Greetings,
A while back, I did a top ten list of my favorite Destination Truth "Half-isodes", as I call them. So, naturally, now that I'm trying to catch up on my book reviews, I thought it prudent to talk about a book that was spawned from this fantastic show. And that particular work of literature that I will be discussing is entitled Destination Truth: Memoirs of a Monster Hunter by Joshua Gates, the host of said show.
Okay, if you don't know about Destination Truth, it is a SyFy series wherein Josh Gates and his team travel around the world to investigate strange creatures and phenomenon. They've looked for elves, ghosts, leprechauns, sea monsters, about ten different versions of Bigfoot, and a ton of other things. Do they ever find anything definitive or any solid proof? Well, someone does certainly always hear something. But even on a show with the word "destination" in the title, it's not the destination; it's the journey. Yeah, I've spoken to some people who watch this show, and, frankly, they don't mind the end part where the team takes a closer look at what they may or may not have found, but what really entertains them, and me, is everything leading up to that. I think I mentioned this in my previous post, but I find most enjoyable to travel aspect of the show, the way they get involved and learn from a new culture, and I also like the actual investigation part. That can also be quite interesting. So why not put all of that into book form? That is exactly what Josh Gates did.
Basically, if you are a fan of the show and especially a fan of Josh Gates, you will really like this book. But even you aren't either of those things, you will probably still enjoy it. What it basically is about is a written account of a lot of the things that have been seen on the show. So, if you've seen that, as you read, you'll remember them, but it's more from a personal and internal standpoint. You get more of what he was thinking as the events took place, and it is done in both an informative and entertaining way. And that is a big plus with the book - it's really funny. But, then again, Josh is a funny guy, so I didn't expect anything less.
Another aspect of the book is that Josh talks a lot about himself personally, how he got into what he does now and also how the show came to be. I found those parts just as interesting as the rest of the stories. Again, it has so much to do with how Josh writes it. He is obviously a very good storyteller. He makes things that may seem, otherwise, mundane kind of entertaining. Not that he included a ton of mundane things. Truth be told, all the stories are good in their own way.
I think my only complaint about the book, other than my usual of "Hey, don't swear", is that it doesn't include enough pictures. There are only about eight pages worth of them in here, and it would have been nice to have some more. On the other hand, what I think would be a extremely good idea is to have a book of nothing but pictures from the adventures on this show with, of course, some captioning by the various team members who took part in them. I would enjoy that a lot, as much as I did this book. And I obviously enjoyed this very much.
So, again, if you are a fan of Destination Truth, I would say this book is a must have. If you haven't seen the show . . . well, go and watch it. They show reruns often on SyFy, and it is currently on Netflix. But if you're a person who likes to read about travel and other cultures or even the unusual or paranormal type stuff, I would recommend this book to you, as well. Either way, though, this is just a really good read. It's funny and you even learn a little about some stuff. I really liked it, and I trust others will as well.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
