Something in the Woods is Taking People - FIVE Book Series.: Five Book Series; Hunted in the Woods, Taken in the Woods, Predators in the Woods, ... in the Woods is Taking People.: Volume 1

This lengthy book runs to 675 pages. It’s made up of five previous books by 'Stephen Young', who apparently also writes under the names 'Steph Young' and 'Tessy Rawlins'. I gather that the author is female and UK-based. Confusingly, the title of the compilation is the same as that of one of the constituent volumes. The word ‘Woods’ occurs in the titles of all of the component volumes, as well as in the title of this combined version. But it isn’t applicable to all of the cases that Young discusses. For example, while her focus is mainly on strange events in rural locations, she also discusses mysterious deaths of young men in built up areas, such as the English city of Manchester (see below).THE CASE MATERIALYoung cites numerous reports of strange events. While much of her book deals with mysterious human disappearances, it has a wider focus. For example, it discusses a large cluster of cases of apparent suicide, by hanging, among young people in the Bridgend area of South Wales in recent years (pp. 309-329); and it also cites many instances in which people have allegedly encountered mysterious animals or entities of one sort or another (bigfoot-type creatures, ‘wolf-men’, ‘mothman’, ‘black-eyed kids’, etc.).Regarding the Bridgend deaths, Young specifically mentions “Snake Pit Woods”. However, from what I’ve seen on the Internet, I gather that some of the young suicide victims hanged themselves at home rather than in the woods.The human disappearance cases can be divided into three categories: (1) those in which the people have never been found; (2) those in which they have been found dead; (3) those in which they have been found alive. Falling into the second category are cases, from recent years, involving high-achieving, white male college students. After being out at night, drinking with friends, and then choosing to go home alone, they’ve disappeared, only to be found dead later in nearby areas of water (p. 613). The chilling inference seems to be that, in some instances, the victims have been held somewhere, alive, for a period, and then killed (p. 26; pp. 617-621). Young believes that this pattern is international: she mentions cases from North America, and also a cluster from the English city of Manchester, where men have been found dead in canals and ponds.Young’s reporting isn’t entirely accurate. In a short chapter entitled ‘The Clapham Wood Mystery’ (pp. 9-12), she states that a policeman’s body was found among the trees in 1972, and that a vicar was found dead after disappearing in the “forest”. Clapham Wood, which is near Worthing, West Sussex, in southern England, is a relatively small area of woodland, not a forest. The policeman’s body was found elsewhere, not in Clapham Wood; and so far as I know, there’s no definite evidence suggesting that he was in the wood when he went missing. The Rev. Harry Neil Snelling, a former vicar of Clapham and Patching, went missing at the end of October 1978. His remains were eventually found, but not in Clapham Wood; and I’m not aware of any compelling reason to think that he was in Clapham Wood when he disappeared. Young also mentions a Jill[ian] Matthews, who was found murdered in 1981. Young doesn’t explicitly state that the victim’s body was found in the wood, but it wasn’t – she was found some distance away.INTERPRETATIONThe book discusses a range of hypotheses. For example, in respect of mysterious human disappearances, it considers the relatively prosaic, but grim, possibility that serial killers have been at work, and also more speculative, conspiracy and paranormal-based notions, involving, for instance, black magic, alchemy and demons. Regarding the disturbing deaths of young people in the Bridgend area of Wales, Young considers the possibility that the minds of the victims were controlled by some sort of external force, inducing them to hang themselves.In my view, Young doesn’t give sufficient consideration to the possibility that exaggeration and distortion can occur in the reporting of seemingly strange events, and that, even when odd things seem to have occurred, there may be an entirely normal explanation in some instances. For example, she refers to the case of Overtoun Bridge, Milton, near Dumbarton, in Scotland, from which a large number of dogs have leapt to their death (pp. 206-207). She mentions a Dr Sands, an animal psychologist, who was asked to investigate the case. But she fails to note that, along with a colleague, he proposed an entirely prosaic explanation of the dogs’ behaviour: that a strong scent of mink had dulled their other senses and induced them to jump from the bridge.PROBLEMS WITH THE CASE MATERIALThere are major presentational problems with this book. It contains no bibliography or index. In many instances, Young fails to reference her sources, and she often fails to give adequate information about where the alleged events occurred. Furthermore, she doesn’t always specify when they occurred. For instance, on p. 77, she states that the ‘Brownsville Herald’ reported on a frightening encounter that a man had had with a bird-like creature outside his home; but she fails to tell the reader where Brownsville is, and when the incident happened! (There were apparently other reports of such sightings, following a number of cattle mutilations in the locality.)Young often gets people’s names wrong. For example, on p. 634, she refers to a “Professor Gary Jackson”, although I gather that his first name is Craig, not Gary. (She states that he’s based at the University of Birmingham, but that’s wrong, too – he’s at Birmingham City University!) On pp. 447-448, she discusses an Internet report posted by a researcher called Colin Andrews. It concerns a man who’d been on a business trip to Japan in 2011. Along with others, he’d reportedly seen a ‘mothman’-type figure on top of one of the buildings of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. He then saw it in flight. The timing was intriguing, because - not long after - there was an earthquake and tsunami in the area, resulting in a serious leak of radiation from the plant. Mistakenly, Young names the businessman as a David Haith. However, on Andrews’ website, the witness gives his name as Marcus Pules. David Haith had simply drawn the case to the attention of Andrews. Young even gets the name of the late rock musician Jimi Hendrix wrong, referring to him as “Jimmie Hendricks” (p. 237)!There are numerous other misspellings and typos in the book. At points, Young mistakenly renders common nouns (‘mother’, ‘pub’, ‘bar’, etc.) with capital letters, as if they were proper nouns. Errors of grammar and punctuation abound. I found some passages opaque and confusing. All told, the text looks more like a rough draft than a polished, final product. It clearly needed, but didn’t receive, competent proofreading.CONCLUDING COMMENTThis is a very badly written book. But a redeeming feature is that it draws attention to a large number of seemingly enigmatic cases.

