Ghost Stories of Michigan (Ghost Stories of)

The first chapter features four groups of paranormal investigators (i.e. "ghost hunters") and the different spooks they run into during their investigations of cemeteries, homes and other supposedly haunted sites. The Michigan Ghost Hunters Society produce the best stories of the first chapter; the organization's investigations of the Eloise Mental Asylum and a possessed home in Livonia are especially good.

The second chapter, a collection of old Michigan folk tales, is the strongest. While some readers may be familiar with the stories of the Red Dwarf or the Hundred Heads, I was glad to see them here, vividly retold with vim and more than a little bit of twisted humor. I've noticed the reviewer below seems to have misread the obvious hilarity of the Red Dwarf's various descriptions. I've heard stories of Detroit's "stmpy monstrosity" before, but this was the first time the Red Dwarf made me laugh. While camping in the U.P., my wife and friends ended up reading the entire second chapter around the campfire.

The rest of the book covers hauntings in different settings, one per chapter- public places, houses and the lakes, respectively. While these stories are well written and entertaining (the story of the Michigan Bell Building, Mr. Enoch, and the Calumet Theatre stand out), this is also where the author stumbles, citing authors Gerald S. Hunter and Frederick Stonehouse in a number of retellings in the fourth and fifth chapters. Whatever Mr. Asfar was thinking here (does he hope to push these tales into the realm of folklore by retelling them?), he would've done well to stick to the methods he used in the rest of the book. Otherwise, a great book on ghosts in Michigan.


Bubbling tendrils of drool   June 26, 2004
 5 out of 7 found this review helpful

Michigan only seems to have so many ghost stories, and apparently most of them have been told. Dan Asfar, author of "Ghost Stories of Michigan" retells stories previously published by Reverend Gerald S. Hunter, Frederic Stonehouse, and Marion Kuclo and gratefully mentions these authors in his 'Acknowledgments.'

Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, himself an author of horror stories may also have had an influence on this author, or so I'm guessing from sentences like: "The Dwarf was giggling uncontrollably as bubbling tendrils of drool dripped from the rancid leer on its face." If that had been the lead sentence to Asfar's story "The Red Dwarf," I think it would have been a strong contestant for the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction award.

The jolliest section of this book, "Michigan Ghost Hunters" relates the adventures of intrepid groups such as the West Michigan Ghost Hunters Society. Many of these stories involve nocturnal trips to graveyards, where the participants have armed themselves with digital cameras that later reveal "orbs, ectoplasmic mists all over the photographs." Usually the ghost-hunters remember sensing "threatening feelings" or an "imminent sense of doom" in the areas where their film later revealed the shining, multi-colored spheres. Each of these ghost hunting societies has a web site listed in this book where you can view the results of their supernatural research.

Graveyards are not the only sites that have been explored by the ghost hunters. Some of the author's most interesting prose involves the history of places such as Eloise Mental Asylum or the Bath Consolidated School. The latter building was dynamited by its janitor on May 18, 1927--one of the worst mass murders in this state. Private houses, hotels, bars, and a theatre also come in for their share of mysterious occurrences.

If you enjoy the stories in this book, its author has also hacked out--excuse me--published "Ghost Stories of the Civil War," "Ghost Stories of America," "Ghost Stories of Pennsylvania," and "Ghost Stories of the Old West."