A Guide to the Ghosts of Lincoln

by Alan Boye

Ten new stories have been added to the original stories which made the first edition of A Guide to the Ghosts of Lincoln one of the most widely read books in Nebraska. The 13 original stories have been updated and revise. A Guide to the Ghosts of Lincoln takes you on a tour of the known and the obscure sites where, on a dark and silent evening. one might feel the chill in the air, or hear the faint calling of a lost soul, or see the ghostly shape of a spirit fade into the blackness.

Genres: Nonfiction, Ghosts, Paranormal, History, Historical

Paperback

First published June 28, 2003

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is fun of you're a local. It does omit that some of them couldn't possibly be true - I looked up the supposed deaths at the capitol building since they would most likely be recorded somewhere in history, and found that there were no deaths at the capitol. (That article did point out that the building has a negative pressure issue, which can cause doors to open/shut and papers to move occasionally, which I thought was incredibly interesting.)

No mention of the horse ghosts at one of the movie theaters - I forget the details, I think that theater is gone now. But a lot of stories I hadn't heard, and an obligatory take on Bloody Mary.

[Angie (Bussen) Siedell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not award-winning literature, but it was fun for my tradition of reading spooky books in October. Even more fun that more than half the stories in this book are in our own neighborhood. I jotted notes in the margins ("Risa's house", "Allison's house", "one block north of Johnson's", "Under the bridge on the bike path next to our house", etc.) so my girls can skim through and read the stories from their favorite parks and their friends' houses. At least ten locations are houses of friends or parks or other places my girls hang out with friends regularly. Additionally, even more locations are within walking distance of our house. Apparently, south Lincoln is packed with vivid imaginations. :)

[Angie (Bussen) Siedell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing was comparable to that of a mediocre fourth grader, trying to string descriptive word-pictures and vocabulary words together. Eye-roll worthy. Additionally, a good percentage of the stories didn't even involve ghosts or hauntings or even spookiness, for that matter (Robber's Cave, The Pawnee Dance, and more). With that said, reading local lore, much within blocks of my house, was a festive pre-Halloween activity. Perhaps, I'd have found it more enjoyable if I believed in ghosts...or enjoyed really badly written books. :)

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note, this book was read before I got a Goodreads account as part of a challenge to read 50 new books by the end of 2019. I wrote a review for it right after I read it and copy pasted it here.

This was actually surprisingly good. My low expectations weren't really helped by my strong skepticism of ghosts (I'm not saying nothing unexplained or really weird is going on in at least some of the cases, I just don't necessarily believe that it's necessarily the souls or imprints of dead people) and the tendency of media to over-sensationalize any supposed hauntings. These came off as really genuine, though.

There were some pretty extreme stories for certain (for example ghosts moving things, regular full bodied apparitions that seem aware of other people, loud noises heard by entire buildings of people, children knowing things they shouldn't because they've been talking to grandpa who died before they were born...really impressive things. However, there's even more of the more subtle stuff: sensations of suddenly being dragged into the past, seeing weird hazes you just know are people, people that you know you saw but aren't there when you look again. In other words, possibly ghostly but not really flashy. Come to think of it, there are only maybe 3 ghosts that seem to have any violent intention towards their hauntees described in the entire book and even of those the worst that seems to have come of it is a flooded basement and some folks (mostly children) being frightened. If anything it seems a little under-sensationalized.

I think this is probably mostly because Boye got his stories by putting out a newspaper ad requesting people contact him with hauntings rather than just reporting/overhyping the few well known ones and then sticking to what people described. This, combined with knowing a lot of the places referenced just makes it feel more believable.

[Amelia Kibbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely collection of ghostly tales. I enjoyed how they were written. Many books that feature a collection of ghost stories from a particular town or region have a certain flavor... cut and dried? Less than literary? Telling the stories, of course, but without any art.

I thought Mr. Boye's writing style was lovely, artistic, and almost poetic at times. He told each story differently and played around with perspective. This was very fresh for someone who's read a lot of "Haunted Insert-Name-Of-City" books. You can definitely tell that the author is an English professor!

Chilling tales, gripping writing, and words full of voice -- I recommend this one for midwestern ghost lovers for sure.

[Chris H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book for the local folklore. These stories don't offer much detail for the most part and a couple tales really aren't ghost stories at all. It was an interesting book and fun to read especially if you are from the Lincoln area.

[Riley Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a current Lincolnite, I find this a fascinating read. I am familiar with many of these areas in town that were mentioned, since Lincoln isn't really a "large city" and found it quite entertaining.

[Kelleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not worth it. I thought it'd be a little tour of Lincoln. It's not. It's half written suspense stories about Lincoln homes with few actual locations.

[Elise]

I own the Kindle copy.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/depts...

[Avishay Artsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun/scary guide to the local spooks.