Joanne Austin

This book was of particular interest to me because of three of the events recalled in it. The first being an account of a haunted house just outside of Jackson, Michigan. I live less than 50 miles from Jackson and had never heard this story. The second being the haunting a Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. My daughter attended Ball State and often told us of the strange sounds on the 4th floor of their dorm and how books and other items would often move by themselves. The third one was of the Houmas House in Darrow, Louisiana. My family was acquainted with a family that love a half mile from this house and our friends said you couldn't pay them to go on the property in the daytime much less the night. Are ghosts real? Who really knows? Some people have seen what they believe to spirits while others spend their entire loves in supposedly haunted environments and never experience anything. A very interesting and entertaining book no matter what you believe.… (mehr)

Weird Hauntings by Joanne Austin is quite good for a book of ghost tale compilations. This is from the same team that does the entire "Weird" series of books (Weird U.S., Weird Arizona, etc.), and reminds me of the best of the books that I would find at my local library as a child with a voracious appetite for the macabre. Off the bat, the introduction by Ryan Doan in which he relates the fact that his father used to hide under his bed as a child starts off the bizarre proceedings on a wonderfully weird note.

In particular, another value in the book is that it details investigations or stories from individuals that have not been repeated ad infinitum in other books on the subject. There is also mention of a few famous areas such as Alcatraz or Gettysburg to keep one interested as well.

Well done: 5 out of 5 skulls… (mehr)