Obake: Ghost Stories of Hawaii

by Glen Grant

Ghost Stories in Hawai'i showcases supernatural tales collected from islanders of all backgrounds that first appeared in 1983 in the Hawai'i Herald. They are presented here for the first time in a single volume, accompanied by the original haunting illustrations by artist Ross Yamanaka. Those who do not care to believe in ghosts, or the hereafter, will glimpse into the dark realm of mystery.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Ghosts, Paranormal, Nonfiction, Ghost Stories

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Lauri]

This book has both fascinated and terrified me for years! I bought it for myself and never read past the 4th chapter -- until now! Because it deals with paranormal stuff in Hawaii, right where I live, it gave me nightmares! I finally faced and conquered my fears and have had no lasting Ill-effects nor bad dreams. Dr. Grant is an amazing storyteller. I've had the pleasure of meeting him in person and have been on one of his hosted Ghost Tours. He wrote very believable and evocative stories while maintaining respect for Hawaii's diverse cultures. Read it, if you dare!

[Judy]

I’m prejudice. The author is my late brother in law. He grew up being able to tell a good story. These stories were his love. They will make you think twice about what you’re doing when you visit Hawaii

[Rob Waikiki]

Good book tells story's of accient days
hawaiians left behind them that was unsolved mysteries of there hidden past interesting story got me hooked.

[Jamie Zaccaria]

A fantastic collection of stories that blends the various cultures and curiosities of Hawaii. I would read more by this author any time!

[Gabriel]

The first ghost stories are fine, although not very scary. The 2 stories about the detective at the end of the book are very long, not very interesting and boring.

[Jennifer Canaveral]

It is hard to talk about obake stories without mentioning Glen Grant. He was a prolific writer in Hawaii and I used to read this book as a little girl. It gave me chicken skin then and it still does now! For the lovers of ghost stories, especially Hawaiian ones, this book is a must-read. My brother kept the copy of this book so I bought another copy through Amazon. Makes for great campfire, spooky stories!

[Stephen]

Ghosts and other supernaturals generally arise from the conjunction of religion and culture. Almost every example can be traced back to something in this intersection. All of this works perfectly well -- sea-ice goddesses for the Inuit, Strigoi for the Slavs, Ahuizotl for the Aztecs, Lilith in Mesopotamia -- in mono-cultures. When the movement of people brought together languages and histories and oral traditions and faiths, something interesting happened to popular mythology, especially about ghosts, witches, monsters and the like. The Islands of Hawai'i are a near-perfect example of this fusion and synthesis. Atop the ancient traditions of the Native Hawaiians (parallel to other Polynesian mythologies), the legends of numerous successive immigrations were laid: Chinese, English, Filipino, Japanese, Portuguese, Norwegian, German, Okinawan, Puerto Rican, Korean, and Spanish. What are the ghosts and monsters supposed to do? How do they coexist when they don't even speak the same language? The result, according to Dr. Glen Grant, a college professor, is a somewhat syncretic mix which cannot exist anywhere else. He collected and told ghost stories for his entire career, not only to his college classes but as a "haunted Honolulu" tour guide, a newspaper columnist, and as a raconteur who won the Tusitala Award from the Storytelling Association of Hawai'i. I bought this book on a whim in a bookshop on O'ahu. I read it because I love all things Hawaiian and most things ghostly. Your choice remains your own.

[Joy]

Among all the ghost story books I've read, this was fairly unique in that the included tales were more about specific people being haunted than a *place* being haunted, as is common in US mainland tales. Grant states in the Preface that these are retellings/composites of the tales he's collected from locals - it allows for more narrative story-telling by combining threads of different experiences. Most of the stories seem to be republishings of his Halloween contributions to the Hawaii Herald, including 2 that are noir-style about a fictional private investigator. It does seem like the last story is based on his own experience in investigating a ghost story on the UH-Manoa campus.

Most of the included stories are in/around Honolulu or Oahu, so the geographic scope is limited, but it had really good insight about the Japanese-American community of the area. This was a great look about how the Japanese immigrants' culture and beliefs mixed with those of the native Hawaiians and Western immigrants to create something very unique to Hawaii.

[Lindee Lee Keller]

When I was about 10, we went to visit our family in Hawai'i. Somewhere along the way, the airport, maybe a gift shop, I bought and read this book. For those who do not already know, this book was written by a folklorist, the blurb on the back cover emphasized that these are true! stories!, and each is narrated from a first person perspective. I took this all very literally and spent the rest of the trip terrified. (To be fair, on this trip, I also refused to snorkel because I had gone into the water and been brushed by a slimy fish.) Dr. Glen Grant is a great writer.

[Erica]

The stories were kind of a novelty at first and easy to follow. Something about the later stories made me lose interest. It might have been that there were more characters to keep track of or more details than I cared about, but I didn't make it all the way through because I just got bored. That said, it was good for short reading sessions, as each chapter gives you a different story.

[SouthWestZippy]

A decent collection of ghost stories. Some of the stories ran a little overboard with information that had little to do with the Ghost story like background information. I could have done without chapter four. If you are a dog/animal lover skip that chapter. I am giving the book four stars because it still a good ghost story book that will keep people believing in ghosts.

[Keefer]

Something I picked up at the Honolulu airport to pass the time. Stories were ok, a little outdated. Great for reading to the kids.

[Jacs Rodriguez]

genuinely was confused by whether this is fiction or not.......but fuckin sick ghost stories, dude

[IfCatsCouldRead]

The latter half was better than the first.

[Lois Welsh]

Since I am from Hawaii I was glad to see these stories deeper in depth, I am a great fan of Mr. Grant and I miss his stories, the man that took over for him and I guess you would say trained under him does a great job. Good book to read during this Halloween season.

[Celeste]

I don't usually review books, but I do have to say this book was enjoyable.

It is dated and there is a lot of orientalism in this book which is uncomfortable and there were a handful of religious Japanese terms that were incorrectly used and or spelled, but again this book is dated.

Aside from that, I enjoyed the stories. Grant had a talent for telling stories that were believable. I myself am a collector of Yōkai stories and wandering old abandoned places in search of stories in Japan so this book really refueled my love of that. It was interesting to see how much of a Japanese influence is in the stories.

So, overall, while dated, this book is definitely worth the read if you have a love for ghost stories.

[Marie]

Obake: Ghost Stories of Hawaii by Glen Grant (2005)

[Whitney]

Creepy

[Edwina Book Anaconda]

A nice little collection of ghost stories that I enjoyed reading.

[Linda]

I enjoy Hawaiian ghost stories.

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