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Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid: The Book of Scary Urban Legends
An anthology of the most chilling urban legends of all time collected by the maestro himself. Urban legends are those strange, but seemingly credible tales that always happen to a friend of a friend. For the first time, Professor Jan Harold Brunvand, "who has achieved almost legendary status" ( Choice ), has collected the creepiest, most terrifying urban legends, many that have spooked you since your childhood and others that you believe really did occur—even if it was one town over to some poor hapless coed who left a party early only to be followed by a man who just got loose from a mental hospital. From the classic hook-man story told around many a campfire to "Saved by a Cell Phone," these spine-tingling urban legends will give you goose bumps, even when you know they can't be true. Still, you'll continue to check the backseat of your car at gas stations and look under your bed at night before praying for sleep.
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 2004
43 people are currently reading
583 people want to read
About the author
Jan Harold Brunvand
50 books68 followersJan Harold Brunvand (born 1933) is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Utah in the United States, best known for spreading the concept of the urban legend, or modern folklore. Before his work, folk tales were associated with ancient times or rural cultures; Brunvand's breakthrough was to take concepts developed in the academic study of traditional folktales and apply them to stories circulating in the modern world.
Brunvand is the author of several well-known books on the topic of urban legends, starting with The Vanishing Hitchhiker in 1981. This book brought urban legends to popular attention in the United States. Follow-up works include The Choking Doberman (1984), The Mexican Pet (1988), Curses! Broiled Again! (1990), The Baby Train (1993), and others. He also edited the one-volume American Folklore: An Encyclopedia (1996), as well as several textbooks.
Born in Cadillac, Michigan, Brunvand received a Ph.D. in folklore from Indiana University in 1961. He taught at several U.S. universities before joining the University of Utah in 1966. He retired in 1996, but remains a popular speaker and writer; he gave the keynote address at the 2003 meeting of the Missouri Folklore Society, of which he is a longtime member.
Brunvand is the author of several well-known books on the topic of urban legends, starting with The Vanishing Hitchhiker in 1981. This book brought urban legends to popular attention in the United States. Follow-up works include The Choking Doberman (1984), The Mexican Pet (1988), Curses! Broiled Again! (1990), The Baby Train (1993), and others. He also edited the one-volume American Folklore: An Encyclopedia (1996), as well as several textbooks.
Born in Cadillac, Michigan, Brunvand received a Ph.D. in folklore from Indiana University in 1961. He taught at several U.S. universities before joining the University of Utah in 1966. He retired in 1996, but remains a popular speaker and writer; he gave the keynote address at the 2003 meeting of the Missouri Folklore Society, of which he is a longtime member.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
June 26, 2018
In 1981, professional folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand compiled The Vanishing Hitchhiker, a 20th century look at the tales and oral traditions passed along by tellers convinced they actually happened to somebody, just never someone that anyone can actually identify by name. There's even an acronym for these types of tales now: FOAF, or Friend of a Friend, because the incident never happened to the person telling the story, and it didn't happen to anyone they actually knew, they were told about it by a friend because it happened to a friend of one of their friends.
In other words, FOAF is just another term for 'bullshit'.
What's amazing about these tales is not only their iron-clad resistance to being debunked, but also their ability to roam across the country from one township to the next, crossing fields, mountains, valleys, even oceans and continents. These FOAF-tales, like some demented orally-transmitted incarnation of Jason Voorhees, stalk campfire tales and gatherings of friends, office buildings and shopping malls, backyard barbecues and e-mail messages. Chances are you've been infected by one or two yourself, and you probably didn't even realize it. I mean, everybody knows somebody who told them about the hook-handed killer stalking lover's lane. They made a movie about it in 2000, after all.
The iconic story of the babysitter who keeps receiving creepy phone calls asking her if she's checked on the children lately has to be true, right? They made a movie out of it in 1979. And a sequel in 1993. And a reboot in 2006!
