Rating: 
Summary: careless
Review: I just finished this book. While entertaining, sometimes gripping and sometimes even frightening, Keel's book is littered with careless suppositions. His patronizing account that Indians (Native Americans) did not possess the technical sophistication to build mounds is short on research and insulting, to boot. He cites only one out-of-date map of pre-white West Virginia, labeled 'uninhabited', as proof that the Natives were too scared to live there. Any search of the West Virginia archives will show that Native presence has a long history in that state. While published in '75, he does not correct such errors in the recent paperback's afterword, choosing only to give us a homily on the unknown. He does well explicating his files but he needs to brush up. The rotten egg smell is often caused by the pharmaceuticals that schizophrenics take. How can you discuss a 'Princess Moon Owl' character and not mention this? He says belief is the enemy of truth. This book wants to believe too much at truth's expense.
Rating: 
Summary: Fairly informative
Review: I found this book to be fairly interesting, but at times the reader becomes bogged-down in the history of these sightings..the book would have been better reading had it focused more on a personal level and investigated the more personal aspects of how these unique sightings changed people in that town. If you expect to find the movie within the book, FORGET it, it is NOT there. Overall, lukewarm reading.
Rating:
Summary: I Haven't Seen the Movie
Review: The book is a disjointed account of many "sightings" of different phenomena. It does mke me want to see how this was pulled off in a movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Suspense- yes- if that's what you're seeking
Review: I bought this book on impulse seeing that it took place in West Virginia where my son is in college- a mom thing, that is, not a UFO thing. It scared me more than I'd bargained for. It isn't the UFO mystery- the saucers were cinematically graceful and playful and so abundant that it was like watching migrating birds. No,it was what happened down on the old "nitrogen, oxygen and cosmic spit"- formed earth that freaked me out. I read alone and late at night.
The strange men- later called men in black and MIB, visited people living in remote areas- WV in the 60's- young pregnant women, an elderly man who ran home for his shotgun and a divorced woman on a farm where the cattle were drained of their blood. One of her son's told the author, yeah, his mom was really upset when she saw those lights outside. Frankly, had they come to me- I'd be outta there so fast and Never go back. Get a gun? I don't think so. These people- and I guess that's how a book gets written- would go out on midnight walks down deserted roads- oh no! And when you knew these 'things' were out and about? Writing this, it seems more contrived than it did during the reading- I mean even if West Virginia was a low stat crime state- who would walk down dark, deserted roads, when there was no moon and you know Mothman had been cited flying up and staring with his large illuminated red eyes. Sometimes, those eyes would lazer people into paralysis and later vomiting and other illnesses. The UFO's could turn a light on you, or even one of their visitors could somehow leave you with a checkerboard burn that left and returned again with no medical rationale. Kids love those Scary Stories collections and they are often old mountain folk tales, perhaps this was just a modern sort of scariness en masse. (And later, for profit.) Anyway, it got to me. I think when deciding to believe or not, it is often the author's voice, that makes the difference. And I found Keel to be a semi-self effacing and overall 'normal' narrator which did keep me reading when otherwise I'd have quit. If you are the sort that either has an interest in the paranormal, or you just enjoy a good dose of fear and foreboding- not me, for sure- then I'd say read the book. I was interested in the previous reviewers' personal revelations and think they are important antidotes, especially from someone who hyped the stuff at one time. Prophecies' author, Keel, discusses how those that he interviewed were not on the surface seemingly capable of carrying out such a well-entwined ruse- and that was also my reaction. But when reading how easily a smart, creative fraud can really incite some interest and corroboration; that also is needed to balance the oftentimes extremely schizoid fervor and longing for more chaos in our existence. I remain doubtful- and if not that, hopeful that they don't come anywhere near me cause I am not the one!
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Summary: There is more to this story ...
