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When Darkness Falls: Tales of San Antonio Ghosts and Hauntings
San Antonio is such an interesting and fascinating place to live, it seems a lot of folks just don't want to leave when it's their time to go. So, those Spirits of San Antonio just keep on returning―most often "When Darkness Falls". Once again, well-known ghost story writer Docia Williams brings us a new book about recent ghost sightings and mysterious happenings in the Alamo City. A chilling book for those wanting a guide to places where spirits are known to rendezvous or for those who just like a good ghost story.
- GenresTravelParanormal
358 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 7, 2017
3 1/2 stars. The author writes about places in San Antonio and the surrounding areas that are allegedly haunted. I found it interesting although I take everything, of course, with a grain of salt. I like the fact that she included photos of the places and information about them that is historical. Part of what interests me in this book is just reading about the folklore and stories, whether or not there's any truth to them. Overall, an enjoyable book, with interesting stories about the possibility of the supernatural.
August 5, 2020
Lots of paranormal stories in San Antonio and surrounding areas. Some really interesting stories. I liked finding out about some of the paranormal places where I now live.
However, it took me a while to finish because of the writing style. It was rather dry and I find it hard to keep my attention.
It was nice to learn about a lot of paranormal spots though.
However, it took me a while to finish because of the writing style. It was rather dry and I find it hard to keep my attention.
It was nice to learn about a lot of paranormal spots though.
March 16, 2019
The writing style of this book wasn't the best and the only enjoyable part of it was the last chapter
May 12, 2023
How I even came across this book is because I was talking to a friend of mine who is a native to San Antonio was talking about some of the well-known haunted areas of the town, and she handed me the book and said that it has a lot of stories about some of the lesser-known hotels, locations, and also has some general information on some of the more well-known legends. Being that I had only lived an hour and a half or so away from the iconic city, I was pretty interested.
Now, by the title ‘When Darkness Falls‘ and then the picture on the cover of the book… I knew this book was going to be hokey. But I guess I wasn’t expecting exactly HOW hokey it was going to actually be. I’ve read some silly ghost-story books in my day, but they were meaning to be cheesy, or at least didn’t take themselves seriously. This book however, seemed to actually BE taking itself seriously; and not the actual ghost content part of it, either. I’m a little lenient in the fact that it was written and published in the mid-90’s… but it was really hard for me to get through. The author was really over-opinionated on every single sentence of the entire book. I don’t need to hear how ‘fabulous’ or ‘exquisite’ a ballroom chandelier is, okay? …especially not for full paragraphs at a time.
The author gets into strange, hair-splitting little details about the locations that have really nothing to do with what the story is supposed to be about. I also very quickly became agitated at the fact that she over-uses exclamation/exclamation marks in her writing. Like A LOT… …which is a big pet peeve of mine when it comes to writing. [!!!!!!!!!!!!]
I suppose I was expecting more of just documentations of stories that people tell about the San Antonio locations described in the book, and instead read sometimes completely un-related history about the locations that last most of the section/chapter… and maybe two or three lines about actual ‘haunting’ information given about it.
The ‘haunting’ information is also written in a ‘And then he said he saw… and she said she saw…’ fashion that at some parts were only a sentence long about one minor detail of the paranormal activity happening. So really, the majority of the book I was thinking: ‘Shut up lady, and give me some ghost deets…‘ – then never really received them. And when I DID get some interesting story details, they were rather unsatisfying with the amount of crap I had to wade through in order to reach them.
Also, not that this is a bad thing, but the author more than once mentions how happily married she is, [More of the ‘Shut up lady, give me some ghost deets‘] but she goes really out of her way to describe how she finds some of the females she interviews to be attractive. Sure, maybe it was because she knew they’d read her book [Pft], but it became so obvious that I arched an eyebrow silently wondering if I was reading some closeted sapphic undertones. Which I'm all about queer content, but it was so obvious that it was really obnoxious and didn’t have anything to do with any other part of the book.
That, and her use of ‘Indian’ [and not even ‘American Indian’ – which is still incorrect but whatever I guess] instead of ‘Native American.' and ‘Oriental’ for anyone of Asian descent in the book. I’m gonna hopefully point this to it being written in the 90’s and she was already an older woman by that point. Not that it’s an excuse, but I’ll just mentally establish it as one. Wanted to point this out if anyone were to ever actually read this book [ha!] to just sort of… give a warning.