How about those thieves who go around harvesting kidneys and other body parts for the black market?
The story of "Bloody Mary" has been adapted to the screen so many times, both for film and TV, that you'd be harder-pressed to find someone in North America who didn't know what happens if you stared into your bathroom mirror with the lights out and say her name three (or was that five, or ten, or fifty?) times. And let's not even get into the film Urban Legend, which uses everything from "The Killer in the Back Seat" and "The Roommate's Death" to "The Boyfriend's Death" and what happens if you eat Pop Rocks and chug a Coke to startle the audience and slaughter its college kid cast. These are stories so ubiquitous and well-known that chances are good you could repeat them, or at least compose your own extemporaneous versions, the minute anyone asked.
The kicker is, they're all stories. While some of them may have a kernel of truth, the fictional tale spun by people desperate to shock, delight, or scare audiences usually bears little resemblance to the facts when subject to a firm dissection. That's what Brunvand does here with Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid.
Without Brunvand's scholarship, this is just a loose collection of spooky stories to recite at the next sleepover. But rather than stripping these stories of their power, Brunvand's goal is to enhance the fun for everyone by showing how these stories evolve and change over time, passing from person to person, culture to culture, decade to decade, even century to century. If you like a healthy dose of humor and scholarship to go with your tales of mayhem and destruction, Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid is an inexpensive and fun way to explore the world of urban legends from the safety of your own bedroom.
Of course, even your own bedroom isn't truly free of danger. After all, you remember what happened to that girl when the black widow spider wound up in her pillowcase, don't you?
Four stifled yelps of amusement and fear out of five.
Best Scene:
Well, it's a book of folklore so you can't exactly pull a 'best scene' out of it, but of all the tales presented in it, here's one I find the most hilariously awful even now, some twenty-five years after I first encountered it:
An older couple took a long-anticipated trip to Costa Rica, and when they arrived they found to their dismay their luggage had been stolen. The thieves had spared nothing except the couple's toilet articles and their camera case. It was assumed that the thieves didn't want the couple's personal toilet items, and authorities speculated that in their haste and loaded down with other luggage the miscreants simply were unable to manage the camera equipment.
Well, the couple were determined not to let the incident ruin their vacation. They bought some new clothes and in fact had quite an enjoyable two weeks. They took a lot of pictures.
Upon returning home they promptly had their film developed so they could share the experience with their friends. Having shot color slides, they quickly loaded them into a Carousel projector and began showing them to their kids. Halfway through the presentation they ran across a slide they didn't take. It must, in fact, have been taken by the thieves who stole their luggage.
It was a close-up picture of the couple's toothbrushes stucking out of two large hairy butts.
Now try to enjoy your next international vacation. Remember, it's only a story. ;)
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December 22, 2024A la que lees por 28ª vez la historia de la chica de la curva, empiezas a intuir por dónde van a ir los tiros. A mí no me la dáis con queso. Tuve miedo... Tampoco mucho miedo. Cuando me quedé solo no lo leí: eso lo reconozco.
May 3, 2010
Being a fan of short stories and horror I knew this book had to be a winner. The stories were good and some scary but most I have heard before. Seeing that most of them were Urban Legends you knew they had to be untrue. I heard them before around the campfire and this just put a damper on this book.
Its a quick fun read for the young teen at a slumber party or camping around a fire but for adults it might seem a little weak and nonscary.
I did however like that each chapter was a collection of stories about one subject. Like bugs, animals, hitchhickers, and much much more. Some stuff is to grose to even read like the bugs and rats and icky stuff like that. So all of the book was not all that bad. Some were great and so short you could remember them and scary your friends one late night in the dark.
So dont pass this book up. Its a fun quick read that every generation will love.
Its a quick fun read for the young teen at a slumber party or camping around a fire but for adults it might seem a little weak and nonscary.
