The Mothman Prophecies

By: John A. Keel

Narrated by: Craig Wasson

Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

West Virginia, 1966. For thirteen months the town of Point Pleasant is gripped by a real-life nightmare that culminates in a tragedy that makes headlines around the world. Strange occurrences and sightings, including a bizarre winged apparition that becomes known as the Mothman, trouble this ordinary American community. Mysterious lights are seen moving across the sky. Domestic animals are found slaughtered and mutilated. And journalist John Keel, arriving to investigate the freakish events, soon finds himself an integral part of an eerie and unfathomable mystery.

Translated into over thirteen languages, John Keel's unsettling account of what he encountered in Point Pleasant has long been regarded as a classic in the literature of the unexplained. It is now the basis of a major motion picture starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney.

The Mothman Prophecies is also available in print from Tor Books.

©1991 John A. Keel (P)16 9; 2002 Random House, Inc.

I Just Wanted To Know About Mothman...

I was very excited to read this book and experience my first foray into paranormal literature. However, after enjoying the first couple chapters and enjoying how John Keel set up the story, I came to the realization that I was listening to a rambling and disjointed set of UFO, MIB, and cryptid encounters that I assumed I was John Keel's decent in to madness. I came away from the story a little disappointed, but still hungry for more paranormal literature.

There's a lot of haters.

I enjoyed the book. it read much like Keel spoke, which was dated, abrasive, and informative. Yes, hr used dated, present day racist terms and described every woman on the terms of attractiveness. Put the book on the type of archaic texts one may read and it's not bad. put it against riveting New York Times best sellers and its a bit of a dud. Ufologist or cryptozoology required reading all the same. Very pivotal topics broached here, on to the Eighth Tower for me.

very insightful and well read

I'm a zoologist, and I ejoyed this book thoroghly. It was insightful and knowledgable. Some people complain that the title was "decieving", due to lack of information on the Mothman. Keel only spends a chapter talking about this winged creature, but what was there was very interesting. Being in the field of zoology, I come across cryptids like the Mothman all the time. the most popular being obviously, bigfoot and nessie. If these subjects interest you then you should find this to be a very interesting listen.

not terrible but....

when I was thinking about moth man I was expecting for the book to be all about it I'd say 1/16 of it was then the rest went more along the lines of UFOs which wasn't really bad but if I wanted a book about UFOs I would have bought that instead

Terrific!!!

This audio book gives the reader a detailed and vivid description of mothman and its authentic sightings.From my side,I advise every aspiring crytozoology and UFOlogy student to listen to this audio book.

Amazing book turned into a crap movie.

What made the experience of listening to The Mothman Prophecies the most enjoyable?

The deeper Keel takes you into his experiences during the "Year of the Garuda" the more you find yourself questioning the things you "know" about the world around you. Presented in a style more reminiscent of a collection of articles than a single narrative Keel brings the reader into an ever more strange, and increasingly threatening microcosm consisting of true believers and the seemingly omnipresent phenomena that haunt them. Perhaps the most disturbing part of the book is Keels own decent into paranoid madness. The electronic "malfunctions", the men in black, a phone line issue that seems more than happenstance. John Keel finds himself no longer a simple documentarian, but a player in this wild and terrifying "game". In his search for an explanation Keel develops a strange and disconcerting hypothesis, connecting all the wild experiences that have been happening around him. Mothman, Indrid Cold, Strange Lights in the Sky, The Men in Black, for Keel they are not separate unexplainable phenomenon, for John Keel, they are all related and about a purpose that at best is indifferent to the pain and fear they cause, and at worst, enjoying the suffering they bring.

What did you like best about this story?

When Keel begins to express just how deep he went down the rabbit hole you get a feel for just how "real" all these unbelievable things are. Is there a Mothman? Are their Aliens? Are the Men in Black listening to your phone calls? The reality of these things becomes inconsequential, for Keel believes them to be true. By surrounding himself with "true" believers and immersing himself in all the "unexplainable" events surrounding Point Pleasant Keel falls into madness. Paranoia takes over and we see that, even were there no validity to the amazing events of that year, the power of belief held by those people possessed a danger of its own.

What does Craig Wasson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narrator is nothing special, he reads well but with little panache

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Even if its only in your mind, it doesn't mean its not real.

Any additional comments?

LOVED IT. And it still gives me the wiggins

Love it, heart it several times a year

Great narrator, I love Mr Keel's way of treating these topics he must have been the ultimate adventurer and storyteller. I also love the movie.

Monsters

A book about sightings of monsters and ufos. Craig Wasson did excellent job of narration.

Delightfully Weird

It’s not really spoiling anything to point out how… weird that this book of all books has an Afterward written from August of 2001. A month later and I feel it would have been very different. The author does a good job of laying out and documenting the incidents he is covering but the time line is weirdly disjointed. His theories and beliefs seem to change about his subjects every few chapters. Reading this as a purely a historical document is interesting, reading it as an argument over the validity of the facts is confusing. Over all I enjoyed it and the reader does a good job with the material.

The Nature of Human Perception

Keel's The Mothman Prophecies is a book that explores the unknown--human consciousness. The theme of the book is clear from the beginning. Keel is more interested in the root causes of phenomena than the evidence. And the cause, for him, lies somewhere in the mystery of human consciousness and perception. It is a fascinating read. If you like pyschology and parapsychology, this is the pinnacle.