Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories

by Joel A. Sutherland

Don’t turn out the lights! Joel Sutherland returns for the frightful fifth installment of the Haunted Canada series.

In Nunavut, stories are passed down from generation to generation about the tarriassuit, shadow people who are sometimes felt or heard — but never seen except out of the corner of your eye . . .

The organ at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Quebec City plays by itself, and Queen Elizabeth II reportedly saw a mysterious figure on the balcony during her visit in 1964 . . .

Late at night, after Vancouver’s Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant has closed, a shadowy man in uniform is seen boarding the decommissioned trolley car that sits in the middle of the dining room . . .

With more than 25 terrifying new tales of ghostly encounters and mysterious phenomena, Haunted Canada 5 is guaranteed to keep kids across the country awake and screaming!

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

121 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Joel A. Sutherland is the Silver Birch and Hackmatack Award-winning author of Be a Writing Superstar, numerous books in the Haunted Canada series, and Summer's End. His new series, Haunted, including The House Next Door, Kill Screen, Night of the Living Dolls and Field of Screams, has been praised by Goosebumps author R.L. Stine. Joel's short fiction has appeared in many anthologies and magazines, including Blood Lite II & III (Pocket Books) and Cemetery Dance Magazine, alongside the likes of Stephen King and Neil Gaiman.

He is a two-time juror for the Bram Stoker Award, the John Spray Mystery Award, and the Monica Hughes Award for Science Fiction & Fantasy. He is also the founder of the DarkLit Fest, a literary event that has welcomed Guests of Honour Kelley Armstrong and Joy Fielding.

Joel appeared as "The Barbarian Librarian" on the Canadian edition of the hit television show Wipeout, making it all the way to the third round and proving that librarians can be just as tough and crazy as anyone else. He has a Masters of Information and Library Studies from Aberystwyth University in Wales and lives in southeastern Ontario with his family, where he is always on the lookout for ghosts.

Reviews

[Paul Weiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a terrifying sameness to these attempts at a paranormal frisson that renders them collectively soporific. The best approach, in my humble estimation, is to set this short young adult anthology beside the commode in your bathroom and to read them 5 pages at a time, one story at a time. That's the only chance this one has at retaining its interest across the entire anthology.

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories is as the title shows the fifth book of the award-winning (and in my opinion penned for a middle grade readership) Haunted Canada series (started in 2002, with Pat Hancock penning the first three books and Joel A. Sutherland the subsequent volumes, and of which there are now twelve). And Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories, it generally rather nicely succeeds in providing a variety of supposedly true paranormal stories from across Canada (mostly ghosts and diverse haunted buildings, as well as a few tales featuring monsters and premonitions) with stories from major Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Victoria and Edmonton being represented alongside of smaller places that readers may be less familiar with, such as Lac la Biche Alberta, O'Leary Prince Edward Island, Montmorency Falls Quebec, Antigonish Nova Scotia (et al), and that fortunately, Sutherland's rather perfunctory narrational tone of basically "you had better believe that ghosts are real or else" which I found so annoying and frustrating with and in Haunted Canada 4: More True Tales of Terror has been replaced by a much more balanced and less preachy author tone and attitude in Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories. For yes indeed, while Joel A. Sutherland obviously believes in ghosts, he at least in my opinion in Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories no longer categorically demands and expects the same from his audience, from his readers.

Now while there is no overriding theme Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories other than that of Canadian hauntings, it is true that probably more than half of the accounts collected and featured by Sutherland seem to involve hotels and restaurants (the Chateau Laurier, the Royal York Hotel, the Hotel Vancouver, the James Bay Hotel, the Olde Spaghetti Factory to name a few). And while some readers might consider haunted hotels and restaurants a bit standard and mundane, for me, these types of ghost stories are amongst my favourites, so that indeed, I really and truly have majorly enjoyed Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories because of this (and with my favourite haunted hotel story of Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories being the one about the James Bay Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia and how the ghost of artist Emily Carr is said to haunt the building and how she is not overly pleased with negative reviews of and attitude towards her artwork).

Thus a fun, engaging, readable (and also never overly creepy or gratuitously violent) anthology of Canadian and reputed to be true paranormal tales is Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories and generally a four star reading experience for Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories for me (but not yet five stars, because in my opinion, while the historical background information Joel A. Sutherland provides for each featured story is appreciated, it could and should be a bit more extensive and that I also do kind of wish that Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories would also include a detailed bibliography with suggestions for further reading).

[Véronique Lessard · Rating 5 out of 5]

According to this Haunted Canada's series (which now has 12 tomes), Canada is truly a terrifying place.

One thing that I always liked about Joel A. Sutherland is that he has a way to set the mood for his stories. As an historian, I have to salute his attention to details, especially on the La Corriveau story, which is a well-known trial and murder story in Quebec.

The locations are also quite varied, from a cabaret in Dawson City (Yukon), to The Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, and the Hatley Castle in British Columbia.

Once again, I read the book in a couple sittings, as it was highly entertaining and pertinent to learn a bit about Canada's history.

[Noelle Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, these stories were creepy! Just perfectly creepy and so engrossing! I didn't want to put it down at all! A must-read for anyone who likes spooky stories but nothing too spooky.

[Amy Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good entry in the series,more photos than some volumes. A few stories I definitely want to know more about!

[Patricia Atkinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

haunted places in canada

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Half (if not over) of the stories were about hotels or restaurants. All of them blend together into the same story told over and over again, just in different places.

[Sheri Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super easy read. Local places across Canada that have something peculiar happening, ghosts? Decide for yourself.

[Suzanne St-Amand · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book.

[Bronwen Sutherland · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing

[Wunderdrugged · Rating 3 out of 5]

This title is nominated for the 2017 Hackmatack Award in the non-fiction category.
Sutherland is back with another installment in his 'haunted Canada' series, which continues to be hugely popular with the kids at our branch. The short story format is very readable, especially for lower level kids. Personally this series doesn't do much for me, but as a 30+ year old I don't think I'm the target audience ;)
I would recommend this to any kids who like ghost stories, and even lower level adults.

[Tabatha Graves · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was well written. Nice little short stories .

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another creepy collection of ghost stories that I would have loved as a kid.