Book Review: "Confirmed Sightings: A Triple Cryptid Creature Feature" (2023)

Confirmed Sightings: A Triple Cryptid Creature Feature Book Review

Written by Stuart D. Monroe

Published by Salt Heart Press

With novellas from Bridget D. Brave, P.L. McMillan, and Ryan Marie Ketterer

2023, 263 pages, Fiction

Published on June 1st, 2023

Review:

Ah, cryptids. Who doesn’t love them, really? Whether it’s Bigfoot, Chupacabra, the Jersey Devil, or one of the dozens and dozens of other abnormal denizens of the dark, every state has its own “monsters” emblazoned on tee shirts and leering from the signs of seedy roadside attractions. It’s a beautiful thing, really. I’m no cryptid expert by any stretch of the imagination, but the three authors in Confirmed Sightings: A Triple Cryptid Creature Feature certainly are. Naturally, I had to see what they had to say on the subject.

In Illinois, they’re serious about the Piasa. You can see why.

Spoiler alert: I’m glad I did. Not only was I entertained, but I learned about some others that will almost certainly be going into my next D&D campaign.

“A Piasa for Christmas” by Bridget D. Brave: The first in the trio of novellas is the story of Kaycie, a makeup blogger/influencer who has fallen in love with her town’s local legend, the Piasa. The proto-bird is a demigod of sorts with a voracious appetite and a particular set of rules for love, but Kaycie is just so smitten that, you know, it’s all good. She documents her atypical relationship for all her followers, and the disastrous results are often hilarious with a horror that builds slowly at first but more rapidly with each page like a powerful diesel engine. The casual irreverence of Bridget D. Brave’s prose is funny and refreshing. Kaycie is a protagonist pulled straight from a social media story; her speech and tone are perfect. The sense of foreboding grows as you realize Kaycie is in deep, mortal trouble. “A Piasa for Christmas” is quick and efficient while being a hell of a lot of fun, and while the ending is predictable it’s the kind of predictable that you were hoping for.

Look, we ALL love Event Horizon!

“eyeofmoth.exe” by P.L. McMillan: The middle story of the trio is the nail-biting show stealer, a sci-fi tale about the crew of the CSR Piasa (wink wink) and their journey to find out what’s gone awry on the Space Station Goremades. Heavily inspired by Event Horizon (never a bad thing), P.L. McMillan’s yarn gives us everything one could hope for in a horror/sci-fi hybrid- a killer Mothman that predicts the bleakest of futures while killing indiscriminately, insane worshippers, a sprawling space station, claustrophobic trips through maintenance hatches, and plenty of gore. The surprise here is the humanity in both the two main protagonists and the monster itself. It’ll tug at your heartstrings a wee bit before actually pulling them out, and I call that a recipe for interstellar awesomeness! I’ll not soon forget this one.

So that’s what an Ahool is…

“Once Upon a Time In Turu” by Ryan Marie Ketterer: The final story is a smorgasbord of cryptid madness, a hardboiled detective tale set in a walled city called Turu inhabited by all manner of cryptids. There’s a Sasquatch with a keen eye (Policefoot Orli), a Jersey Devil who’s part of the local mafia (Malse), a werewolf with ulterior motives (Jessica), a spoiled rich Jackalope with a nose for deadly trouble (Kevan Ares), his regal Mngwa friend (Draak), and his dear Ahool friend (Jahat). There are also merwomen with loose morals and a hunting club that’s searching for (you guessed it) the mythical Piasa. Throw in some seriously sinister Mothmen who apparently just want to fuck up everyone in sight, and you’ve got a twisting mystery that did not end at all where I thought it would while jumping around like a Tarantino flick. It’s fast-paced and more fun than you can shake a tentacle at.

Confirmed Sightings: A Triple Cryptid Creature Feature is a lot of fun, folks. Each novella has its own vibe both genre-wise and in tone while adhering to a common theme and a clear love for the Piasa. All three are worthy of your time and will probably have you on Google digging up a little more info. Speaking of, I have to go back to planning that next campaign….

Grade:

4.5 out of 5.0 stars