Superstitions: A Handbook of Folklore, Myths, and Legends from Around the World

by D.R. McElroy

Across all cultures and spanning centuries, superstitions rooted in cultural legends and myths have formed and influenced daily life. Superstitions: A Handbook of Folklore, Myths, and Legends from around the Worldâ?? explains how and why these legends and the associated behaviors behind them developed, accompanied by beautiful illustrations.

In this definitive reference, you’ll learn the fascinating and often bizarre histories of a comprehensive range of superstitions from around the world. For example, the belief that one will have seven years' bad luck if you break a mirror is said to come from the Romans, who were the first to create glass mirrors. And in Japanese culture, cutting your nails at night is thought to lead to a quick death because the two phrases sound similar.

You’ll also find out why some superstitions vary from culture to culture. For instance, the “unlucky” number 13 is considered a bad omen in some countries, like the US, and “lucky” in other countries, like Italy—where the number 17 is considered unlucky. The information is organized by country, so you can easily investigate the popular superstitions linked to your own or other specific ethnic heritage or cultural identity.

Satisfy your burning curiosity with this complete guide to superstitions, folklore, and myths.

The Mystical Handbook series from Wellfleet takes you on a magical journey through the wonderful world of spellcraft and spellcasting. Explore a new practice with each volume and learn how to incorporate spells, rituals, blessings, and cleansings into your daily routine. These portable companions feature beautiful foil-detail covers and color-saturated interiors on a premium paper blend.

Other titles in the series include: Witchcraft, Love Spells, Moon Magic, Knot Magic, and House Magic.
 

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction, Supernatural, Witchcraft, Superstition, Folklore, History

192 pages, Hardcover

First published May 19, 2020

Reviews

[Flybyreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit I requested this book mainly because of the adorable mystic cover. Yes, I judge a book by the cover and I usually get disillusioned but this was not the case for this one despite the disappointment created by the misleading title. This book encapsulates some beautiful drawings and illustrations BUT it contains too little information when it comes to superstitions and their origins. The content mainly revolves around gods, goddesses, monsters and myths of various cultures prevailed on all seven continents. It is a very well-thought and researched book and I thoroughly enjoyed it even though it was not what I expected at first glance. I was also quite surprised to learn that even the most distant cultures have common superstitions, shared customs and mythical creatures. Overall an intriguing and reading experience for those fond of myths, legends and superstitions and their origins.

(Received an advanced readers copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

[Deb✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superstitions: A Handbook of Folklore, Myths, and Legends from around the World
By D.R. McElroy
To be published May 26, 2020

Superstitions: A Handbook of Folklore, Myths, and Legends from around the World explains how and why these legends and the associated behaviors behind them developed. This is very well researched and encompasses every part of the world. It covers each continent and country and their beliefs, going way back to very early history. Their gods, goddesses, idols, creatures, monsters, totems, folklore, myths, legends, fables, parables, urban legends/urban myths, and of course, superstitions are all covered in this book. It gives a brief outline of each one and the basic belief behind them. There are pictures of some of them, and I would have loved to see even more pictures because they were fascinating.

My favorite part about this book were the superstitions from each part of the world. I thought it was interesting and fun to see the differences between the countries.

Also, to be able to learn about some of the other beliefs from history pertaining to each country and their gods, legends, folklore and myths were interesting as well. I also have to give a special nod to some of the more well-known creatures and monsters that we all know, such as Bigfoot, different types of werewolves, chupacabra, ghost ships, vampires, giants and leprechauns, etc. They and so many others can all be found here.

I enjoyed this book and if you are interested in this subject matter, I would recommend it.

I would like to thank the Quarto Publishing Group, Wellfleet Press and the author for this advanced digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this!!! I loved how the author went into detail about the different places around the world and went through all the different superstitions. I rather liked going though the Egyptian Gods and superstitions that was really neat! I definitely recommend this book! This author really knows his stuff and I loved it will definitely look into more by this author

[Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the actual superstitions in this book more interesting than the gods and creatures featured in it. I enjoyed learning about the origins of the superstitions that I grew up with especially those such as: not putting your hat on the bed (Mexco) and itchy palms means money is coming your way. (all cultures but originated in Africa).

