Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is a Halloween Freebie and I am showing off some of my fave paranormal books. They are in no particular order, and you will find numerous books by Richard Estep. I especially enjoy reading about his investigations because of the thought that goes into them and the professionalism he exhibits. He is not a sensationalist who screams EVERYTHING IS DEMONIC AAAUUUGGHGHGHGH (looking at you, Ghost Adventure crew, You were terrible, even though your locations were amazing and had such potential for true and thorough investigations).
I have written many times before about my belief in the paranormal. I have been to some amazing locations to investigate for myself - The Stanley Hotel {Estes Park, CO}, the Villisca Axe Murder House {Villisca, Iowa} and The Palmer House Hotel {Sauk Centre, MN}, the last of which I documented extensively HERE in three different posts. Not to mention Ghost Baby and I lived rather peacefully together for five years in my old apartment in Lincoln back when I was in grad school.)
BONUS!
If you have never read The Shining, the greatest book of all time, I don't even know what you are doing with your life.
Happy Reading!
Sarah
All of those covers were so scary, not going to lie, I got quite scared.
ReplyDeleteThe Haverfordwest book scared me the most, so that cover is especially creepy to me. Spirits of the Cage was also suuuuper scary.
DeleteYou are braver than me. :) I like the paranormal in small doses.
ReplyDeleteIf you decide to read any of these for your small dose of paranormal, Spirits of the Cage was really good. Scary, but good.
DeleteI get frightened by horror novels. I could NEVER go on a real ghost hunt. Eek! My post here has a participation feature. I hope you'll play along.
ReplyDeleteYou would not like any of these books.
DeleteI'm not much for books like these, glad you like them. https://pmprescott.blogspot.com/2020/10/ttt-102720.html
ReplyDeleteThank you, I loved most of them. Thanks for coming by!
DeleteWow, you've been to quite a lot of spooky places! Alas, I have not read any of these books, including The Shining. ::hangs head in shame::
ReplyDeleteI am definitely lucky to have had those experiences. I really want to go back to The Palmer House, it was so wonderful. And you must read The Shining! Unless, of course, if you don't want to. I suppose I can forgive that :)
DeleteI read The Shining for the first time this year, loved it! Not a big fan of the film though.
ReplyDeleteSuch a great novel! I really liked the original, until I found out that Stephen King hates it, which caused me to look at it in a new light. In the 90s they did a made-for-tv movie that was a two-parter that was actually filmed at The Stanley, which King was part of. I think they are both great for different reasons. Which one have you seen?
DeleteOoh will have to watch that nineties one, have only seen the original. I think I was disappointed because I read the book first!
DeleteThat is very possibly why. I saw the movie first and loved it, then read the book a couple years later and also loved it.
DeleteI misspoke earlier, it was a three-part series. Steven Weber played Jack. I really loved this version too. I think it came out in '96 or '97.
The Shining is the ONLY book that scared the CRAP out of me. VERY creepy - probably why i don't really 'do' Horror..... Except for Vampires.... and maybe Werewolves..... and occasionally Monsters.....
ReplyDeleteSo..horror. lol. The book definitely becomes even scarier when you stay at the hotel it is based on! The stay itself was not scary, and we had some really cool contact/experiences with the ghosts there.
DeleteGreat list and genuinely creepy looking covers... werewolves and vampires feel quite tame, safe in their fictional pages, compared to real paranormal investigations, don't they?
ReplyDeleteAfter a bonkers and hectic few weeks back at work, I've managed to find time for this week's Halloween TTT... hope you can pop by!
Hey Michael, thanks for coming by! I have been away from TTT for a few months, so I was definitely glad to get back in time for this one! I agree whole-heartedly that the made-up stuff is extra tame compared to real encounters with the paranormal. I have ben incredibly lucky though in that my experiences (except for parts of the Villisca tour) were positive and even serene.
DeleteI don't believe in the paranormal IRL, but I do like small doses of it in books. My oldest is a big believer in it, but he and his sister recently stayed in a hotel here in Arizona that used to be a psychiatric hospital. They paid big money to stay in the most haunted room and ... were super disappointed. Nothing happened. They said the only scary thing about the hotel was the prices in the attached restaurant. LOL.
ReplyDeleteHappy TTT!
That would be so disappointing! What hotel? I would love to know; I am always adding locations to my bucket list of haunted places I want to visit/investigate.
DeleteIt's called the Jerome Grand Hotel. Apparently, there has been all sorts of paranormal activity there - just not when my kids visited! LOL.
DeleteThat stinks for them, especially if it was a hefty price tag to stay in the first place! I guess I have been lucky so far, in that when I have visited locations with paranormal activity, it has occurred when I have been there. When I was at the Stanley, we actually stayed on the floor with the least amount of reported activity, and heard tons of crazy stuff all night, both nights. Maybe they could try that instead?
DeleteWhat was it like to live with a Ghost Baby?
ReplyDeleteMy post.
Noisy & smelly I imagine......
DeleteVery funny, CK :P
DeleteLydia - It was always interesting, that is for sure! We always called the spirit/entity/ghost/whatever-you-want-to-call-it Ghost Baby because Ghost Toddler just did not roll off the tongue quite the same way. My guess would be the spirit was 2-3 years old.
DeleteThe apartment building was very small, only 11 units total. The front 6 apartments were separated by a heavy closed door form the back five, and staircases went up and down both halves of the building. I was the youngest person living in the building, many residents were older couples, or older singles. None had frequent visits from younger family members.
I discovered my invisible roommate one night when I was laying on my couch watching Die Hard close to 10 PM. Our of the blue, I heard a young-sounding voice say, "Hi". I thought I was hearing things at first and paused the movie. I said hello back, and did not hear a response. I looked out my big front window and saw no one outside. My windows were also closed anyway, so it would have be difficult to hear voices talking outside. I looked out onto the landing between my door and the apartment across the hall, and no one was there either, nor the landing below ours.
I went back inside my apartment and sat for a while. I did not get any verbal response, but I did hear the very distinct sound of what seemed to be very tiny feet pitter-pattering back and forth across the linoleum of the kitchen floor. This would end up being the most constant and consistent sound that told me I was not alone.
Aside from the little feet running back and forth, things were moved around often. I have this door jamb contraption which every night I would secure my front door with (single ladies living alone ALWAYS have to think extra about safety!) and in the morning as I was leaving, I always placed it directly to the left of the front door. When I would come home, it would often be moved to a different place next to the front closet. I also had some weird technological things happen as well - like my GPS tracker was totally dead a couple weeks after I returned to my apartment from a trip. Yet one night it scared the crap out of me when it turned on by itself and began talking, seeking AmTrak service in Leavenworth, KS. I have never looked for anything in Leavenworth, or AmTrak service, ever. It was startling. I turned it off, and when I tried to turn it back on, it was once again dead from not being charged.
So, sometimes things were noisy when Ghost Baby was pitter-pattering around in the kitchen, but over all we were good roommates. Truth be told, I miss Ghost Baby and wonder who she or he might have been. I tried doing research of the area, but could never really find anything concrete, even about what the land was before the buildings were there. On the other hand, it is probably a good idea I moved when I did (for a job to another city) because by November of the year I moved, I was pregnant with my daughter and I have no idea how Ghost Baby would have reacted to having a real baby in the apartment.
Wow, that's fascinating! It's too bad you were never able to figure out Ghost Baby's identity. S/he sounds like a friendly little one (if also a bit mischievous. :) )
DeleteThank you for sharing your stories about this portion of your life.
I love talking about Ghost Baby, so I am always happy when people ask - thank you! He or she was quite mischievous but never bad or naughty or mean. That's why I do think this truly was a child's spirits and not something more sinister masquerading as a child (those are a big NO THANKS from me and one of the reasons I won't go to locations that have more aggressive/violent spirits). I hope whoever is in that apartment now appreciates Ghost Baby too.
