He Said/She Said : Ghosts of New England
Written: May 31 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Interesting, well written stories
Cons: True? Doubt it.
The Bottom Line: An interesting read without "True" facts other than Hans Holzer's beliefs.
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| cmaw63's Full Review: Hans Holzer - Ghosts of New England: True Stories ... |
Why would I read two books from the same author when I was disappointed in the first one? Because I was hopeful that the second would be better? Nope. Because I was at the library and in a hurry. I saw, I grabbed, I left.
Ghosts of New England
After reading Real Hauntings: True American Ghost Stories, I was somewhat disappointed that Dr. Holzer did not have any back up data to substantiate his ghostly claims. No fog in the shape of human photos, no recorded otherwordly voices, nothing period. Well, unless you count a medium, supposedly, being a host to the ghost with the most.
Did Ghosts of New England fare any better? Not hardly. This one was written before the True American Ghost book, as evidenced by the fact he is calling Catherine "my wife" instead of "my ex-wife". Still no clue what she's doing while Hans Holzer is ghost hunting, though.
In Ghosts of New England there are more stories from everyday people. Most brought to Dr. Holzer's attention from mutual friends, through his radio show or from television appearances.
The main part of each of the 12 chapters revolves around what they have supposedly experienced. She hears tapping on the floors by "Hungry Lucy". He hears his deceased daughter-in-law moaning and groaning. Yet, upon his visits Hans Holzer rarely experienced anything. He just took their word that each place was haunted. Unless he used his ever trustworthy mediums.
While mediums are used to some extent, and especially Sybil Leek again, they were not present each time. Still, each time a medium was present they were able to channel the ghost or ghosts. These are some darn good mediums. Every time they tried to contact a ghost they were able to. What are the odds of that?
In this book, most of the time, Hans Holzer didn't or couldn't make the ghosts leave the premises. As far as he knew when he wrote Ghosts of New England some were still residing in the place they had chosen to spend eternity.
The stories in Ghosts of New England are well written and interesting. They are, also, claimed to be found only in this book, according to the cover. Another claim that makes me wonder about the validity of the ghosts. If I have a ghost in my house you can be sure a whole lot of people are going to know about it!
Reading about the history of the supposed ghosts made this book worth my time. If for no other reason than I'll be able to tell some of the best stories around the next late night campfire. Again, though, for me to have even an ounce of belief it would have taken more than a he said/she said and a medium channeling to come close to making these "true". Especially, when everything the medium (ghost) said was verifiable through history records kept on each place.
Interesting? Yes. True? Doubt it.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
cmaw63
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 in Pets, Home and Garden, Books |
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Member: Julie
Location: Illinois, USA
Reviews written: 307
Trusted by: 73 members
About Me:
Looking forward to my first grandbaby. She's due November 24!
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