Thanks to Net Galley, Wellfleet Press, and D. R. McElroy for a free ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


I found it very entertaining to learn about different superstitions from all over the world. It was an interesting journey and it's making me wanna dig up more and learn about superstitions from other countries.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of "Superstitions" is actually quite misleading in this case. There are only a few scant paragraphs that go into detail about some of the well-known superstitions that people take part in (not walking under ladders, bad luck for broken mirrors, etc.). The real heft of the book is broken down into different countries and their folklore and gods. While this information was interesting, I felt like I was expecting something quite different. I would have loved for McElroy to go into much greater detail about where superstitions originated and how they're still used in our present times. Instead, I read a lot of info about specific gods worshipped by everything from ancient Egyptians to Inuits. This book is extremely well-researched and I appreciated how each section was divided into easy-to-digest sections. However, I did find myself skimming certain paragraphs that just didn't hold any interest for me. People looking for factual tidbits about superstitions will likely have to look elsewhere.
*Free ARC provided by Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review*

[Electra (spoonfulofhygge) · Rating 4 out of 5]

One could say that I a biased because I am always curious reading about this topic but I loved this book regardless!!!
Apart from the variety and diversity of folklore tales and superstitions, the design is impeccably done and I just wanted more of everything!

I would definitely recommend this one and I hope to read more of it by author D.R. McElroy!

[Lisa Anders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful little "between" books to read. The takeaway is that from Africa to the US to Europe and everything in between we all have similar folklore, urban legends and superstitions.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected, based on the title - this book focused more on mythologies/gods and goddesses and monsters/mythical creatures more than actual superstitions. Still, it was very interesting, though I wish there were more images to go along with the entries.

[Riley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overview:
Superstitions is a book that goes through Folklore, Myths, Legends and Gods/Goddesses as well as superstitions. The author takes you through different places around the world and shows you the wide range of beliefs that there are, that you might not have heard about. Going beyond Bigfoot and the Slenderman.

Thoughts:
Though this book is called "Superstitions" keep in mind that this book doesn't focus specifically on superstitions and actually makes up like 5% of the book. This book mainly focuses on Folklore and Gods/Goddesses around the world and Myths and Legends.
This book was okay. It took me a long time to finish it (Longer then this site has it tracked for). It was boring. It didn't have anything making me want to come back to this book.
It was interesting to see the beliefs from around the world though because this book covers a wide range of countries and regions around the world that you don't hear much of. And you can tell this book has had a lot of research put into it but its just one of those books that take a while to read. Your just given a bunch of information and some pages that quickly give you a summery of the region or book before the author starts giving you more information.
I like the cover design but throughout the book the choice of bolded words is strange.
For example this is taken from a part of this book:
"Kasaobake is one of the most bizarre yūrei."

Just personally it is a strange way to bold something. Like either bold the name or the whole sentence. Not three words.
But maybe I am being picky. This had no effect on my rating. I just wanted to bring that up.

I did like that in the start it summarized the difference between Superstitions, Myths, Legends, Folklores, Fables, Parables and Urban Legends.

Leaving this at a positive note, I enjoyed reading about the beliefs in this book even if it took awhile.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simplistic overview of different belief systems. Most of the book is gods/goddess, with smaller sections on monsters and cultural superstitions. It would be an interesting reference book or jumping off point, but it seems a bit childish to be classified as an adult book. It’d probably be cool for middle grade or maybe high school.

I will note that as a Christian, including Yahweh/Jehovah as a mythical god and depicting him as vengeful and tormenting felt a little off base. Also seemed odd that Yahweh was listed as a myth in the Middle East, but nowhere is Allah listed? Either they were trying to be politically correct towards Islam by not listing it as a myth (though I doubt it, since they included Hindu gods) or they were just slighting it all together.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was recommended to me when I asked if anyone knew of any books about Latin American myths and folktales, and while this one was closer than other suggestions it still wasn’t quite it. Since it’s stories from around the world there’s only so much from each part that could be shared and there was really an imbalance with some having entire paragraphs with great detail and others just simple one lined sentences.
But it is a great reference book to have for fans of mythology or superstitions from around the world like myself.

[Abby Naser · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite the main title of it being about superstitions and the subtitle being about folklore and myths, I feel as though the two should be switched. Definitely focused more on myths, monsters/creatures, and gods/goddesses than it did superstitions and their origins. At times it almost felt as though the author was making jests about certain things (that weren’t really that “funny”). Interesting to read and see all the differences in locations but mainly just kind of “eh”.

[Angela Natividad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Superstition's title and introduction suggest it is about superstitions and their practical (or impractical) origins. The intro describes the social impact of believing black cats are unlucky, and the possible source of the belief that it’s bad luck to open umbrellas indoors.

If the author remained focused on these everyday superstitions and elaborated on them, I would have gotten what I expected and been glad. It would be enriching to dig deep into even a few weird beliefs, the way Aja Raden’s Stoned approaches the preciousness of certain jewels through story.

Instead, Superstitions is a loose global encyclopaedia of gods, monsters and *some* superstitions, divided by region. That's ambitious—impossibly ambitious, even—and this attempt to generalise the pantheon of human storytelling, in such a limited format, has numerous setbacks.

These local-ish surveys are organised thus: A description of an area’s historical context, followed by a selection of its mythological gods, monsters, and superstitions. This format is not always strictly followed, and inclusions can feel arbitrary: In “African Mythical Monsters,” the Agogwe of East Africa directly follows Ghana’s Adze. It is not clear how or why either was chosen from their respective canons.

Building on that, categorisation can feel callously broad: A section labeled “Hindu Monsters” includes the Penanggalan of Malaysia, Buddhism’s Kalavinka, and Laos’ Phaya Naga. None of these are Hindu and it is unclear why they are there. You can potentially argue that some creatures, like the Phaya Naga—dragons believed to live in moving water sources in Southeast Asia—share characteristics (even origins!) with the Hindu naga, female serpent princesses. But that doesn’t make this specific iteration Hindu to contemporary users.

Some information is incorrect. Under “Hindu Superstitions” lies the passage, “Take a bath after attending a funeral. This one makes good sense. Decomposing bodies release a number of toxins and bacteria into the air, which may contaminate mourners.” This is false. Decomposition in and of itself is not pathogenic. The unquestioned belief that it is pathogenic has created an exploitative funeral industry in which we seek to distance ourselves from the dead, and dispose of them, as quickly as possible—often in environmentally poisonous ways.

What’s more, the Middle East section, for example, has no superstitions at all, though these are ostensibly the primary subject of the book.

I think the author is working on the assumption that myths generally are a form of superstition, and these are best represented by the creatures that populate their stories. I hope I’ve done a good job of illustrating the limitations of that approach in terms of rigour and organisation, but also hope people who do buy Superstitions appreciate the jewels hidden within, despite these caveats.

You will learn a lot of funny stuff, like the Philippine belief that sleeping with wet hair causes blindness. And while you'll encounter well-known creatures, like Bigfoot or succubi, others I didn’t know at all, like the succubus-like Qarînah; or Akaname, red-skinned demons of dirty bathrooms in Japan. I learned the charming story of Yhi, Australia's Dreamtime goddess who gave life tangible form on Earth, but a little too whimsically (hence platypi and kangaroos). And I liked that spiritual beliefs of African-American origin are treated as a separate subset of belief within the Americas.

Lastly, there’s a feeling the author’s greatest ambition is to show people there have been, and continue to be, other ways of imagining reality. I’m into that. “One of the primary—if not the most important—tenets of Hinduism is truth. But Hindus don’t believe that truth is didactic,” McElroy writes. “Instead, truth can be found in many places and all truth is relative to the place, time and culture of whomever espouses it. Therefore, modern Hindus believe strongly in the need for tolerance and the broad-based search for knowledge from disparate sources.”

Superstitions can best be described as one person’s cryptozoological field notes. In no way does it reflect an expertise in its topics of predilection, not even superstition, but I don’t think it wants to do that. I wish it had been clearer about that; a better framing of what I’d encounter would have made me happier with the text. I also think that such a broad scope does a disservice to its central premise: Because it covers so much ground, even when you do learn a few odd superstitions, no time at all is spent examining why they exist at all.

On the other hand, lots of people like wide surveys of mythology—as other reviews demonstrate—and it works just fine thus. I'd recommend it as a starting-point, or an imagination engine. It’s also beautifully illustrated and would make a great coffee table or bathroom book. I can see parents using this to come up with new story fodder for kids at bedtime, or curious people using it to fall in love with new mythologies they never knew existed.

