Customer Reviews

Haunted: The Incredible True Story of a Canadian Family's Experience Living in a Haunted House

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Ms Williams' book Haunted is charming and well written. For one thing it has a beginning, middle and end, which this type of book sometimes doesn't . The writer also has a good sense of character, and an excellent sense of narrative. Each of the chapters seems like a short story, complete in itself, while the collection gives the reader the complete tale of the house and its history. Those expecting a blood chilling, creepy tale, however, will be disappointed, since the ghosts tend to be pranksters rather than monsters. My favorite prank is the explosive beer. In fact, I found the author's disconcertion over the haunting somewhat surprising since most of the activity in the house was hardly more challenging than a generally well behaved child's pranks. The phenomenon generally restrained its activity on command as an obedient child might, and some of the occurrences were more designed to please and delight than to upset the family. The tale of the rose bush was quite charming.

A fun tale of the supernatural.

Being an avid reader of ghost stories (as well as having had first hand experience in the matter), I found this book to be very intruiging. It was like reading a book that someone wrote about what my family and I went through.

It is written in a first-person view (that being of the mother/wife), which I find refreshing. It keeps you interested in the story, as I found myself not wanting to put it down for even a minute. Mind you it isn't very long (only 189 pages compared to the many books I have read containing anywhere up to 400 pages), but it gets to the heart of the story without cluttering up, making it extremely easy to read.

It tells of a family that purchases an old Victorian home "on the fly" (how many of us do that!) and soon discover that they got more than they bargained for, and I'm not talking about just the usual fixer-upper.

I don't want to give too much of it away, but I do suggest that if you are a lover of a good ghost story, that you buy yourself a copy to find out what happens.

This book was so much fun to read. Dorah L. Williams has written it just perfectly- she draws you in and is so convincing, you will believe every word of this scary tale. This is not a story about demon possession, as so many haunted house stories end up being. In fact, the majority of her ghosts seem to be children, which makes it all the more interesting. It's a good old fashioned ghost story that just happens to be true- and if you read it at night, you'll definitely find yourself looking over your shoulder!

Unfortunately, I have to disagree with just about all of the reviewers here. I did not find this book to be at all convincing, and did in fact have to wonder at times if the whole story was concocted by a group of friends, perhaps, as a means of amusing themselves and publishing a book in the process.

While I enjoy a good ghost story, from the very beginning I couldn't help but think that there was something fishy about this. Trust me, I'm by no means a sceptic; but there's just something about the stories that seems too contrived. Part of the problem, however, may in fact be that the book is not that well written; it was at times quite simplistic, and the author's attempts to infer what the spirits wanted by doing what they did was downright lame at times.

You aren't missing much by not reading this book. For really good Canadian ghost stories, I would suggest Bluenose Ghosts by Helen Creighton, a folklorist who collected the stories along with numerous others from people who had nothing to gain by telling their stories; hence they are much more credible.

I loved this book! It is well organized and thought out and conveys a creepy feeling without totally freaking out the reader. The story is about a Canadian family living in a haunted house that they bought and renovated. The story moves along smoothly getting creepier all the time and the author does an excellent job of conveying the confusion and self doubt triggered by supernatural events. I highly recommend this book.

If you have read many books about true ghost stories, you will find that few of them are very exciting, and this one will definitely not keep you on the edge of your seat. To really be interested in a book like this, you need to be interested in the actual experience of living in a haunted house and not in being scared by supernatural events as you would be with a novel. Books like these are written by novice writers, so the style is not all that good either.

With those things aside, I liked this book very much because it was written by the people who experienced it, which is what I am interested in. I am not interested in reading academic explanations or speculations of supernatural happenings or folklore from long ago. I want to read about the experiences of people who have lived in haunted houses or have had encounters with the supernatural, and this book delivers just that.

