October 2021: "True" Ghost Stories

[Beverly, former Miscellaneous Club host]

Manybooks wrote: "I hope those dreams were positive experiences ..."

They were.

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Beverly wrote: "Manybooks wrote: "I hope those dreams were positive experiences ..."

They were."

I am glad of that!

[Beverly, former Miscellaneous Club host]

The Haunted History of San Antonio and the Alamo
The author of this book, written at a 3rd/4th grade level, neither gushingly believes in ghosts or ghost sightings, nor does she dismiss them out-of-hand. She simply reports on what others have claimed to see, hear, or feel. In addition to the Alamo, she reports on ghostly hauntings at the Emily Morgan Hotel, the Spanish Governor's Palace, and what used to be a county jail, but is now a Holiday Inn Express. However, on page 8, she mentions ghostly sightings at a restaurant named "Frank." Readers will be disappointed to learn that the restaurant closed down in 2018. After each chapter is a suggestion for the reader to either do more research, or write something in response to the chapter. The book includes a glossary, online resources, a brief bibliography, and an index. This will especially be interesting to children living in San Antonio.

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

The Flying Dutchman

A decent graphic novel, nicely suitable for younger readers, but a bit too simplistic text wise for older readers (but most of the superstitions regarding The Flying Dutchman are presented, including an allusion to Richard Wagner's opera).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Bluenose Ghosts

Could be used with readers from about the age of twelve onwards (and maybe even a bit younger), but personally, I have found Bluenose Ghosts really boring and with too much information dropping.

I was looking forward to reading Helen Creighton's Bluenose Ghosts (originally published in 1957) as I do enjoy Maritime provinces of Canada ghost stories, mysteries, folklore etc. And I guess because I was expecting a both interesting and also readable account of Nova Scotia "true" stories of spiritual manifestations, of the supernatural (after very much enjoying Creighton's Songs and Ballads of Nova Scotia), well and truly, my disappointment and my lack of reading pleasure regarding Creighton's presented text for Bluenose Ghosts has been and continues to be pronounced, rather all encompassing and for a number of different but in my opinion more than justified reasons.

For one and first and foremost, how Helen Creighton writes about her collected, her listened to (and supposedly authentic and having actually occurred) tales is (at least to and for me personally) majorly distracting and thus also hugely annoying, with Creighton trying to verbally stuff so many accounts into each of her eleven chapters that the amount of detail being provided tends to get massively tedious, exaggerated and that there is also an annoying lack of textual organisation present in Bluenose Ghosts, so that what could (and even should) be interesting kind of just ends up feeling like Helen Creighton is just majorly information dropping and in my opinion making her stories mesh into a gigantic and messily rendered verbal ball of intertwined and ridiculously all over the place words and also instances of annoying and headache producing verbal diarrhoea. And while there are most definitely interesting bits and pieces to be encountered in Bluenose Ghosts (supernatural signs that warn humans of impending death, ghosts disturbing the living after they themselves have been either on purpose or inadvertently disturbed, ghosts who guard buried treasure, regarding second sight both towards the future and also into the past, on devils/angels, phantom ships and other sea mysteries, how ghosts can both help and harm, wandering female spirits, ghosts that appear as either animals or as lights and of course also accounts concerning haunted houses and poltergeists), trying to locate those intriguing, engaging and also believable nuggets within Creighton's jumbled and lacking organisation writing style and narration is a bit like searching for needles in haystacks and has definitely not made Bluenose Ghosts an enjoyable and a to be recommended book. For two, because many the stories found in Bluenose ghosts feel so pretty far-fetched that they sound more like campfire horror tales, I manages to become very bored with Bluenose Ghosts after about page fifty and for the remaining pages was both skimming through and also wanting Helen Creighton to finally write more believable and more realistic sounding Nova Scotia Ghost stories in Bluenose Ghosts (but which never did happen, alas). And for three, I also rather consider it majorly frustrating (and intellectually lacking) that Creighton does not provide a separate bibliography at the back of Bluenose Ghosts, and that yes, considering that the majority if not even all of the tales being presented are first-person accounts, all of this should be acknowledged by Helen Creighton with detailed footnotes and be not simply alluded to rather sparingly within the text of Bluenose Ghosts (and just to say in conclusion that I have definitely not at all enjoyed this book, have major issues with Helen Creighton's writing, with her narration and textual presentation and in fact also kind of think that my two star rating for Bluenose Ghosts is actually rather generous on my part).

