Haunted Canada 6: More Terrifying True Stories

by Joel A. Sutherland

The sixth book in the bestselling series of hauntingly true Canadian stories — back, and scarier than ever!

Her skin was peeling off her skull. Holes covered her nose and cheeks, revealing bone and teeth. Her flesh was rotten and grey. But worst of all were the thing’s eyes. Staring down at him with venom were two deep pools of darkness.

“You heard me when I cried, pleaded and screamed for help,” she hissed, “but you and your kind ignored my pleas. Because of you and your superstitious ways, I died a horrible death in that swamp. Now I have come back to avenge my own death!”

These terrifying true stories from across Canada will keep you up at night. A supernatural sea hag haunts an eerie marsh, a used book conjures up a ghostly figure, phantom hands terrorize children in a school playground . . . Prepare to be haunted!

Genres: Horror

128 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2016

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

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haunted Canada 6: More Terrifying True Stories (2016) is as the title shows the sixth 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 6: More Terrifying True Stories, it generally very nicely succeeds in providing an engaging, sufficiently creepy but fortunately also not too much so (and thankfully neither gratuitously violent nor overly focussing on horror) variety of supposedly true paranormal stories from across Canada (ghosts, diverse haunted buildings, premonitions, time slippage etc.), with accounts from major Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Quebec City, Winnipeg and Calgary being represented alongside of smaller places that readers may be less familiar with, such as Barrie (Ontario), Bell Island (Newfoundland and Labrador), Crowsnest Pass (Alberta) and Sydney (Nova Scotia), just for a few geographic examples, and that most 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 his Haunted Canada 4: More True Tales of Terror has been replaced in Haunted Canada 6: More Terrifying True Stories (and just the same as in Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories I might add) by a much more balanced and less preachy author tone and attitude. For yes indeed, while Joel A. Sutherland himself obviously and strongly believes in ghosts being real, he in Haunted Canada 6: More Terrifying True Stories does not categorically demand and expect the same from his audience.

Now there is no overriding theme for Haunted Canada 6: More Terrifying True Stories, safe that of Canadian hauntings, and yes, I do appreciate that unlike Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories, where almost half of the featured stories seem to show haunted restaurants, hotels and the like, which is fine, as I do really enjoy tales of haunted hotels but that this does make Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories just a trifle one-sided, Haunted Canada 6: More Terrifying True Stories is a bit more varied, and with my six favourite ghost accounts from Haunted Canada 6: More Terrifying True Stories being the ghostly French and English soldiers sometimes encountered and seen at Fort Louisbourg (Nova Scotia), the hauntings at Rivendell Books in Barrie (Ontario), how the Frank Slide area of the Crowsnest Pass often supposedly has the spirits of miners and townspeople who were caught in the 1903 rock slide either appearing to visitors or seen in photographs taken by tourists (Alberta), the University of Regina and especially its theatre claiming to be haunted by Francis Nicholson Darke, by the businessman and politician who donated the most cash to the university (Saskatchewan), an intriguing tale of haunted playground equipment (Manitoba) and a crisis apparition in Sydney foretelling death (Nova Scotia), although crisis apparition types of tales are very common all over the Maritimes and that I have heard and read of similar such tales from other areas of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.

So Haunted Canada 6: More Terrifying True Stories presents a fun, engaging and for the most part nicely readable collection of Canadian and reputed to be true paranormal stories and is generally speaking a solidly four star reading experience for me and with especially my inner teenager being majorly textually happy (although it must be pointed out that sometimes, Joel A. Sutherland's writing style uses slightly awkward syntax and repetitive vocabulary choices), but no, not yet five stars for Haunted Canada 6: More Terrifying True Stories either. Because and in my opinion, while the historical background information Sutherland provides for each featured story in Haunted Canada 6: More Terrifying True Stories is appreciated, this should be a bit more extensive and it would also be nice if there were sources provided and a list of suggestions for further reading. However, considering how much tedious information dropping and overwhelming readers with historical details I have encountered in other collections of "true" ghost stories, I am actually glad that Sutherland does not fall into this trap, that Haunted Canada 6: More Terrifying True Stories focuses primarily on the tales and not so much on background history.

[Noelle Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent addition to the Haunted Canada series! This series is so much fun to read and it has just the right amount of spookiness! These stories and books are amazingly good and the sixth installment is no different!

[MK · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked how he focused on one part of Canada and how he didn't make the story's some adult only story so it's appropriate for kids.

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

mentally i dont think i can handle any more of sutherlands writing. on the other hand though i need more. thank goodness i have another one of his works nearby

[Wunderdrugged · Rating 3 out of 5]

This title is nominated for the 2018 Hackmatack award in the English non-fiction category. This is the series that just won't quit. We still do quite a bit of circulation on numbers one through five, so it wouldn't surprise me at all to see this one at the top of a lot of the kids' lists. However, I'm not a huge fan of being scared, so my rating is going to be tinged by that bias. Sorry! I enjoy the short story format for something like this, so I could pick it up to read one and then take a break from the scary stuff. This will appeal to kids who struggle with the novel format. Since I am in New Brunswick, I wish that there were more Maritime stories with settings familiar to our club but I can appreciate that the new places will inspire the kids to learn more about the geography of our country. My favourite story in this collection was about Binstead House (Charlottetown, PEI).
Would definitely recommend this one to fans of scary stories.

[Jason Parke · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is as the title suggests. This is a collection, supported by the odd location photos, of over a dozen haunted stories from Canadian communities. Stories from Quebec City, Nunavut, and Crowsnest Past in Alberta are only a few of the tales of ghosts of murder victims that are told to haunt others today. This volume can be read separately from the previous volumes. It is a read for teens, but as an adult, I could let my imagination do the talking.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read of various stories-not really scary though.

[Amy Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection,lots of variety and locations across Canada, several from Alberta which was fun. Not quite as good as some of the other volumes.

[Patricia Atkinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

haunted places in canada

[Beth Besso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meant for kids, but I like these stories. Some of them gave me chills. It's a well written, quick read, for those who like ghost stories.

[Bronwen Sutherland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it right now.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked it!

[Jia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lol my dumb bum reads this book before sleep...