Book review: Monsters of the Pine Tree State

 Monsters of the Pine Tree State: Cryptids & Legends of Maine 

Eerie Lights Publishing, 2023, 240pp.

by David Weatherly. Foreword by Loren Coleman, art by Sam Shearon  

Weatherly's state-by-state collection of cryptid stories has reached my birth state, Maine, so I looked forward to this one. It's a lot of fun. Since there have been two recent Maine cryptid books by Michelle Souliere, there is some inevitable overlap, and Weatherly cites her a couple of times. Nonetheless, there's some new material here and many interesting stories. 

We meet Wessie, the out-of-place anaconda (surely dead of cold by now), "black panthers," Bigfoot and other apelike cryptids, and more. Weatherly's curiosity extends to topics outside cryptozoology, so we read tales of bipedal wolflike creatures, hard-to-describe horrors, and of course the state's huge, famous spectral moose. My favorite section is, as often happens, the one on sea serpents and strange marine creatures, and Weatherly has a couple of items here I'd forgotten about.  Weatherly also notes the Wendigo of Maine's Indigenous people is nothing like the horned monster of modern lore. He does not footnote, but some sources are given in the text, and there's a bibliography There is a list of publications and websites, which oddly consists of titles only, without addresses or URLs. Shearon's cover and interior art is, as always, superb. This is an enjoyable book best read in the evening, by a fireplace, with pine trees visible outside the windows. Good work!

 Matt Bille is a writer, historian, and naturalist living in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at mattsciwriter@protonmail.com. Website: www.mattbilleauthor.com.

Read Matt's Latest book, Of Books and Beasts: A Cryptozoologist's Library. This unique reference offers a friendly skeptic's 400 reviews of books on cryptozoology, zoology, related sciences, and cryptozoological fiction. Your search for the world's new and undiscovered animals begins here!