Were you surprised at the town’s reaction to Morgan’s investigation?
I was very surprised. What happened to “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”? You’d think that anything that would bring attention to the hodad would encourage tourism, not limit it.
I wasn’t surprised. The Hodad was their bread and butter. They didn’t want anything tainting that image
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A very small town and they depended on visitors coming and spending their money to keep the town afloat. They were afraid people would be frightened and stay away.
I wasn’t really surprised but thought the reaction was a bit extreme.
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Yes. If anything I think a Hodag conspiracy would bring even more tourists into town so I found the motivation behind their coldness a bit hard to believe.
I agree with you Paula. The hodag kept the little town afloat.
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I agree, Kristina. In an earlier post I described this group as the “hodag tourism cult.” Maybe the author wanted the reader to consider one, some or all those people as the murderers.
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Small towns are a different style, everyone knows everyone and is dependent upon each other. People know your family, your childhood and all of your family’s past. This makes it easy to work as a unit in beliefs and actions. Some of this can be good, as coming together when someone is in need, but it can also be non-accepting to different viewpoints,
I thought it was realistic and I was not surprised. Money is an important motivator especially when there really are no other options (no large factories or natural resources for profit).
Besides, while I do think negative publicity can bring attention. Is that the attention they wanted?
Yes, but it does make sense. Their income depends on SAFE tourism.
I had never heard of the Hodag or the annual festival in Rhinelander, WI until I read this book. Naturally, I had to dive down the rabbit hole to learn more. The festival has its own Facebook page and Wikipedia page.
I was somewhat surprised by the extreme reaction of the townspeople. But, everything Hodag likely keeps the town going…similar to the sea monster in Loch Ness. Apparently they have 25k to 30k visitors daily during the festival. That is a lot of tourist dollars. Truth is stranger than fiction! The secrets in small towns across America….
No… small towns are protective of their heritage. Too bad this one dealt with a beast that could cause harm. Some characters in this story had a lot to lose - behavior resulting in jail time. The author chose to focus on a small group to threaten Morgan. I wonder if this outspoken group was representative of the whole community.