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Systema Paradoxa #25
Snapped Up: A Tale of the Beast of Busco
What's a road trip without a little diversion?
A group of friends set off across the country to deliver a car for a relative, but give in to temptation and decide to have a little fun. Detouring to check out a local cryptid festival, they find themselves in the midst of a full-blown sighting...
...Or have they?
They begin to wonder as they knock around the local festivities and one of them meets the creature face to "face," ending up in a harrowing chase that leaves them questioning how much of the facts are fabricated.
And who stands to gain...
A group of friends set off across the country to deliver a car for a relative, but give in to temptation and decide to have a little fun. Detouring to check out a local cryptid festival, they find themselves in the midst of a full-blown sighting...
...Or have they?
They begin to wonder as they knock around the local festivities and one of them meets the creature face to "face," ending up in a harrowing chase that leaves them questioning how much of the facts are fabricated.
And who stands to gain...
141 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 21, 2025
1 person want to read
About the author
Aaron Rosenberg
234 books118 followersAaron Rosenberg is an award-winning, bestselling novelist, children’s book author, and game designer. He's written original fiction (including the NOOK-bestselling humorous science fiction novel No Small Bills, the Dread Remora space-opera series, and the O.C.L.T. supernatural thriller series), tie-in novels (including the PsiPhi winner Collective Hindsight for Star Trek: SCE, the Daemon Gates trilogy for Warhammer, Tides of Darkness and the Scribe-nominated Beyond the Dark Portal for WarCraft, Hunt and Run for Stargate: Atlantis, and Substitution Method and Road Less Traveled for Eureka), young adult novels (including the Scribe-winning Bandslam: The Novel and books for iCarly and Ben10), children's books (including an original Scholastic Bestseller series, Pete and Penny's Pizza Puzzles, and work for PowerPuff Girls and Transformers Animated), roleplaying games (including original games like Asylum and Spookshow, the Origins Award-winning Gamemastering Secrets, and sections of The Supernatural Roleplaying Game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and The Deryni Roleplaying Game), short stories, webcomics, essays, and educational books. He has ranged from mystery to speculative fiction to drama to comedy, always with the same intent—to tell a good story. You can visit him online at gryphonrose.com or follow him on Twitter @gryphonrose.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 19, 2026
I've enjoyed my reads in this series overall. Some I liked and some were not the best, but they weren't bad. I learned about some cryptids I didn't know about and enjoyed the ones I did in new situations by authors placing them in a fictional novella. I haven't read all parts of the series but have been curious to see what a creature on the cryptid iceberg would inspire. The Beast of Busco is a perfect test case to undertake that look.
Aaron Rosenberg is a solid author who is credentialed in a number of different series, including TV adaptation stories. Here, he takes a group of theater kids from New York and sticks them in the Midwest of Indiana. I was a little nervous as one of the characters is also a they/them vegan because of course there is. However, I have to given Rosenberg all the credit in that he treats the Midwest like the sensible place it is. Descriptions of the area are accurate (and even a little shoutout to Kalamazoo is in there as well). People of the town are treated as normal, calm, sensible people who are capitalizing on a town legend and celebrating in normal Midwest fashion that calls to the beautiful Americana that still resides in the "so-called flyover states". So I was sold on the setting and only saw the one red flag from the author.
The characters of the story did their job well and allowed for learning things at a quicker pace in a short story as they were allowed to split up or work together to figure out what was going on. The characters are likable college students who understand they are visitors in a town and are polite and there for a good time - while at the same time trying to figure out why the Beast of Busco, a giant snapping turtle-like creature the size of a car has suddenly appeared. Why the characters have decided to stop on their trip and investigate isn't clear as they do seem to have a direct goal for their trip in mind, however, allowances are given to allow the actual story to play out.
The mystery plot works overall and combining it with maybe one or two legends from the area is an inventive touch and shows that Rosenberg took care with crafting the story and not bemoaning the cryptid he was probably assigned. Like with all the other stories in this series, the author makes a choice as to what type of revelation he wants with the cryptid and what genre of story he's presenting. I have to say that it was a lot of fun and set against the backdrop of normal town USA strikes at my Midwestern heart and sensibilities. The ending is done quite well and I think anyone reading this would benefit from picking up other stories written by Rosenberg. So grab a hot dog, enter a three-legged race, and know that the hissing and clicks coming from that car-shaped object in the dark over there isn't a giant snapping turtle - probably. Final Grade - A
Aaron Rosenberg is a solid author who is credentialed in a number of different series, including TV adaptation stories. Here, he takes a group of theater kids from New York and sticks them in the Midwest of Indiana. I was a little nervous as one of the characters is also a they/them vegan because of course there is. However, I have to given Rosenberg all the credit in that he treats the Midwest like the sensible place it is. Descriptions of the area are accurate (and even a little shoutout to Kalamazoo is in there as well). People of the town are treated as normal, calm, sensible people who are capitalizing on a town legend and celebrating in normal Midwest fashion that calls to the beautiful Americana that still resides in the "so-called flyover states". So I was sold on the setting and only saw the one red flag from the author.
The characters of the story did their job well and allowed for learning things at a quicker pace in a short story as they were allowed to split up or work together to figure out what was going on. The characters are likable college students who understand they are visitors in a town and are polite and there for a good time - while at the same time trying to figure out why the Beast of Busco, a giant snapping turtle-like creature the size of a car has suddenly appeared. Why the characters have decided to stop on their trip and investigate isn't clear as they do seem to have a direct goal for their trip in mind, however, allowances are given to allow the actual story to play out.
The mystery plot works overall and combining it with maybe one or two legends from the area is an inventive touch and shows that Rosenberg took care with crafting the story and not bemoaning the cryptid he was probably assigned. Like with all the other stories in this series, the author makes a choice as to what type of revelation he wants with the cryptid and what genre of story he's presenting. I have to say that it was a lot of fun and set against the backdrop of normal town USA strikes at my Midwestern heart and sensibilities. The ending is done quite well and I think anyone reading this would benefit from picking up other stories written by Rosenberg. So grab a hot dog, enter a three-legged race, and know that the hissing and clicks coming from that car-shaped object in the dark over there isn't a giant snapping turtle - probably. Final Grade - A
January 5, 2026
This is a mystery a la Scooby Doo with four college aged adults on a road trip who stumble upon a small town festival. The book (novella, really) starts with a sighting of Oscar, the titular Beast of Busco, a giant turtle last spotted in the 1940’s.
I found the characters one dimensional. One’s entire personality is how much they can eat. Another’s is his appeal to the ladies, and the third’s is using they/them pronouns. The fourth one is from Chicago.
The plot had a mystery setup where they just happened to run into the seven or so people who had the most at stake or could be extraordinarily useful to them. Yawn. Having lived most of my life half an hour from Churubusco did not help as all the details the author got wrong about the town kept throwing me out of the story.
I found the characters one dimensional. One’s entire personality is how much they can eat. Another’s is his appeal to the ladies, and the third’s is using they/them pronouns. The fourth one is from Chicago.
The plot had a mystery setup where they just happened to run into the seven or so people who had the most at stake or could be extraordinarily useful to them. Yawn. Having lived most of my life half an hour from Churubusco did not help as all the details the author got wrong about the town kept throwing me out of the story.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews