Customer Reviews

The Sallie House Haunting: A True Story

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I collect true ghost stories. This is a good one to add. Several years ago I had the TV program that featured the house and this book helps to add things that you just can't squeeze into a limited televsion show. It is a quick read and certainly held my attention. I applaud the family for staying in the house as long as they did. They are braver than I would be under the same circumstances, especially the actual physical attacks.

I was excited to pick up this book after having seen it on TV a while back. The book is not written by a famous author, so I was willing to concede several badly written lines, but I had to draw the line at the editing. I don't think anyone bothered to read it before they sent it out. It has so many typos it actually makes it hard to read. Some of the sentences are so poorly written I had to read them several times to try to figure out what she was saying. Trying to finish the book, but it has not kept my attention and every extra "the" that's not been edited out is another nail in its coffin.

Bottom line: I don't recommend reading this book. Sorry. Wish I could. I gave it two stars because I think the author gave it her best and she obviously had to go it alone.

I do, and I did. This book is a relatively well written and engrossing account of a haunting experienced by Tony and Debra Pickman and their baby son Taylor after moving into a very old rental house (I vaguely recalled seeing their story depicted on the old "Sightings" TV show).

Debra Pickman, whose first person account this is, has reconstructed in this book the events she and her family and friends experienced in "the Sallie House" from a journal she says she kept at the time. It certainly is a detailed account. Shortly after moving in, Mrs. Pickman began to suspect that the strange activity she'd begun noticing in her new home (which seemed to interact with her newborn son) was caused by a young child. Mrs. Pickman recounts many seemingly paranormal events -- some fairly typical and some truly eerie -- that occurred and grew in intensity, and how in response she began to bond with "Sallie," the supposed little girl spirit she (with some evidence provided by a psychic she consulted) came to suspect was behind them. Based on this activity and Sallie's own "response" to her, Mrs. Pickman developed maternal feelings for the spirit haunting her home, and began to provide it with growing attention and even gifts.

This dynamic wasn't as benign as it may sound, however. Mr. Pickman was not as comfortable with the idea of sharing his home with a spirit as Mrs. Pickman. And little Sallie had some potentially very dangerous ways of throwing tantrums and seeking attention, such as lighting candles and other household items not necessarily meant to be set on fire. Plus, there was a newborn baby in the house whose sleeping patterns were quite disturbed at first, apparently by the spirit. Although Mrs. Pickman believed that Sallie would not hurt the baby and perhaps was even saving him from SIDS by repeatedly waking him during the night, that was only a supposition. There were also several pets (cats and a dog) who were disturbed by the haunting.

Frankly, I came to be shocked by Mrs. Pickman's rather blithe dismissal of all the turmoil caused by Sallie; she truly seemed to be in denial. It almost seemed like Stockholm Syndrome type behavior. Fortunately, she did eventually question her own behavior and whether she were somehow being "brainwashed." But not before evidence grew that Sallie was not the only unseen force in their home. Mr. Pickman had some very scary experiences with at least one other spirit in the house, and was the victim of some terrifying physical attacks, including some powerful phenomena at work witnessed by a coworker. These attacks, in the form of spontaneous scratches forming on his skin, were also witnessed in the Pickman home by "Sightings" personnel each of the three times they were there to document their story.

After having been a fairly gripping read, the story kind of peters out toward the end. The family accepted the offer of a psychic to cleanse the house (which sent at least two adult spirits to the light but spared Sallie), but it didn't fully "take." The stepped-up attacks on Mr. Pickman, and Mrs. Pickman's realization that her marriage was on the line with their continued occupation of the house, finally seemed to break Sallie's spell on her. There is really no description in this book of Mrs. Pickman actually taking her leave of Sallie when the family moved out -- something I was quite curious about.

Mrs. Pickman's belated recognition that Sallie may not have been what she seemed was one thing, but I was a little surprised at the end by the leap then made from the possibility a spirit practicing deception, to the likelihood that demonic forces were actually in the Sallie House. At the end of the book, Mr. Pickman briefly describes some of his experiences in the house, and they were truly chilling; honestly, I wish Mr. Pickman would write his own account of his stay in the Sallie House because his wife was hardly aware of what he endured (both due to his own fear of revealing it to her, and from her preoccupation with Sallie). But in fearing that the house was under demonic possession, he makes a comparison between his experiences with the Amityville haunting without seeming to be aware that the latter haunting has been debunked.

At any rate, if you've gotten this far in my rambling review, please take the above of a recommendation of a book that will have you eagerly turning the pages. If anyone at Llewellyn, the publishing company, is reading this review -- shame on you for not performing more rigorous copy editing on this book!

I was looking foward to the reading this book after seeing the espiode on "The Haunting", and visiting the website. It was the most boring story I have ever read, and I had to force myself to finish it. The same episode over and over, but at the end after reading the husband's perspective I did add a star. I think he would have been a better author. To sum it up don't waste your money or time on this one.

I was looking forward to reading this book, but it was a big disappointment. It feels like a big tease, where the author repeats herself over and over; her one-side "conversations" with Sallie are very tiresome, and the whole time the reader keeps waiting for some further developments. I agree with the reviewer who wished that her husband had written the story. Or at least given more input besides one short chapter titled "Tony's Perspective." At the very end she admits that the house has something evil about it, and that the little girl most probably is just a bait. That being said, the last two chapters are a little more interesting, but I definitely do not recommend this book.

This was a very interesting account of a haunted house and I enjoyed the book. Well written with few mistakes.

One thing that really bothered me was how self centered the author was and how little she thought of her husband. She seemed unwilling to believe her husband's experiences in the house, and unable to empathise with his fear of the phenomena and the pain it inflicted upon him, to any significant extent. She was dismissive of his claims and minimized them in the book. I find this peculiar, when he actually had the much more profound and traumatic experiences.

I have to admit, that I have not finished reading this book. I was so excited to hear that it was out and I order it. I had heard about the story and saw it on The Haunting Series, the movie that came out (which I have to say it's not even close to the real life) and it was also on one the ghost shows on Discovery or Biography. However, the book is bad as the movie (unless the movie is a whole different story). I found it very boring that I stopped reading it. very disappointed with the book!!!

I was under the impression that this book was going to be about a sever haunted house similar to the Amityville Horror and instead it turned out to be more like Casper the mildly friendly ghost. I seen thye Sighting's episode years ago about the house and thought it would be cool to read about the whole experience. There are a few interesting sections but most of the book is boring and not edited properly.

This book honestly scared the crap out of me, which is why I bought and why I gave it 5 stars. While reading this book I found myself peering around my shoulder, pulling back the shower curtain, opening closets doors afraid for my life that I would see something behind them. It was great! haha, For some people that wouldn't be all that great, but it was a fun kind of scared. If you enjoy scaring yourself with a good read, I highly recommend this book

this is my first review i ever wrote in my life.i just wanted to say that this book was great.i love reading about paranormal activity and this book hit the nail on the head.there was time where i got scared and times where i smiled because of what "sallie" did.it wasn`t as scary as i was hoping but i guess i was hoping for there to be faces at the mirror and scary apparitions that had bloody faces (i watch way to many scary movies haha).but what i liked themost is that it is supposedly true and thats even scarier to me than bloody faces. all and all the book was great and definatly think people should read it.my only complaint is that i wish there were more pictures and that there were more evidence to back up that sallie was really there.