True Ghosts: Haunting Tales From the Vaults of FATE Magazine

by Andrew Honigman

From the vaults of FATE Magazine come true stories of encounters with ghosts, phantoms, and haunted places. An elderly waitress silently serves breakfast to two friends at an eerily deserted diner―and the next day, the friends discover the diner is out of business and slated for demolition. A phantom train still blows its whistle more than fifty years after a gruesome accident. And a grandfather's spirit brings a warning that saves his family from a deadly house fire. Over the past sixty years, FATE magazine has published thousands of true ghost stories―personal accounts from ordinary people who have had extraordinary run-ins with the spirit world. This collection features the best of these spine-tingling, bizarre, heartwarming, and sometimes humorous haunting experiences. These frightening firsthand reports include tales

Genres: Paranormal, Nonfiction, Ghosts

336 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2009

Reviews

[Carol Cassada · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of ghostly tales from Fate Magazine. The supernatural magazine shares stories of real life encounters from readers. The sections consist of everything from haunted houses to visits from deceased loved ones to the world of angels and spirit guides.

Each story is unique as the reader talks about their encounter with ghosts. Some are short, while others go into great detail about the paranormal experience. Out of all the sections, my favorites were Ghostly Apparitions, Messages From the Dead, Haunted Places, Animal Spirits, and Spirit Guides and Angels.

Even though the sections about Past-Life Memories and Vortexes were interesting, I couldn’t get into them like the rest of the chapters.

Overall, it was a nice read for anyone who likes to read about real life encounters with ghosts.

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love ghost stories but these? Not so much. Understandably, the story-telling abilities vary from writer to writer as each story is written by someone different. Some of the stories seemed inauthentic to me if I’m being honest. Some were more believable than others and there was at least one story I was confident was made up.
For a book about ghost stories, I was surprised that I was so bored.

[Alyssa White · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a good ghost story and some of them were that, good stories. I got this book because I was fascinated with ghost encounters and I was ready to see what others saw, but only 3/4 of the book really peeked my interest. Overall, it was a good read and I hope to read more.

[Angela Maher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fairly light read, and probably not as scary or atmospheric as you'd expect. The contributions are from numerous people, so the storytelling ability is understandably variable. There was one account I felt was blatantly made up, but overall these do have the feel of real encounters.

[Christin Natalia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Western ghost stories do not give me goosebumps. Having been familiar with much more frightening Eastern ghosts, theirs are nothing. hhahaha..

However, what I like best is the animal spirit stories since I love pets. It kinda remind me of my own experience of dreaming and feeling the afterlife existence of my beloved pet, a German Shepherd cross breed, who had been my company when I was 3 to 13. Now I know that he had gone to a better place and that he will always be in the special place of my heart..

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every now and then I have a desire to read the book about true ghost stories. I don't know why, because I'm not sure if I actually believe in ghosts – I've had a few strange experiences myself. I think a lot of people who write into fate magazine just want to see the name in print – but some of them may be credible. After experiencing some of the strange things I did in my old apartment, I realize you have to have an open mind. So I come to this partially From a skeptics point of view, but trying to keep an open mind

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is composed almost entirely of reader-submitted stories so it obviously the writing is hit or miss. The stories themselves range from stupid, unbelievable or boring to poignant, thought-provoking and beautiful (real or not). The stories are very short for the most part, so it can be fun to just pick up and have a quick read here and there. Overall, it's certainly not a 'great' book, but I was entertained by it and did enjoy reading it.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a collection of very short reader-submitted entries of personal encounters with the deceased. However, they are so short, it becomes repetitive and somewhat meaningless "and in his pocket I found 20 dollars" way to anyone who isn't that person. I only read through 40 pages before it all felt so monotonous that I was ready to move on.

[Jenn Lombard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like a paranormal chicken soup for the soul. Really lame.....would rather just watch paranormal state or celebrity ghost stories on the sci fi channel. Crap, did I really just admit that I watch those?

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a great read near Halloween! It's a compilation of stories. Some of them are really good and others fall short. It's an easy read.