With boundless curiosity, Dickey conjures the dead by focusing on questions of the living -how do we, the living, deal with stories about ghosts, and how do we inhabit and move through spaces that have been deemed, for whatever reason, haunted? Paying attention not only to the true facts behind a ghost story, but also to the ways in which changes to those facts are made -and why those changes are made -Dickey paints a version of American history left out of the textbooks, one of things left undone, crimes left unsolved.

Some have established reputations as 'the most haunted mansion in America,' or 'the most haunted prison' others, like the haunted Indian burial grounds in West Virginia, evoke memories from the past our collective nation tries to forget. Crammed into old houses and hotels, abandoned prisons and empty hospitals, the spirits that linger continue to capture our collective imagination, but why? His own fascination piqued by a house hunt in Los Angeles that revealed derelict foreclosures and 'zombie homes,' Dickey embarks on a journey across the continental United States to decode and unpack the American history repressed in our most famous haunted places. intellectually intriguing.' - The New York Times Book Reviewįrom the author of The Unidentified, an intellectual feast for fans of offbeat history that takes readers on a road trip through some of the country's most infamously haunted places -and deep into the dark side of our history.Ĭolin Dickey is on the trail of America's ghosts. 'A lively assemblage and smart analysis of dozens of haunting stories.absorbing.

Description One of NPR's Great Reads of 2016

Ghostland by Colin Dickey