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ericarobyn 's review for:
Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places
by Colin Dickey
This book was incredible! A great mix of ghost story/urban legend, history, and scientific reasoning/debunking. It is clear that Colin really did his research with this book. I absolutely loved the way that it was organized. And Colin's transitions? Perfect.
While I wouldn't necessarily say this book is "spooky"...thinking about the stories Colin covers can certainly creep you out after you've shut the book for the night. Though if you're looking for just a book of ghost stories, this isn't the right book. Colin debunks most of the stories or gives suggestive reasoning as to why science could explain the situation.
Further, I found it really interesting to read and think about why people believe in ghost stories.
I knocked off one star because of the condescending tone that I picked up on, specifically in the chapter about ghost hunters. While I totally understand the authors viewpoint there, the way that many bits were worded just didn't sit well with me. After that bit, I picked up on it a handful of times throughout the rest of the book.
In the end, I would highly recommend giving it a read.
Favorite passages:
Ghosts bridge the past to the present; they speak across the seemingly insurmountable barriers of death and time, connecting us to what we thought was lost. They give us hope for a life beyond death and because of this help us to cope with loss and grief. Their presence is the promise that we don’t have to say goodbye to our loved ones right away and that - as with Athendorus’s haunting- what was left undone in one’s life might yet be finished by one’s ghost.
Just as an oyster turns a speck of dirt into a pearl, the ghost story doesn’t make the feeling disappear, but can transform it into something more stable, less unsettling.
Many times a ghost story is simply an attempt to account for some scattered tidbits, some disconnected facts, that don’t add up. We tell spooky tales and scary stories because the alternative - the open-ended chaos of the unknown- is even more terrifying.
Ghost stories like this are a way for us to revel in the open wounds of the past while the question of responsibility for that past blurs, then fades away.
While I wouldn't necessarily say this book is "spooky"...thinking about the stories Colin covers can certainly creep you out after you've shut the book for the night. Though if you're looking for just a book of ghost stories, this isn't the right book. Colin debunks most of the stories or gives suggestive reasoning as to why science could explain the situation.
Further, I found it really interesting to read and think about why people believe in ghost stories.
I knocked off one star because of the condescending tone that I picked up on, specifically in the chapter about ghost hunters. While I totally understand the authors viewpoint there, the way that many bits were worded just didn't sit well with me. After that bit, I picked up on it a handful of times throughout the rest of the book.
In the end, I would highly recommend giving it a read.
Favorite passages:
Ghosts bridge the past to the present; they speak across the seemingly insurmountable barriers of death and time, connecting us to what we thought was lost. They give us hope for a life beyond death and because of this help us to cope with loss and grief. Their presence is the promise that we don’t have to say goodbye to our loved ones right away and that - as with Athendorus’s haunting- what was left undone in one’s life might yet be finished by one’s ghost.
Just as an oyster turns a speck of dirt into a pearl, the ghost story doesn’t make the feeling disappear, but can transform it into something more stable, less unsettling.
Many times a ghost story is simply an attempt to account for some scattered tidbits, some disconnected facts, that don’t add up. We tell spooky tales and scary stories because the alternative - the open-ended chaos of the unknown- is even more terrifying.
Ghost stories like this are a way for us to revel in the open wounds of the past while the question of responsibility for that past blurs, then fades away.