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

https://tantramarheritage.ca/2000/01/...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Bluenose Magic

Better than Bluenose Ghosts (and with bibliographical sources), liked the sections on superstitions and home remedies a lot, but still really repetitive and easily gets rather tedious due to information dumping.

Helen Creighton's Bluenose Magic (1968) is considered a companion piece to her 1957 Bluenose Ghosts, with her printed words, with her collected "first person" accounts welcoming potential readers to a world of foresight and hindsight, enchantment, dreams, divination, buried treasure, ghosts, superstitions, home remedies and the like. But just to say and very much appreciatively so, although Creighton does not bother with sources and references in Bluenose Ghosts, I am indeed very much academically pleased and also pleasantly surprised that in Bluenose Magic, both endnotes after each chapter and a bibliographical section at the end are provided (and yes, with this automatically making me like and also appreciate Bluenose Magic hugely more that Bluenose Ghosts and indeed even before starting my perusal of Bluenose Magic).

However, although I consider Bluenose Magic a lot better organised, more academically soundly set-up than Bluenose Ghosts and also (to be entirely honest) considerably more interestingly and engagingly, more readably penned than what textually appears and is offered up with Bluenose Ghosts (and for me this becomes particularly apparent in the sections of Bluenose Magic where Helen Creighton features collected Nova Scotia superstitions and home remedies), albeit unfortunately, I do tend to find Creighton's narrational voice in the section about Mi'kmaq lore and culture more than somewhat patronisingly condescending (so potential readers beware, in my opinion, especially if considering sharing Bluenose Magic with younger readers or for educational, in-class usage) and that I also would like to have non English language Nova Scotia folklore, superstitions etc. (German, Mi'kmaq, Welsh, Acadian French and the like) be presented in a dual language format, I do have to rather vehemently and with frustration point out that textually speaking, Creighton's stylistics for Bluenose Magic, they have pretty much the same annoying issues with regard to textual oversharing and information dumping I have previously found with Bluenose Ghosts.

So yes indeed, and to and for me, both Bluenose Ghosts and equally so Bluenose Magic tend to show a distinct and hugely frustrating tendency towards tedium and repetition, and which certainly does take a very significant chunk away from potential reading pleasure for me (so that albeit I have marginally but definitely enjoyed Bluenose Magic more than Bluenose Ghosts, the only reason why I have not rated both books with two stars is because Bluenose Magic has Helen Creighton provide bibliographical sources, and that yes, the sections in Bluenose Magic on superstitions and home remedies, I did and do find these rather delightful and kind of making my perusal of Bluenose Magic worth it, but not enough so to consider a higher than three star rating and for Bluenose Magic to be recommended only with necessary caveats and some rather considerable reservations).

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

https://www.since1872.ca/features/5655/

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Manybooks wrote: "https://www.since1872.ca/features/5655/"

So with regard to the Ghosts of Sackville story I posted, I had already graduated when that Avard-Dixon scenario happened (1994 and I graduated in 1989). But I do think I might have experienced Ethel Peake, and when my parents stayed at the Marshlands Inn when they were visiting me, they told me that they thought they heard horses galloping near them while taking a walk.

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Ghosts in Amityville: The Haunted House


Have really not liked either Jack Demolay's words or his cartoons, finding his text majorly boring (and also kind of annoyingly insinuating that the story is true even though the Amitville horror scenario is mostly considered to have been a deliberate and elaborate hoax) and the pictures expressionless, lacking and also not all that creepy. Not recommended!

(view spoiler)[So yes indeed, and to be perfectly as well as rather brutally honest, the 2006 junior graphic novel Ghosts in Amityville: The Haunted House (and author/illustrator Jack Demolay's text and cartoon images) leave pretty much everything to be desired (at least personally speaking), and therefore also rates only as a one star reading and visual experience for me. For yes and definitely, pretty much everything both verbally and illustratively encountered in Ghosts in Amityville: The Haunted House by both my inner child and also by my older adult reading self feels at best rather draggingly uninteresting (read inadequate) and is at worst ridiculously teeming with hugely problematic errors, with (well, at least in my opinion) major mistakes that just utterly and totally make both of us hugely cringe and that we (inner child and myself as an adult reader) therefore jointly agree with labelling Ghosts in Amityville: The Haunted House with a huge and all encompassing no, no, no designation (and for a number of specific and big-time reasons, three of which I will be explaining below, although in my opinion, there are actually considerably more than three rationales as to why Ghosts in Amityville: The Haunted House is pretty much and in my opinion rather a joke).