One reviewer here wrote that he was not convinced the that the hole thing was not made up. This is one problem that you may encounter with books on true hauntings. I have read many of these books over the years and I am sure that I could sit down and write a fictional account about a true haunting that would fool the vast majority of its readers. The reason for this is that real hauntings usually involve low key events, that can be scary from time to time or disruptive to family life, but that generally follow similar patterns. It starts with hearing strange sounds at night, usually foot steps or the sound of doors opening and closing or furniture being moved. It can progress to further stages, like the feeling of being watched, seeing ghosts or apparitions or noticing that some of your possessions are out of place or missing. Or the mysterious sounds can simply vanish, leaving no trace that anything was ever out of the ordinary. Most people who have experienced real hauntings never find out why their house is haunted and some never even realize that it is or was haunted. Generally, there are no neatly wrapped up endings or story lines in true ghost stories that would help sell books. Usually, the haunting just stops and the people go on with their lives.

If reading about the first hand experiences of people who have lived in a haunted house interests you, then you will enjoy this book.

This book was so good I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the supernatural, or just wants to read a really great story. It takes place in an old Victorian house. A couple and their kids move into it, fix it up, and soon start having really amazing experiences. I don't want to give away too much in my review, but not only do they actually see, hear and feel the ghosts, they also have other amazing things happen. If you are a skeptic to begin with, this story may cause you to reconsider what you believe. If you already believe in the supernatural you will really enjoy this book.
I also live in an old house and have had some strange experiences so I know how confusing and scary it can be. The events in "Haunted: The Incredible True Story of a Canadian Family's Experience Living in a Haunted House" were described so well there is no doubt in my mind that this really did happen, and I think it really is an "incredible true story".

Dorah Williams tells the story of her and her family who moved into this haunted Victorian style house. For no reason at all on this snow packed winter day the Williams family went for a drive. They saw an open house sign and thought it would be fun to look, knowing that they were happy where they were. But this house seemed to call out to Dorah and her and her family and they decided to take it. Months later, when things start to happen in the William's new Victorian style home, Dorah's daughter Kammie tries to tell her that there's a girl in her room and she's waving to her in the window. Dorah doesn't think much of it. That's not the only thing, their dog Piper, who was a cocker spaniel that loved to fallow them around the house, absolutely refused to go on the second floor. They start to hear footsteps in the hallway and on the stairs. They have a light in the hallway that keeps flickering on and off. They try everything from changing the bulb to having the electricity checked. The ghosts give them a present of a beautiful rose bush in their yard that even gives them one blooming rose on Christmas morning.
This book was unpredictable. It had me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happened next. She had actually taken pictures of the things they found. They were in the book it made me believe that this was a true story. It wasn't a scary book, but fun and exciting.

Very respectable presentation of a familiy's experience with
paranormal events in an old house they renovated and moved into.
What sets Mrs William's account above so many others of a
similar nature is her attention to detail, her clarity of style,
and the matter-of-fact, concise, effective way in which she
presents each increasingly strange event.
Yes, many of these events are frightening,
but they are not taken advantage of for their "scariness" alone, instead are described plainly,
as part of a mysterious whole, which lends them greater believability and weight.
There is no attempt on Mrs. Williams' part to Amityville
Horror us, she seems much too honest and sincere for that.
And I must applaud her for her considerable peristance at detective work
in attempting to understand the nature of her family's predicament in their "dream" house.

For those who might complain about a lack of resolution to this
story, I must advise that hauntings of this sort are truly fascinating because they rarely are resolved.
The whys and wherefores of hauntings require a lifetime (or lifetimes!) of exploration and investigation.
But an excellent first-hand account like Dorah Williams' is a
terrific place to start -- or to enhance a journey already
started.

This one rates a 3.5 star reveiw. The story of a Canadian family living with their haunted house experiences as told through the eyes of the mother had promise, but suffers a bit through the lack of a good editing. What seems like endless repitition of the same information, along with a rather amatuerish style is somewhat distracting to the reader. The story itself is interesting and well presented, but if your looking for a good scare this one will likely leave you disappointed. There was one major flaw that as a reader left me truly frustrated; the author supplied some photos of what were thought to be siginificant objects related to the haunting, yet many more of these items were found and described but not photographed. There was also additional "phenomenon" such as handprints that appeared several times but were not photographed. It seems very odd that the author would photograph some of these items and events and not bother with others.