DeleteI would like to do a proper paranormal investigation one of these days. I have been some to haunted places with some friends and it turns out I'm the most skeptic. One friend did take a picture of me and something of the "paranormal" did show up when I look at the picture on the camera. To this day I'm not really sure what it could be.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely LOVE investigating. I also am a big history nerd so I love that aspect of the investigation also. It is really cool sometimes the evidence you can gather with the basics, like a camera. You don't always need that fancy "gadgets" that may not actually work, that you can see on a lot of the reality shows.
DeleteI really liked this post. Here is my post-https://paigesofbook.blogspot.com/2020/10/top-ten-tuesday-books-that-remind-me-of.html.
ReplyDeleteGreat, thank you for stopping by!
DeleteAll of these certainly look haunting! Nice list!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Deanna!
DeleteThat's an interesting "Top Ten." I admit I'm not much into paranormal, but within some contexts it makes a story more intriguing.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Dorothy. I definitely have some stories to tell!
DeleteI haven't gotten into paranormal much (uhhh at all, afaik?) but I feel like I should at least give it a try.
ReplyDeleteIf you feel so inclined, Spirits of the Cage is a great place to start! Haverfordwest was also suuuuuper creepy/scary.
DeleteI can't handle things that are too scary so I haven't read any of these. I'm glad you enjoyed them! :) Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for stopping by!
DeleteOooh! All of these books look creepy! Great list!
ReplyDeleteHere’s my TTT!
Ronyell @ Rabbit Ears Book Blog
Thank you Ronyell, and thanks for coming by!
DeleteI also love all things paranormal, including investigations, but for some reason reading about it freaks me out way too much! Here’s my TTT
ReplyDeleteI am the same way! When I read the books, I have to have all the lights on...even though I have literally been to some truly haunted locations and investigated for myself. Our brains are so weird that way!
DeleteThank you, I love books like this, I’ll be adding some of these to my list!
ReplyDeleteGood! If you do, start with Spirits of the Cage, it was great! Haverfordwest was also super spooky/creepy/scary.
DeleteI love Richard's books as well. I swear this year I have only gotten through half of them with as many as he releases.
ReplyDeleteI requested that my library purchase several (we only get five requests per month, so I still have more to suggest to them) and they are doing so, but they have not arrived yet. I am really interested in reading his book on Villisca, and Malvern Manor also. And Farrar. But I don't know how any can top Spirits of the Cage. That one SHOOK me.
DeleteI get the books through KU. I still haven't read the one on Villisca but I loved the Malvern Manor one and Farrar one. I think the one on Farrar was probably my favorite one. I kept telling my friend about different parts of it as I read cause some things in it reminded me of other Paranormal things I am into(we both watched the Hellier documentaries and some things in Farrar were weirder than what seemed for regular ghost hauntings; don't won't to spoil it since you haven't read that one). But I do hope you can get to them. I def recommend those two.
DeleteWell darn it, you have convinced me to sign up for KU again...three-month free trial (for the third time), thank you very much! I am looking for his books now and will probably be up half the night scared silly, because even though I have no problem going to a location to investigate, when I am reading about investigations I seem to need to have all the lights on in the apartment!
DeleteHi Elizabeth, thank you for reading my books. As I type these words, I’m sitting in the dark inside Malvern Manor again, after having spent a week prepping a second book, tentatively titled “The Malvern Experiment.”
DeleteI hope you have a very happy Halloween. Sarah, thanks for continually championing my work, I truly appreciate it.
Always a pleasure to do so Richard. Thank you for writing about so many of your investigations. Until I can visit these places for myself, you can do it for me!
DeleteI must read The Shining. I will get to Stephen King soon.
ReplyDeleteYOU HAVE NOT READ THE SHINING??!! It's so good. So, so good. So good.
DeleteOh, I love that you included The Shining! One of my favorites. I read it in high school and just could not stop thinking about it after it was over. Just haunting ... well, literally.
ReplyDeleteThank you! It is definitely one of those books that stays with you long after you have finished it. It's even better when you reread it after staying at the Stanley!
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