Book Review: Spooky Great Lakes by S. E Schlosser (2024)

Synopsis: The Great Lakes have a wide variety of ghost stories passed down through generations. This book provides a collection of those stories, originating from multiple states and Canada.

Review: I came across Spooky Great Lakes at my local library, while familiarizing myself with their temporary location after coming in to get a book that was on hold. It sounded interesting, mostly because I recognized a few of the Wisconsin cities mentioned, so I added it to my checkout. After reading it, my opinion was mixed.

The book offers a good collection of ghost stories; some told in first person and others in third person. This included stories of ghost ships and face-to-face interactions with ghosts on land. Some of the backstories behind the ghosts were equally as interesting, including one involving a brutally murdered man.

The reason I say my opinion was mixed was the book, while entertaining, also felt incomplete. It's a nice compilation of stories and I'm as open minded as the next person but they are also stories that have been told and published before (as shown in the book's resources section). I would have loved to see the author take things a step further by providing a bit more history about when the stories started being told and perhaps with some historical details that could possibly validate them or at least make them seem a bit less fictional.

In other words, while I didn't hate the book, it was the equivalent of watching a movie that is based on real events but not knowing what the real events were.

Final Opinion: It's a good book from an entertainment standpoint but would have benefitted from some historical context, if for no other reason than demonstrating the author wasn't just copying the sources he borrowed the stories from.

My Grade: B

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Here are some reviews of other ghost stories:

Book Review: 50 Real American Ghost Stories by MJ Wayland (2023)

Book Review: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)