The Devil's Board

by L. Sydney Fisher

On an American college campus in 1987, three students began playing a seemingly innocent game of contacting the dead. Word spread fast around campus and curiosity grew, expanding the group to more than forty people. Spirits were summoned almost daily, and the dark world's influence began to take its toll as one student fell gravely ill and relationships began to crumble. Months later, the dead would be resurrected, and this time there would be Hell to pay.

This is their story... Rachel Thomas was more than happy to leave the haunted house she had lived in for the last decade. She had every reason to be excited about her future as a college freshman entering Riverside Community College. But she had no way of knowing that she would find herself in the terrifying grips of the paranormal again when her new roommate, Josie Norton and her friends began using the Ouija Board. In spite of Rachel's reluctance to join the group's nocturnal ritual of contacting the dead, she finds herself sucked into the drama and a witness to the spirit's malevolent nature as strange phenomena begins happening. Weeks turn into months as Amber Simmons becomes obsessed with the game and her "ghost" friend who assumes the identity of a human being now in the afterlife. As the malevolent spirit continues to control and manipulate Amber, the close-knit friends are terrorized until the Ouija spirit makes one final show of force determined to kill them all!

Genres: Paranormal

226 pages, Paperback

Published August 23, 2017

About the author

“I first witnessed the paranormal at the tender age of eight. This experience unlocked a doorway to a world full of unexplained mysteries, miraculous insights, and terrifying ghostly visits that have spanned a lifetime. Join me as I explore these stories…one book at a time.” ~L. Sydney Fisher


For more information about the author, please visit the official website at http://www.LSydneyFisher.com.

Reviews

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is never a good thing to play with a Ouija Board and to keep playing with it knowing that the spirit being summoned is causing havoc is really bad. This book is supposed to be from true events. Whether that is true or not doesn't really matter as it was still a pretty good story.

College friends find out that a part of their campus had a murder and they decide to get together to contact spirits through a Ouija Board to find out more details of the murder. When they investigate further with some of the campus staff, people just don't want to discuss it, nor do they want the students to play with the Ouija Board and try to deter them from using it. Eventually the friends decide to get more students involved and they all start meeting daily to contact one spirit that seems to want to communicate. Ryan Banks is the spirit and once the spirit is on constant communication with the students the more the spirit manipulates them. As the murder mystery deepens the more the friends get involved with "Ryan" and the more "Ryan" gets into their lives, the more problems it causes to the point where no place is safe on campus from "Ryan".

The book isn't real scary, but it does have some moments throughout the book plus a dash of mystery involved.

Kept me entertained throughout the book and kept me guessing of what was going to happen next. Four stars for this one.

[Bailey Weeks · Rating 5 out of 5]

One thing I dont mess with is a Ouija board so I certainly couldn't read it alone.

[Katrina Gradias · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an awesome read!!!😲🤗🤩

I loved how you don't know what is coming next and sitting on the edge of your chair because you don't know if it's going to scare me more than I am. 😳 I can't recommend it enough. 👍🏼👍🏼

[TAMARA WIDLAKE · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fear the spirits

Not bad somewhat predictable many similar stories out there. No one knows when talking to spirits of they are good or bad seems like most stories spirits are untruthful and only bad can come from the board.

[Priscilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read, spooky but not overly scary. Which is a good thing for me! Although by other reviews I was expecting somthing spine tingling. I think the end was rather loose, although considering this story is based on true events I guess the events carried on, so no real did ending could be wrapped up. I do think there are hints in the words what happened, it's all open to interpretation.
A good fun, quick spooky read.

[Lori Niemuth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible

Poorly written and poorly "researched." "Ouija" is NOT an ancient Egyptian word meaning "Good luck" -- where did the author dig up this crap? I also doubt the author has ever spent even a semester in a college dormitory (maybe even college itself). I know it's a poorly written book and could use a thorough editing to correct verb usage and fix continuity issues. This still wouldn't help the weak plot. Skip this book!

[Beth Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scary!

I couldn't put this book down. The images created in this book came to life so easily that I hope I don't have nightmares.

[Luigi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was OK. It lacked something for me, I'm not sure why. It was crafted OK, the characters were OK, maybe I'm just not the target audience. It never gripped me. Believable, yes:)

[Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I take terms like "based on a true story" and "inspired by true events" with a grain of salt especially when I am reading about possession and the like. I see it more of a tongue and cheek Fargo reference than anything else. **This is a true story. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.**
I had high hopes for this book. But it didn't deliver. I was looking for something to sink my teeth into but it was more of a drudgery than it was an escape. The dialog was basic, the story always seemed like it would get going but didn't, the characters were unable to be related to and therefore I didn't care if any of them lived or died. And then there was the aforementioned "inspired by true events" thing...

This book was given to me for free at my request for my voluntary and unbiased review.

[Ta Rena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick but good read.

I enjoyed this book but I was left feeling that it didn't come to an end but rather just abruptly ended. I felt like there should have been more to it. There were also some grammatical errors that I caught but only few. Other than that the book kept me interested enough to read it in only a few hours only being interrupted by domestic duties.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Writing left much to be desired

The way the book was written you were expecting much more of a climax, writing was disorganized and I kept confusing the characters. I had to continually re-read passages to understand what was happening

[Scarlett Jones, LMT · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hated the book, only read it because it was mentioned on a podcast, Mysterious Radio. She took a true event, she says, but then embellished it and it was not even truthful, Thankfully, it was a free Amazon unlimited.

[Margot Hypnos · Rating 1 out of 5]

not worth the effort

[Rhonda Bragg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Expected more

Hard to follow, had a hard time following the people in the story. Never connected with them. I had hoped for a lot more.

[Melissa Haromy · Rating 2 out of 5]

“And the circle was growing fast with atheists.”

[Aimee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just okay. not spooky at all and it felt like chunks of the story was missing.