#netgalley

[Myshara Herbert-McMyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing guide that is both thorough and concise. It would be a great reference book to teach children and adults about different gods, monsters, and myths from around the world.

I wish the pictures had had names or titles identifying them specifically. I recommend this book to everyone.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is okay, but I found the authors little comments and opinions sneaking through distracting and a bit condescending. Also as other reviewers have pointed out, there is very little information about actual superstitions. Most of it was about various Gods, which again would have been okay with out the authors snarky comments.

[Makayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a book that's leading title is Superstitions, there is barely any actual superstitions in it. All the information that's presented in it is very surface level as well so you're better off just picking up a different book or even googling whichever region you're interested in. And of course they just had to throw in the incorrect fact that Vlad Tepes was Bram Stoker's one and only inspiration for Dracula, he wasn't but I guess we can all keep pretending.

[Isabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was interesting enough but as it progressed, there were more and more typos. The Native American/First Nations section in particular was very poorly written with lots of typos and repeated words. It's like they didn't expect anyone to actually read past the first quarter of the book.

Also, there are some questionable word choices. It's nothing to get too upset over, just weird enough for me to feel a bit uncomfortable. For example, at one point, she refers to Native American culture as remaining "primitive" while the rest of the world entered the Stone Age. Despite her use of air quotes, I still feel like she could have gone without the use of the word "primitive" entirely since it has been used derogatorily towards indigenous groups for centuries.

[Allison · Rating 1 out of 5]

There were a weird amount of technical errors for a $26 book. Like, some noticeable typos, questions marks where they didn’t belong (including “.?”), and I swear to god there were some editorial notes in there that someone forgot to delete. It should have gotten at least one more look-over before it was published. No matter what I actually think about this book, this just feels like I wasted my money on a low quality product.

Also, the amount of detail is inconsistent between sections. It felt like the author was very biased towards what they were interested in. Which is fine, if those sections were the only focus. However, if the author didn’t care enough about Africa enough to write more than 10 pages about it, then why was that part even included at all? Another problem is how the descriptions of gods and monsters are either the perfect length or ridiculously short. The China section is a very good example of this, seeing as how it’s only one page long, despite China’s rich history of beasts, legends, and religion. It’s the shortest part in the Asia section, not even a third of the India section, which was surprisingly detailed. Which, I understand, India is a large country, but so is China. Even Japan got a larger section (though it was still disappointing in its own right)!

Some parts that just felt generally lazy was the end of the Middle East section, which just didn’t have a superstition page. This is especially odd, because it’s the only section that doesn’t have one. And, the Indigenous section just slowly devolved in effort as the pages went on. Originally, they had detailed descriptions like the rest of the book, but after a certain point it just became translations of names.

There also just wasn’t a citation or a reference sheet at the end, or annotations- something like that. It’s just kind of weird, since this book is mostly brief notes about topics. How am I meant to research further into the information mentioned? This is the first time I’ve ever read a book about historical research that contains an index, but not a reference sheet.

In conclusion, I definitely do not recommend this book for people who already like and have researched mythology, folklore, mythical beasts, etc. You’ve probably read a better book already (I know I have), so just save your money. But, if you want a way to get into this kind of stuff, then I guess you could try?? I would be more confident about this recommendation if it was cheaper. But, I guess you could buy it for your niece or something.

Either way, at least it’ll look nice on my bookshelf.

[Vethan Auryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book filled with a lot of information, one of the only issues however being that it highly focuses on the Americas without it being explicitely announced before diving into the different topics.

The book is split into categories each focusing on a continent - a good structure matched by the quality of the book's finish.

Nevertheless and there lies the issue, for one thing the European section only comprises the Celts, Germanic tribes entangled with the Vikings, and the Slavic tribes, thereby leaving out the Greeks and the Romans among others, but one could also mention the Hungarians, Finnish, Spanish etc. The section about the Americas is greatly detailed and offers an insight into many cultures for sure, so for someone looking for a book on this topic, it's good if all the references are correct.

Moving on to Asia, very oddly, China only takes up one page front and back, Japan only a few, India slightly more pages, and that's it. Knowing that polytheism is very big in Asia and the diversity of cultures present, it makes little sense.

Africa falls into the same category and the rich cultures are not nearly enough taken into account, yet the information once again is pretty interesting.