I did however like that each chapter was a collection of stories about one subject. Like bugs, animals, hitchhickers, and much much more. Some stuff is to grose to even read like the bugs and rats and icky stuff like that. So all of the book was not all that bad. Some were great and so short you could remember them and scary your friends one late night in the dark.
So dont pass this book up. Its a fun quick read that every generation will love.
January 9, 2012
I was surprised to find that ULs have been around since the 1800's -- some of them that we hear now have roots back 200 years (or more!!) -- This is True!!
I had heard many many of these stories before, I was interested in the foreign tales though -- fascinating that they are so very similar to the ones I have heard (the rat dog for instance, which I have always heard the couple found a "dog" in Mexico -- a German tale has the couple find the "dog" in Thailand.)
A fun read, though not really very scary...I guess unless you believe the Urban Legends are more real than legend.
I had heard many many of these stories before, I was interested in the foreign tales though -- fascinating that they are so very similar to the ones I have heard (the rat dog for instance, which I have always heard the couple found a "dog" in Mexico -- a German tale has the couple find the "dog" in Thailand.)
A fun read, though not really very scary...I guess unless you believe the Urban Legends are more real than legend.
October 1, 2012
I thought that this book was really good, I did enjoy the way the author wrote the stories because he wrote them in a style that I was not familiar with. The author made the stories not childish and he really brought out the horror in each story to really make them engaging. The author also told the story from many different points of view to see where relatively the same story may have been told differently or the stories ending may have been changed slightly. It was an interesting book that I would highly recommend to anyone in need of a good scare.
July 4, 2013
I've always been fascinated by Urban Legends, particularly the more gruesome and supernatural ones, and this books was a really enjoyable collection of some of the most well known and a few I'd never heard of. Brunvand often collects a few variations together so you can see the evolution these things take via word of mouth and time. This is not a resource that takes time to debunk them or discuss them in any greater academic way and so is a good book for all ages who happen to be interested in ULs for whatever reason.
November 18, 2022
Pretty basic, it’s exactly what the title implies. However, there are a few stories that perpetuate negative racist and homophobic stereotypes, one containing slurs. Obviously, that’s not the author’s fault, but just be aware.
March 4, 2012
Como bien saben nuestros lectores, las leyendas urbanas nos parecen muy interesantes en CPI. Desde aquel maravilloso episodio de autoengaño colectivo que sufrimos en España con lo de la niña y la mermelada y el perro y Ricky Martin, mucha más gente tuvo la oportunidad de acercarse a lo que significa una leyenda urbana. ¿Quién no ha oído hablar de la historia de la autoestopista que al llegar a un curva dice “cuidado con esta curva porque aquí me maté yo” y va y desaparece? Hay miles de historias que todos hemos oído contar y que muchas veces nos las cuenta alguien que de verdad se cree que ha pasado (me remito a Ricky Martin. A mí hubo gente que me contó la historia jurándome que la había visto con sus propios ojos, cosa que, obviamente, era imposible, pues no ocurrió). Hablando de esta leyenda de la mermelada (otros dicen que Nocilla), debe saberse que varios años antes la leyenda ya corrió por los USA, en un programa similar al Sorpresa, Sorpresa, sustituyendo el condimento por mantequilla de cacahuete. No hay nada nuevo bajo el sol.
Bueno, pues este libro habla de este tipo de historias, pero centrándose en las más terroríficas y gore. Muchas ya las he oído o leído.
Lo bueno de estos libros no son las leyendas urbanas en sí, sino el análisis y la comparativa que hace el recopilador sobre ellas. Que si la historia de la canguro que no vigila bien a los niños ya existía en 1920, que si esta otra deriva claramente de una leyenda medieval que sustituye un coche de caballos por un deportivo biplaza… Los libros de leyendas urbanas suelen sacarle a uno bastantes creencias de la cabeza y demuestran lo poco originales que son los correos en cadena que dicen que Microsoft donará 7 céntimos a un niño sordomudomancociego de Osetia del Norte por cada vez que reenvíes el mensaje.
