Title: Fighting Malevolent Spirits

Author: Samantha E. Harris

Genre: Non-Fiction, True Haunting, Ghosts & Hauntings

Age Group: Adult

Rating: 4 stars

Purchase: Amazon

Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A True Warrior in the Battle of Good and Evil

A demon hellbent on chaos and pain throws a young man across a room again and again, without mercy or remorse, attempting to break his spirit and mutilate his soul. The evil spirits at the site of an old sanitarium destroy an innocent family, driving them into an unfathomable hole of addiction and madness. Ghostly shrieks of pain drive a researcher to the point of insanity, pushing her toward the infinite blackness of total annihilation.

Demonologist Samantha E. Harris has faced the world’s most malicious entities . . . and lived to tell the tales. Fighting Malevolent Spirits tells the true stories of her darkest, creepiest, most terrifying cases. Featuring extreme encounters with poltergeists, demons, and unhappy spirits of the dead–and the story of Samantha’s desperate call for help to renowned demonologist Lorraine Warren–this book includes a question-and-answer section for determining the cause of profane paranormal disturbances and how-to instructions for dealing with outbreaks of diabolical activity.

Praise: “Read during the daytime and light a white candle.”–Cindy Deukmejian, Producer of A&E’s My Haunted House

In Fighting Malevolent Spirits, author Samantha E. Harris talks about evil spirits, the ones who have zero good intention and are focused on destroying everyone who stands in their way. The author talks about her darkest, creepiest and most terrifying encounters, ranging from poltergeists to demons. While I’m still skeptical about whether or not demons exist, I enjoyed all parts of this book, including the ones focused on demonic activity.

Some of the encounters sound a bit over the top, and too sensational to be real, but it still sounds more real than half of the ghost hunter shows on TV nowadays. The author tells the reader, time and time again, how dangerous it is to go up against a demon, poltergeist, or malicious spirit, alone and unprepared. She then goes on to give some tips on how one can prepare themselves for a supernatural encounter, which are actually rather helpful.

This is one of the scariest true haunting books I’ve read in a while. I couldn’t cope with reading the book at night, so I had to run it in the middle of the day. To imagine being really face to face with the haunts described here, that must be terrifying. Even when reading the book, I got goosebumps all over, and that creepy sense of being watched.

A solid read if you like true haunting books, and/or if you think your house may be infested with something malicious.

Title: On Haunted Ground
Author: Lisa Rogers
Genre: Non-Fiction, True Haunting
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
Publication Date: May 8th, 2012
Rating: 3,5 stars
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Review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley.

On Haunted Ground tells the experiences of author Lisa Rogers while she lives in a house, haunted not by one, but by several different ghosts, some more powerful than others. While some of these experiences are creepy enough to make shivers run down your spine, they’re not all malicious in nature. Lisa Rogers has an intriguing narrator’s voice, and she builds up the tension perfectly throughout her book. Even if a book is non-fiction, it’s still important to keep a reader hooked, and Lisa definitely succeeds in that.

I have mixed opinions about all the specters haunting Lisa’s house though, but that’s probably the skeptic in me again. I have no trouble believing a house is haunted. Even if there are more than two ghosts involved, I can live with that. But the phantoms in Lisa’s house seem to vary as time progresses, and there are about five of them, if not more. There’s a ghost who can strangely imitate people’s voice and who occassionally picks up the phone, for instance. I’ve never heard of any ghosts behaving this way. Sure, they can perhaps imitate a voice ones, but this frequently? And even when picking up the phone. It’s both disturbing and unreal, and I’m not sure if I completely believe it. It could be that this particular experience is a bit exaggerated. Or it could be completely truthful, who am I to judge?

It just confuses me that not all ghosts would be present at the same time, and that the amount of specters living in a house varies over time. It’s like the house Lisa Rogers lives in is more like a hotel for people stuck in the afterlife than anything else. I would’ve preferred if the author delved more into the why. Why is that particular house so terribly haunted? I feel like I have more questions than answers at the end of this book.

The book also felt a little superificial to me, probably because the author tried to talk about 20 years of paranormal activity in the course of one book. But I could live with that. It gave the book a more ‘scientific’ feel, which I thought helped add to the book’s credibility.

Of all the true haunting novels I’ve read so far, On Haunted Ground is perhaps my favorite. It holds the middle between being too exaggerated to be believable and being so dry and uneventful it can’t be anything but true. The writing style is fluent, and I enjoyed Lisa’s turmoils, not only with the ghosts but also with her family. It’s very clear that she has a loving and caring family, with or without the ghosts included. I will definitely read more books by this author if given the chance.

Title: Stalked by Spirits
Author: Vivian Campbell
Genre: True Haunting, Non-fiction
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
Publication Date: April 8th 2012
Rating: 3,5 stars
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Review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley.

