Ghostlore: Unveiling 50 Phantoms That Have Haunted History

by Icy Sedgwick, Mabel Esteban García (Illustrator)

As long as there has been a movement in the corner of your eye, a strange noise in the dark, or a chilling feeling in your stomach, there have been ghost stories.

Ghosts have haunted mythologies across the world for millennia–from Scotland’s Green Lady to the duppies of the Caribbean, every folklore has tried to explain the mystery of where people go after they die.

Ghostlore reveals the sinister stories behind the phantoms that have terrified history. From mischievous German poltergeists to Nigerian Madam Koi Koi, who haunts schools looking for unruly children, discover 50 misunderstood and mysterious ghosts from around the globe.

Genres: Horror, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Folklore

192 pages, Hardcover

Published August 19, 2025

About the author

Fantasy with a Folklore Twist

Icy Sedgwick is a writer based in the north east of England. She writes Gothic-tinged not-quite-YA fantasy novels and Gothic short stories. Icy is also working on a series of experiments in historical fiction with Australian composer AJ Moon, combining spoken word stories with originally composed music. When she's not writing fiction, she's blogging about folklore and the supernatural.

Elsewhere, she's working on a PhD in Film Studies, looking at the use of set design in contemporary supernatural films. She also knits up a storm, enjoys poking around old buildings, and takes more photographs than she probably should.

Reviews

[Lia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great superficial look at the various different types of ghost and spirit around the world. giving you enough information to learn about them at their core but giving you room to expand as you may want to.

[Aimee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Style over substance in this whistlestop tour of the paranormal phantoms, ghosts, ghouls, and vampires that haunt the lives of people across the globe. This is a stunning book - the cover, the sprayed edges seeping into the endpapers, the illustrations feeling slightly like 90s traditional tattoos, and the typefacing and laying is superb. However, I didn't like the way it was written. The 'you' gimmick at the start of each section ("You are walking down the street....") - it is a little like being told a ghost story, but also, it felt gimmicky every time. I wanted to know the lore, the stories and I found myself skipping this first paragraph. The historical chatter is vague but interesting, the storytelling is simple and not exactly scary, and the social discussions are interesting enough. My problem is that it isn't detailed enough to be an educational experience, or light enough to be a chilling look into these international phenomena. Still, an enjoyable book to flick through. My favourite ghost was the female phantom a bunch of soldiers made up because they simply couldn't accept that maybe they were just bad at war, there must be an evil woman about causing that much death...

[jaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 ⭑)

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible artwork. Love that the author dove deep and listed spirits and stories that are not as common. Genuinely enjoyed reading through this one and caught myself spending time just absorbing the art.

[Kaley Breaden · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like books that tell about different kind of Ghosts & such. This is right up your alley! So many different kinds I had never heard of before! This book was short and sweet with a lot of information.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the kind of book I wish I had as a child. The art combined with the entries about each ghost works to fuel the imagination of anyone who loves folklore that intersects with horror.

[Migdalia Jimenez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the selection of stories from around the world and the illustrations are gorgeous!

[Marissa Dobulis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read, but I do wish it was less superficial.

[Grace Benham · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2
a good whistle stop tour of ghosts across the continents. what fascinates me now is the social and cultural origins of most of these stories.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Amanda Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was wandering through the library when the cover caught my eye. A great collection of folklore and ghosts from around the globe, with incredible illustrations.

[Jordan Leigh | the.browse · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perfect book to give context to all your spooky season reads!

Icy Sedgwick has compiled an incredibly thorough and detailed anthology of folkloric creates from around the world. Separated by continent, Sedgwick shares both well and lesser-known diverse entries of creatures like The Green Lady of Scotland or duppies in Caribbean mythology.

I always love when I learn a new fact and then immediately get to recognized it in a new read or real-life scenario. I read Ghostlore before recently reading The Possession of Alba Diaz, and having newly acquired insight into South American folk creatures really added to my reading experience.

Additionally, the illustrations are absolutely stunning and lend to the individual stories so incredibly well.

With short entries, this book could be easily enjoyed in one sitting or in small sittings over a longer course of time (anyone up for a month of spooky bedtime stories?).

[Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely delightful and chilling. THIS fills a huge of gap in adult fantasy genre - you can sit down and read or flip through until something catches your eye, and unlike many other anthology titles for adults, it's fully illustrated (in colour AND original illustrations, not just reference images).

The book is beautifully designed, with a huge scoop of regions and lore. And the illustrations have this 'tattoo' sort of style to them that I just found hugely appealing and well-suited (so much visual horror relies on trypophobia...so it was nice to see this deviation).