One of NPR’s Great Reads of 2016
“A lively assemblage and smart analysis of dozens of haunting stories…absorbing…[and] intellectually intriguing.” —The New York Times Book Review
From the author of The Unidentified, an intellectual feast for fans of offbeat history that takes readers on a road trip through some of the country’s most infamously haunted places—and deep into the dark side of our history.
Colin Dickey is on the trail of America’s ghosts. Crammed into old houses and hotels, abandoned prisons and empty hospitals, the spirits that linger continue to capture our collective imagination, but why? His own fascination piqued by a house hunt in Los Angeles that revealed derelict foreclosures and “zombie homes,” Dickey embarks on a journey across the continental United States to decode and unpack the American history repressed in our most famous haunted places. Some have established reputations as “the most haunted mansion in America,” or “the most haunted prison”; others, like the haunted Indian burial grounds in West Virginia, evoke memories from the past our collective nation tries to forget.
With boundless curiosity, Dickey conjures the dead by focusing on questions of the living—how do we, the living, deal with stories about ghosts, and how do we inhabit and move through spaces that have been deemed, for whatever reason, haunted? Paying attention not only to the true facts behind a ghost story, but also to the ways in which changes to those facts are made—and why those changes are made—Dickey paints a version of American history left out of the textbooks, one of things left undone, crimes left unsolved.
Spellbinding, scary, and wickedly insightful, Ghostland discovers the past we’re most afraid to speak of aloud in the bright light of day is the same past that tends to linger in the ghost stories we whisper in the dark.
See this review and more at Mystereity Reviews
Colin Dickey is on the trail of America's ghosts. Crammed into old houses and hotels, abandoned prisons and empty hospitals, the spirits that linger continue to capture our collective imagination, but why? His own fascination piqued by a house hunt in Los Angeles that revealed derelict foreclosures and "zombie homes," Dickey embarks on a journey across the continental United States to decode and unpack the American history repressed in our most famous haunted places.
I was interested in this book because if there's one thing I love, it's true ghost stories/haunted places. I was a little disappointed to find that's not what Ghostland is about. It's about the history of haunted places, and the real facts surrounding the alleged hauntings.
I enjoyed the writing, it was obviously well-researched and there were a lot of interesting stories and I particularly liked that the author spent a lot of time presenting the real facts of the case. The chapter about the Winchester House was my favorite, not because it's allegedly haunted (I never thought it was) but because the idea of someone continually adding on to their house was just bizarre. Doorways and staircases that lead nowhere, all designed by one woman with no training in architecture. The true facts about Sarah and the Winchester family were presented, debunking a lot of the myth around the house. I was fascinated!
Overall, it was an interesting book, but a little dry in parts. History fans would enjoy it, but if you're looking for a scare-your-pants-off true ghost story book, you'll be disappointed.
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13 November, 2016:
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13 November, 2016:
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