Oh, and by the time the book was done, if I had read over the word ‘Bric-à-brac‘ even just one more time, I would have considered throwing the book out the window [again] if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m just borrowing it. I don’t care about the Bric-a-brac or stucco on a house, woman. Give. Me. The. Fucking. Ghost. Deets.
I give ‘When Darkness Falls’ 1/5 Bric-a-brac Houses
No interesting quote for you. Just shut up and give me the Ghost Deets.
Now, by the title ‘When Darkness Falls‘ and then the picture on the cover of the book… I knew this book was going to be hokey. But I guess I wasn’t expecting exactly HOW hokey it was going to actually be. I’ve read some silly ghost-story books in my day, but they were meaning to be cheesy, or at least didn’t take themselves seriously. This book however, seemed to actually BE taking itself seriously; and not the actual ghost content part of it, either. I’m a little lenient in the fact that it was written and published in the mid-90’s… but it was really hard for me to get through. The author was really over-opinionated on every single sentence of the entire book. I don’t need to hear how ‘fabulous’ or ‘exquisite’ a ballroom chandelier is, okay? …especially not for full paragraphs at a time.
The author gets into strange, hair-splitting little details about the locations that have really nothing to do with what the story is supposed to be about. I also very quickly became agitated at the fact that she over-uses exclamation/exclamation marks in her writing. Like A LOT… …which is a big pet peeve of mine when it comes to writing. [!!!!!!!!!!!!]
I suppose I was expecting more of just documentations of stories that people tell about the San Antonio locations described in the book, and instead read sometimes completely un-related history about the locations that last most of the section/chapter… and maybe two or three lines about actual ‘haunting’ information given about it.
The ‘haunting’ information is also written in a ‘And then he said he saw… and she said she saw…’ fashion that at some parts were only a sentence long about one minor detail of the paranormal activity happening. So really, the majority of the book I was thinking: ‘Shut up lady, and give me some ghost deets…‘ – then never really received them. And when I DID get some interesting story details, they were rather unsatisfying with the amount of crap I had to wade through in order to reach them.
Also, not that this is a bad thing, but the author more than once mentions how happily married she is, [More of the ‘Shut up lady, give me some ghost deets‘] but she goes really out of her way to describe how she finds some of the females she interviews to be attractive. Sure, maybe it was because she knew they’d read her book [Pft], but it became so obvious that I arched an eyebrow silently wondering if I was reading some closeted sapphic undertones. Which I'm all about queer content, but it was so obvious that it was really obnoxious and didn’t have anything to do with any other part of the book.
That, and her use of ‘Indian’ [and not even ‘American Indian’ – which is still incorrect but whatever I guess] instead of ‘Native American.' and ‘Oriental’ for anyone of Asian descent in the book. I’m gonna hopefully point this to it being written in the 90’s and she was already an older woman by that point. Not that it’s an excuse, but I’ll just mentally establish it as one. Wanted to point this out if anyone were to ever actually read this book [ha!] to just sort of… give a warning.
Oh, and by the time the book was done, if I had read over the word ‘Bric-à-brac‘ even just one more time, I would have considered throwing the book out the window [again] if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m just borrowing it. I don’t care about the Bric-a-brac or stucco on a house, woman. Give. Me. The. Fucking. Ghost. Deets.
I give ‘When Darkness Falls’ 1/5 Bric-a-brac Houses
No interesting quote for you. Just shut up and give me the Ghost Deets.
August 30, 2015
A selection of ghost stories from San Antonio. I wasn't very impressed at the earlier portions, which were very formulaic (list an inn or such, list its history, season with some quirky accounts of hauntings, include contact info that may as well be advertising, move on). However, the later portions of the book are better, with some truly memorable tales towards the end. So it evens out to something decent. (B)
August 12, 2010
A cool read for those interested in the supernatural, but feels like a brochure at times.
April 9, 2012
This is a very fun & interesting book. I only live two hours from san Antonio and got married there so I enjoyed reading about the "ghost" of SA!
June 20, 2008
This one was ok. Talks about the different hotels and such around San Antonio.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews