Stalked by Spirits: True Tales of a Ghost Magnet

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Stalked by Spirits: True Tales of a Ghost Magnet

3.0 of 5 stars 3.00 · rating details · 17 ratings · 7 reviews

Shadowed by the supernatural since childhood, Vivian Campbell has encountered angry wraiths, mischievous child spirits, terrorizing demons, and all sorts of bizarre, unearthly beings. In Stalked by Spirits, Vivian relives these thrilling experiences.

Over the years, she and her family have suffered violent phantom attacks, received small favors from a little girl ghost, neg...more

Paperback, 260 pages

Published April 8th 2012 by Llewellyn Publications (first published April 1st 2012)

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May 29, 2012 John rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: ghosts, library_books

Saw this on the library's New Books shelf recently, and being a sucker for paranormal doings, checked it out.
I found it technically well-written, no choppy sentences, etc. However, it did drag a bit where she went into detail about her family members. The book earns a low mark from me as I was struck by her refusal to have the ghosts "identified" by psychics, nor does she ever try to send them "to the light" (exorcise them). I could see that for first house in Tennessee, where as a child she had...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Cynthia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2012

Please pass the crumpets.

Campbell tells some great ghost stories. The book chronicles her lifetime of being ghost sensitive and often having others around her who are sensitive as well which is great since she’s able to talk about her experiences. The books starts out in Tennessee with encounters at her second childhood home and ends when she and her family move into her first home, the one she inherited from her grandfather in Florida. Lots of the ghosts are friendly or at worst confused but so...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Majanka rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: true-haunting, read-2012, non-fiction

In Stalked by Spirits, author Vivian Campbell tells us about her life as a ghost magnet. It seems as if, wherever she goes or stands, she encounters spirits from the beyond. The book starts out very vividly with a description of one of Vivian’s first ghostly encounters. Mrs. Campbell has a very fluent, lively writing style, but her descriptions tend to be long and written in formal, sensational prose. However, this is much more the case in the first part than in the second part of the book. Need...more In Stalked by Spirits, author Vivian Campbell tells us about her life as a ghost magnet. It seems as if, wherever she goes or stands, she encounters spirits from the beyond. The book starts out very vividly with a description of one of Vivian’s first ghostly encounters. Mrs. Campbell has a very fluent, lively writing style, but her descriptions tend to be long and written in formal, sensational prose. However, this is much more the case in the first part than in the second part of the book. Needless to say, I enjoyed the second part the most.

The thing that bothered me the most about this book is that I don’t believe it. I don’t want to call Mrs. Campbell a liar or anything, but the sheer amount of ghosts she’s encountered over the years, makes me roll my eyes. If we’re to believe every account in this book, then there are ghosts everywhere. Yes, everywhere. In your closet, your dining room, your bathroom – you name it, they’re here. But mind you, ghosts aren’t the only supernatural thing bothering Mrs. Campbell. I remember vividly her description of how she had received a strange chair once belonging to a voodoo priest (or something along those lines) and how, one day, the chair had attacked her. Now, I know that vooodoo, African magic, and everything along those lines, isn’t to be messed with but it seems strange to me than an otherwise regular chair, who hasn’t moved in years, suddenly goes beserk when Vivian’s parents left.

I must say that I did enjoy the descriptions of the various houses Mrs. Campbell has lived in over the years, including an old mansion. The descriptions are very thorough, and I could imagine myself wandering through that house. Old houses, especially ones as gigantic as described in the book, are scary by nature. It doesn’t surprise me that these century-old buildings hold ghosts, spirits and a whole array of secrets ready to discover. Unfortunately though, the ghosts Mrs. Campbell discovers in this building are anything but good. In fact, they’re quite malicious, and they constantly hope to scare the people inhabiting the house. Not all of them are equally evil, but that doesn’t mean a lot when half of them are. I thought that this part of the book, although well-written, read more like a ghost story for a fiction novel than an account of true events. It was just too sensational. Not only were there more ghosts in Mrs. Campbell’s house than in the Amityville House or Winchester House, but they’re also stronger than any phantom I’ve heard or seen before.

Regular phantoms succeed in opening doors, sometimes slamming them, throwing stuff through the room, making items disappear, and sometimes even whispering strange messages or warnings. Mrs. Campbell’s phantoms however can slam ten or twenty doors at once, look like demons, and scare everyone who crosses their path.

Luckily for the reader, the sensational events tome down in the second part of the book. I particularly enjoyed the episodes of Mrs. Campbell in her dorm with some friends, where they encounter another series of ghosts.

