Mysteries and Marvels: Incredible Happenings from Near and Far

Gemma Files is a Toronto-based freelance writer.

Once in a while a book comes along, so ineptly written, so weirdly
conceived, so deliciously bad it’s actually better than much of its
competition. Such a book wins favor through sheer ludicrous luck, pluck
and chutzpah, racking up the cult fave points by revelling in its own
unconscious awfulness. This is not that book.

Whether embellishing all the usual suspects—the Sasquatch, the Loch
Ness Monster, UFOs—with specious personal anecdotes, slapping on the
inappropriate quotes, or simply dragging out her pedantic narrative like
some kind of existential taffy, the end result is that Bauchman has
turned a potentially fascinating collection of subjects into a dreary
chore. As she herself admits, “we live in a very strange
world”—and for me, one of the strangest things about it is the
frequency with which people who cannot write are allowed to inflict
themselves on all us poor fools who happen to be able to read.