TITLE: Wicked Strange
AUTHOR: Jeff Belanger
PUBLISHER: New Page Books
ISBN: 978-1637480212
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Mark Norman
I do like a good coffee table book. I spend a large proportion of my reading time on long-form fiction or non-fiction titles, more often than not linked with either my own writing or the podcast, but it is always a pleasure to have a book that you can dip into now and again. A quick read during lunch. A breakfast skim. Probably not in the bath … the pages get crinkly. But those sorts of things.
Wicked Strange fits the bill perfectly. With Jeff Belanger as author, you know you’re going to have well-researched material, but delivered with just the right amount of humour and wry smile. As the co-host of a podcast on New England legends, the book was probably an inevitability. And the words are enhanced by some stunning photography. More about that in a moment.
Every country, territory, state or island has its folklore and its traditions, of course. But New England is Rich in this area, with the capital R for emphasis. And for me, living her in merrie old Old England, there are lots of parallels to explore, but also lots of stories unique to the six states covered in the book.
With the colonists arriving in what would become New England in the early part of the seventeenth century, the incoming stories of witches and the Devil striding about the landscape have had a long time to embed. It can be seen how they have taken on elements of local culture and belief, being moulded and shaped over time to what they are today.
While some of the stories that you would expect to be covered are there – Lake Champlain’s monster, Paul Bunyan and pleasingly (for me) a nice Black Dog example – this is most certainly not one of those annoying copy and paste coffee table tomes which offers nothing new. What’s not to like about the Specter Moose of Lobster Lake or the Hoodoo Hearse of Holden in Maine? And why is Razor Shins not a Netflix series, or at least a comic book character (apologies if he is … I don’t read many comics).
That photography I mentioned is by Frank Grace and is simply stunning. Using a variety of in-camera and post-production techniques, Frank has a style which adds extra creep to the creepiest location, and presents each story with an accompanying image which you would be happy to frame and put on your wall.
In short, Wicked Strange is fun, entertaining, engaging and beautiful to look at. If you have any kind of interest at all in the folklore and legend of New England, you won’t want to be without it.
AUTHOR: Jeff Belanger
PUBLISHER: New Page Books
ISBN: 978-1637480212
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Mark Norman
I do like a good coffee table book. I spend a large proportion of my reading time on long-form fiction or non-fiction titles, more often than not linked with either my own writing or the podcast, but it is always a pleasure to have a book that you can dip into now and again. A quick read during lunch. A breakfast skim. Probably not in the bath … the pages get crinkly. But those sorts of things.
Wicked Strange fits the bill perfectly. With Jeff Belanger as author, you know you’re going to have well-researched material, but delivered with just the right amount of humour and wry smile. As the co-host of a podcast on New England legends, the book was probably an inevitability. And the words are enhanced by some stunning photography. More about that in a moment.
Every country, territory, state or island has its folklore and its traditions, of course. But New England is Rich in this area, with the capital R for emphasis. And for me, living her in merrie old Old England, there are lots of parallels to explore, but also lots of stories unique to the six states covered in the book.
With the colonists arriving in what would become New England in the early part of the seventeenth century, the incoming stories of witches and the Devil striding about the landscape have had a long time to embed. It can be seen how they have taken on elements of local culture and belief, being moulded and shaped over time to what they are today.
While some of the stories that you would expect to be covered are there – Lake Champlain’s monster, Paul Bunyan and pleasingly (for me) a nice Black Dog example – this is most certainly not one of those annoying copy and paste coffee table tomes which offers nothing new. What’s not to like about the Specter Moose of Lobster Lake or the Hoodoo Hearse of Holden in Maine? And why is Razor Shins not a Netflix series, or at least a comic book character (apologies if he is … I don’t read many comics).
That photography I mentioned is by Frank Grace and is simply stunning. Using a variety of in-camera and post-production techniques, Frank has a style which adds extra creep to the creepiest location, and presents each story with an accompanying image which you would be happy to frame and put on your wall.
In short, Wicked Strange is fun, entertaining, engaging and beautiful to look at. If you have any kind of interest at all in the folklore and legend of New England, you won’t want to be without it.