Tales of the Possessed

by C. Torrington

From With compelling and sometimes shocking detail, Clytemnestra Torrington retells some of the most famous and horrifying real-life accounts of demonic possession.

Accompanied by an introduction explaining different forms of possession from around the world, these stories range from the distant past to the present day and reveal some disturbing parallels.

With the benefit of hindsight, some cases seem to be examples of mass hysteria or mental illness; others, however, are more difficult to explain away...

Genres: Nonfiction

169 pages, Paperback

Published July 15, 2017

Reviews

[Majanka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book Review originally published here: http://www.iheartreading.net/reviews/...

ales of the Possessed wasn’t quite what I expected. I expected an in-depth account of several demonic possessions, including some real life experience or at least an interview with a person who claimed to be possessed. However, the book is more of a historical account. It focuses on several famous possessions that happened over the centuries, such as the stories that inspired The Exorcist, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and the history of the nuns who got demonically possessed back in the seventeenth century, supposedly by a priest – I’m sure if you’ve read a few articles about exorcisms, you’ve come across the Loudun Possessions already.

However, the book is short. Too short. The information in its pages is far from new for anyone with an inkling of interest in the subject. The research is not satisfactory – most of what I found in the book could be lifted right form the Wikipedia page – I’m not saying that’s what happened, but I didn’t find any information there that I couldn’t find just by browsing Wikipedia on the subject. I had expected at least some more research, something that wasn’t readily available online.

More than anything, the book reads like an overview of cases without going in too much detail of what really happened. It prompted me to read up on several of the cases, but I found the book lacked a lot of information and only briefly touched the surface of the history of demonic possession.

[Robin Burton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Retelling the stories of alleged possession cases did, indeed, steadily captive my interest the duration of the couple of hours it took to read this book.

What didn’t render well was the lack of structure in the author’s way of jumping from one story to the next. There were a variety of locations from Haiti, Japan, and Colombia to time periods in the 1600s that shared no division.

The ending conclusion also seemed rushed and incomplete.

My overall sense from this book was that it was as if the author hadn’t prepared an outline of what she wanted to convey and just put a bunch of cases together to form a book.

[Lauder · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a quick-read; however, it was repetitive, non-scary, and, frankly, incredibly boring. Plus, there was an abundance of grammatical errors, and pictures had incorrect blurbs underneath them.

[Steve Parcell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short yet interesting read

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5
Not quite sure how a book about apparently true cases of possession managed to feel so boring and bland as this did.

[suzy Que · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads like a term paper

[Karen Bullock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Demonic possession, is it real? Or an exaggeration by churches to frighten their parishioners into continual service?
This book is a short work that does not try to convince you of either, yet instead covers documented cases from various locations and it is up to you, the reader to interpret for yourself what you think it is.
Indications of possibilities are: schizophrenia, DID, epilepsy, sanity vs. insanity.
It’s all interpretation.
Informative & short.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty straight-forward accounting of several possession cases. Many of these were famous cases that the reader will already be familiar with if they have read any other book or watched any TV show about possessions. That's one complaint I have about this collection. Including such famous stories like the ones that inspired films (The Exorcist and The Exorcism of Emily Rose) would have been fine if the book was longer. But at less than 100 pages, those stories felt like wasted space. However, there were a few lesser known cases which really added to the collection. The cases in Japan were specially interesting.
The overall writing was well done and well researched. Just wish it was a bit longer and included more unique stories. But if you have an interest in possession, check this one out.

**I received this copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

[E Vikander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and easy to read, this book presents stories of those unfortunates who were believed to be possessed by demons. The first chapter includes a discussion of fakery, psychiatric illness, and possession, providing a good context for the individual cases that follow. Since the cases are stated to have been true, it would have been more persuasive if citations would have been provided, especially since each story is brief. I started a skeptic and ended a skeptic.

[Donna Maguire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a keen interest in the supernatural and was really pleased to get my hands on a copy of this book. The book contains a selection of true possession stories, quite a few of which are quite horrific in nature. It was a genuinely good read. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Fatma · Rating 2 out of 5]

A series of short stories, trying hard to be scary stories but fails!
Just a quick pass time read with no surprises and thrill