Spooky Indiana: Tales Of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, And Other Local Lore

by S.E. Schlosser, Paul G. Hoffman

Pull up a chair or gather round the campfire and get ready for creepy tales of ghostly hauntings, eerie happenings, and other strange occurrences in the Hoosier State. Whether read around the campfire on a dark and stormy night or from the backseat of the family van on the way to grandma's, this is a collection to treasure.

Genres: Folklore, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Author S.E. Schlosser has been telling stories since she was a child, when games of "let's pretend" quickly built themselves into full-length stories. A graduate of the Institute of Children's Literature and Rutgers University, she also created and maintains the website AmericanFolklore.net, where she shares a wealth of stories from all 50 states, some dating back to the origins of America.

(source: Amazon)

Reviews

[ladywallingford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it's because I'm "older and wiser", but I wasn't really spooked or creeped out by the stories in this book. That's what I expect when I read ghost stories, but I think people interested in local folklore
or ghost hunting would find this interesting, especially if they visited these sites after reading the stories.

I borrowed this book through Overdrive, but the Kindle link for it is wrong so I had to read it through my internet browser. :(

[Isabel Hinen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't really care for this one. The stories were written like sort of a fictional retelling? What I mean is rather than just narrating the lore, it would be written from a bystanding fictional character's perspective of the events. Some of you may enjoy that format but it wasn't for me. My husband and I read books together at night to wind down for bed, and we're not really looking for something we have to get invested in. However if you're looking for something to spark your imagination as you learn about Indiana lore, then I would recommend it for sure!

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book overall. I loved most of the stories in here, though a few were pretty short and basic. Overall, it's a good book.

[Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought his book was really good. The stories get progressively scarier the more you read. True disturbing especially because I live in Indiana. The only thing I would change is to add a little more context in the beginning. At first was confused because the first story is in the first person I thought at first that it was from the authors point of view. But all the stories have different characters I came around to liking the first person it makes the stories feel like you are exspirenceing the same thing as the characters in the stories. Over allI really enjoyed this book and would recommend to anyone looking for a good scare.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is ghost stories/folk tales from the state of Indiana. It was interesting.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories are more like urban legends - like the vanishing hitchhiker, some are more ironic, but there are some truly creepy parts too.

[Erin O'Riordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fairly short e-book that I read through with enthusiasm, being a native Hoosier. I'm from South Bend, and I was a little disappointed that the South Bend tale was set so far back in the past. I was hoping there would be landmarks I recognized.

The SB story isn't even a supernatural one. Neither is the LaPorte one, which simply relates the details of the Belle Gunness case.

I'm a little surprised this anthology doesn't include Indiana's most famous ghost story, that of Diana of the Dunes. There's a brief mention at the beginning, but not a full tale.

Otherwise, though, I really enjoyed this collection of supernatural and legend-tripping stories from around Indiana.

[IndianaBeauty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know if I would call this local lore maybe more like ghost stories to tell around the fire. Good short stories.

[Levi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this. I felt dumber just reading 3 of the stories.

[Meg Shafer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of these stories I feel that I had heard them before….maybe bc I live in Indiana 🤷🏻‍♀️ the way they were written were very elementary and not shocking. It read more like fiction short stories. I picked it as a spooky read for October…it was just okay.

[Tiphani · Rating 5 out of 5]

From Schlosser's "Spooky Indiana," I had the pleasure of reading "The Face." In this short narrative, the reader is placed inside the mind of a sadistic medical student. He meets a girl with the curliest hair and longest eyelashes and instantly falls in love. The only problem is that he is completely and utterly obsessed with his new lover. What's even worse is that Sheila, his lover, loves him back too! This was scary because this nameless medical student is clearly crazy. Every time he sees Shelia having a friendly and harmless conversation, he reacts by shouting and acting as if Sheila belongs to him. Fed up with Sheila's imaginary infidelity, the medical student kills Sheila in a gory manner, splattering her intestines all over the dorm. But of course, he couldn't stop there. Oh, no! There's a plot twist... Wait for it, he cuts off her face. Cuts. It. Off. Clean. And does he throw it away? No, here is evidence that he might be completely and totally normal... He puts it in his top drawer, right next to his Tighty-Whities... Of course, he's locked up and sent to a psychiatric asylum where he meets his daddy dearest. Nice family... real nice.

[Tyreke Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the few short stories I have read online, I thought this was interesting and want to see more of the stories she wrote in there. Whenever I read one of the short stories and it ends on the cliffhanger ending, all I can think in my mind is,"And what else...I want more to fuel my imagination." Sometimes it would get annoying and boring when the stories are trying to be extended and constantly is ending on cliffhangers, yet, it just makes me hungry for more and do not even want to wait for next part to come out. Although I rated it a 3 because I never read all the other stories, I hope it will be as good as I think it actually is and keep my fingers cross that most the stories do not have these big cliffhangers that leaves my imagination unsatisfied.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like it. . . I live in Indiana and hoped I'd find some cool places to travel or explore. The stories were a little trite and relied too frequently on gore (I lost track of how many times severed heads were mentioned in just 25 short stories). Still, it was a quick read and I think a young Hoosier teenager would enjoy it.

[Bailey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this because I love local ghost stories. However, I felt like they were kind of a letdown. Most of them weren't spooky at all, just local legends.

[Tami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good folklore stories. 4 stars