Ghostly Adventures: Chilling True Stories from America's Haunted Hot Spots

by Christopher Balzano

There are certain towns that we all associate with ghost stories and sightings. But creepy encounters happen everyday all throughout this country-in towns that you may never have heard of, to normal people, just like you! With Ghostly Adventures , you can travel to these terrifying towns and share in the scare. Let ghost guru, Christopher Balzano, be your guide through the jaw-dropping true tales that happen all around the U.S., in places the Boston hotel where old Mr. Parker returns to check on his guests the lost village of Dudleytown, Connecticut, where all residents vanished without a trace the Summerwind Mansion in northeast Wisconsin, whose secret compartment housed a man's corpse for years Terrifying true tales and frightening facts come together to create hours of eerie entertainment that you can read on your own or out loud with friends. With Ghostly Adventures , you can stop just wondering about ghosts and get to know them yourself! Christopher is a teacher and folklorist. He has been investigating the unknown for twelve years and is currently running the Massachusetts Paranormal Crossroads website. His writing has appeared in The Haunted Times, Mystery Magazine , as well as Unexplained Paranormal Magazine . His investigations have been covered by The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Standard Times , and Worchester Magazine . Balzano lives in Boston, MA.

Genres: Paranormal, Ghosts, Nonfiction, Horror, Ghost Stories

246 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a super quick read. I found the introduction and lowdown on ghosts quite informative. Some of stories will creep you out a bit. Other stories are quite typical.

This is entertaining and worth the read.

[Fatts · Rating 3 out of 5]

if you read this book for what it is then it is a well done book and a good read. part 1 is educating the reader on the paranormal. part 2 is the actual ghost stories. i can understand why people gave low ratings if they went into it expecting the whole book to be stories. basically its a great book for people who know nothing about the paranormal. if youre looking for straight ghost stories then this is not for you. great book for beginners. 3.5 stars

[Marjanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would actually give this 3.5 stars, mostly because I feel like the author helped me come to a better understanding of my own personal thoughts on ghosts. I like that the author shares insights from "paranormal experts", how to scientifically (or at least as much as possible these days) study the paranormal, and then shares a short collection of ghost stories. This was a quick read, but I like that the author is just trying to share his thoughts and impressions rather than force the reader to believe.

[Big H · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the combination of explanations of how to ghost hunt and real stories (that weren't always the same "most famous" stories that you hear over and over again) a great combo, and a well-written one at that. The only thing that didn't seem to work with the rest of the book was some of the glossary terms at the back of the book--a lot of the terms, while maybe having something to do with ghost hunting/experiences, didn't show up in the main book at all...(i.e. familiar, elemental, precursor noise, psychosomatics...)

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well. The first 75 pages of this book were all about how to ghost hunt. Not at all what I thought would be in this book. When I finally got to the stories they were....lacking. Not at all what you would imagine reading the description of this book. They weren't really in depth. It just told the basic story and then you were on to another one. The map is useless. Pages 204-213 were the glossary of ghost terms - most of which were explained in the first 75 pages, but the rest weren't even used in the book.

If you're looking for backstories or something scary, this ain't it.

[Stacy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I enjoy a good scary ghost story but this book lacked that very element. The first three chapters read more like a textbook than a collection of stories and the chapters give quick descriptions of people's experiences. Not one experiences goes into much detail which cause the book to fail at the scary factor. The title of this book is misconceiving because these stories are definitely not chilling by any means.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because it was around Halloween and it seemed very appropriate to read a few 'true' ghost stories. Overall, I liked these stories and was entertained. It's not any great literature but it does what it promises. I liked and if you're looking to get into a ghost story mood, I would say try it.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was not what I was expecting. It's very informative if you are new to the paranormal world, but completely boring for those that are familiar with it. It went on and I over stuff that I had already learned from previous books and shows. I couldn't get through the first chapter because I was bored with it.

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love a good spooky ghost story. However, for a book with a title that starts out with “Ghostly Adventures” followed up by “Chilling True Stories” there is a lot more work describing the tools and methods one would use to do paranormal research instead of good, high quality, chilling stories. This book ended up being a pretty big disappointment.

[Jocelyn Padilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love anything having to do with the supernatural, and so far this is a great collection of ghost stories from around the country. Thank you to one of my students who bought and gave this book to me as a gift.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

it's a quick read made up of short ghost stories. not very engrossing.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Supposedly true hauntings from across the country. Mixed bag-some are better than others. i enjoyed it.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories were disappointingly un-creepy. Ghost story fail.

[Jeff Severson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was part "How to become a ghost hunter" and part ghost stories, none of which were "chilling." I would give this book 1 1/2 stars if Goodreads allowed it.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an okay book. I was expecting it to be a bunch of ghosts stories. The ghost stories were just randoom accounts people. They were short and left me kinda cheated.