this book and think other fans of the NPS will find it interesting.

I liked the layout of the e-book. Broken down by parts of the US from West to East and then by National Park, so that you could find a particular region if needed. The book is geared towards history and geography buffs rather than true crime enthusiasts. If you are into history and the national parks, this book is for you. It has many stories, some of which I had heard before, but many I had not been familiar with. I do wish it had included photos; there were a handful, but I anticipated a plethora of picture,s and I was disappointed by the lack of photos to support the stories, especially those that would have benefited from photo evidence, such as the sliding stones at Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park.

Fun and informative. Would recommend to a dad who's got the Americana travel bug and a new national parks photo map to complete. Some stories felt super tangential but maybe that's because I didn't realize how many areas were considered national parks.

It is fine. There aren't any references or anything like that included in the stories so you can't check out the stories yourself. It is fine if you are a reader who is interested in possible "conspiracy theories" or hidden agendas, but it wasn't for me.

I really enjoyed this fun, informative book. The author did a great job with his storytelling This book was well-researched, I found each chapter interesting because the mysteries were varied.