For one (and first and foremost), the majority of scholars, paranormal investigators (and indeed not just so-called experts either) currently tend to pretty firmly believe that there in fact never was a haunted and cursed house in Amityville, Long Island, New York State and that the whole thing was actually a deliberate and extensive hoax perpetrated by the house's new owners, by the Lutz family (for attention and likely also for making money), that aside from George Lutz, his wife and their children claiming that their newly purchased domicile was haunted and cursed (because of Ronald DeFeo Jr. shooting and killing six members of his family in the house in 1974), there has NEVER been any unexplained and strange "haunted house" like activities either before the Lutz' purchased their house or after they left. Thus (and in my not all that humble opinion), it really is hugely textually infuriating how Jack Demolay's text for Ghosts in Amityville: The Haunted House seems pretty much in total agreement with the Lutz' false claims of demonic possession, of threatening paranormal occurrences, of voices yelling at the family and of malevolent staring eyes targeting them in Amityville, that Ghosts in Amityville: The Haunted House (and that even the questions being asked by Demolay the end of Ghosts in Amityville: The Haunted House seem to want to convince readers that there were and are legitimate ghosts in Amityville and that there was not some major, some elaborate hoax albeit the actual evidence certainly points and demonstrates otherwise). For two, how Jack Demolay textually presents the story of the Amityville horror in Ghosts in Amityville: The Haunted House is pretty stiffly penned and massively lamely on the proverbial surface. I mean, the story itself should of course incorporate the fact that none of what supposedly happened to the Lutz family is likely true anyhow, was probably all deliberately fabricated (see above), but even as a work of absolute and total fiction, sorry, but both with regard to contents and writing style, Demolay's words for Ghosts in Amityville: The Haunted House just drag on and on, are tedious and also kind of cringe-worthy and frustrating to the extreme (with the glib authorial support of the Lutz hoax absolutely grating).

And finally, and for three, although the comic book artwork Jack Demolay uses to accompany his story for Ghosts in Amityville: The Haunted House is nicely colourful, there is to and for my eyes no depicted emotion, there is little visual expression and equally only very minimal creepiness as well (with the eyes staring in the windows possibly a bit uncanny but also kind of making me groan derisively), and yes indeed, that the combination of Demolay's words and his illustrations for Ghosts in Amityville: The Haunted House does not work for me at all and also makes me (both my inner child and me as an adult reader) rather majorly and hugely annoyed at and frustrated with Ghosts in Amityville: The Haunted House (and as such also book I would nog consider recommending). (hide spoiler)]

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Ghost Stories of Nova Scotia

An engaging, entertaining, not too frightening and definitely "authentic" feeling collection of Nova Scotia ghost stories that also presents a nice historical introduction to Nova Scotia and its haunted buildings etc. (not penned specifically for children but suitable for readers from about the age of eleven or so onwards). Really enjoy how Vernon Oickle names names and uses history, as this certainly makes the stories feel believable and authentic.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

More Maritime Mysteries

Collected and presented by Bill Jessome, More Maritime Mysteries is the sequel to his Maritime Mysteries and both books are spooky, interesting, often definitely having a feel and ring of truth to them (but are also neither violent nor too creepy and thus also suitable for younger readers). And not to mention that both books also show much Maritime culture and history (four stars for both Maritime Mysteries and More Maritime Mysteries and I do recommend them as well)

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Haunted Toronto

Tediously penned, with too much information dropping, an incredibly BORING reading experience that I totally do not recommend (and although John Robert Colombo does provide some interesting bits of Toronto and Canadian historical trivia, this is not enough to make Haunted Toronto interesting and readable for me and thus not recommended either).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Canadian Hauntings: A Haunted Canada Book


