It Came From the Swamp: A Cryptid Anthology edited by Joey R. Poole

Malarkey Books, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1088025321

Available: Paperback ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

This short story anthology is themed around cryptids and folkloric creatures. Mermaids and Bigfoot make multiple appearances, but so do more locally known creatures.

Standout stories include: “Flood Tide”, in which a maid for an anti-abortion senator feeds him and his handsy son to a carnivorous mermaid. I felt vicarious pleasure reading this one.In “Ceasing”, a lizard man and a Boo Hag go on a Halloween date. In “Soo-Soo Go Bye-Bye”, a father rushing to Wal-Mart on icy roads for baby supplies thinks he’s spotted a Sasquatch. “Der Butzemann” takes a figure from Pennsylvania Dutch folklore and uses it to enact vengeance on those poisoning the land. There’s some excellent writing in some of the other stories but they don’t quite feel like all the pieces fit together.

In any book themed on cryptids, they are really the stars, and “The Monster Beneath” and “The Valley Where the Fog Has Hooves” both have incredible, lyrical, descriptive writing about the cryptids in the stories. For readers into cryptids and folkloric creatures looking for something a little darker than Harry Dresden’s “Working for Bigfoot”, this is a title you’ll want to check out.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski