Customer Reviews

Ghost Hunters of the South

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After hearing a variety of ghost stories, I became interested in some of the common details and themes in the narratives. Most ghost stories include motifs such as mysterious noises, eerie shadows and shapes, balls of light, changes in temperature, and disembodied voices. In reading this book, I found that these elements of the stories of hauntings are major components of what ghost hunters examine in paranormal investigations. They have also systematized and categorized these phenomena into descriptions about orbs, vortexs, full-body apparitions, and other elements of the paranormal. What especially interested in this book is how the ghost hunters, themselves, oftentimes are the biggest skeptics. Some of them readily admit that they believe that ghosts exist and that they're seeing actual supernatural occurences. In reading the interview materials and profiles of the ghost hunters, it really surprised me how so many of the researchers take a strongly critical stance in their interpretations of what they've had reported and especially in what they're documenting. I was especially impressed with how one team, Virginia Science Research, made a presentation at a convention of the National Capitol Area Skeptic Society. Members of the society received the ghost hunters favorably, and they were encouraged to ask the requisite challenging questions. This type of balancing between being open-minded while also critical is essential to any kind of research, but it is especially intriguing to see how can be a part of ghost hunting.

If you want to read this book just for the cases these ghosthunters have been on it's probably not worth it, but if you have some interest in what it takes to get a ghosthunting group together it's very informative. When I first got this book I did see that it was repetive listing each group and what they use in ghosthunting and who thier members were. I did enjoy the info on some of the cases they went on and considering becoming a ghosthunter it was good to know how they worked. It just depends for you're looking for as to how you will enjoy this book.

that overshadows the entire book. If you want to access any of the ghosthunting groups' web sites that are referred to in each group's profile (I think that of all the groups profiled, only ONE did not have a website), you will have to Google them. Not one URL is provided. Nor was one provided to the Shadowlands website which the author credited for providing the list of URLs he used to get in touch with the people he interviewed. Yet, at the end of the book, which never once referred to them, there is a filmography of ghostly films/DVDs. Huh?

As to the interviews themselves, they were very repetitive and I felt the author's concern as to whether they had received any flak from religious groups was completely irrelevant. Who cares? And in the case of Leesburg, VA, which was described as "very religious" it was completely erroneous. Leesburg is in Northern Virginia, the extended Washington, DC, area - hardly part of the Bible Belt.

Some of the descriptions of events were interesting, but personal investigations by the author would have been more interesting.

Alan Brown captures the reality of what it is like to be a ghosthunter. With the many groups out there, Ghost Hunters of the South is the book for anyone that is interested in the inner workings of paranormal research.
His many interviews show the diversity of the people and equipment used and provides insight on what it is like when these groups are out doing their work.
I highly recommend this book to any armchair ghosthunter or for anyone that may want to start their own group.

This book was really good. It gives you the inside feel for the people who do the ghost hunting. I liked it alot worth reading. It made me buy 2 other books by Alan Brown.