Official Review: SPOOKIEST BATTLEFIELDS: Discover America...

L_Therese · Post by **L_Therese** » 22 May 2015, 02:29

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "SPOOKIEST BATTLEFIELDS: Discover America's Most Haunted Battlefields" by Terrance Zepke.]

2 out of 4 stars

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Terrance Zepke’s book Spookiest Battlefields is a compilation of reports on American battlefields that are allegedly haunted. Ms. Zepke’s book covers fourteen such locations, the majority of which date from the American Civil War. Ms. Zepke is a travel writer who has discovered a fascination with the paranormal. In this book, she tempts the reader with the possibility of history coming to life, or at least to un-death.

When I sat down to read Spookiest Battlefields, I was hoping for some wicked creepy, true-fact-no-kidding ghost stories. Living in Indonesia, I have been treated to a rich ghost-culture. Here, ghosts are well-known and widely believed. Ghostlore influences the decisions people make on a daily basis and the way they interpret strange phenomena. I picked up Spookiest Battlefields with two expectations: that I would learn something new about American ghosts and that I would read some bone-chilling stories.

The first of my hopes came true - sort of. As Ms. Zepke takes the reader to each of the fourteen sites that she considers “the spookiest battlefields”, she provides a brief overview of the events that occurred there and why they were important in American history. Then she summarizes the reports of the paranormal activity that can allegedly be found at each location. Neither section is ever especially extensive nor particularly in-depth, but it is still information nevertheless, and a substantial part may be new to the average reader.

My second expectation resulted in profound disappointment. With a few exceptions, such as the account of “Mad Anthony” at the Brandywine Battlefield in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania or the Drummer Boy at Shiloh in Tennessee, most of the descriptions of paranormal phenomena were terse and impersonal. The author seemed more interested in merely imparting information rather than crafting an account of the paranormal activity. Too many of the reports were brief and lacking in detail. I never felt compelled to picture the figures/lights/mists or to imagine hearing the sounds. It was like listening to someone describe a horror movie at noon while eating a sandwich and hearing a children’s cartoon in the next room. You can tell me how creepy and terrifying that movie was until you turn blue in the face, but I will never feel it. The accounts just weren’t spooky enough.

This book is clearly designed for the amateur ghost-hunter. The first information given about any of the discussed battlefields is the tourist information, including whether one would need a special permit to go ghost-hunting at the site. (In partial exoneration of the author’s style, if I were a ghost-hunter and had previously had encounters with the paranormal, perhaps the mention of unexplained lights and cannon noises would seem creepier.) As I am not a ghost-hunter, I found the tourist information distracting and a further departure from the spookiness I felt I had been promised.

I am rating Spookiest Battlefields 2 out of 4 stars. On the positive side, the book offers information and plenty of pictures, but it fails to deliver on spookiness. The only people who would probably enjoy reading this book are enthusiasts of paranormal activity-tourism. For anyone else, I would recommend looking for ghost stories elsewhere.

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SPOOKIEST BATTLEFIELDS: Discover America's Most Haunted Battlefields
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Amheiser · Post by **Amheiser** » 26 May 2015, 22:57

Thank you for the very honest review. Even though it sounds like the spookiness isn't delivered in the descriptions of the accounts in this book, it still seems like this book would be useful for someone looking for battlefield ghosts. My husband is interested in spooky battlefield ghosts and i think he would be interested in using a book like this, that lists a number of haunted battlefields, to plan a trip to visit some of these battlefields. i think i would be interested in reading this book for that reason.

ashley_claire · Post by **ashley_claire** » 27 May 2015, 06:12

I live in Charleston, SC and have been on my fair share of ghost tours in the area so I thought this sounded like an interesting read. Nice review.

Post by **bookowlie** » 27 May 2015, 08:19

Nice review. I can see how this book would be worth reading for tourists who want to visit some of these battlefields. It's actually a positive for me that the author didn't make the details sound too scary; I get scared easily by books about haunted stuff.

JungHaeju · Post by **JungHaeju** » 27 May 2015, 23:16

I thought that this type of book would be right up my alley but reading the review, I realize that I might not wanna waste my time reading it. Thank you!