Beyond Faery: Exploring the World of Mermaids, Kelpies, Goblins & Other Faery Beasts

by John T. Kruse

Behold the Mysteries of the Faery Beasts

Beyond the faery realms, all sorts of magical creatures lurk. This book explores the most fearsome beasts that have been known to meddle in human affairs. Renowned faery expert John T. Kruse reveals the secret lives of merfolk, meremaids, river sprites, kelpies, hags, banshees, and many more. These are not the fanciful faeries and kindly beings found in light entertainment. Instead, you will discover hobs, goblins, bogies, and daemon dogs—magical creatures that are more apt to terrify than to help. Beyond Faery shares the features, habits, and history of dozens of these otherworldly beasts, since learning their ways may be just what you need to survive an encounter of your own.

Genres: Nonfiction, Fae, Occult

282 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 8, 2020

Reviews

[Gabbibuu · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is the perfect example of a great concept but poor execution.
I've been an avid supporter of all things Faery related, since forever. I was incredibly excited when I saw this and immediately requested it. And it was an unusual experience.
Most field guides about magical creatures only focus on the more commonly known. Beyond Faery, on the contrary, is full of stories and information beasts that you don't usually hear about. Such as Kelpies, sprites, banshees... And, while the content is detailed and compiled from several sources, the final product felt disheartening.
I liked the creatures the book talked about and the divisions between each topic. It was clearly well researched. But the formating was so simplistic. It could be because I read an ARC, but things were missing. For starters, pictures or illustrations. Their presence would have made my reading experience a thousand times better. It would have made it simpler to picture the creature or the places. And a map would have been so useful, considering most stories happened around the same area.
Also, there was no order inside sections. Mostly, it was just a series of stories and myths that shared no relation, with little information scattered between them that was repeated through the text multiple times. And, the information about whether these stories allegedly happened was scarce, just a footnote at the bottom, or a place. But, on the other hand, those references were great to find more books focused on this topic to add to my TBR.
I'm honestly sad to be feeling this way, considering I had such high expectations. But I'll most likely check out the final version to see if any changes were made.

ARC provided by Netgalley and the publisher.

[John Kruse · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the author, I'm a bit biased and have to give myself a decent score (!) but I appreciate everyone's comments and can sympathise with several. Choices about illustrations are not (largely) an author's but there was discussion about including a map, which ultimately didn't come to fruition, which was a shame because it could have supplied interesting information on the distribution of accounts.

It's true that it would probably be fairer to describe this book as an encyclopaedia or dictionary. It does endeavour to bring together a range of disparate beings that are normally overlooked in many texts on the supernatural- but I can see that this may come at the cost of a central theme (other than, perhaps, that most of these beings aren't very pleasant).

I think the final version of the book is fairly well broken down into themed subsections, although glancing again at the text I can see a few other chapters where more subdivision might help clarify matters. I hope that (by and large) sources are given which show where events took place. When things happened is generally impossible to state as that information simply isn't in the folklore records. During the preparation of the text we did have some sort of IT issue which deleted a lot of footnotes; possibly not all of these were recovered, leaving some cases unreferenced.

As a final statement: the approach I always take is to treat the accounts as factual and to evaluate them on their own terms. Generations of people knew of and have feared these creatures. I respect that and tackle the sources more as anthropology or zoology, if you like- describing the lifestyles of these faery beasts.

[Yasmin · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 3.5 stars out of five. A very interesting read over all. It could have been a little longer in my view. The biggest issue I had was I couldn't really believe that one of these faery beasts in the guise of a woman could entice a man to a fight. Although men beating women (and women beating men) is as common now as it was then I'm not of the mind that a strange creature in the physical form of a woman could encourage a man to attack out of the blue, so to speak. At least not that anyone could ever admit out loud! There was the odd time when a sentence or two would be repeated identically ins slightly different passages.

[Simona · Rating 1 out of 5]

*I've got this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review*

Unfortunatelly I had to DNF this book at 30% mark. I just couldn't force myself to read it longer or waist my time on a book, that doesn't give me joy.
What is good about this book, is that you can see, that the author did his job and thorougly explored all those mythical creatures. There were bunch of them, that I never heard before.
However the writing style was so dry, that it put me to sleep after few pages. It was as if I read some kind of dictionary. To be honest, it felt infodumpy.

I appreciate what author tried to do here, but in the end this book was just not for me.