Now, as to the reasons why this book doesn’t work for me. For starters, it reads too much like fiction. This could be partly because of the exaggerated descriptions and prose – even if Mrs. Campbell is telling us the truth, it already sounds like she’s adding some elements, just to make it more spectacular – or maybe because I can’t just wrap my head around this actually happening. It reminds me of that TV show, Most Haunted, in which the TV show presenter starts screaming before anything happens. And she does that every time. That’s one of the reasons why Most Haunted is more laughable than scary – the people participating start screaming as soon as the lights are out, making it impossible for the audience to hear anything but their screams. This book is a bit like that as well. Tension doesn’t build up slowly. I understand this is a real account of what happened, and if things started with a blast, you can’t exactly have them build up slowly. But I felt that this was lacking in the book, and it didn’t really have a start, middle and end because of this. If anything, it started with the climax and then went downhill from there.

The second reason why is because Mrs. Campbell finds ghosts everywhere. I understand some places can be haunted. In fact, I’m positive some places definitely are haunted. But every single building you enter? Every house you live in? I doubt it. I do tihnk Mrs. Campbell saw ghosts everywhere, but I’m not sure if they were really there, or conjured by her own imagination. Once we’ve had an encounter with spirits, it becomes easy to think every place is haunted and every odd thing can be linked to a ghost.

All in al, Stalked by Spirits left me feeling skeptic. While I really want to believe everything it says in the book, I have my doubts. There are just too many ghosts and too many powerful ones mentioned not to have me look at it skeptically. The book is quite scary though, especially in the beginning. If you’re a fan of scary reads, especially scary true reads, then this book might be for you. I did find myself enjoying it, although I rolled my eyes a couple of times while reading. The prose is a bit sensational, but it’s a writing style you get used to easily. If you’re a fan of true hauntings, I would take a look at this one. Maybe not the best out there, but it’s definitely better than the average.(less)

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Dec 14, 2011 Slmstanley rated it 1 of 5 stars

Written in breathless, 'sensational' prose (an empty baby carrier tipped upside down is described as "...like the body of a battered child that had been viciously and silently kicked to death." Really ?), and full of 'demonic' activity warded off by earnest Baptist prayer, this book is a slog of a read.

Having grown up in haunted houses myself, I'm no stranger to spooky happenings, but the young woman writing this so consistently runs across 'malevolent', 'demonic' faces, fogs, and figures that...more

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Apr 09, 2012 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: netgalley-reviews

I love a good ghost story, even more so when it is a true account, even if it gives me goosebumps while reading. Stalked by Spirits is a memoir of sorts by Vivian Campbell, a woman who has been able to sense ghosts since childhood, a family legacy from her Scottish ancestors. She encounters both benign ghosts and malevolent spirits in the houses she lives in, and this book charts her experiences with them.

I quite enjoyed the tales of disembodied clomping footsteps, mischievous pilfering, and ann...more

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Jan 30, 2012 April Dawn rated it 1 of 5 stars

I was initially beyond excited to read this book, but my excitement soon turned to boredom. The book did not really have a beginning, middle, and end, and there was no climax. It lulled along at a snail's pace and I had to force myself to continue reading it, which I did mindlessly. Although this isn't the type of book that you'd expect to glean a lot of useful information from, never once have I picked up a book, read it in its entirety and learned nothing- until this book. For me, the highligh...more

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Mar 31, 2012 Joanne Maio rated it 5 of 5 stars

What a great book to read on a dark and stormy night or on a lazy day at the beach! Having lived in a haunted house myself, I know what it's like to live with a few things that go "bump in the night." From my own experiences, I know that not every paranormal encounter is scary, so I appreciate the fact that several of these stories are light-hearted and even heart warming - the author has the courage to tell the truth instead of selling out to make up a bunch of Friday-the-13th crap just. I love...more

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May 15, 2013 I ♥ Bookie Nookie marked it as to-read-to-review · review of another edition

Shelves: z-netgalley

Apr 22, 2013 Mallory Anne-Marie Forbes marked it as to-read

Shelves: a1-to-read-immediate, pick4me-potentials

Feb 24, 2013 Van Swanson marked it as to-read

Feb 18, 2013 Aishling McNally marked it as to-read

Feb 12, 2013 Shelly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: paranormal

Feb 10, 2013 Jessica Frey added it

Jan 28, 2013 Penny marked it as to-read

Shelves: paranormal

Jan 05, 2013 Lori Lish-ashton marked it as to-read

Dec 19, 2012 Liliana Rivas-torres rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 8th-grade-books

Dec 12, 2012 Linda Worstell marked it as to-read

Dec 03, 2012 Garry Sinclair marked it as to-read

Nov 15, 2012 Andie marked it as to-read

Nov 15, 2012 Rea Retterath added it

Sep 22, 2012 Arlene rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sep 16, 2012 Sue rated it 2 of 5 stars

Aug 09, 2012 Clare K. R. marked it as sampled-not-buying

Jul 06, 2012 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

May 06, 2012 Rachel rated it 2 of 5 stars

Apr 19, 2012 Rob marked it as to-read

Apr 15, 2012 Nannie Bittinger marked it as to-read

Apr 14, 2012 Berryvox rated it 2 of 5 stars

Apr 09, 2012 Starr Daphne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Apr 09, 2012 Mickeynut60 rated it 5 of 5 stars

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