The Beast of Bray Road: Tailing Wisconsin's Werewolf

Rating:
Summary: Excellent & Intriguing, Godfrey Nails This One!
Review: A most enjoyable and entertaining read, "The Beast of Bray Road" has changed my belief in the paranormal! I couldn't put it down and have already read through it again.
These new titles such as J. Coleman's "Strange Highways" and L. Godfrey's "The Beast of Bray Road" has given its reader's and cryptozoology buff's new hope for the new millennium. Research and information as found in "The Beast of Bray Road" will make this book one you'll refer to for years to come!!

Rating:
Summary: Well-researched Book with Extensive Source-citing
Review: An exciting and spooky account of the werewolf-type creature that is alleged to be afoot in rural Wisconsin.

As a reporter for a small weekly Wisconsin newspaper , the author of this book personally interviewed eye witnesses who described the Bray Road Beast as a bipedal, wolf-like creature with a huge chest, long claws and pointed ears.

Godfrey also presents a list of historical sightings of a similar creature in Wisconsin dating back to the early 1930's, as well as an exploration of the similarities to the sightings of the "dogman" creature in neighboring Michigan.

This is a well-researched book with extensive source-citing, a map of the major sightings and a chronology of events.

Rating:
Summary: The Beast of Bray Road
Review: Fantastic Book, For all of the people who hide behind there little fancy houses, and there litte perfect pretend world with there little minds thinking that they are the only ones here. This book is not for them, but any one else with an open mind and accepts that there are greater thinking things in a different realm, this book is for you, it has a lot of facts and stories about the unknown.

Rating:
Summary: The Truth, Is Out There...
Review: I've never written a book review before, but with absolute certainty I can say Lind Godfrey's book about the Beast Of Bray
Road is amazing! Is it the truth? Is there, was there a werewolf type creature out in the wilds of Elkhorn,Wisconsin? If you believe the eyewitnesses, then yes. ( and there is no reason why they would not be telling the truth!)There really were sightings of 'something'. Whether it was an actual werewolf, hybrid dog/mix, or something else beyond our imagination, you have to be the judge of that. But even more fascinating, it may not be over yet. There are still stories and sightings untold, because of the fear of the Skeptics out there. But, all I can say is, if you are fascinated with the unexplained, the paranormal, the unusual, then this book is a must read. It is about how mysterious our world really is, especially in Wisconsin. For the believers, and/or anyone with an open mind, you will love this book. You will find it very interesting. Linda has done an excellent job. She has done her research and found out more about this creature than anyone else might have ever suspected.
And like I said, it may not be over yet. You'll see. Or you may hear about it soon, anytime, anywhere. The Beast may yet be out there. The truth is out there...

Rating:
Summary: The Truth, Is Out There...
Review: I've never written a book review before, but with absolute certainty I can say Linda Godfrey's book about the Beast Of Bray
Road is amazing! Is it the truth? Is there, was there a werewolf type creature out in the wilds of Elkhorn,Wisconsin? If you believe the eyewitnesses, then yes. ( and there is no reason why they would not be telling the truth!)There really were sightings of 'something'. Whether it was an actual werewolf, hybrid dog/mix, or something else beyond our imagination, you have to be the judge of that. But even more fascinating, it may not be over yet. There are still stories and sightings untold, because of the fear of the Skeptics out there. But, all I can say is, if you are fascinated with the unexplained, the paranormal, the unusual, then this book is a must read. It is about how mysterious our world really is, especially in Wisconsin. For the believers, and/or anyone with an open mind, you will love this book. You will find it very interesting. Linda has done an excellent job. She has done her research and found out more about this creature than anyone else might have ever suspected.
And like I said, it may not be over yet. You'll see. Or you may hear about it soon, anytime, anywhere. The Beast may yet be out there. The truth is out there...

