Haunted Houses

Ghost House Books

by Edrick Thay, Diana French (Editor)

The most haunted real estate in America is explored in this volume of chilling tales. In Amityville, New York, an ordinary family is terrified by poltergeists in one of America's most controversial haunted houses. Abraham Lincoln, whose wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, was deeply interested in the paranormal, is said to haunt the White House in Washington, DC. In Galveston, Texas, a fiercely independent yet forlorn woman haunts Ashton Villa, a mysterious structure that survived a massive hurricane. Lalaurie Mansion in New Orleans, once owned by a sadistic southern mistress, is home to some tragic spirits who perished within. Discover these and dozens more remarkable accounts in Haunted Houses.

Genres: Paranormal, History, Ghost Stories, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly speaking, but after about thirty odd pages of with much sighing and reading annoyance ploughing through Edrick Thay’s 2003 Haunted Houses I am indeed frustrated, massively bored and more than ready to quit reading, to label Thay’s Haunted Houses as yet another DNF book for me (with a bit of guilt, to be sure, but yes, I do indeed and definitely stand by my choice not to continue with Haunted Houses). For while the by the author selected, retold and presented as supposedly “true” haunted house tales do feature copious amounts of often minute details of ghosts, of unresolved tragedies, of experienced and observed historical horrors, sorry, but the way in which the author, the manner in which Edrick Thay narrationally focuses on and describes his collected stories right from page one of Haunted Houses, this is so hugely repetitive that really, even though each of the featured accounts are of a different haunting in a different place (and sometimes even in a different country), after reading the first three stories, it was feeling so very much like a case of you read one story, you have basically read them all that my reading interest completely and utterly ended up evaporating.

And considering that the tales encountered in Haunted Houses also in my humble opinion demonstrate a complete lack of even remotely palatable spookiness and eeriness (and that come on, haunted house stories, they are supposed to by nature emanate at least some uncanniness), this fact, combined with the above mentioned textual repetitiveness and that Edrick Thay equally has the tendency to pontificate ad nauseam regarding the history of the featured haunted house but without providing any notes or secondary sources, well, this has all made me not at all find Haunted Houses worthwhile finishing and definitely only a one star ranking for me.

Oh and finally, I guess I also do not really consider Edrick’s Thay’s introduction for Haunted Houses as all that appropriate, since it for and to me does rather seem as though there is an author attitude present of you had better believe that ghosts are real, that ghosts do exist or you are ignorant and naive. But really, if Edrick Thay actually wants to convince us with the stories he retells in Haunted Houses that departed spirits, that haunted houses and the like do in fact exist, he really and truly has done a hugely substandard job of this, he really does not textually at all achieve this with Haunted Houses.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars from me. I found this book interesting in the beginning, but it got very repetitive and boring. The author seemed to give the complete history of each haunted location even if it didn't pertain to the haunting, and it got old quite fast considering most of the stories took place in the 1700-1800s. For more indepth review of this book or other ghost/horror books and movies feel free to visit my horror movie/book review blog @ www.shiversofhorror.com/blog

[Aaron Badgley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ghost stories.