Reviews for Ghosts along the Cumberland

The average rating for Ghosts along the Cumberland based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-01-21 00:00:00 B B In my quest to find good ghost stories, I've been asking all my friends to share stories from their youth. A good friend of mine and fellow horror fan, who grew up in Tompkinsville, Kentucky, not far from the Cumberland River and the Tennessee border, recommended this book to me. "It's creepy," he said. Seeing it was published in 1975--what I like to think of as the sweet spot for literary horror--I couldn't wait to crack it open. I assumed it was a book of short stories, but it's actually the culmination of years of research into Kentucky deathlore. Montell interviewed countless residents of Pennyroyal in Kentucky from 1958 to 1968, collecting their stories and beliefs/customs about death, which he breaks down into three sections: 1. Omens of Death 2. The Dead 3. Return of the Dead It's a fascinating read and absolute gold for an aspiring horror writer (me), with all kinds of eerie stories about haints, boogers, and death bells. The stories are told verbatim, using the informant's vernacular, and often only a sentence or two long, a page at the most. Montell traces many of the stories roots back to Europe and links them to other folklore from neighboring states. I recognized tales similar to those I've heard about San Francisco within these pages, like the ghostly woman in the long white dress looking for her dead child (the ghost of Stowe Lake in Golden Gate Park). Montell is first and foremost a researcher and not a believer. At one point, he recounts how a woman paused mid-story to ask if he believed in ghosts. He stopped, not sure how to answer. He didn't want to lie to her, yet he didn't want to dissuade her from finishing her story. Finally, he responded, "Well, they certainly tell some interesting stories about ghosts." His answer did the trick, and she continued, never questioning him again. I'm with Montell. I love the stories, but I don't believe. Yet as I read the folklore and strong-held beliefs, it's hard not to wonder: Could some of it be real?

Review # 2 was written on 2008-12-12 00:00:00 Timothy Ceska This book compiles "deathlore" in the isolated Pennyroyal region in south central Kentucky. It covers death omens, funeral customs and ghost stories and interactions with the spirit world. These stories are all first hand accounts compiled by the author and students of his at Western Kentucky University that were taken in the mostly taken down in the 1960's although most of these stories go much farther back than that. As an academic study on folk beliefs this was worth reading although as far as pure entertainment value I was disappointed. I believe in omens. They are a carry over from the pagan beliefs of the British Isles but they are very personal and can often seem silly when being recounted to an outside party. I believe in the supernatural, hauntings, ghosts or whatever you want to call this phenomenom but I also accept that in most cases people are just wrong and there is a "logical" explanation for what is happening. Also people exagerate to make the story sound better. Which is often made even worse when these stories are often told in second, third, fourth, etc person on down the line form and each person telling the story just adds more to make the story a little more entertaining. Besides that the stories are often lies from the very beginning.