Rating:
Summary: Get Out Those Silver Bullets.....NOW!!!!!!!
Review: In 1941 screenwriter Curt Siodmak wrote a screenplay for Universal Pictures, telling a tale about a nice young man named Lawrence "Larry" Talbot, who came home to Llanwelly Village in Wales from school in America, only to discover he'd been better off staying "across the pond". Run-ins with Gypsies (especially with one named Bela...as in Lugosi) left him with a very unwanted physiological affliction. An "ancient gypsy rhyme" (composed very un-anciently by writer Siodmak) bespoke Talbot's affliction: "Even a man who is pure at heart, and says his prayers by night...may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms...and the moon is full and bright."
So began the unfortunate "career' of The Wolfman, one of the most popular of all supernatural cultural icons, a man-monster rooted in the ancient traditions of the werewolf, which reach back AT LEAST as far as Roman times, and no doubt beyond.
Talbot has never been alone in his predicament. There have been untold numbers of both cinematic, literary, television, and, indeed, even radio werewolves. The lycanthropy crowd is ever with us in the media and in good yarns spun around the campfire.
But is that all there is to it? History says no. The belief is strong is Europe and North America and many anecdotal accounts present themselves as authentic tales of strange doings by creatures who may or may not be shapeshifting humans. The Indians of the southwest believe in "skinwalkers". The French Canadians of Quebec and the Cajuns of Louisiana don't always smirk at stories of "loup garou". The belief also extends itself to the workings of the "bokors", the black magic sorcerors of Haiti. And it should be noted that in the real-world literature of the werewolf, the notion that the depredations of such a creature are tied to a full moon is RARE. The strongest traditions involve Satanism and black magic and address themselves to men and women who turn themselves into beasts AT WILL, when they WANT to. They are NOT "moonbound" by a curse. THIS notion (the involuntary full moon transformation triggered by a curse or bite) is a product of SIODMAK and is NOT tied strongly to the historical tradition at all.
This fact tends to make Wisconsin's Bray Road Beast even more interesting. IT is not seemingly tied to a full moon cycle either. It does its thing "whenever". That small fact may render a certain legitimacy in the accounts. Your typical doofus prankster is not going to be that well versed in the "true" history of lycanthropy and most likely would try to time his prank-playing TO the full moon cycle.
In "The Beast of Bray Road" Linda Godfrey has done an excellent job of presenting the historical overview of these odd happenings around Elkhorn and Delavan, Wisconsin. She has done the reporters' base line job of finding out who-what-when-where-and-how in very capable fashion. She also doesn't let her imagination...OR her skepticism...run away with her. She stays practical and contemplative and analytically perceptive the whole way through. And she never loses her witty sense of humour.She keeps her head on straight and produces a very, very good and readable book on a very, very strange subject.
And what do we find out from Ms. Godfrey? That a lot of people(feet-on-the-ground people, not Kooks) over quite some time, have seen a very strange "something" in the fields and forests of rural and semi-rural Wisconsin. It is something that stands about 5 to 5 1/2 feet tall, has a head with the general configuration of a wolf, or dog, or coyote, a broad shouldered, heavy-muscled upper torso, well muscled arms like a body builder's, human-like hands with claws on them, powerful thighs tapering down into skinny "shins" and ankles. This description alone (referencing "arms" and "legs" separately) suggests something bipedal, though the creature often does go to all fours). Accounts also say the back legs look "funny", the implication being that they are jointed animal fashion("crooked as a dog's hind leg" as the saying goes).But the "arms" are not? Odd. The thing is often seen by a roadside, seemingly eating road kill, which it holds(while squatting) in its "hands"(?) with the "palms"(?) turned face up. Most peculiar.
Godfrey takes the reader through possible Satanic associations, cryptozoological connections ( a creature the Ioway Indians called a "shunka-warak'in"),mysterious animal mutilations, and a chilling incident from the 1930s when a nightwatchman encountered a strangely similar creature that snarled out the word "Gaddarah" at him and then turned and walked away with a sneer when the man began praying to God for deliverance.
This book is well worth having, both to read for information and pondering, or for good old-fashioned cheap thrills. If you want to sit in front of the fire on a dark night and scare the bejeebies out of yourself, don't miss it. Will it make you want to jump up and book immediate fare to Elkhorn or Delavan, Wisconsin? Well, I can't guarantee THAT!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Sightings and stories about this alleged man-wolf
Review: The Beast Of Bray Road: Tailing Wisconsin's Werewolf by Linda S. Godfrey is about how the small town of Elkhorn, Wisconsin caused such a big stir in the 1990s with reports of a wolf-headed, upright creature locally dubbed "The Beast of Bray Road". Gathering information on sightings and stories about this alleged man-wolf, and presenting local stories and eye-witness testimonies in an entertaining and informal manner, The Beast Of Bray Road is an inherently fascinating exploration of the boundaries of myth, folklore, and contemporary legend as reflected in and by a small Wisconsin community.

Rating:
Summary: Much ado about very little
Review: This is the type of book that irks me. Nifty name lurid cover that promises a whole lot more then it delivers. If you read the book, objectively, and strip away all the filler (most of the book is not about 'the beast') there is very little actual meat here. A bare handful of brief sightings of something that the people themselves tended to describe as a 'big dog'. And even those are usually second or third hand accounts of events that happened years ago. So much for 'the beast'.
We then get a blow by blow account of 'almost' movies offers, dealing with the hyper TV shows (Sightings, In Search of etc) and considerable quoting from books by Brad Stieger and Loren Coleman.(Mr Coleman is a noted and respected researcher in the Cryptozoology field,by the way)
Having said all that, Ms. Godfrey writes well, in a light and breezy way. The book is an easy read, a couple of hours at the most. Its just an average book for the general 'scary' reader.

Rating:
Summary: Did you ever see something "Out There"?
Review: This was a tough one, now many of you may enjoy fact after fact with no real story line or thought that holds it together, where wanting to go on to the next chapter didn't matter but for me, it just wasn't there.
The author is/was a newslady and it showed, naming sources which I have found questionable in the past.
The Beast of Bray Road was a difficult read, where stopping at any page or chapter didn't matter.
Some of you may enjoy it for it's straight up newspaper like facts but the research and personal investigation to the Beast of Bray Road got derailed.