Haunted Houses by Edrick Thay (Book Review)

Plot: With their blend of captivating history and ethereal residents, haunted houses have long been considered the most exciting haunted places. In this long-awaited collection, Edrick Thay explores the spirits in the most haunted properties, from poltergeists that have inspired major Hollywood movies to grumpy spirits awakened by renovations to historic homes.

My Review: I picked this book up totally on a whim. I was looking for a different book in my local library and this was next to the other book I was getting so I grabbed this one. A few days later when I was looking at the content list I was shocked to see a chapter listed for a house that’s very close by to me. A house/museum that I’ve actually heard about from other people and have always wanted to visit. I haven’t because their tours are not based on it being haunted but for the history of the building and family and I just have no interest in that.

I enjoyed most of this book. Its 255 pages with six “chapters” which are really sections, and the whole book has 43 different haunted locations to talk about. Once I was about half way through it I noticed a pattern. Each location starts off by telling the reader a little of the ghost activity and then quickly goes into a 3+ page description of how the leads in the “story” were raised or what they did for a living or who fell in love with who and most of the time none of it pertains to the subject at hand anyhow. Then it finally gets back into the haunting aspect of it. It got very boring especially because most of these “history lessons” take place in the 1700s or 1800s. I just didn’t care about them at all. I started skimming stories, and by the end I skipped the last two because I just couldn’t take it anymore.

With that being said there are sections about The Amityville Horror house, Hull House, and Nottingham Castle. There are a couple interesting stories but nothing crazy or really all that spooky.

Overall: At first it was a fun interesting read, but it got boring kinda fast. Those interested in histories of different locations – even if they don’t really have to do with the haunting – will probably find this book interesting. All others not into that stuff stay clear.

[rating:2.5/5]