In Stalked by Spirits, author Vivian Campbell tells us about her life as a ghost magnet. It seems as if, wherever she goes or stands, she encounters spirits from the beyond. The book starts out very vividly with a description of one of Vivian’s first ghostly encounters. Mrs. Campbell has a very fluent, lively writing style, but her descriptions tend to be long and written in formal, sensational prose. However, this is much more the case in the first part than in the second part of the book. Needless to say, I enjoyed the second part the most.

The thing that bothered me the most about this book is that I don’t believe it. I don’t want to call Mrs. Campbell a liar or anything, but the sheer amount of ghosts she’s encountered over the years, makes me roll my eyes. If we’re to believe every account in this book, then there are ghosts everywhere. Yes, everywhere. In your closet, your dining room, your bathroom – you name it, they’re here. But mind you, ghosts aren’t the only supernatural thing bothering Mrs. Campbell. I remember vividly her description of how she had received a strange chair once belonging to a voodoo priest (or something along those lines) and how, one day, the chair had attacked her. Now, I know that vooodoo, African magic, and everything along those lines, isn’t to be messed with but it seems strange to me than an otherwise regular chair, who hasn’t moved in years, suddenly goes beserk when Vivian’s parents left.

I must say that I did enjoy the descriptions of the various houses Mrs. Campbell has lived in over the years, including an old mansion. The descriptions are very thorough, and I could imagine myself wandering through that house. Old houses, especially ones as gigantic as described in the book, are scary by nature. It doesn’t surprise me that these century-old buildings hold ghosts, spirits and a whole array of secrets ready to discover. Unfortunately though, the ghosts Mrs. Campbell discovers in this building are anything but good. In fact, they’re quite malicious, and they constantly hope to scare the people inhabiting the house. Not all of them are equally evil, but that doesn’t mean a lot when half of them are. I thought that this part of the book, although well-written, read more like a ghost story for a fiction novel than an account of true events. It was just too sensational. Not only were there more ghosts in Mrs. Campbell’s house than in the Amityville House or Winchester House, but they’re also stronger than any phantom I’ve heard or seen before.

Regular phantoms succeed in opening doors, sometimes slamming them, throwing stuff through the room, making items disappear, and sometimes even whispering strange messages or warnings. Mrs. Campbell’s phantoms however can slam ten or twenty doors at once, look like demons, and scare everyone who crosses their path.

Luckily for the reader, the sensational events tome down in the second part of the book. I particularly enjoyed the episodes of Mrs. Campbell in her dorm with some friends, where they encounter another series of ghosts.

Now, as to the reasons why this book doesn’t work for me. For starters, it reads too much like fiction. This could be partly because of the exaggerated descriptions and prose – even if Mrs. Campbell is telling us the truth, it already sounds like she’s adding some elements, just to make it more spectacular – or maybe because I can’t just wrap my head around this actually happening. It reminds me of that TV show, Most Haunted, in which the TV show presenter starts screaming before anything happens. And she does that every time. That’s one of the reasons why Most Haunted is more laughable than scary – the people participating start screaming as soon as the lights are out, making it impossible for the audience to hear anything but their screams. This book is a bit like that as well. Tension doesn’t build up slowly. I understand this is a real account of what happened, and if things started with a blast, you can’t exactly have them build up slowly. But I felt that this was lacking in the book, and it didn’t really have a start, middle and end because of this. If anything, it started with the climax and then went downhill from there.

The second reason why is because Mrs. Campbell finds ghosts everywhere. I understand some places can be haunted. In fact, I’m positive some places definitely are haunted. But every single building you enter? Every house you live in? I doubt it. I do tihnk Mrs. Campbell saw ghosts everywhere, but I’m not sure if they were really there, or conjured by her own imagination. Once we’ve had an encounter with spirits, it becomes easy to think every place is haunted and every odd thing can be linked to a ghost.

All in al, Stalked by Spirits left me feeling skeptic. While I really want to believe everything it says in the book, I have my doubts. There are just too many ghosts and too many powerful ones mentioned not to have me look at it skeptically. The book is quite scary though, especially in the beginning. If you’re a fan of scary reads, especially scary true reads, then this book might be for you. I did find myself enjoying it, although I rolled my eyes a couple of times while reading. The prose is a bit sensational, but it’s a writing style you get used to easily. If you’re a fan of true hauntings, I would take a look at this one. Maybe not the best out there, but it’s definitely better than the average.

Title: Ghost Under Foot: The Spirit of Mary Bell
Author: Kenneth W. Harmon
Genre: True Haunting, Non-Fiction
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
Publication Date: March 8th 2012
Rating: 3 stars
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Review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley.

