Ghostland is Parnell’s moving exploration of what has haunted our writers and artists – and what is haunting him. It is a unique and elegiac meditation on grief, memory and longing, and of the redemptive power of stories and nature. Didn't feel particularly invested in any of the characters, but I suspect I would have appreciated Lillian more if, again, I was reading as opposed to listening. She seemed to have a lot of spunk, but being voiced by a dull adult male didn't really help her case. Trigger warning for nearly every -ism you can think of because this guy's a lazy asshole. In addition to racism and sexism, my review mentions slavery, sex work, grave robbing, and rape.

It is you who are deceived, my boy. In your father's kingdom there are many islands and many princesses. But you are under your father's spell, so you cannot see them.' I guess the only good thing I could say is that there were some interesting stories that I was not aware of and therefore enjoyed learning about it. Por qué han proliferado las leyendas sobre la Casa Winchester? ¿Sabían que la mayor parte de estas historias puede refutarse fácilmente? ¿Tendrá que ver con que a la heredera la sociedad le tenía resentimiento por gozar de tanta riqueza cuando EEUU atravesaba una crisis financiera? ¿Por qué en lugares donde existían puestos para el comercio de esclavos las únicas historias fantasmales que se cuentan son de blancos? ¿La ya tan gastada explicación de los encantamientos provocados por cemeterios de nativos americanos responde a la culpa por haber exterminado a los primeros habitantes de la nación? ¿Por qué estamos tan obsesionados con el "ruin porn"? A marvellous blend of travel writing, history and grief memoir, Ghostland provides not only a seance with the author's lost family, but also a premonition of his dazzling literary future' Paul Willetts, author of Members Only, filmed as The Look of Love A lively assemblage and smart analysis of dozens of haunting stories… absorbing…[and] intellectually intriguing.”— The New York Times Book ReviewPsychogeography at is finest, Ghostland is a personal meditation on the primal power of the British landscape to shape literature, film and television that tunes into the core collective experience of the Haunted Generation’ Cathi Unsworth, author of Weirdo

JH: You interweave Britain’s dark culture with its sublime scenery and wildlife; how do you think the natural relates to the cultural? Is there anything about this relationship currently that you would like to see change or evolve? Though it doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment of the book, it sometimes feels as though the author drifts off on a tangent. For example, a chapter that begins by introducing a notoriously haunted house eventually segues to a discussion of Spiritualism, which ultimately leads to an examination of a woman's right to vote. These shifts in narrative are never a point of contention for the reader, because all of the information is well-researched and tied together seamlessly. a b c Strauss, Frédéric (5 February 2018). "Festival de Gérardmer 2018: l'année des poupées sanglantes (et françaises!)". Télérama (in French) . Retrieved 24 February 2018. Ghostland is both haunting and entertaining, echoing with an enthusiast’s love for that which is out of kilter with the everyday; things not quite right glimpsed from the corner of the eye’ Stuart Maconie, Mail on Sunday It's a cool concept. There were a lot of logic leaps and unclear story elements that brought this down for me though. The ending is also terrible. It's all built up for a final confrontation that I was quite enjoying when we flash to an epilogue. If this was a movie, I would have thought they ran out of money before they could film the ending. Major things happen between the ending and the epilogue and it's all left unexplained with just a setup for a sequel. That ending was ridiculously frustrating.Aside from that, though, I did rather enjoy the story. There was carnage and mayhem, and ghosts, and some unique and interesting ideas. I think it would have been much more intense if I'd read it, but listening to it in a dark store, working on my own in a deserted shopping centre, it was still sufficiently creepy. A skilful and intriguing weaving together, less of haunted houses as of haunted people, including MR James, Alan Garner, W G Sebald and the author himself, in places where the past has left its mark’ George Szirtes, author of The Photographer at Sixteen My father the king has told me who you are,' said the young prince indignantly. 'You deceived me last time, but not again. Now I know that those are not real islands and real princesses, because you are a magician.' Parnell also travels his ‘Ghostland’, visiting places, both of his childhood and of importance to the novels or films that have stayed with him over time. He really does cover the length and breadth of the country, searching for glimpses of the past, sometimes for his own reveries and sometimes, it seems, to really try to get inside the heads of the people involved in bringing ghoulish delight to his younger self. It's not really like anything I've ever read, it's a strange mix of recalling classic ghost stories and novels while revisiting his family's life and travels in those areas, birdwatching, and memoir around illnesses in his immediate family. Somehow he manages to weave all of these together seamlessly too. Actually it was quite interesting to see the common themes he used to connect topics too.

I grabbed my gore suite for the second time around on this book as I knew I was going to be needing it and the second time around I enjoyed it even more! One summer, around the time I was in middle school, I spent a week at a friend’s family-farm in central Minnesota. The farmhouse was a familiar type, nestled in a copse of trees and surrounded by otherwise-treeless fields. The house was old and sprawling and had been subjected to several additions over the years, so that the interior was filled with odd nooks and corners, with shadows and strange sounds. JH: Horrified is all about British horror, but horror is a universal concept; what are some of your favourite international horror books/films? In what ways, do you think, have/are international horror fictions influencing British horror, or vice versa? The chapters are divided by different famous ghost stories and the author proceeds to debunk them all. In that vein, there really is only so much of a 'people capitalizing on someone's tragedy for fun', 'smearing an innocent person's name', or 'no proof of said event ever happened' refrain that is repeated before the reading gets dull.

Even the author Duncan Ralston mentions this in his afterword about hoping he got the technology correct or that it worked for the reader. EP: I suspect there’s a difference between the solace some might take from dark fiction and film (and other creative forms) and dark coverage on the media. For me at least, there is a comfort – and that strange frisson of excitement – to be had from the former, though I don’t think there’s too much to be had from morbid news stories. It’s easy to become all-consumed by up-to-the-minute figures or unfolding developments and to want to seek them out constantly – certainly in the earlier part of the pandemic I found myself watching a lot of rolling news and wondering about the latest gloomy predictions, until I realised that I was just putting myself permanently on edge. Ben is excited most of all as Ghostland is centered around horror author, Rex Garrote, who had died in an unique way and who had also lived in one of the most haunted houses in America. So Ben is really psyched to be able to explore the theme park and he just wants to delve deep into all the exhibits. It's really quite the experience, I marked up a lot of lines, and I probably should have been less lazy about looking up Britishisms that I didn't know here and there, but I'd happily read this one again. There's a lot going on and hard to absorb it all in one pass. However, I enjoyed the history behind these myths and urban legends, the architecture, the locations, and on occasion, I agreed with some of the psychological musings the author offered up for why we love these stories, why we are drawn to paranormal activity, and why we feel compelled to believe in ghosts, but mostly I felt the urge to de-bunk HIS theories.