Customer Reviews

Ghost Stories of Michigan

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Just in time for Halloween, I started on this novel. The first part, which discusses the activities of various Michigan paranormal associates, was not of great interest to me. Some of it was downright hokey and I was glad when I got past that section. Once past it, though, I really enjoyed reading about the various urban legends and ghost stories that are tied to cities around the state. I thought the gave the reader quite a feel for Michigan's history and culture and I love learning about the folklore of my home state.

Admittedly, I haven't been scared by a book in years, and wasn't expecting to be frightened by anything in Dan Asfar's Ghost Stories of Michigan. Purchasing it during a recent trip to the U.P., I was pleased by this thorough treatment of the supernatural in Michigan. An interesting, fun, and occasionally creepy collection of stories and accounts.

The first chapter features four groups of paranormal investigators (i.e. "ghost hunters") and the different spooks they run into during their investigations of cemeteries, homes and other supposedly haunted sites. The Michigan Ghost Hunters Society produce the best stories of the first chapter; the organization's investigations of the Eloise Mental Asylum and a possessed home in Livonia are especially good.

The second chapter, a collection of old Michigan folk tales, is the strongest. While some readers may be familiar with the stories of the Red Dwarf or the Hundred Heads, I was glad to see them here, vividly retold with vim and more than a little bit of twisted humor. I've noticed the reviewer below seems to have misread the obvious hilarity of the Red Dwarf's various descriptions. I've heard stories of Detroit's "stmpy monstrosity" before, but this was the first time the Red Dwarf made me laugh. While camping in the U.P., my wife and friends ended up reading the entire second chapter around the campfire.

The rest of the book covers hauntings in different settings, one per chapter- public places, houses and the lakes, respectively. While these stories are well written and entertaining (the story of the Michigan Bell Building, Mr. Enoch, and the Calumet Theatre stand out), this is also where the author stumbles, citing authors Gerald S. Hunter and Frederick Stonehouse in a number of retellings in the fourth and fifth chapters. Whatever Mr. Asfar was thinking here (does he hope to push these tales into the realm of folklore by retelling them?), he would've done well to stick to the methods he used in the rest of the book. Otherwise, a great book on ghosts in Michigan.

Overall this book is an easy and enjoyable read. However in the investigations talked about in this book, most of the "evidence," that the investigaters found, was nothing more than pictures of orbs. I am not a skeptic, I certainly believe in "ghost" or spirits. However I believe that most(about 80% acourding to some experts in the field) can be disproved. It stands to reason that if you can find a logical explanation for something, then it is not evidence of the paranormal. "Orbs" or balls of light caught on camera can easily be accoplished by specks of dust or insects in the air, or a smuge on the camera lense. Most of the time what people call orbs are merely one of these three things. There are actual orbs occassionally caught on camera but still, its just energy(a naturally occuring phenomena), not evidence of a ghost or spirit.
Also, in this book on some of the investigations, the investigators bring along a physic. Again I'm not a skeptic, I believe that some(very few) are real but most are fakes. Also it can't be proved one way or the other if the particular physic is real or fake. As I said, I believe some are real, but you should have nothing to do with them especially if you are a christian. Physcics(the real ones I mean) are merely a demonic perversion of what the Bible calls prophets(prophecy being the revelation of truth, not necesarily predicting the future, though it sometimes can include that). The rest of the book talks about different stories of folklore from around Michigan such as the Dog Lady of Dog Lady Island and the Red Dwarf of Detroit. I found this part of the book entertaining though I doubt any of it is true. The book finishes up with stories about haunted light houses from around the great lakes. This part was good I guess, I'm just not that interested in light houses even though alot of other people are.
P.S. This book was ok but for a much better book check out a book called "Ghost Hunting: True Stories of Unexplained Phenomena from The Atlantic Paranormal Society" By Jason Hawes and Grant WIlson.

Michigan only seems to have so many ghost stories, and apparently most of them have been told. Dan Asfar, author of "Ghost Stories of Michigan" retells stories previously published by Reverend Gerald S. Hunter, Frederic Stonehouse, and Marion Kuclo and gratefully mentions these authors in his 'Acknowledgments.'

Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, himself an author of horror stories may also have had an influence on this author, or so I'm guessing from sentences like: "The Dwarf was giggling uncontrollably as bubbling tendrils of drool dripped from the rancid leer on its face." If that had been the lead sentence to Asfar's story "The Red Dwarf," I think it would have been a strong contestant for the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction award.

The jolliest section of this book, "Michigan Ghost Hunters" relates the adventures of intrepid groups such as the West Michigan Ghost Hunters Society. Many of these stories involve nocturnal trips to graveyards, where the participants have armed themselves with digital cameras that later reveal "orbs, ectoplasmic mists all over the photographs." Usually the ghost-hunters remember sensing "threatening feelings" or an "imminent sense of doom" in the areas where their film later revealed the shining, multi-colored spheres. Each of these ghost hunting societies has a web site listed in this book where you can view the results of their supernatural research.

Graveyards are not the only sites that have been explored by the ghost hunters. Some of the author's most interesting prose involves the history of places such as Eloise Mental Asylum or the Bath Consolidated School. The latter building was dynamited by its janitor on May 18, 1927--one of the worst mass murders in this state. Private houses, hotels, bars, and a theatre also come in for their share of mysterious occurrences.

If you enjoy the stories in this book, its author has also hacked out--excuse me--published "Ghost Stories of the Civil War," "Ghost Stories of America," "Ghost Stories of Pennsylvania," and "Ghost Stories of the Old West."