Customer Reviews

Ghosts of the Southern Mountains and Appalachia

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Nancy Roberts could truly be referred to as the Queen Mother of ghost book authors for she was one of the first to publish books on the subject and over the years she has been a very prolific writer. Given her status and also the fact that it was one of her early works that turned me on to this type of book in the first place I find that I have a hard time being critical when it comes to her publications. In this case however, I am afraid that critical I must be.

As usual Mrs. Roberts writing style is wonderful and fluid without being wordy or pretentious. This author can frankly tell a story like no other and even though the stories in this book aren't all that good, Mrs. Roberts still managed to keep me riveted. This was quite an accomplishment seeing as how I had already heard almost all of the stories in this book at least once before. She comes quite close in fact to making a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Close, but not quiet.

I have learned over the years that Mrs. Roberts tends to produce two distinct types of ghost books. The really good ones are written after the author has traveled to the haunted sites she is writing about and has talked to people who have experienced the haunt first hand. The other types of book that she produces are basically fine examples of folklore or storytelling and nothing more. These are what I refer to as the "some say" or "they say" books because most of the stories end with a bit about how "They say" that on rainy nights you can still hear or see whatever it is the author has just written about. These types of books contain almost no recent eyewitness accounts and are just old legends handed down for generations. There is of course nothing wrong with this type of book except that they should not be sold as ghost books but should instead be marketed as folklore.

There are a few very good stories in this book, but they are a distinct minority. The story about the modern day antics of the Bell Witch is an excellent story that includes all kinds of recent eyewitness accounts including some accounts of recent happenings from a direct descendent of old John Bell himself. This story is an example of Nancy Roberts at her best and that is the Nancy Roberts that I was looking for in this book. It is not however the Nancy Roberts that I found. I can't say that this was a bad book but I can say that she can do and has done so much better.

I bought this book to assist my teaching 7th graders about Southern literature and folklore, and I was not disappointed. The subject matter was interesting and appropriate for children. For my own enjoyment, however, I would have preferred something that seemed more authentic, especially in terms of dialect and my Southern Appalachian culture.