En este libro se echa de menos el análisis del folclorista o recopilador de las leyendas. Hace muy breves comentarios al principio de cada capítulo, diciendo cómo las leyendas llegaron hasta él, y poco más. Nos deja con ganas de saber más cosas. Además, a veces nos clava completas varias versiones de página y pico de la misma leyenda, en vez de poner una versión y sintetizar las diferencias de las demás. Me gustaron mucho más los libros de leyendas urbanas de Antonio Ortí y Josep Sampere, “Leyendas urbanas en España”, o uno de este mismo autor, más detallado, “El fabuloso libro de las leyendas urbanas”. Como lectura es entretenido, pero poco más. Los hay mejores, lo garantizo.
Mi nota: Discretito.
December 1, 2014
If you enjoy urban legends or scary stories, this book is definitely worth your time. Why do we tell and re-tell these stories to each other? The psychology of it is a fascinating thing to ponder.
Brunvand has been collecting ULs for a long time, and he is careful to act simply as a scribe or historian so as to not insert himself into the retelling. Because of that, the presentation is a little odd for a book of campfire stories because it consists of transcriptions of actual people's versions, so the spooky details and suspense are fairly eliminated. But the material is great if you can use it as a base and then weave a story around it. Actually, that's even better, since that's exactly what folklore and urban legends do.
I enjoyed reading different versions of stories we told as kids (the stranded teenage couple, the guy with a hook scratching on the window after killing the boy) as well as some of the e-mails of recent years (the guy who slashes people's ankles while lying under their car). Don't think less of me if I admit that I was a little reassured that a few of the stories "you hear from a friend" are just urban legends!
Brunvand has been collecting ULs for a long time, and he is careful to act simply as a scribe or historian so as to not insert himself into the retelling. Because of that, the presentation is a little odd for a book of campfire stories because it consists of transcriptions of actual people's versions, so the spooky details and suspense are fairly eliminated. But the material is great if you can use it as a base and then weave a story around it. Actually, that's even better, since that's exactly what folklore and urban legends do.
I enjoyed reading different versions of stories we told as kids (the stranded teenage couple, the guy with a hook scratching on the window after killing the boy) as well as some of the e-mails of recent years (the guy who slashes people's ankles while lying under their car). Don't think less of me if I admit that I was a little reassured that a few of the stories "you hear from a friend" are just urban legends!
December 15, 2015
Fun book that catalogs many of the more popular urban legends of the grisly kind.
The author gives them to us as they were recorded. He particularly does not edit those transmitted via email. The stories vary in intensity: from okay to a few that really gave me the creeps.
The tales are mainly short and to the point, although there are some versions that have a literary flourish. Sometimes the legends droned on a bit, without any one really jumping out at me, until finally I found one I really liked. This perhaps is a book that you would pick up periodically for a tasty morsel of a story rather than read from cover to cover. Other than that I really don't have much to complain about.
So sit back and read how a rat was mistaken for a dog, or how someone had such a stiff beehive hairdo that it attracted spiders to build a nest, or how a woman escaped the clutches of an axe murderer hiding in the back seat of her car!
The author gives them to us as they were recorded. He particularly does not edit those transmitted via email. The stories vary in intensity: from okay to a few that really gave me the creeps.
The tales are mainly short and to the point, although there are some versions that have a literary flourish. Sometimes the legends droned on a bit, without any one really jumping out at me, until finally I found one I really liked. This perhaps is a book that you would pick up periodically for a tasty morsel of a story rather than read from cover to cover. Other than that I really don't have much to complain about.
So sit back and read how a rat was mistaken for a dog, or how someone had such a stiff beehive hairdo that it attracted spiders to build a nest, or how a woman escaped the clutches of an axe murderer hiding in the back seat of her car!
August 29, 2016
I started this book years ago - when I'd first bought it. However, things came up and it ended up getting set aside, so I didn't finish it until this past weekend, when I was looking for something to read and... there it was, on my bookshelf, with a bookmark tucked into the pages.