I love ghosts, but prior to reading Ghost Under Foot: The Spirit of Mary Bell, I had no idea there were so many true hauntings books out there. To be honest, they’re my new passion. I’ve always been a believer when it comes to ghosts, for a long series of personal reasons, but it felt great to read a book based on true events by people who have seen and sometimes even lived with ghosts. The results? I’m addicted to true haunting stories now. Go figure.

After moving to a new house, the author and has family start to suffer from a series of strange, unexplainable events. Soon enough, the author grows convinced his house is haunted. He tries to communicate with the ghost using various methods, which vary over time as technology gets more and more advanced. He begins an investigation to discover the identity of the ghost troubling his house and finds out it’s the spirit of Mary Bell, a girl who used to live where his current house now stands. When he’s established that, he tries to find out more about Mary, her life, her thoughts and why she’s stuck here as a spirit, unable to cross over.

Kenneth W. Harmon, the author of Ghost Under Foot is a police officer, and it shows. He uses the same research techniques and scientific approach he probably used while working as a police officer to take on the ghost situation in his own home. He starts out thinking logically, and tries to connect with the ghost via seances in the living room. He also takes photographs, hoping to catch sight of some orbs, cameras and a whole listing of other methods. Unfortunately, he often disregards the opinion of his various other family members while doing so, which sometimes annoyed me. For instance, when he wants to set up a seance in his living room downstairs, his daughters, who are age 3, 5 and 7, admit that they’re scared. Instead of dropping the subject, or making them feel more comfortable, the author just tells them they have to be there. I really don’t understand why he does it. He seems like a very good father, and I wouldn’t argue that he isn’t, but in that moment, I felt like hitting him on the head with a frying pan. His daughters were scared. Even I would be scared if we were going to do a séance, and I’m an adult. It’s normal for those little kids to be terrified, and instead of protecting them and making them feel safe – as a father should do – he puts them in the middle of danger. Another issue happens when his oldest daughter tells him she doesn’t want him to leave a camera in her room. He goes ahead and does it anyway, violating her privacy. And for what? To capture a ghost on tape? I wonder if that’s worth it.

It seems to me that, although the author started out with all the best intentions, he quickly becomes obsessed with the ghost, putting not only himself but his entire family in danger. Ghosts aren’t meant to play with. They’re not toys, or imaginary friends. Mr. Harmon was very lucky that the ghost troubling his family was a friendly spirit, and not a malicious one. I may not be the greatest expert when it comes to ghosts, but even experts know that it’s risky business they’re getting into when contacting a ghost. You don’t know what you’re dealing with. These are forces we’ve only begun to grasp. If the spirit was evil, then Mr. Harmon could’ve been the victim of the next Paranormal Activity movie. And he willingly put his children in the middle of all that. That annoyed me, and I’m pretty sure you can see why.

On top of that, Mr. Harmon’s obsession leads him to believe his ghost is his new friend. Rather than helping Mary cross over, or find out why she’s stuck, he goes to ask her silly questions like who Jack The Ripper was, who murdered Kennedy, etc. Although some may find this fun and interesting, I didn’t, mainly because I don’t believe it. It looks like Mr. Harmon has his own views and beliefs, and put them in Mary’s mouth who, being a ghost and all, is in no position to defend herself. It also becomes very apparent towards the end of the book that Mr. Harmon is truly obsessed with the ghost inhabiting his house. Obsessions are never good, especially not when one’s obsessed with a ghost.

However, as for the writing style, I must say I really enjoyed this book. Mr. Harmon doesn’t use overly colorful prose. Instead he focuses on the story as it is, without trying to exaggerate anything by using grand descriptions. I really liked that about this book. It also adds a lot to the credibility of the story. Mr. Harmon’s ghostly guest does what we expect from ghosts – it doesn’t have any superpowers that would make this story unbelievable. That’s one of the main reasons why I believe this isn’t all in Mr. Harmon’s head. I do think his house is truly being haunted. If the ghost is truly Mary Bell, well, I’m not entirely convinced about that. It looks to me as if Mr. Harmon got to the point where he lost track of the big picture. In his mind, the ghost was the spirit of Mary Bell. No more questions asked. I hope he’s right though. I hope he’s right, and I really hope the ghost isn’t something evil that has been masqueing as good all this time.

That said, after a while all the orb photographing and positioning cameras and recurrent séances, began to feel repetitive. This book could’ve easily been made 50 pages shorter.

Ghost Under Foot: The Spirit of Mary Bell is an entertaining account of a house haunted by a ghost. Mr. Harmon has definitely done his research, and he provides the readers with some interesting scientific methods to communicate with the dead. I read some more true haunting books after devouring this one, and I must admit that this is one of the most genuine ghost encounter accounts I’ve read so far. If the spirit is truly Mary Bell remains to be seen, but I’m convinced Mr. Harmon’s house is truly haunted. If you’re looking for a true haunting story that isn’t exaggerated, but instead feels very real and something that could happen to everyone of us, then this book is an excellent choice.