Carolina Haints: Ghosts, Folklore, and Mysteries of the Old North State

by Dan Sellers, Jeffrey Cochran

Take a look inside the legends and lore of North Carolina. Expanding on the popular podcast of the same name, Carolina Haint s combines succinct storytelling and fun personal narratives to bring each legend to life and sort through the theories and rumors about each haunt. Twenty chapters with never-before-published research include personal accounts, interviews, and visits to locations in the mountains and along the coast. Get an inside look at the areas frequented by the Boojum, the Moon-Eyed People, and Joe Baldwin, and take your pick of the theories presented about the Devil's Tramping Ground. Can you help sort out the mysteries surrounding the Mordecai House and the Lost Colony of Roanoke?

Genres: History, Folklore

224 pages, Hardcover

Published October 26, 2021

Reviews

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't realize this was based on a podcast when I checked it out from the library. I was hoping for either a straight up collection of ghost stories and urban legends around North Carolina, or further research about the history of each story or maybe even a deeper analysis of why the same kind of tropes keep popping up over and over in different places. The ghost stories themselves were written in an over-the-top melodramatic way that was fun to read, but after that it was pretty downhill. The authors present some further research into the history, but a cursory google search reveals gaping holes left out because presumably being like "Yes, here is the explanation" ruins the fun of ghost stories. But if that's your attitude, why start analyzing ghost stories in the first place? Why bring up scientific explanations or lack of evidence when you're just going to conclude "Scientists don't know what they're talking about"? I feel like the writing is just a transcription of podcast episodes, which would explain why it comes off as rambly (the phrase "bear with me" is used in what feels like every chapter). Also reports fake "Indian legends" clearly made up by white people at face value so that's pretty yikes. I would instead recommend Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Place by Colin Dickey and The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters by J. W. Ocker for interesting history and discussion of ghost stories and urban legends, though of course neither are North Carolina-specific.

[Kelly Lynch]

I picked this book up because it was the only hardcover in the “Local stories” section at the book store. I also did not know that this is based on a podcast.

Some of the stories were interesting, some I already knew, and the rest were definitely skippable.

[Tiffany Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great read! It’s a fascinating collection of North Carolina folklore.

[Seth Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun mix of local history and ghost stories. I enjoyed the way that the authors organized the text by region.