Haunted: The Incredible True Story of a Canadian Family’s Experience Living in a Haunted House

Warning: contains spoilers

Ah, sweet ghost story mind candy. Something I can never resist. The first thing I need to get out of the way right now though, which unfortunately is a spoiler, is that it’s NOT SCARY. I don’t mean this to say that it was supposed to be scary but the whole thing was just too wimpy. Despite this being a first-hand account rather than a story written by an established horror author, this is relatively well written. No, the thing about this is that none of the ghosts are “bad guys.” They don’t want to scare the pants off anyone, they just want to be buds. They rather liked this nice young family who came into their house, and none of this story involved the typical “GET OUT!” kind of stuff we may come to expect. That’s why I find the ooky spooky font used in the title and chapter titles to  be kind of hilarious. You can just picture someone reading this story at a campfire going “and then the ghost… gave them some flowers! OOOOooooo!!” Haha! Well, I guess that would make this a great ghost book for those of you easily find yourselves going to sleep with the lights on. It’s fun, easy, short, and not that big a burden on your anxiety levels. My only real criticism here is that the author, likely out of a need for some sense of privacy, only gives as many details about her family as are absolutely necessary. We aren’t told anyone’s ages, and are left having to guess how old the kids are by the descriptions of events, like really terrible detectives trying to solve a really boring mystery. We also don’t know what any of the family members looks like, and this creates an unfortunate sense of distance between us and the story. Dare I suggest it may have been easier, if they wanted to keep their privacy, to just… make something up? Come on, draw us in! Well, as I did mention in the beginning, this is not a story written by an established horror author. For all her inexperience, the author of this book does come across as very real, if not likeable. And that certainly counts for something.  Not a bad little break from all these serious history books at all.

Other recommended reads: The Amityville Horror, Canadian Ghost Stories