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

If you have read many books about true ghost stories, you will find that few of them are very exciting, and this one will definitely not keep you on the edge of your seat. To really be interested in a book like this, you need to be interested in the actual experience of living in a haunted house and not in being scared by supernatural events as you would be with a novel. Books like these are written by novice writers, so the style is not all that good either.With those things aside, I liked this book very much because it was written by the people who experienced it, which is what I am interested in. I am not interested in reading academic explanations or speculations of supernatural happenings or folklore from long ago. I want to read about the experiences of people who have lived in haunted houses or have had encounters with the supernatural, and this book delivers just that.One reviewer here wrote that he was not convinced the that the hole thing was not made up. This is one problem that you may encounter with books on true hauntings. I have read many of these books over the years and I am sure that I could sit down and write a fictional account about a true haunting that would fool the vast majority of its readers. The reason for this is that real hauntings usually involve low key events, that can be scary from time to time or disruptive to family life, but that generally follow similar patterns. It starts with hearing strange sounds at night, usually foot steps or the sound of doors opening and closing or furniture being moved. It can progress to further stages, like the feeling of being watched, seeing ghosts or apparitions or noticing that some of your possessions are out of place or missing. Or the mysterious sounds can simply vanish, leaving no trace that anything was ever out of the ordinary. Most people who have experienced real hauntings never find out why their house is haunted and some never even realize that it is or was haunted. Generally, there are no neatly wrapped up endings or story lines in true ghost stories that would help sell books. Usually, the haunting just stops and the people go on with their lives.If reading about the first hand experiences of people who have lived in a haunted house interests you, then you will enjoy this book.

Very respectable presentation of a familiy's experience withparanormal events in an old house they renovated and moved into.What sets Mrs William's account above so many others of asimilar nature is her attention to detail, her clarity of style,and the matter-of-fact, concise, effective way in which shepresents each increasingly strange event.Yes, many of these events are frightening,but they are not taken advantage of for their "scariness" alone, instead are described plainly,as part of a mysterious whole, which lends them greater believability and weight.There is no attempt on Mrs. Williams' part to AmityvilleHorror us, she seems much too honest and sincere for that.And I must applaud her for her considerable peristance at detective workin attempting to understand the nature of her family's predicament in their "dream" house.For those who might complain about a lack of resolution to thisstory, I must advise that hauntings of this sort are truly fascinating because they rarely are resolved.The whys and wherefores of hauntings require a lifetime (or lifetimes!) of exploration and investigation.But an excellent first-hand account like Dorah Williams' is aterrific place to start -- or to enhance a journey alreadystarted.

... is missing a punch. Warning: may contain a few spoilers.The book itself tells a good story: it's interesting, flows easily, and you feel for the characters. But there're a few things that bothered me about the book. Included are a few photographs of items the family found, yet were not supernatural in any way. The author tells us of a photo she took that contains the face of a ghost, yet it's not presented in the book.Something I had a hard time believing was the almost immediate growth of a tree, from sapling to full size, as well as a rosebush that appeared almost overnight. This like these would have really attracted attention from neighbors, and would have most likely brought local news crews to the scene to see the miracles. Yet, other than the neighbor asking if they could prune the tree, it went basically unnoticed.Good story, but not completely believable, even if you believe in the supernatural.

Although this book was not terrifying it was very well written. Not far fetched, could never happen kind of stuff but honest to goodness, reality.I would absolutely recommend this book as a good read.

I am really enjoying this book. I am very close to finishing it, but I don't want it to end. :) This story is very well written and I feel it is an honest account of this family's experiences.

This book was okay. It was a quick read. I think some of the stuff was over exagerated and wrong. I mean if you have an old house you can did anywhere in your back yard and come up with all sorts of bottles etc. People use to either throw the little rubbish they had down their outhouse or did a hold to dispose of it. Also, anyone who has lived for a long period of time in a haunted house can attest that after awhile the haunting goes away on its own, so the fact that she reburied the items was just a coincidence. Activity ebbs and flows over time. Probably a true haunted house story with some embelishment.

Given some of the reviews on here, I was looking forward to a good old haunting story, even if it is meant to be true. I was a little disappointed, however, as nothing much seems to happen.They see a couple of figures (the husband never does), the air gets cold now and again and a few other shennanigans take place, but nothing you can really get your teeth in to. If I had to class this I'd say it was a book about a 'light' haunting (as opposed to the heavy, foreboding, dragging you across the floor type haunting). Was a semi-OK read but I was a bit narked to have spent a lot of money on such a meagre product.

This account of a familys experience of living in a house chock full of paranormal activities started off reasonably but deteriorated badly towards the end. The author had no real explanations for the many ghostly figures, noises, flooding, electrical malfunctions etc. that beset her but tried very hard to tie up all the ends. Unfortunately her conclusions (despite much digging around in local archives and literally in her back yard) were not convincing and left me unsatisfied, not to mention unbelieving.

I bought this book to read on a long haul flight (London to Sydney). And had finished it by the end of the flight. It's easy to read, interesting and we'll put together. Would recommend it as an easy holiday read.

ENJOYABLE READ WILL READ AGAIN SOON.I SO ENJOY TRUE GHOST STORIES.THE LONGER THE STORY THE BETTER.ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT.SCARY!!!!!!? THANK GOODNESS MY HOUSE DOESN'T HAVE ANY GHOST!!'.

Quite interesting but this would work better as a film script. If there's a sequel I would like to know if events subsided or how the new residents reacted.