Review: I am the author of an article for "The Skeptical Inquirer" about the origins of "The Mothman Prophecies." The article, which appeared in the May/June 2002 issue, also may be read at the CSICOP web site.There, I describe the highly dubious role Gray Barker played in the background during the events surrounding this now-well-known West Virginia case. Barker was responsible for at least one telephone call (and possibly more) to John A. Keel and others in an attempt to generate interest in the Mothman and UFO accounts that were rampant at the time. Those who wonder what to believe about "The Mothman Prophecies" will gain greater insight into the situation by reading this article -- but only if they truly wish to understand that there is indeed "more to the story."
Rating: 
Summary: Pass on this one
Review: If you are looking for a detailed, coherent account of the collapse of the Silver Bridge, you will find this book a total disappointment, as I did. You will learn next to nothing about what was going on in Point Pleasant, and why the bridge collapsed. This book is largely an unorganized, haphazard semi-autobiograhpical collection of anecdotes that appear to be meaningful to the author, most of them about flying saucers and men in black and the author's problems with his phone bill. The "narrative" skips around in time and place and subject. Keel devotes more pages to some odd people in the Long Island ufo community than he does to writing about the bridge. He has two sentences about why the bridge might have collapsed. There are no photos, maps, figures, or appendices in this book. Unless you get a map of the Point Plesant area, you have no idea where the events he describes takes place. There are about 10 footnotes, and they document trivial, dumb stuff. Keel must be laughing about selling the title of this book to the movie company. Even though the movie wasn't all that good, it was far better than this book. It's not so much I regret spending the money on this book, but I feel very foolish about having wasted two hours reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: Mothman Prophecies (and all of Keel's books)
Review: In order to comprehend the TRUE nature of All of the incidents of the paranormal (from Mothman to automatic writing) one could do no better than to read ALL of Keel's writings. UFOs are not ships from other planets (they're not "false sightings", either) and big hairy monsters are not unknown biological life forms (yes, they are real and not "mistaken sightings".) Keel demonstrates the nexus extant between all sectors of the paranormal -- between clairvoyants, ufos, monsters, demonic possession, possessed individuals, demons, MIBs, ghosts, and much more. As a former journalist, he knows the correct questions to ask which is mandatory in obtaining the correct answers to expose any mystery. The claims he made decades ago, which may seem impossible, are being endorsed by quantum physics today -- not that ufos or bigfeet exist but that the nature of space and time (referred to as "spacetime" in physics) is such that they are allowed, in the laws of nature, to exist -- quantum reality or the reality extant at, if not beneath, the subatomic level. We perceive only a very small modicum of reality, as there is a helluva lot more to it than we could ever perceive. The ultimate question is: who, or what, exists over there and do they perceive us?
Rating:
Summary: the movie was better
Review: Usually the book is always better. In this case, no way. I found it to be just a bunch of disjointed ramblings and partial recounts of what happened. I couldn't even finish it and gave it away. The movie didn't follow the book at all, but at least there was a thread of a storyline to follow.
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Summary: Leap of faith? I'll call the ambulance then shall I...
Review: First let me say that I ENJOYED reading this, and I liked his style and the fact that at least the author didnt always take himself quite so seriously as most. The way he described his fear got me on edge at times.
But...it's crazy! It's lunacy...aside from things I would instantly argue with (i.e. the assertion that ESP has already been `scientifically proven` which came as news to me!) his conclusions just dont make sense at all. Forget the fact that so much of the book is hokum (I'd recommend `Why People Believe Weird Things` although I cant remember the author) and he seems as delusional and paranoid as some of those UFO nuts he scoffs at, he seems determined to tie everything together and completely ignore all the internal consistencies and problems posed. To really enjoy this kind of stuff you have to be a believer. Unforuntely for me I trust logic and scientific method more than anecdotal evidence. Whilst I am genuinely interested in the Turin Shroud arguments that are based on science, this is, well I suppose it's only capable of preaching to the converted or the gullible. As a footnote, there arent any *actual* `Mothman Prophecies` anyway?
Rating:
Summary: The Mothman Prophecies
Review: I found this book very interesting. I felt it covered the actual happenings in a factual manner without making it boring.
The author also did not seem to discount the fact that there could be more here than meets the eye. He sorted out the possible from the ridiculous such as the Silver Bridge collapse.
An easy read but an interesting one.
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