Marcus LiBrizziCritiques

These are some very scary stories. They supposedly are true which makes them all the more creepy. If you want a good short read,(104 pages) this is the book,

Some of these stories were pretty creepy. But they would have seemed much better if the author hadn't insisted on telling the reader every other paragraph or so how creepy the stories are.

From intro: "Breaking over the ghost tales collected here is a sense of unspeakable horror and dread . . .It is likely that you will never encounter ghost stories more horrifying than those contained in this book . . . "
From the second story: "Some ghost stories are more frightening than others, and the following tale from Jonesboro, Maine, is among the worst."
From the sixth story: "Of all the tales of the supernatural, few are more horrifying than the legend of the murdering ghost . . . "

And how about this, from the 9th story: " . . . a truer, more ghastly tale couldn't be told. It is arguably the most sensationally gruesome instance of supernatural horror imaginable. All our worst nightmares are laid out here . . ." (An English Composition teacher's nighmare, perhaps?)

The problem is made worse by the author's insistence on placing the most outlandish spin on the events described. So if someone dies after a ghostly encounter, even of natural causes like pnumonia, the person was "murdered" by the ghost. I realize that may be part of the legend to be told, but he actually seems to argue in favor of the idea.

Many of the underlying folktales buried by the writer's overindulgence are, however, pretty creepy. And the author does do a fair job of describing the locale, to provide some genuine atmosphere. And there are some nice historical nuggets, including some which would "debunk" the legends surrounding the basis for the haunting. (This, according to the author, must be a sign that there is some primordial evil in the area which the legends are trying to explain . . .)

I do love the cover art -- looks like an atmospheric painting of the Owls Head Lighthouse . . . which, as I recall, is not the subject of any of these stories. . .½