In any case, it's a pretty easy and entertaining read. All the urban legends you've heard - and some that you may never have heard - are scattered through the pages. There are also explanations about... just where do people get these ideas? In addition to being entertaining, because of the stories themselves, it's also pretty interesting. All in all, I'm glad that I picked it up. Not only is it a good reference for things like... yeah, there are no spiders that lurk under toilet seats, just waiting to pounce on the unwary - but it gives me ideas for my own writing - both plot ideas and cultural ideas (for world building, because... even a madeup culture should have urban legends, right?)
In any case, it's a pretty easy and entertaining read. All the urban legends you've heard - and some that you may never have heard - are scattered through the pages. There are also explanations about... just where do people get these ideas? In addition to being entertaining, because of the stories themselves, it's also pretty interesting. All in all, I'm glad that I picked it up. Not only is it a good reference for things like... yeah, there are no spiders that lurk under toilet seats, just waiting to pounce on the unwary - but it gives me ideas for my own writing - both plot ideas and cultural ideas (for world building, because... even a madeup culture should have urban legends, right?)
April 23, 2020
Or if you’ve read any of Jan Harold Brunvand’s earlier work, be very overcome with a sense of déjà vu. This time around he’s focusing on the creepier realms of the urban legend field, and that was a plus in my estimation. But a lot of this is recycled from previous tomes. Further, almost every story in the book is presented in three or four different versions. Folklorists might find that fascinating, but for general readers one telling should suffice (particularly when the subsequent entries differ only in fine details such as time and place). I could also have done without a lot of the introductory material, which comes across as too superficial to count as scholarly analysis and too dull to work as anything else. Overall, however, this is a quick and reasonably entertaining read.
February 6, 2013
Ahhhh I can't express how much I loved this book ! I think it is a definite must have for horror fans which I myself definitely am sooo it was right up my street and I shall definitely be re-reading this book in the near future :D ...
I love hearing all the different versions of creepy stories that I over the years have told to try and scare people and also finding out the origins of them . I was amazed at just how many years ago Urban Legends started and how different the same stories have become ! Anyway don't listen any longer go pick this up however if you scare easy I wouldn't recommend it some of the stories are pretty creepy *insert creepy laugh here* ....
I love hearing all the different versions of creepy stories that I over the years have told to try and scare people and also finding out the origins of them . I was amazed at just how many years ago Urban Legends started and how different the same stories have become ! Anyway don't listen any longer go pick this up however if you scare easy I wouldn't recommend it some of the stories are pretty creepy *insert creepy laugh here* ....
September 28, 2015
I have read all of Brunvand's other books so was excited to see one I hadn't read before. Unfortunately, this one just seems to be stories taken from the others and put into a differently-organized collection. (Sort of like buying the greatest hits album of a group whose other albums you already have.)
abandoned-books
February 9, 2012i hated that when its talking about something it changes subjects so i hate it but some people might like it but i don't so i hate it. and what i mean about it changes subjects is that it was talking about a girl dieing and then it switched to someone traveling some where.
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June 17, 2012Oh god....I never knew I would never be this scared before. I adore horror books such as the Fear Street series. But. This ONE is completely different from the others. (to be continued...)
September 20, 2016
Classic scary tales, plus variations on the same themes, but not much in the way of explanation about the origins of the story. Some of these are totally inappropriate except for adults so I won't be adding this to the school library collection.
January 16, 2012
Not a bad collection of Urban Legends but its all a lot better covered (and with a lot more fun I might add) in Brunvand's previous book Too Good to be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends.
August 28, 2010
Brunvand has been writing about urban legends for decades. This book retells some tales that originated, in some cases, centuries ago and have morphed into the modern stories at which we shiver.
January 19, 2011
Has a bunch of urban legends. Good to read on break at work.
April 18, 2015
It kind of ruined urban legends for me...