The section about the Middle-East doesn't offer much information, nor does it attest to the fact that it is the place of the most ancient written beliefs in the world, not to mention the oldest cities in the world. Egypt has a good enough section, but the illustrious Mesopotamia and Persia, as well as the rest are mixed together, and unfortunately account for only a few pages.

The Australian section at the end offers some information, but is also a small.

The quality of the edition remains very pleasant and the content that is actually there is not bad, it is just a series of odd choices.

At the end of the day, it is an interesting book and it offers a lot of information, I would recommend it for futhering one's knowledge or as a short introduction, but it would have been better for its content to be made clearer.

The title also does not truly correspond to the content, a better title would have been "Polytheism of the ancient world" for example, with a conclusion about polytheistic beliefs that continued to exist without interruption, as well as neo-polytheistic beliefs.

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm… This was proof to me that this kind of book is hard to do well. It's a glossy, nicely pictorial (ie not space-wastingly so) dictionary of the world's monsters, gods and superstitions, but it is a bit higgledy-piggledy. Just take early chapters about Africa, the Levant and Asia – it's all very well breaking the world down into logical regions, but the creators here kind of give up on that, so that the gods of one region zip from country to country just to fit into the enforced A-Z format. Thus you get a nudge to the fact one god from here became known as the other god there, and the third god over yonder, but you don't really get the full gist of any mythological narrative as such, such are the thumbnail sketches used. I would suggest mythology is all about narrative, and a guide to it with hardly a full story in it kind of defeats the issue. You're given not enough information to learn much, yet too much in your helter-skelter geographical trip for you to piece anything together. Something is referred to as "another" thing known from the Arabian Nights before the first one is reached.

Luckily we eventually hit richer seams – the stories of Sedna and her creation of a watery purgatory/hell for the Inuit cultures is likely to be new to many readers, and we can get the best of this as it transforms from a wobbly dictionary to a more solid encyclopaedia. But flaws still remain – it's no good giving us Irish Gaelic gods and characters without a pronunciation guide, for one. So I don't wish ill of this book, but I still don't think I've hit the mother-lode when it comes to such reference books for the arcane. Three and a half stars, however, for the education this did (almost despite itself) provide.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, but it could have been a bit better if the comparisons and little notes were not there. While I understand it can be a challenge to separate your background and perspective from what you are seeing - and that those help you develop your own connections with the material, it's better to let the audience make those connections, especially as some readers may not come from the same background as you. I saw so many examples of stories being referred to as "like ours" or reading things like, "Bakekuira is Japan's version of Moby Dick", for example, and it kind of grinds my gears. It takes away the reader's ability to form their own mental connections in attempting to understand these myths and beliefs, if they are not already familiar with them, as well as almost discredits the originality of the mythologies and the cultures they came from. While some myths, traditions, and superstitions have now been mixed with European and/or those from Western Culture - not all of those shown in this book have. Nor do they need to be by the author.

Despite those issues, the author appears to have done quite a bit of research and goes into a lot of detail with some of the myths and cultures mentioned in this book. It is a good introduction, but, should 100% be followed up by other sources if someone was to want more detail.

[Kendall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting enough little book of various superstitions, myths, folklore, and deities from around the world. My main annoyance with this book was that it interjects with its own little one liners that it thinks are funny, but sometimes came off as condescending or belittling to me. Either take yourself seriously or don’t, book.

When talking about other people’s cultures and legends I think it’s important to be respectful, these are things people or their ancestors actually believe in and are a part of their culture. Maybe I’m being too sensitive, but these are a few excerpts that felt odd to me:

“Native peoples would sometimes blow a horn loudly before entering unknown waters…Allegedly, this would give the serpent time to move out of the area, but really it just sounds like a way of announcing lunch time.” (discussing the Yacumama from Peru/Ecuador)

“Avoid cutting/trimming your hair and fingernails on Saturday…doing so will anger the planet Saturn and bring bad luck. Apparently, planets have a will of their own that we knew nothing about.” (Hindu Superstitions)

“Plastering the floor with cow dung is lucky…It is said that the dung also repels insects and reptiles—helpful, since there are a lot of those in India.” (Hindu Superstitions)

[Karl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has a lot of information but there are many problems here as well. It is full of factual errors that undermine any attempt to provide an overview of world mythology.

