Actual Rating: 1.5 out of 5
A book to avoid if you are even remotely sceptical...
Before I go any further into this review, I feel it is important to explain my stance on ghosts and similar paranormal phenomena. The best way to describe me would be, I suppose, a 'sceptical believer'; the vast majority of claims seem to be bogus and yet I still believe that something is out there, that there are incidents which truly are inexplicable and which may point to a layer of reality past the one we are used to. As to whether ghosts are the spirits of the dead, the tangible projections of our own living psyches, or the remnants of emotional energy from times gone by, I really have no clue.
Obviously paranormal research is a field with a large amount of ridicule leveled at it and unfortunately it is quite deserved a great deal of the time. When I come across a book, show, or 'research team' that either forgoes rational thought and the scientific method, or who are clearly putting on a show, I become frustrated. My sympathy goes out to all the researchers and aficionados who have a real interest in these types of phenomena, those who are not afraid to accept a failure, and who want the truth above all.
And so we move on to 21st Century Ghosts.
Foreward and Introduction
I was unaware of who Jason Karl was when I purchased the book. Upon discovering that not only has Karl worked closely with Derek Acorah but also had Acorah write the foreward to21st Century Ghosts, I almost slapped my face with my palm. Psychics and mediums in general tend to fill me with a lot of suspicion, though I never quite discard the possibility that someone somewhere has these kinds of abilities. Derek Acorah in particular has got to be one of the biggest charlatans out there--he is a trickster who makes it incredibly difficult to trust in this kind of phenomena at all.
Moving on to the introduction written by Karl did not do anything to restore my confidence. I will quote the most amusing part and I hope that you will keep it in mind as I describe the book further: "My intention with this book is not to prove to sceptics that ghosts exist, or to pander to the 'ghost obsessed' who accept everything they see as paranormal. Instead, the evidence is provided for the reader to make up his or her own mind." As you can guess, this claim is utter nonsense. For a book which claims not to want to spend time appealing to sceptics, it certainly wastes time trying to convince the reader that 'so-and-so could not have known this prior to his/her experience' and that 'there really are ghosts in this spooky house, really!!'. As for not pandering to the 'ghost obsessed'... well, the entire thing is written in the most cheesy and sensationalist manner, with photos altered to look even more 'eerie'.
The Tales Themselves
As I mentioned already, the writing throughout is pretty atrocious. Full to bursting with tropes and clichés, it reads like a fourteen year old's school project. The amount of times the word 'spooky' is used will make you want to scream and in some cases the stories read like extraordinarily dull, repetitive lists. It would be unfair of me not to mention that a few of the stories are actually rather enjoyable to read as fiction and there are even a couple which I grudgingly afford a certain amount of trust in the sense that I don't think those particular individuals are lying or exaggerating. These 'acceptable' additions are few and far between.
One of the main selling points of 21st Century Ghosts is the inclusion of 'breathtaking photographs of never-before published ghostly events'. Do not be fooled; these are not 'breathtaking' in the slightest. Almost all of them can be explained away by even the most amateur of readers, although at times there are claims that photographic experts and/or 'psychic researchers' have been unable to logically explain them, and you are treated to one particularly laughable cover up attempt on page 25 where you will find a photo which is supposed to be of a 'vortex'. This 'vortex' is quite clearly a camera strap and in fact I had been trying to puzzle out exactly what was supernatural about it when I read the line "Sceptics might suggest that this is the camera strap obscuring the lens, but no strap was attached to the camera at the time,". Ha! Excuse me if I don't believe this at all.
In fact, you will encounter this throughout the book; many of the researchers and witnesses expect you to simply take their word about their supposed experience and fail to provide adequate mundane alternative reasons. This allergy to reality and opposing view points is most clearly shown by the disproportionate amount of psychics, mediums, and sensitives mentioned throughout the pages whose declarations are taken as facts and never scrutinised.
The book has a tendancy to use paranormal 'buzz words' with little to no description of what they actually mean. Being something of a paranormal and horror enthusiast, this was not troubling for me, however I don't doubt that there will be many readers who will feel quite confused by them. Personally I think that this was done to make it seem that these were 'professionals' talking but the fact that the theories are regularly unexplained and unexamined produces the opposite effect in anyone who knows even a little about these subjects. A term which pops up often and irritates me the most is 'ley lines'; the brief explanation in one of the stories is that these are powerful links between sites which somehow produce 'energy'. What is failed to mention, however, is that the idea of 'ley lines' came from an amateur archaeologist, one Alfred Watkins, who never assigned these lines with any sort of magical significance. This came later and was suggested by an author named John Michell, a man who has penned several books filled with dubious theories. I find it preposterous that any self-respecting researcher would base anything on such flimsy ideas and this, along with the overabundance of unchallenged 'psychic' claims within the book, points towards either wilful ignorance or an intent to deceive.
Another issue I have with the stories is that several harmful stereotypes pop up within them, such as the 'evil gypsy' and the 'Haitian voodoo curse', and these largely go unchallenged and unexamined. The last thing the Romani people and black Americans need is more hysterical guff leveled at them and personally I think that writers of this sort of publication have a responsibility to call out racist ideas rather than to further them.
I feel that I should now mention a positive, and this book certainly does provide some nice brief descriptions of several interesting locations. If I were to embark on my own investigations, these places would certainly rank high on my list. Unfortunately this leads on to yet another negative; a large amount of the stories come across like advertisements for profitting paranormal research teams, rentable holiday locations, and public houses. I have to wonder whether Jason Karl received any gifts or money from the owners of these locations?
Conclusion
Don't spend more that £1 on this book. If someone gives it to you freely and you are able to suspend your disbelief to a decent degree then you've got your hands on some fairly entertaining--if trashy--bathroom reading material. Likewise, if you are interested in finding reputedly haunted locations or the contact information of various paranormal investigation teams then you could do worse than this book. Of course, the internet can do this job much better.