January 27, 2016
Looks like this is where 1000 ways to die got inspiration from.
July 13, 2016
Took it on a camping trip, and was pretty entertaining. Not very "scary," at least to me, but interesting nonetheless.
June 14, 2018
And enjoyable read and plenty of material in here to pull apart for future horror ideas.
February 18, 2024
Superstitious folktales about witches and vampires have been with us as long as humans have been living together in villages. I’d hazard that some form of folktale existed as far back when we were still cave-dwellers, and that such taletelling coevolved with language. As people moved from small villages into larger towns, and then finally cities, the frightening tales remained the same in tenor, while transmitting a new fear. In the past, such tales warned you to beware of either your neighbor or the stranger passing through your town (perhaps some itinerant gypsy.) Now that one lived alone and in anomie, the fear was everywhere, and since everyone was a stranger, the threat could be anyone.
Thus the urban legend—representing anxiety over social breakdown and rapid technological growth—was born. You never knew who was making your food on the other side of that drive-thru window and you didn’t even know exactly what was in the meal; when some appliance fritzed out, your options were to allow some strange man into your home or to do without. Any trip to the shopping mall or gas station, especially at night, could give some psycho rapist a chance to harness themselves to your car’s undercarriage like De Niro in Cape Feare.
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid plays more like a “Greatest Hits” collection of the urban legend phenomenon than an encyclopedia. It cites several scholarly sources, but is more conversational (and frankly fun) in tone than most scholarly works. It hits all the highlights that I remember from my own youth: “AIDS Mary,” about a woman who sleeps with an eager young man, who wakes next morning only to discover “YOU’VE GOT AIDS” scrawled in lipstick on the bathroom mirror; the “Kentucky Fried Rat,” in which some unsuspecting customer reaches into a bucket of chicken, absently takes a bite of golden-fried breading only to discover...you can guess the rest; or the hoariest of old classics, about the creepy prank call to the babysitter, which she has traced, only to discover it’s COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE!
It’s weird to feel nostalgic about stories that were first conjured—in good faith or bad, in boredom or for sheer malice—to instill fear in children and teens. Or maybe not. Fear’s a weird emotion and we’re a weird species; horror fans are usually weirder still, though more forgiving of logical errors and overall aesthetic sloppiness than SF fans.
Author Jan Harold Brunvand (sounds like some Scandinavian warlock’s handle) knows that only a spoilsport would spend every page debunking the legends. He also knows, though, that it would be beyond reckless (and frankly shoddy work) to take every tale at face value. Where a story is obviously b.s., he calls it, and where there is some question, he doesn’t pursue the matter too deeply. He recognizes—as compilers of macabre fairytales have throughout history—that sometimes people need to be scared for their own good. Telling a child that sucking their thumb might bring out some bugbear to cut their digit off is grisly, but it helps wean the child off the thumb. Likewise, there are worse things than making young women hypervigilant about being around young men, especially when alone and in poorly-lit areas or when pub crawling. Recommended, though the dearth of good gothic drawings (a la Charles Addams or Tim Burton) seems an oversight on someone’s part. I mean, there are drawings, but not very many, and usually only at the beginning of each chapter.
Thus the urban legend—representing anxiety over social breakdown and rapid technological growth—was born. You never knew who was making your food on the other side of that drive-thru window and you didn’t even know exactly what was in the meal; when some appliance fritzed out, your options were to allow some strange man into your home or to do without. Any trip to the shopping mall or gas station, especially at night, could give some psycho rapist a chance to harness themselves to your car’s undercarriage like De Niro in Cape Feare.