Quite disappointing, really only enjoy the story about how the art gallery in Burnaby British Columbia is haunted, find the majority of the tales too violent and too focussed on curses and evil (and with a really dragging and tedious writing style), but the bibliography looks decent.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Was going to stop reading the Haunted Canada series, as the fourth book by Joel A. Sullivan was annoying (and had an attitude of "you had better believe in ghosts" or else from Sullivan). But am starting again, as Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories was much better (and does not have Sullivan acting all my way or the highway regarding believing in ghosts).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Haunted Hamilton: The Ghosts of Dundurn Castle and Other Steeltown Shivers

After not really enjoying Haunted Toronto, with me finding John Robert Colombo's tendency for information dropping and for burying the actual spooky bits, the actual ghost stories in tedious historical musings and personal ramblings annoying and frustrating, I was I admit kind of afraid that with Haunted Hamilton: The Ghosts of Dundurn Castle and Other Steeltown Shivers (my hometown, well, actually Dundas, which is part of Hamilton is my hometown, or rather where I live now, as I was born in Germany and grew up in Alberta) Mark Leslie would do something similar. But I need not have worried. For aside from Leslie sometimes being just a bit too keen to promote the Hamilton Ghost Walks (which feels a bit cheap and propagandistic), Haunted Hamilton: The Ghosts of Dundurn Castle and Other Steeltown Shivers is absolutely wonderful (and a great combination of supposedly true ghost stories and just the right amount of history and architecture as well as being neither too violent nor too creepy for and to me). Featuring 51 ghosts and a variety of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and environs, including a building that is something like two minutes away from our house, ghosts of McMaster University and a building in Ancaster that my partner has painted and where I thought I saw someone or something really strange on his canvas, I highly recommend Haunted Hamilton: The Ghosts of Dundurn Castle and Other Steeltown Shivers for anyone, for readers from about the age of elven or so onwards (and you can easily ignore the touristy stuff).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Haunted Museums & Galleries of Canada

Lots of historical facts (as well as a bibliography), but rather information dropping and the haunted bits kind of get submerged, with the result that Andrew Hind's text is rather tedious, not bad, three stars, but I definitely was a bit bored (and although the ghost stories are fine for readers from about the age of twelve or so onwards, I do think that Haunted Museums & Galleries of Canada is a bit slow and dragging and not all that entertaining).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Ghost Stories of the Rocky Mountains


Surprisingly readable (with a very good bibliography), I really like that the tales are equally Canadian and American, that Barbara Smith does not try to make her stories too creepy and also does not expect her readers to believe in ghosts. Not specifically for children, but definitely suitable for anyone above the age of twelve or so and with four stars, recommended (but I would not spend a lot of money to purchase a copy).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Haunted Ontario: Ghostly Inns, Hotels, and Other Eerie Places


Terry Boyle lists his sources and presents a lot of Ontario history. But there is way too much information dropping present and the ghost stories themselves are both penned in a pretty dragging and boring manner and also kind of become submerged and lost under the flood of facts, facts, facts. Two stars and not really recommended (and while Haunted Ontario: Ghostly Inns, Hotels, and Other Eerie Places is in my opinion suitable for readers from the age of twelve onwards, the boring way Boyle presents his collected tales, and stories that should be thrilling, leaves a lot to be desired).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Haunted Canada 6: More Terrifying True Stories


So Haunted Canada 6: More Terrifying True Stories presents a fun, engaging and for the most part nicely readable collection of Canadian and reputed to be true paranormal stories and is generally speaking a solidly four star reading experience for me and with especially my inner teenager being majorly textually happy (would like a bit more historical information and a bibliography, but frankly, with all the dragging information dropping I have encountered in many of the "true" Canadian ghost stories collections I have recently read, Joel A. Sutherland keeping history to a minimum and focusing on the actual story is actually something rather appreciated). Probably the best of the Haunted Canada series I have read to date, written for a middle grade readership but in my opinion suitable and enjoyable for anyone from the age of ten or so onwards (and not too creepy and such either).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Both The Big Book of Canadian Hauntings and The Big Book of Canadian Ghost Stories have some interesting stories, but are generally rather tedious etc. Would be much better if John Robert Colombo would have an index so it were easier to pick and choose tales (and many of the stories sound more like folklore or urban legends than "true" ghost stories and not to mention that the Native Canadian tales sound like cultural appropriation and I wish that Colombo would not have included them or at least had included tales told to him by actual First Nations and/or Inuit individuals and not "outsiders" writing second hand and about Native Canadians).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Ghosts of Ottawa: From the Files of the Haunted Walk


