A review by del_devours
A Haunting Place: Bizarre, Eerie and Mysterious... the World's Most Haunted Places by Glen Williams

informative mysterious slow-paced

2.0

 The cover of A Haunting Place is a bit "meh," but the blurb offers a journey through some of the most 'haunting and haunted' locations worldwide, which I thought would be interesting. I knew I probably shouldn't read it at night, but let's face it, I absolutely did—because who can resist a good scare, right? 

The black-and-white photos interspersed throughout add a vivid dimension to the tales. The photo of the Manchac Wetlands in the USA is particularly beautiful. There were some occasional inconsistencies in style, such as random changes in tense, heading style, and fonts which threw me off, but I did love the occasional injection of dad jokes which added a bit of light-hearted humour. 

But, dang, the narrative lens through which the stories were told got under my skin. The constant portrayal of ghosts and spirits as inherently evil, juxtaposed with an exclusively positive depiction of the church, felt overtly judgmental, and lumping practitioners of witchcraft with the 'homeless, drug addicts, [and] vagrants' was just plain annoying. Actually, come to think of it, this list seems overly critical of the homeless, as well. 

On the bright side, I appreciated the inclusion of less common places like Auschwitz and The Gap, which is a refreshing departure from typical haunting collections. The abundance of Aussie locations is also a nice touch. 

I was honestly disappointed by A Haunting Place. Like most books of this nature, it is a fun mix of ghost stories and some truly fascinating history, but some places, as interesting as they were, seemed crammed in because of their tragic past, and the heavy religious bias turned me off. Some other reviewers pointed out the lack of referencing, and that many of these stories read more like hearsay – stories from a friend of a friend of a friend – and I completely agree. I expected more from a 'seasoned, well-respected, award-winning journalist.' Overall, a missed opportunity for what could have been a much more enjoyable read. 

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