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid plays more like a “Greatest Hits” collection of the urban legend phenomenon than an encyclopedia. It cites several scholarly sources, but is more conversational (and frankly fun) in tone than most scholarly works. It hits all the highlights that I remember from my own youth: “AIDS Mary,” about a woman who sleeps with an eager young man, who wakes next morning only to discover “YOU’VE GOT AIDS” scrawled in lipstick on the bathroom mirror; the “Kentucky Fried Rat,” in which some unsuspecting customer reaches into a bucket of chicken, absently takes a bite of golden-fried breading only to discover...you can guess the rest; or the hoariest of old classics, about the creepy prank call to the babysitter, which she has traced, only to discover it’s COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE!
It’s weird to feel nostalgic about stories that were first conjured—in good faith or bad, in boredom or for sheer malice—to instill fear in children and teens. Or maybe not. Fear’s a weird emotion and we’re a weird species; horror fans are usually weirder still, though more forgiving of logical errors and overall aesthetic sloppiness than SF fans.
Author Jan Harold Brunvand (sounds like some Scandinavian warlock’s handle) knows that only a spoilsport would spend every page debunking the legends. He also knows, though, that it would be beyond reckless (and frankly shoddy work) to take every tale at face value. Where a story is obviously b.s., he calls it, and where there is some question, he doesn’t pursue the matter too deeply. He recognizes—as compilers of macabre fairytales have throughout history—that sometimes people need to be scared for their own good. Telling a child that sucking their thumb might bring out some bugbear to cut their digit off is grisly, but it helps wean the child off the thumb. Likewise, there are worse things than making young women hypervigilant about being around young men, especially when alone and in poorly-lit areas or when pub crawling. Recommended, though the dearth of good gothic drawings (a la Charles Addams or Tim Burton) seems an oversight on someone’s part. I mean, there are drawings, but not very many, and usually only at the beginning of each chapter.
January 18, 2022
Fun fact, there is really not much actually written/published on Bloody Mary in books. You would think that such a popular myth would have a ton written about it. But I just haven’t found all that much. It was for that reason that I went searching for more books that featured this terrific phantasm. And in that search found this book. Because it was supposed to have something on Bloody Mary. Unfortunately, the section on Bloody Mary was about a paragraph long, out of 256 pages. A little disappointing.
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid is one of the those books that, while not very thick takes forever to get through. It is a compilation of many (and I mean many) urban legends. Some familiar, some similar, and some just plain boring. Like with a compilation of short stories, there are some that are good and some that are not to your tastes. And like with a compilation of short stories it takes a bit longer to get through.
For the Movie Lovers: Does anyone remember the moderately older movie called Urban Legends? If you have, then you might find some of the stories in this book vaguely familiar. It was almost the only aspect of the book that I really found all that interesting.
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid is one of the those books that, while not very thick takes forever to get through. It is a compilation of many (and I mean many) urban legends. Some familiar, some similar, and some just plain boring. Like with a compilation of short stories, there are some that are good and some that are not to your tastes. And like with a compilation of short stories it takes a bit longer to get through.
For the Movie Lovers: Does anyone remember the moderately older movie called Urban Legends? If you have, then you might find some of the stories in this book vaguely familiar. It was almost the only aspect of the book that I really found all that interesting.
March 28, 2019
This was okay. If you are looking for a collection of stories that range from creepy to kind of silly, this will suffice. If you want to examine recurring patterns in these stories, again, you'll find it here. If you are interested in the cultural phenomena that might cause particular types of stories to spread, that is outside the scope of this book. Too bad, because that is what I was hoping for. One thing I noticed on my own, though, (and, unfortunately, it's painfully easy to spot) is that urban legends are more often than not used to spread racism and homophobia. It's good to be aware of that, but not very pleasant to read.
April 14, 2024
A delightfully eerie collection of all the most famous urban legends--many of which, though this compendium was published in the early 2000s, are still alive and well today. I'd be interested in an updated version that takes on social media ULs, though of course much of what we see online is simply more of the same.
February 16, 2025
I so wanted to like this book, but I didn't. The urban legends were very repetitive, and I didn't see the point in reading four or five variations of the same story. I got really bored after a while and it became a complete chore to get through.
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