Customer Reviews

The Granny Curse and Other Ghosts and Legends from East Tennessee

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First of all, I like ghost stories rooted in history and place. All 25 stories in this collection are wonderful examples of folklore and of the people of the Cumberland and Blue Ridge mountains of Tennessee. You can almost touch the trees in the forest and hear the water moving over rocks. Did you know you can tell your future by counting the number of seeds in an apple? One story here tells you how. More importantly for me as professional storyteller, I found the authors had a very good ear for dialogue and *voice*. I havealready used two of the stories, Footprints in The Snow (Pigeon Forge)-- and the title story Granny Curse, and both met with very good success! Great for reading aloud -- but don't read them alone at night.

I have other books on Appalachia folklore, and this is at the top of the list. It's fun, colorful, and gives you the creeps! Like the late Charles Edwin Price, Randy Russell and Janet Barnett have compiled a rich array of stories from East Tennessee; the perfect book to read -- whether to yourself or to others -- on those "dark, stormy nights."

When I saw this book I really wanted to get it. I was born in Kentucky and we used to go back there every summer to visit our relatives, on those occasions the subject of ghosts sometimes came up and the stories started flowing. Those stories were so creepy to us kids we'd have to get someone to walk us to the outhouse , with more than one person if a ghost showed up you had a 50-50 chance of making it back to the house.
After reading this I couldn't understand the rave reviews , until I saw that one reviewer was the books author , go figure!, I wouldn't be surprised to learn the other reviews were from friends.
If you're looking for good Appalachian folk ghost stories like I am , then look somewhere else. These stories aren't scary or particularly entertaining , the title story The Granny Curse is like a Twilight Zone reject , which says a lot since they put out some episodes that were really lame.
So far the only good folk ghost stories I've found were in one of the Foxfire books , it was only one chapter, but these were really good word of mouth ghost lore. Thats the type of stories I'm looking for , not this mess which is now sitting in the donation pile.

I love ghost stories. I read the reviews for this and I thought why not. It is a great book of ghost stories and curses,that other people in family wants to read it now. some of my family says there is stories in there that are true. And been pass on in the family.And told to many. I think its a great book and a great price.

Bought this for my son. He has enjoyed it and passed it around to the family. The stories are good for a laugh and discussion.

This is a great book I love ghost stories and think they are really good I read this book about 5 times and was scared eveery time! (a REALLy good book will do that u know!!)