Not a bad collection of "true" ghost stories from Canada's capital (and environs), nicely and interestingly penned by author Glen Shackleton and with neither too much historical information dropping or too much creepiness (and the appendix featuring a short history of Ottawa as well as the bibliography are much appreciated). However, I do not like how often and constantly Shackleton is rather doing tourist propaganda for Ottawa's Haunted Walks Inc. and that he also kind of has a "you had better believe ghosts are real" attitude textually showing in Ghosts of Ottawa: From the Files of the Haunted Walk (still recommended, but Ghosts of Ottawa: From the Files of the Haunted Walk is rated only three stars and as such also a few caveats, although yes, I have definitely enjoyed the book and think that the featured stories are suitable for readers from about the age of ten or so onwards, and especially if they are interested in supposedly true ghost stories and Ottawa).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Was kind of looking forward to Haunted Hotels, but no, I do not recommend this book for either adults or even more so for younger readers, as the stories are tedious, the set-up is annoying and the ghost stories are buried under often way too much information (and Jo-Anne Christensen should be featuring way more Canadian haunted hotels and also different ones and should not lump American and Canadian haunted hotels together either).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Haunted Hotels

Simple but well written, suitable for readers from about eight to twelve years, and thankfully with no tedious information dropping, just enough history, not creepy, very informative, with a nice bibliography, although in my opinion, only eleven haunted hotels are a bit sparse (would like at least twenty). Find it interesting that Sarah Parvis has used and lists Jo-Anne Christensen's Haunted Hotels (see message 73) as one of her sources, but that Parvis has managed to do what Christensen has failed to do, write a decent account of supposedly true haunted hotels without getting boring or losing the haunted tale under too much history.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Ghost Stories of British Columbia


I really like how Jo-Anne Christensen does not expect her readers to actually believe that ghosts are real and that the presented tales are supposed to feature total reality with no skepticism allowed, that the collection of British Columbia ghost tales are first and foremost entertaining and that with regard to historical background information there is no annoying and tedious information dropping so that the stories themselves are front and centre. Combined with the detailed bibliography, for me, Ghost Stories of British Columbia is a four star book, not too creepy, never really horrifying and with no gratuitous violence either, suitable for readers from about the age of ten or so onwards (even though Christensen has in my opinion not conceptualised this collection specifically for children).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

More Ghost Stories of Nova Scotia


https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

An engaging, entertaining, not too frightening and definitely "authentic" feeling collection of Nova Scotia ghost stories that also presents a nice historical introduction to Nova Scotia and its haunted buildings etc. (not penned specifically for children but suitable for readers from about the age of eleven or so onwards). Really enjoy how Vernon Oickle names names and uses history, as this certainly makes the stories feel believable and authentic. The book is a sequel to Ghost Stories of Nova Scotia, is basically exactly the same in set-up etc. except that Oickle of course features a different collection of true or supposedly true tales (and I do recommend both of them, and will likely also be recommending the third and just published book, Even More Ghost Stories of Nova Scotia once I finish reading it).

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Even More Ghost Stories of Nova Scotia


Very similar to Ghost Stories of Nova Scotia and More Ghost Stories of Nova Scotia, Even More Ghost Stories of Nova Scotia is an engaging, entertaining, not too frightening and definitely "authentic" feeling collection of Nova Scotia ghost stories that also presents a nice historical introduction to Nova Scotia and its haunted buildings etc. (not penned specifically for children but suitable for readers from about the age of eleven or so onwards). Really enjoy how Vernon Oickle names names and uses history, as this certainly makes the stories feel believable and authentic. Four stars, but upped to five (and the best of Oickle's three collections) because in addition to the stories, there is also a nice glossary included.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Beverly, former Miscellaneous Club host]

The Alamo's Ghosts and Other Hauntings of San Antonio, Texas
An easy-to-read overview of five haunted places in San Antonio. The book includes a glossary, a bibliography of books and webistes, and an index.

[Beverly, former Miscellaneous Club host]

The Ghostly Tales of Austin
Whether believable or not, the stories are interesting. Austin sites that are supposedly haunted included in this book are the Moonshine Grill, the AGE building, the Driskill Hotel, the Hannig building, and the Texas State Capitol, plus some other sites. The book is easy to read, so ghost-loving elementary students can enjoy it.