Customer Reviews

House of Spirits and Whispers: The True Story of a Haunted House

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Pretty interesting first-person account of a haunting -- another scary ghost-ridden house that somehow compelled the owner to fall in love with the place at first sight despite its creepiness (see "Haunted: The Incredible True Story of a Canadian Family's Experience Living in a Haunted House" by Dorah L. Williams).

One of the first occurrences was pretty creepy -- the author heard a disembodied voice having a one-way conversation and it sounded eerily tinny and hollow. "It was frustrating to me that I could almost but not quite understand what the voice had said. Hollow and flat, with an odd metallic quality, the voice had been just indistinct enough to remain indecipherable. It wasn't gobbledegook, but most of the words seemed to be missing syllables or would taper off into nothingness." That's the sort of concept that'll keep you up at 3 a.m....

There was another intriguing and kind of funny incident wherein the narrator has an out-of-body experience and, in that state, decides to check the house for hidden money (after having found a can of old money, documents, etc. in the basement). She sees the ghosts of two sisters who lived in the house: "My feelings were a little hurt because they seemed to disapprove of me. I wondered if they objected to my astral search for money. I couldn't think of any other reason for them to be annoyed. I was still really tired and decided that not only did I not care if they were annoyed, but that I was annoyed with them for having an opinion about it."

The author ended each chapter with a tease of what was to come, which made for good segues but eventually got a little gimmicky/predictable formula-wise.

The incidents themselves didn't really build up a storyline-type momentum -- since it's a true account, that makes sense, but you still hope for reveals and revelations that just didn't happen. Yet I felt the author tried to build that suspense even if in the end she knew there were no cinematic climaxes. But it's still a well-told, engagingly matter-of-fact documentation of strange phenomena.

Just in time for Halloween! If you enjoy some real personality, quirkiness and spiritual questing served alongside your ghostly manifestations and other hair-raising events, then what are you waiting for? Throw this one in the shopping cart. Especially because Leon (the brooding, tobacco-chewing chief ghost at Annie Wilder's house) might get even tougher to live with if "his" book gets less than its due.

Full disclosure: The author is a friend, I took a look at the manuscript early on, and I've been to her magical, spooky house 8 or 10 times. Weird things definitely happen there. I stayed there one night and had a house-inspired, ghosty dream. In my dream, a little boy was standing in the room watching me sleep. Then a bunch of Annie's relatives started filing into the bedroom. Feeling a little self-conscious, I got up and left the room. That was when I found a new room in her house--one that doesn't actually exist (physically, anyway). It was long and narrow like a portrait gallery, and there were paintings on the wall that changed scenes when I looked away. One, I remember, started out as a picture of a nice white brick farmhouse, then changed to something else.

After I woke up and told Annie about the dream, she got an odd look on her face, and said that she used to have a painting like that. Yikes.

Her story is suspenseful, there's a full cast of characters and cats, and the writing is quite well done. There is a lot to sink your teeth into: she incorporates various alternative spirituality ideas and practices into the story as part of her life in the house--interesting and educational, too. Leon the Ghost becomes incorporated into the family and repair projects-kind of a "Ghost and Mrs. Muir" thing (without the romance). Read it. Annie really is an original. What else would you call a woman who is much more afraid of snakes than of being haunted?

This was an interesting book about a house filled with spirits of all sorts (none were too scary, however) but it needed some editing. The author has a tendency to skip around all over the place while telling her story which drove me a little nuts after awhile. I prefer things all orderly-like and this was too scattered. Still, I enjoyed the author. She seems like a fun, down-to-earth lady with a very cool home.

Annie Wilder and her teenage children purchase a 100 year old home and inherit ghosts galore. Annie and her children immediately begin to have paranormal experiences that keep them awake night and afraid even in the day. Apparently the house is not only haunted but is a way station for those spirits crossing to the other site! Annie is open minded and soon learns to communicate with the ghosts and to help some of them cross over to the other site. This true life story is a compelling read that will keep you up at night.

Very few books in this genre actually scare me. This book is one of the rare finds that truly does hold the reader captive from one heart pounding chapter to the next.
From the opening pages of Chapter 1 right through the end of the book, Annie Wilder delivers a fantastic true account of her experiences with the paranormal as it takes residence in her dream home.
I would reccomend this book to anyone that wants a genuine scare and doesn't mind looking over their shoulder for some time after reading it.

I liked this book it was not as scary as others I have read, but was entertaning and creepy I also like that a floor plan of the house, both before and after the author renovated was included, it makes it easier to picture where in the home the activity happend.

I was anticipating reading this book, but when I got it and started reading, I realized the book needed a lot editing. Ms. Wilder did jump all over the place and didn't explain some relationships very well. Also, I don't know if it's just me, but Ms. Wilder seemed to be dabbling in a lot of strange things and I wonder if some of this was made up or she was wishing too hard for a ghost???? I wish Ms. Wilder would have included pictures of the house, rather than just floor plan drawings. Anyway, decent book, but not great!

I live in a haunted house myself and this is just the type of book I myself would write. At first I thought this would be a "Amityville Horror" type book, but was pleasantly surprised it was not. Order this book for a realistic portrayal of what it is really like to live in a haunted house. Loved this book!!

I've read many books of this genre, and this is so far the one I dislike the most. I'm not saying the author is a bad writer, she is very good at telling stories and sounds like a nice person. However, this book has very few accounts of real haunts. She considers dreams as real accounts or out-of-body experiences, which in my opinion are still just dreams. From the beginning it felt like she was expecting to find ghosts from day one and most of her perception seem like she truly wants to see something happen, like she's trying too hard. Also, she just assumes, also from day one, that the house is haunted by the last owner who just died. It seems like wishful thinking to me, I mean, it's an old house, it's bound be have many deaths in its history, and one can get really imaginative living in it.

I believe and like to read about the supernatural, but this book didn't convince me one bit.

This book starts off well enough, with the author buying a house that has some oddities about it. But then, the book fails to gel, and becomes progressively disjointed. After several chapters of recounted dreams presented as occurances, I gave up and didn't finish it.

My impression is that the author really wanted to write a book, and she was also into ghosts, so she decided to start with a true life ghost story. The only problem: her material is thin. She starts off well enough, moving into a house with some creepy atmosphere. But what follows is mostly dreams, anecdotes about noisy pipes and other settling noises and accounts of people who 'felt something'. I never became convinced that the house was really haunted, or just that she really wanted it to be haunted.

Borrow this, if you have a lot of patience for amateur writing and efforts, and want to explore every possible ghost story. It's too insubstantial an effort for me to recommend as a purchase.