cmzukowski's reviews
704 reviews

I have read many paranormal and haunting books and I was less than impressed with this one. Starting with the positive, the history this book gave about the locations was great. Each chapter was like a mini history lesson into the background of each location from when it first came into existence to 2012 (when the book was written). I loved learning about buildings like the Remington Arms Factory and areas such as Snug Harbor, along with every other location talked about in the book. The author did a good job of researching and providing enough history and reasoning as to why the location is said to be haunted. Unfortunately the poor writing tended to take away from the stories a little. I was disappointed in a lot of the grammar and punctuation used throughout the book, which had a tendency to make the writing seem a little amateur. There was excessive use of exclamation points and commas throughout the book and some poor grammar spread throughout. (Although that could be more of an issue with the editor than the author.) I feel that at times the author also tried too hard to add dramatic elements to the book where they were not needed. For example, when describing one location the author wrote “Dust swirls, searching for the crevices in which they can continue their journey…” Aside from my disagreement with referring to dust as “they”, I also feel that writing like this is more for fictional books, not an informative book where you are trying to provide history and proof. This is something that the author did throughout most of the book too. Writing like that just seems out of place and too fluffy in a book like this.

One of the main negatives for me was the descriptions of the hauntings. I feel like they were glossed over a little and did not provide much detail. They also seemed more speculation than actual proof or convincing stories. Obviously all stories about haunting are speculation but they are usually more in depth. A lot of the paranormal evidence spoken of in this book in simply “Orbs have been spotted in photos…” which could simply just be dust. Don’t get me wrong, some of the stories spoke of convincing paranormal evidence, but I feel like other stories weren’t given much attention by the author and only provided generalized hearsay. I also think if she provided some of the photos that capture apparitions (which she spoke of often throughout the book) that would have added much more credibility to the stories.

Another downfall of the book, in my opinion, was the lack of history and detail on ghosts, the paranormal and hauntings. I have read many books like this and most of them provide very interesting and informative information on the history of the paranormal and hauntings including how they originate, reasoning, causes, likelihood, etc. While she did provide some I found it to be rather generalized and the same things were often repeated throughout the book. I feel that if you are writing a book trying to convince people of hauntings and paranormal activity then you need to avoid basic generalizations and provide more concrete and historical information.

Don’t get me wrong, the book was not bad. I have just read better and finished this book being disappointed. I am going with three stars though because I was happy with the history provided about the locations and I also liked how the author provided the addresses and specific locations or many of the places so that people can go visit them if they want to. She also provided which ones were off-limits and did not allow trespassers, making sure people have been forewarned before attempting to visit these places. It was also a quick read and good for reading in between other books. I found it enjoyable enough so that is always a good thing too.