#Spooktober ‘ World Of The Unknown-Monsters’ by Carey Miller

Oh lordy I was thrust back to my childhood self from the very start of the introduction-the mere mention of the horror Top Trumps had me flipped back to the 80’s and my dog eared collection, playing in the library during that favourite school time  period, ‘wet play time’. We lived in Wales so wet play occurred more often than not so in a time where computers and printers were considered almost at the level of the devil’s work, Grandma’s Garden and Pong were the height of sophistication when it came to gaming, those long long hours could be hell if you didn’t have a book, a notepad or a pack of Top Trumps to play with!

The Loch Ness monster as a ghost of a dinosaur? Absolutely on board for that theory, I totally had  my mind blown by that, as well as the creaky old movies that seemed to be on every Saturday afternoon, featuring murderous Abominable Snowmen or Bigfoot (Bigfeet?!) , all of these seemed to fit into my mind with absolutely no problem whatsoever. To be fair, I could relate to the whole monster as an allegory of an outsider motif-who doesn’t want to believe that we humans are not the top of the food chain? We are doing a pretty awful job of keeping the world in one piece at the moment, so the idea that there are monsters out there which defy conventional logic has always lit my mind up like a fuse!

The definition of what is, or is not, a monster, is debated throughout history, from the creations of 6th century poet, Homer, to the sea beasts Scylla and Charybdis, sirens who would lure sailors to their doom with their swan songs, Minotaurs who needed annual appeasement in blood offerings, all of these are still being picked over and talked about thousands of years later.

The line between beast and human is a fine line, and in examining what exactly a monster is, it sends a frisson of delight down your spine in tumbling goosebumps. The wickedly bright illustrations pull no punches, the bloodiness of carniverous dragons and dinosaurs are absolutely not going to be conveyed eating knights with napkins around their necks and a set of silver cutlery. This book knows its audience is after nightmare fuel and honesty in its depictions.

Who can blame a harmless yeti for getting annoyed that someone decides to build a ski resaort right where they have existed happily for so long, minding their own business? And who asked knights to go around rescuing maidens from dragons (maidens, it should be said, that were sent to the dragons in an attempt to offer them appeasement yet it could have been absolutely anybody, it was kind of like a medieval Deliveroo, dragon wakes up and finds a human tied to a post, what’s he/she going to do except snaffle it up?)

The fuzzy, out of focus pictures of Nessie (The Loch Ness Monster) the classic Bigfoot, the things which are beyond are knowledge yet not beyond our imagination, all of this was fuel to my young mind and if I read this book a 100 times, till it fell apart, it is no exaggeration. I am so thrilled to get to pass this on to my youngest, who finds this trilogy of Uasborne books absolutely fascinating and fuel for her own research-hers, however, is done via the internet rather than a dog-eared pack of cards which I used to scour for the tiniest details and make up stories.

It sparked a life-long love of horror, mystery and monsters and I am currently undertaking a course in Cryptozoology because it is just absolutely fascinating, whether true or false, how we create these narratives of beasts which have endured where other cultural phenomena have fallen by the wayside.

What a book, what a trip back in time, and what a pleasure to pass on to my daughter!