It’s been a while since I’ve done an audiobook review! I recently listened to this one during a series of long runs while training for the Houston Marathon (which you can read about on my other blog, Long Run Amanda), and I enjoyed it immensely! It a wonderful book to have in my ears while I ground through long, slow loops around a park in the city I live in. So anyway – Ghostland! What a fun book!
In Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, Colin Dickey describes several different types of hauntings – houses, commercial areas, hotels, and entire cities, among other things. It was a fascinating way to look at how America views hauntings, and the industry that has been built upon it. There were chapters on New Orleans; Richmond, Virginia; the Winchester Mystery House; a series of hotels in Los Angeles; a small town in upstate New York; Savannah, Georgia; and more. I loved it, and I’m really glad I chose to listen to it on audio, where I could space out and let the history fill my ears.
This is nonfiction, so I can’t say that I can assess the problematic content section in the same way. This book addressed the horrors of slavery and slaughters, so I think it did a really good job of covering its bases.
One thing I didn’t love about the audiobook were in some of the asides – I’d forget where we came from and how we got where we were in the story. That probably had more to do with the fact that I was listening while running than anything else, though.
RatingA reminder of the rating scale:
- Red = DNF, I hated everything
- Orange = Ugh, no thank you
- Yellow = I mean, I’ve read worse, but there were problems
- Green = This was good!
- Blue = Oh my gosh, I loved this book!
- Purple = This is the unicorn of books and I will be rereading it until the binding falls apart and EVERYONE should be reading it!
This audiobook was fun and interesting and I learned so much and added some new destinations to my bucket list. All things considered, I’m giving Ghostland a GREEN rating. If you’re into history and like to visit haunted places, check it out!
Happy reading!
-A.
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