[Ro · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a digital ARC of this novel.

Actual rate: 2.50 stars

I am very sorry to admit this book didn't work for me. I have been always curious about legends and supernatural creatures, recently I have been reading my fair share of non-fiction about this subject so I feel it's my right to say that the biggest problem this novel has is its execution.
I can clearly see that the author had to find a lot of information to write this, but I think the information was handled very very poorly. It ended up being an endless chain of examples of local faery myths, with very very spare information about where these stories were found or when they allegedly happened. I really didn't get much knowledge from this novel for this reason.
I think it could have been a lot better if the author focused more on giving general information you can get from analyzing so many myths, then choose to present a few examples that distinguished themselves from the others for being celebrated in some way in local folklore and such. Also I don't know if the author seriously believe in these legends or didn't want to focus on their credibility, but I would have really appreciated if this novel covered the "real" roots that could have generated these myths.
So if you are looking for a novel analyzing faery folklore maybe this isn't the best, but if you are looking for a collection of faery stories the maybe this is the novel for you.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book much like Kruse's other book. I don't think one should fear these beings but a healthy respect is required.

[KatsCauldron R · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author managed to compile a huge quantity of stories of Fae across the UK. It would be an excellent reference book to have on hand of many types of & stories about Fae to have on hand. Many of the Scottish or Irish stories I had heard in one form or another but it was a joy to read them again as had been so long had forgotten them. I have never seen any one book put together so much material which was a daunting endeavor for anyone to accomplish. I think because of that though there are copious footnotes & references it can get a tad muddled without a couple of more specifics in a particular odd out area. That being Fae activity & phenomena of some of these creatures tied to specific areas & type in places where people were violently murdered or met their demise under horrendous situations. This would probably be a book unto it's self & something rarely touched on in this types of tomes. There is & always has been a link between the dead & the Fae. I think in part because of the otherworld or underworld & spirit form. I wish on the murders he would have elaborated a bit more so they would have been easier to try & look up. One in particular struck me & a little added meat to the story here would have given more depth. The white rabbit of Crank was horrendous & also a bit of a cover up at the time in my opinion, of a vile drunken wealthy [that should be in capitals] landowner. I think Fae creatures can feel the need to vindicate certain deaths or jab people because of them & this particular case would be a good example. An elderly woman was raising her little 6 yr old granddaughter who had a white rabbit that was everything to her. He had got it in his head the old woman had hexed him & in a drunken rage mode went over to her place with a lout buddy to 'draw blood "to break" the curse. He chased the little girl who fled with her rabbit & beat both to death [& probably more to the child] & then took her body & laid it on the church steps to be found the next day. They say later in time after this he saw a white rabbit & fled into the night & was found dead in a ravine or quarry, which was good justice. Then people began seeing this white rabbit I believe so they would remember the child with her beloved pet. The main thing I think with Fae as in particular in Scotland is to treat with decency & respect & common sense. Be polite but don't fall for anything & protect yourself.

[K.S. Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book came highly recommended by Morgan Daimler and now that I've finally read it, I can certainly understand why. Much of the folklore we are familiar with is passed down verbally, which means the stories run the risk of becoming lost to time. The work done here is so valuable and the author has approached the subject in a way that makes it reader-friendly. I absolutely loved the section on Water Beasts, which is filled to the brim with creatures both known and (until now) unknown to me. A fabulous addition to my library and something I will certainly reference again and again.

[wonderfullyweird88 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love mythology and have a huge interest in Faeries. Born and raised in Ireland I grew up hearing these stories. This book is obviously well researched and thought out but it would be a better reading experience if there was a flow to the book. I would have liked more background to the stories and not just a retelling of certain stories. Overall this is an excellent reference for anyone wishing to learn more about Faeries in general.

[Graceley Knox · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who's a huge fan of all things mythological, this book was a treat! The title caught my eye, but what's inside kept me reading! It's not often that you get mythology books that focus on specific creatures in depth like River Sprites, Kelpies, Hags, Bogies and a slew of other mythical beasts!

I'm excited to add this to my shelf once it's released and I can get a physical copy!

[Your Common House Bat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book well enough. I have an interest in fantastical and folklore creatures so it was nice to read a book about them. I like how clearly and organized everything was presented in this once. I also really just adore the cover xD

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good introduction and some history of a variety of water and earth faeries. A good jump off book/ starting book and a decent bibliography to continue research.