weird,bizzare and disturbing in equal measure,this volume covers a whole range of the inexplicable and regardless of the titles not all of these things happen in the "woods".I've been interested in weird stories etc for years but I hadn't heard of most of these and as such thoroughly enjoyed reading it,although enjoyed probably isn't the right word!.the stories range from the truly fantastical,underground bases throughout the world where alien hybrids reside to truly harrowing accounts of abductions and missing persons and their families' ongoing searches to find them.i would recommend buying this 5 book edition because if you read one you'll definitely want to read the others,i was unaware this volume existed so purchased the first book in the series,it was only after i'd read it and wanted the next one that I found this volume of all five,it obviously meant buying one book "twice" but it was still cheaper than buying the rest separately.if you find the 411 missing books interesting you'll also find this of interest,there is the odd typo but nothing than ruins the read.all in all a fascinating series of books,i'd say don't have nightmares but you probably will!

This book is more like one of those "My first bumper book of mysteries" kids books than a serious book looking into the paranormal. The details are very scant, the typeface is large and there is a lot of padding where there should be details and facts. Each case or story is ridiculously short. Sadly I think Steph has done all of her research from the internet but that doesn't excuse the terrible mistakes, the appalling writing and punctuation and the complete lack of proof reading. Some sentences make no sense and some are hilarious in their lack of proper description. A very poor, hastily written mish - mash of internet tales. I only give it two stars because it might be interesting to read while sat at your computer so you can look up some new cases you haven't heard of. Otherwise, stick to David Paulides.

Full of typing errors? I've heard of Lon Strickler not Loni Strikler. I've heard of the Dyatlov Pass incident not the Dalatove pass. Really annoying obvious a rushed through book.

Not 100% how I feel about this book yet. I've read 70 pages so far and the one thing that sticks out is the poor writing. The book is full of spelling and grammatical errors that keep pulling me away from the actual subject matter. There are well known places where strange incidents have occurred and the names are spelled wrong not only in the book but also in the table of contents. It doesn't seem like anyone actually edited this book. There are other stories in here where the location isn't even written. If you want to know where the Devil's Gate Reservoir is I guess you will have to google it.I'll keep reading because I find the subject matter interesting and I don't want to feel like I wasted $30. If you are interested in this subject though, I highly recommend the Missing411 books by David Paulides. This book feels like a cheap knock off of his books, adding very little of its own to the phenomenon of people disappearing. Hopefully it gets better.

On the plus side, this volume contains five volumes of Mr. Young's writings. In that respect it is a good deal. The subject matter is most intriguing and the author presents the main theories surrounding the phenomena of missing people. On the down side, the writing is inconsistent and the overall text has its ups and downs. The editing was inconsistent. Be that as it may, this material is worth reading as it is an important, but under reported and ignored issue. Anyone seriously interested in this subject should get the works of David Paulides, but watch out for price gouging through various sources selling his books.

I notice that some of the poor reviews cite some arguably silly reasons for such low ratings, such as the print being too large or finding occasional typos. Most people interested in a book of this nature are primarily concerned with the data. We came for the paranormal reports, not the technical details, and for us, this compilation of strange reports and supporting information and theory is more than adequate. I just began this book today and am 200 pages in. Yes, the print is large but I read slowly, so 200 pages is still considerable for me. It’s a page turner. My hi-liter is tired. I want to keep reading and I am disappointed that I have to sleep and lose valuable time during which I could be reading. Young states things fairly and does not claim to have all the answers, but rather seems concerned only with presenting evidence, much of which is very compelling. I’m confident that anyone with a thirst for knowledge of the paranormal and all manner of strange phenomena will find this book an engaging and valuable resource.

A waste of money; filled with tidbits of information that lead nowhere.A lot of, "so and so disappeared on such and such date, and never seen again." There is no real valid information.Save your money, there is more information in a newspaper. Giving one star is too many.

My dad loves these types of books and this one didn't disappoint him at all.

This book will take a long time to read, it's hugh!

Lot's of "stuff" in Her Books :) Bout time "these" things are written/talked ...bout

Absolutely enjoyed it! Yes, there are some differences in style and editing, but VERY well worth the time and money. Extraordinary effort and amount of information. Thank you!!!

Very good read on reports of paranormal, dimensional creatures and portals,sasquatch encounters, UFO abductions, Gov retrieval teams and more.there is some scary stuff in this book, Author has done an excellent job on complying information from all over the world on missing people.This book is not a missing 411 overview but many different terrifying encounters of other world entity's, still taking place currentlyIF YOU BELIEVE, EVER HAD A AN APPRITION EXPERIENCE, DARK SHAWDOW ENTITY'S, UFO SIGHTING, SASQUATCH ENCOUNTER.Leave those that do not believe behind as those of us that have experienced any of the above, we don't have to be convinced of there reality!

not a serious effort.

A lot of stories in one book......