An Extraordinary Haunting, part 1

I've read so many books, especially if I include audiobooks. When I came across An Extraordinary Haunting, I'd been shuffling through the ebooks on my Kindle library. It's funny, I collect ebooks just as much as physical ones, like loose change in a sofa. I have a lot of change. So I said to myself, I said, "Self, it's time to choose a book from your older stash." And so I did. I came across my first Michael Christopher Carter novel. 

What did I think? #element-16352eb5-20eb-4564-be0c-7672fb0a3fec .waddons-blog-image.hideImage { display: none;} An Extraordinary Haunting is the story of confusion, awkwardness and... confusion. Oh, did I say that one already? Well, I repeated because it's true. I wanted to like this book but it was most difficult, in that it comes off as Carter's very first book. EVER.

I don't know about you, but I usually don't like my hauntings un-haunted. The story's about a group of people tethered by ethereal circumstances, the likes of The Sixth Sense. The book gives you three separate locations:a college house, a local pub and a residence, but the occupants don't know. Why? Well almost all is revealed by the end of Part One of the story, but there seemed to be this infinite drag... so long it's unbelievable! I think I died and came back to haunt myself into reading it to the end- and the book's not even that long!

Let me explain in a kind way. An Extraordinary Haunting is filled with characters who didn't react the way real people would have. They continuous rationalizing made a crap-load of excuses for things that could have easily brought the story to the climactic middle pages ago. People purchased and lived in a house where they were afraid to walk down a hallway! One wouldn't even go to bed unless everyone else went or was accompanied by someone. I couldn't relate to them, and they were in Swansea! You know how much I love the U.K.!

Also, I'm assuming the book was edited and published by the author himself. Again, not being cruel, but there were so many errors, repetition, and sentences that made absolutely no sense, that it was fretful. It took me around ten days to finish, but it felt for freaking ever. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get into this book. They were the longest 354-pages I've ever read and I carry no plans to bother with part 2. I already know what's going to happen, The End. 

Lastly, I'm a book cover snob. I LOVE book covers and will buy a book just for the cover if it's gorgeous enough! An Extraordinary Haunting's cover irked me for this reason: It has three covers and none carried a sense of what the story's about! When I made the images for this review, I used the most interesting one- the flowing hair, but only because I had something to manipulate. The problem with many self-published authors (and I'm not bashing), is that many don't pay for a good cover. They don't research a good font, and they don't ask people for the truth. Your cover should be eye-candy. Okay, rant over.

So, on both Amazon and Goodreads, I scored An Extraordinary Haunting with three stars, and that's being nice. I feel the entire book should receive a professional make-over, before Part Two is released. We as readers should be kind in what we share in reviews, but author's should also be kind with what they put out- present chatterer included! I've gone over my own short stories, there's no shame! Next time, I hope Carter does the same. I feel as though he's got some potential for an extraordinary story; it's just not this one. 

I'm off to the next read. Cheers!


An Extraordinary Haunting
Michael Christopher Carter
Published by Createspace/Amazon Digital
​Services, LLC
Released August 2015
355-pages