Review: WEIRD TALES no. 372 Cryptids & Urban Legends

As the subtitle makes clear, this issue of Weird Tales magazine deals with both “Cryptids & Urban Legends” even though most of the stories/poems featured within are about cryptids. The stories dealing with urban legends include: "Mixed Tape" by Bryan Young, "The Grave Marker" by Cavan Scott, and "Ol' Nal" by Dana Fredsti. These are all fine stories, they just don’t have anything to do with cryptozoology and so I won't be discussing them here.

Here is my review of the stories appearing in this issue and relating to cryptozoology…

• "Cry of the Yeti" by Brian Asman

- A P.I. is hired to investigate a kidnapping case involving Bigfoot. This story was great and had a number of interesting twists and turns. Also, the villains were based on Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin which was fun.

• "The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs" by Keith DeCandido

- An urban fantasy story about a pair of police detectives investigating the murder of several mythical creatures/cryptids. This one was pretty mediocre. Like a lot of bad urban fantasy you could remove the supernatural elements and it wouldn't change anything significant about the narrative.

• "Meet-up" by Scott Sigler

- A dark comedy about a once in a decade meet-up of various highly anthropomorphized cryptids. The most interesting idea here is that cryptids are inherently supernatural but once scientifically discovered lose their powers and intellect becoming “dumb animals.”

• "Kolchak Meets the Jersey Devil" by James Aquilone

- This is the second story to appear in the current iteration of Weird Tales to feature Forteans Jeff Rice and Richard Matherson’s cantankerous newshound Carl Kolchak. The last one appeared in issue no. 370 and personally felt off to me. This story, however, is fantastic and a worthy addition to the Kolchak mythos.

• "Our Mothers' Arms" by Lee Murray

- In his 2024 book The Invention of Prehistory, historian Stefanos Geroulanos argues that the “aquatic ape hypothesis” of human evolution – which some cryptozoologists have embraced as an explanation for merbeings – is deeply rooted in a feminist reimagining of evolution theory. This story is the narrative embodiment of that argument.

• "Crimson Eyes" by Samantha Underhill

- A poem about Mothman.

• "Spider McGee and the Nidus" by Marie Whittaker

- This is an odd one. It’s a story about a woman who hires a group of mercenary prospectors to venture into an abandoned mine to try and get a photograph of a Tommyknocker. When I started it I was hoping for something in the vein of Grant Allan's “Pallinghurst Barrow,” John Buchan’s “No-Man's-Land,” or Arthur Machen’s Little-People stories of which I'm a fan. Instead, this turns into a shoot-em-up involving giant spiders. Not great.

• "The Translator" by Preston Grassmann

- Hey, this wouldn't be Weird Tales if it didn't have at least one story about a guy in an octopus cult, right?

• "Buford and the Swamp Ape" by James Jensen

- Another great story about a convenience store worker weathering a hurricane in Florida when he gets an unexpected customer looking for last-minute supplies.

• "Whistlin' Through the Door" by Gretchen McNeil

- An Irish priest, who is new in town, is informed by the locals not to visit the nearby loch after dark. Sensing superstition in his would-be parishioners the priest decides to do exactly the opposite of what has been prescribed and soon comes to regret it. This was a great story that featured one of my favorite cryptids, but I won't tell you which one!

• "My Tears Shall Drown the World" by Bev Vincent

- An imaginative story about the Squonk.

• "Mokele-mbembe Explains Only Once" by Anne Walsh

- A poem that explores the complicated relationship between cryptozoology and colonialism.

This issue also featured two essays: Matt Bille’s "An Introduction to Cryptozoology" and "Concerning Cryptids" by Henry Herz. Bille gives the “pro-cryptozoology” side of the debate, while Herz is more skeptical without being cynical. Both have interesting things to say about cryptozoology.

Lastly there is The Eyrie from editor Jonathan Maberry. Maberry makes a number of astute observations about cryptozoology and also recounts how he and his wife once accidentally helped to create a cryptid in their hometown.

Overall, this is a great issue of Weird Tales. My favorite stories were those by Asman, Aquilone, Jensen, and McNeil. But your milage as a reader may vary.