Summary:
Katherine Ramsland turns her keen and curious eye to the phenomena of ghosts to uncover the truth behind a number of supernatural "sightings". Written in the bold tradition of participatory journalism, Ramsland's extraordinary investigative memoir takes readers directly into the world of ghost hunting and paranormal activity, offering an unflinching account of this mysterious world. On the track of an authentic "haunting," Ramsland encounters psychics, shamans, voodoo practicioners, and high-tech ghost hunters eager to reveal how to contact spirits. But through her own daring experiments, Ramsland is able to penetrate the supernatural mystery that has inspired paranormal investigations worldwide.
My review:
I was initially intrigued by this book as I have a sheer fascination with ghost and the after life. I will state that I have had my own encounters so, I tend to seek out books like this.
That being said, the author writes this book in first person and in the beginning as purely investigative after encountering a modern day vampire. Now, this may seem non-plausible except that she had done previous works about the subject of vampires. This "vampire" had given her an object, a ring, that purportedly belonged to a now ghost, named "Christian". This act sent her on a journey of what could be said, epic proportions.
The author was lead to many ghostly sites particularly in the Eastern and Southern regions of the U.S., Gettysburg was one that she mentioned periodically throughout the book. It did lead her to Arizona in the ghost town of Jerome of which this reader is familiar with.
In her investigation, she met up with many mediums, psychics, ghost hunters, and people who had encounters with various ghost. Each encounter brought her one step closer, or so it seemed, to the truth about this mysterious ring and ghostly visitors in general. She even went so far as to become a "ghost hunter" complete with all the equipment needed for such an endeavor.
Even though I was initially intrigued and completed reading the book because of it, I often felt bogged down in the reading. Much of the things the author spoke about were repetitive experiences or readings that mediums would get from the ring. I felt at times, she was truly unwilling to accept the things she experienced. In fact, at the end, although she is apparently still ghost hunting, she seems to negate her entire fact finding mission. She even ends up ridding herself of the ring in what seems like a melodramatic ending made to sound like a movie. Or did she? It was disappointing and if nothing else, lead to even more questions.
Although, the book shows photographic evidence of orbs, it does not prove or disprove anything. I am sure her experiences were real but the intertwined store of "Christian" and his lover just seems contrived at best. Was his story told as the book's dedication is made to him? I tend to doubt it, but who knows, maybe the author has more encounters up her sleeve and another book to come out eventually that truly does tell his story and not of "the others".
All in all, the author's true reason for writing this book was to investigate with hopes of finding the real. She took painstaking time to do that and it seems she is still on that quest. I wish her luck in that endeavor to see a real ghost.
3 stars as the book is ok to me.
Disclosure: I picked up this book for a free giveaway from my local library. The views here are 100% my own and may differ from yours. ~M.M. aka Naila Moon
Where to find the author:
Amazon
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