Customer Reviews

Haunted Pennsylvania: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Keystone State (Haunted Series)

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

 

 

This was a decent read. Not only does the author cover many of the more famous ghost stories from Pennsylvania's history, but there are more than a few stories that go beyond the "ghost" genre and delve into other paranormal events. Clearly written and concise.

The only minuses are that none of the stories go into much detail. And the pictures.... To be honest, the pictures are completely superfluous, and in most cases a bit silly (and none are actual photos of paranormal activity, but rather recreations of events). Most likely the author threw them in to appeal to the younger crowd.

I don't think I'm going out on a limb when I say that Haunted Pennsylvana is intended for those who want a 'creepy read' rather than a more serious, investigative overview of paranormal events, and probably ideal for younger readers, tweens to young adults. Though young-at-hearters who just want a decent bunch of ghost stories to read over a night or two will probably also be satisfied buying this book.

This short volume collects ghost stories from around Pennsylvania. Kind of an intro survey to the Keystone State's strange phenomena. Nesbitt has written seven volumes on Gettysburg ghosts alone (start with Ghosts of Gettysburg: Spirits, Apparitions, and Haunted Places of the Battlefield). He has become a bit of a legend in these regional-style ghost books. Wilson as well has been chronicling the strange in PA (see Monsters of Pennsylvania: Mysterious Creatures in the Keystone State and Totally Bizarre Pennsylvania among others). So add this volume to your PA or ghost library, but it is only the beginning.

Reading this book is akin to watching a football game in which an excellent quarterback leads his team to a huge lead before being injured just before halftime and then watching a mediocre quarterback try to stumble through the second half and get to the finish without losing the game. Being familiar with one of these author's work gives me a strong idea of which author wrote which stories but I won't venture to say here because I can't be certain but the first half of this book was rather good while the second half left a lot to be desired.

The authors provide a bibliography and I am certain that both of them used material that they had previously used in other books and so long as that was acknowledged with a bibliography I have no problem with that at all. The use of a bibliography is a practice that some other authors in this genre could stand to learn and I extend kudos to these authors for their integrity. While not always the most profitable choice honesty is always the best policy.

The first half of this book is excellent and contains all of the elements that make for a good book of true ghost stories. The history of the haunted location is well covered as are the possible reasons for the haunt but at the same time the background information doesn't overwhelm the story. The historical information given seems to be accurate as well and nothing detracts from this kind of book more than haphazard historical details that are obviously wrong. In the first half of the book there are also numerous recent eyewitness accounts of the activity in question and those accounts lend credibility to a story more than any other single element. The author who provides such accounts to his/her readers is an author who does the necessary leg work to track down these witnesses thus proving to me that they are sincere in their approach to this subject.

Unfortunately the second half of the book is almost a mirror opposite of the first half. In the second half of the book the reader will find old legends that are hardly ghost stories at all and recent eyewitness accounts are as rare as hen's teeth. These stories tend to conclude with lines that begin with "Many people believe" or "Perhaps" and leave the reader with the feeling of hearing a spooky story from their grandfather that was intended to scare rather than inform someone who is seriously interested in the subject. Even in the first half of the book the stories tended to be rather short but there was a lot packed into those short stories. In the second half even the longer stories fell rather flat. The difference in the two halves of this book just could not be more pronounced.

I highly recommend the first half of this book but unfortunately you will have to take the second half along with the first. I would have tried to make use of the second half to read to my own grandson but I doubt that even a seven-year-old would find those stories scary or even credible for that matter.

This is a book my son and I are reading together aloud. He is 9 and I am simply amazed at his vocabulary. This book is intersting because it is factual, and gives you an opportunity to read about the history of PA, and can open communication and conversation about related topics such as the civil war, and slavery. I have no idea how much truth is to the stories, but they are fun and intersting to read.