Weird Massachusetts: Your Travel Guide to Massachusetts' Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets [Hardcover]

Jeff Belanger (Author), Mark Moran (Foreword), Mark Sceurman (Foreword)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Sterling (May 6, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140275437X
• ISBN-13: 978-1402754371
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 9.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #220,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

History, belief, and folklore combine to create paranormal legends that challenge what we know about how the universe works. But are these legends more than just stories? What can we learn about ourselves in exploring the unexplained? Meet Jeff Belanger, the ultimate paranormal insider.

There's a relationship between ghosts, UFOs, Bigfoot, strange monsters, ancient mysteries, and other bizarre phenomena. These concepts offer us a path to our past, a connection with our fellow human beings in our present, and a way to ponder our own inevitable future. Though no one can explain exactly how it all works, few can match Jeff's ability to bring the odd out of the fringe and into our living rooms and near our office water coolers.

Belanger's approach is fun and informative. He brings a lot of personality and knowledge to his work. He's the author of a dozen books that have been published in six languages, he's the writer and researcher for the Ghost Adventures show on the Travel Channel, the host of the widely popular Web and cable talk show 30 Odd Minutes, he's a sought-after lecturer who speaks at dozens of events per year for audiences big and small, and he's a recognized media personality appearing on over 200 radio and television programs worldwide including: The History Channel, The Travel Channel, PBS, Living TV (UK), The Maury Show, The CBS News Early Show, National Public Radio, The BBC, Australian Radio Network, Coast to Coast AM, and The 'X' Zone.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Invaluable Addition to New England, May 8, 2008

By 

Justin (New Jersey!) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Weird Massachusetts: Your Travel Guide to Massachusetts' Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets (Hardcover)

I'm from New Jersey but go to school in Mass., so when this book came out I snatched it right up--and I'm very glad I did. It is not only a great addition to the series as a whole, but also a must have companion to the Weird New England book published a few years back. Sure, the obvious stuff is covered here--Salem, Lizzy Borden and so forth--but you really couldn't do a book called Weird Massachusetts and NOT include those stories. It just wouldn't be complete. Even so,the author does a great job of retelling the few obligatory stories that are included here, and somehow manages breathe new life into them through his energetic writing style. But the real tastey meat of this book lies in the material not covered in any previous volumes: like the terrifying stories of Dudley Road, the little know odd finds buried deep in the woods like Deed Rock, and the just plain quirky entries like the story of Sheila Shea's grave (it actually reads "who the hell is Sheila Shea?" In addition to that, there are some chilling tales from some of MA's abandoned place. Sure, most people know of Danvers, but what about Worcester State, Northampton State, and Medfield State hospitals? All are explored here in their creepy and forlorn glory! If you are into Weird and want to know more about its presence in the Bay State, this book has it covered. What more can I say?

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and interesting stories, great for Halloween!, October 17, 2008

By 

R. C Sheehy "deadsox" (Foxboro,MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Weird Massachusetts: Your Travel Guide to Massachusetts' Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets (Hardcover)

Weird Massachusetts is a fun, silly, enjoyable book enjoyable to read for anyone who enjoys good ghost stories, local legends and other weird events. Of course they are not true but like most people we all love to be scared and left with the question of "what if?" This book is highly recommended for people who enjoy a good fright and love to read stories about ghosts and goblins and want to share those with others around them.

Read this for some good, scary, fun!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just "OK", nothing special, May 17, 2011

By 

Kat "Reviewer @ Shivers Of Horror" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Weird Massachusetts: Your Travel Guide to Massachusetts' Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets (Hardcover)

It was just an "ok" read. A lot of it dealt with stuff that wasn't "weird" or interesting to me (so I skipped quite a few "stories"). I got this book from the library under the impression that it was a "travel" book, which would tell me cool places to visit. Instead with some of the stories it was hard to even figure out where they took place until reading further in. Even then not all places gave concrete info on where to visit these areas even though they were public places. Some really needed photos, but didn't provide any. So for addresses and photos I'd have to search the internet. I would have liked to hear more "ghost" stories from the area and would have loved an index in the back of town by town. As I said, an "ok" read, but I wouldn't bother reading it twice, and has no "gotta buy it" value to me. For a more in-depth review visit my horror movie/book review blog in my profile.