A relative newcomer to the world of cryptids, chupacabras have been spotted in Mexico, the U.S., and China....
1 D. A relative newcomer to the world of cryptids, chupacabras have been spotted in Mexico, the U.S., and China. In most cases, the animal in question turns out to be a coyote with a severe case of mange.
2 A. Mary Shelley and her partner, poet Percy Shelley, visited Lord Byron in his Swiss abode. Inclement weather kept them indoors, so Byron suggested they amuse themselves by coming up with ghost stories. Mary Shelley’s contribution, Frankenstein, would go on to become a literary classic.
3 A. Author Anne Rice chose Lestan, an old French name in use in Louisiana, because her husband was named Stan (he also inspired the vampire’s confidence and appearance). However, she inadvertently replaced the n with a t and decided to keep the serendipitously created Lestat.
4 D. From the Greek words for “wolf” and “man”, lycanthrope is a term associated with werewolves. Clinical lycanthropy is a real, but rare, mental condition where the afflicted believes they are a wolf.
5 D. For the second of his 12 tasks, Hercules had to kill the multiheaded sea serpent Hydra. To foil its regenerative powers, he had his nephew cauterize its neck wounds after each beheading.
6 B. In 1974 Stephen King and his wife stayed at the Stanley Hotel, which was nearly empty because it was about to close for the season. That night, he had a nightmare that his three-year-old son was being chased down the hall by a fire hose. He turned these experiences into The Shining.
7 C. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Dracula is in possession of 50 boxes of dirt from his home country, which he allegedly needs to stay healthy.
8 A. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, a pumpkin is thrown at the protagonist Ichabod Crane, which he mistakes for a severed head.
9 C. The work of American filmmaker George A. Romero, including Night of the Living Dead, largely developed the modern fictional zombie.
10 A. An ancient foe awoken by dwarves digging too deep into their mines, the Balrog of Moria was a fierce enough foe to (temporarily) kill the wizard Gandalf in the first Lord of the Rings book.
11 A. For about 20 years Deacon William Brodie was a well-respected carpenter by day and a burglar by night. Fascinated by Brodie’s double life, Robert Louis Stevenson cowrote a biographical play about him in 1880. Six years later, Brodie’s dual nature served as an inspiration for The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
12 C . The 8th-century epic Beowulf refers to the biblical Cain as having sired many varied monstrous creatures, Grendel being of that bloodline. Some experts theorize that the title character slaying the monster symbolizes Anglo-Saxon England’s emerging Christianity.
13 B. Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House is widely regarded as a genre-defining work. Modern authors like Carmen Maria Machado and Neil Gaiman still name it the most frightening book they’ve ever read.
