The Mothman Prophecies

The best parts of this book are genuinely unnerving. At a certain point, something with so many sightings - and so much strangeness surrounding said sightings - feels hard to dismiss outright, no matter how skeptical you are. And the deeper you dig into the Mothman case, the weirder it becomes. As a story, whether you buy it or not, it's pretty fascinating stuff.

That said, there are better ways to experience this story than with this book. The book feels dated and is honestly a bit of a mess, meandering from incident to incident in a way that lacks any real cohesion. It's not awful, but it's one of those books that's better off summarized than actually read. If you're interested in the subject matter, I'd recommend the Astonishing Legends podcast's fascinating, multi-part series on the Mothman instead - because it covers everything in this book and then some, and in a more organized, engaging fashion.

I can't exactly describe why I'm giving this book 2 stars instead of 1. Perhaps it's a stilted sense of respect to a “classic.” Who knows. The point is, I put this on my “abandoned” bookshelf for a reason.

First, a little backstory. I picked up this book after seeing The Mothman Prophecies movie, which, although sub-par overall, did have some suspenseful moments. Therefore, it seemed logical that the book might carry the same quasi-suspenseful feeling. WRONG.

Keel's manner of reporting-as-a-book doesn't sit well. His method of creating/collecting various reports, stapling them together, and calling the result a book destroys any level of continuity. That wouldn't be so much of a problem if some of the stuff in the book was actually threatening/scary ... but it just isn't. All too often, Keel's descriptions fail to carry any sense of excitement, peril, or true mystery. Do yourself a favor and don't waste time with this one.

What a giant disappointment of a book. After hearing the Astonishing Legends pod-cast on the Mothman, this book was the next obvious place to look to more info. What I found was a giant waste of time. The book starts and ends with Point Pleasant and the Mothman sightings, but a huge part of it is Keel's direction-less collection of anecdotes in a totally disjointed, stream of consciousness style format. Stories told and re-referenced later, with no real reason, jumping around different time periods and different topics.

While the pod-cast gave it a sense of something mysterious and scary going on, Keel makes so many weird little joking remarks that really make it hard to take the whole thing seriously. He comes across as someone who is in a bigger joke being played, but he isn't. The subject matter obviously leads to skepticism, but when it is presented in this way, it really makes it hard to take even a little seriously.

One thing that really stuck out, was that John Keel feels like John Keel is very important. I realize that all this is from his point of view, placing him in center of every story, but he comes across as smug and self-important like everyone else's experiences in the book are in a way directed at him. Again he seems like he is above on all the people who don't have a riddle figured out, he in reality, he doesn't know the answer either. This is really an interesting story with a lot going, and it is obvious that Keel did a ton of research and legwork, it is just presented here so poorly and in such a disorganized way that makes this book beyond pointless.