Many of the errors are simply…odd: Judas was the 13th Apostle. Mithra was the same deity as Ahura Mazda. The Inuit have a giant scorpion god (he's actually a god associated with scorpionfish). The Norse goddess Sif is "curiously" associated with corn/maize, a New World crop (No, not maize. In British English, "corn" is any kind of grain). Yahweh of the Old Testament "became" the New Testament Jehovah (those names are just different ways of rendering YHWH). Vesta is a Greek goddess (she’s Roman; her Greek counterpart was Hestia). Somehow a creature from Guyanan lore is an Incan monster, the Finnish Lemminkäinen is from a Germanic myth, and the Franks are Celts.

The other issue was the frequent linkage of separate traditions: Paravati was the "model" for the Roman Cybele and the "Greek" Vesta? Such connections would be interesting to explore, and I realize that this is an introductory book, but there is little effort to explain or back up these associations.

[Marek Ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I held this book in higher regards upon purchasing and was excited as I began reading, but for a book about ‘superstitions’ this more felt like a guide book into cultural deities. In some instances it made sense, in most instances it felt filler.
I picked this up for the serpent panthers that resign in a river, the werehyena’s, and putting an onion under my pillow to prevent bad dreams.
Instead I got a lot of information regarding religions.

Maybe I’m too sensitive, but old religions or not I personally disbelieve the discussion of pantheons are presentable in the talks of myths or legends. Mythology I kind of get, folklore is reaching. But this is a book tilted ‘Superstitions’ so I’m really confused and I’m having a hard time figuring out this argument.

Nonetheless, the myths and legends were actually nice. If you don’t mind the religious aspects or skipping a lot of pages then I recommend. Also last comment, I’m sad the illustrations mostly matched the descriptions.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall I really enjoyed this book however, I felt like the focus was more on the mythology of Deities and Monsters (and not even a full list of them) more than the actual superstitions. That being said I feel like the book was really well researched and included a nice mix of countries. The author didn't lump everything together and put what culture the superstition, deity, or monster was from. The illustrations are also very nice, but I wish they had included more. I also appreciated how when discussing hoodoo and vodu the author included a lot of detail about the different cultures and their version of the practice as well as how they were affected by the slave trade and didn't just gloss over or ignore it altogether. So while the amount of superstitions is actually really limited I enjoyed the book and think it will be a good reference.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Wellfleet Press in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautifully presented and interesting collection of superstitions, mythology and other folklore from around the world. I love the effort that has been put into making this book attractive and I can only imagine it is better in a non-digital format. The information is presented geographically and then alphabetically which works really well. I had some issues with the tone and wording of some parts (for example, describing Africa as a mystical place is a little ill-informed in this day and age) but a lot of that is the usual tone of more spiritual books like this so I was willing to let that slide. Definitely a brilliant book to just pick up and flick through,

[LyyraBat · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title and synopsis were incredibly misleading. I went into a book titled Superstitions expecting it to be primarily about, you know, superstitions and instead ended up with an encyclopedia of what seemed to be randomly-chosen gods, monsters, and legends... with a few superstitions thrown in for good measure. Had I purchased the book, I would have been angry, but as I received it as an ARC via NetGalley, I was just disappointed. It's a relatively interesting book that seems well-researched, it's gorgeous (though the illustrations not always matching the descriptions was driving me nuts), and I'm sure plenty of people will love it, but it's just not for me.

[The Starry Library · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very disappointed with this book. There was only one page per chapter about superstitions in each culture and the explanations very vague. This was a book mostly about gods and goddesses which was not what I was expecting. I wanted to learn about the origins of superstitions such as why it's bad luck to open an umbrella indoors or why someone can incur 7 years of bad luck if they break a mirror? Instead there were 1 sentence descriptions of mythological gods and creatures. I wanted to learn about superstitions and unfortunately it didn't actually discuss them.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't want to dislike this book but the author made so many errors it's hard not to. For one thing people brought to North America as slaves did not willingly accept anything that whites imposed upon them, even Christianity. You can't substitute Saskatchewan for Quebec. Franks aren't Celts. Finns aren't Germans and Celts were never Berserkers. And the most obvious Glas Gaibhnenn is an Irish story but is put down as Norse. The book is barely about superstitions. A very poorly thought out book.