The
first eleven chapters of the book focus on the Chupacabra in Puerto Rico and
Nick’s hunt for the monster there. He begins with recounting his 2004 adventure
on the island, with his close friend Jonathan Downes and the crew of the SyFy
Channel’s show, Proof Positive. The
full story of Nick and Jon’s 2004 adventures can be found in Nick’s book Memoirs of a Monster Hunter (New
Page Books, 2007). The first nine chapters detail Nick’s week-long expedition
in July 2004, where he does a lot of driving around in a Jeep, interviewing
eyewitnesses with some very
compelling stories, trekking through damp caves and steaming jungles, drinking
frozen margaritas (a favorite of mine as well, I must admit), hunting vampires,
having some good-natured fun at the expense of his friend Jon, and he even
manages to make it out of a deadly situation alive. During this time, Nick
brings up the theory that the Chupacabra could
be some kind of giant vampire bat, which is a fascinating possibility. Chapters
ten and eleven focus on Nick’s 2005 return trip to the island, where he comes
into contact with the occult, theories about wild dogs and killer monkeys, a
stuffed toy duck named Admiral Zorgrot, more animal mutilations, an eyewitness
account of a “huge, feathery beast”, stories of Men in Black, and tales of
relict dinosaurs on the island. Needless to say, Nick has had his hands full,
and we’re not even halfway through the book yet!
Chapters
twelve through fifteen (as well as chapter sixteen in Part 3) are all about the
Chupacabra and its bloody exploits in the United States and Mexico. The
creature in the U.S. and Mexico takes the form of a hairless, bluish-gray dog
with elongated fangs and claws, with longer hind legs than are typical for
canines. Otherwise, this creature shares the same modus operandi as the Puerto Rican monster: killing livestock and
draining their blood in the dead of the night. In these chapters, Nick
investigates the beasts found in the towns of Elmendorf and Cuero (both in
Texas), theories of mangy coyotes, the frozen severed head of the Chupacabra,
and DNA testing. In Mexico, he finds stories of living pterosaurs, the 2008
DeWitt County Chupacabra (and the viral video that followed), Chupacabra skulls,
strange photos, and shapeshifting tricksters. Some truly weird stuff happens in
Texas and Mexico, that’s for sure.
Chapters
sixteen through twenty covers the various conspiracies surrounding the
Chupacabra. Conspiracy theories are one of Nick’s specialties, and he covers all of them. These range from
underground labs, genetic experimentation, mutant monkeys, HIV and AIDS
research, vampires in underground tunnels, more monkeys, vampires in Moca,
primate research (and some disturbing similarities to the 2002 horror film, 28 Days Later), mango margaritas, and
crashed UFOs, to American military and government interference, the Chupacabra in
Russia and Australia, surviving thylacines, secret defense labs, and mysterious
emails. He covers all of these in great detail, leaving no stone unturned. High
strangeness, indeed.
Chapters
twenty-one through twenty-four are all about vampires of a more conventional
nature. Here, Nick talks more about the Moca Vampire, animal sacrifices,
vampire attacks in Wales, the vampiric Aswang and its involvement in quelling a
rebel uprising in the 1950s in the Philippines, another quest to Puerto Rico in
search of an isolated village believed to be inhabited entirely by the Undead,
and the dark side of the Palo Mayombe religion. Chapters twenty-five through
twenty-eight deal with the various hoaxes and cases of mistaken identity that
Nick has come across during his search for the Goatsucker. This includes one
man’s pathetic attempt to pass off a
captured possum with mange as the vampire beast, a mangy raccoon named Chupie,
out-of-place big black cats, Nick’s brief skirmish with the San Juan Police
Department, a Puerto Rican shapeshifter that could be both Bigfoot and the Chupacabra at the same time, and
a hoax involving a photograph of an airplane that had allegedly crash-landed in
the El Yunque rainforest. Hang on, folks: we’re almost done.
Chapters
twenty-nine and thirty contain Nick’s final thoughts and theories regarding the
elusive Chupacabra. For this, Nick turns to bad movies and cases of truth being
stranger than fiction. He touches briefly on two awful SyFy original movies, respectively titled Chupacabra: Dark Seas (2005) and Chupacabra vs. the Alamo (2013). He also
talks about goatsucker activity in the USSR, as well as a confusing attack
wrongfully attributed to a werewolf. But it is in the final chapter that Nick
makes his most compelling arguments.
Here, he turns to our mutual friend and fellow monster hunter, Ken Gerhard. Ken
has been investigating the Texas Chupacabra for years, and has developed some
intriguing theories of his own. In the now-classic horror movie Prophecy (1979), animals mutate into grotesque monsters as a result
of exposure to extremely high levels
of mercury in the Androscoggin River and begin to kill people. Nick believes that this could very well be what happened with the Texas
Chupacabra, although Ken doesn’t rule out other pollutants. In addition, Nick
also discusses blood-drinking animals and how they relate to the beast’s feeding
habits. You’ll have to read the book’s conclusion to find out what the truth
could be.
Overall,
Chupacabra Road Trip is a fantastic book. It’s well-written,
informative, witty, funny, and highly entertaining. This is one of the best
books on the elusive vampire beast out there, and I wholeheartedly recommend it
to all of my friends and this blog’s followers. I would like to take this
opportunity to give my sincerest
thanks to Nick, who I am honored to call my friend and who was kind enough to
send me this book for reviewing free of charge. Thank You, Nick!! I’m deeply
looking forward to reviewing more of your books soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment