Buzz Words

Ghosts and the Afterlife: Real Encounters, Strange Stories and Spine-Tingling Mysteries by Jonathan J. Moore, illustrated by Peter Fairfax (Big Sky Publishing) PB RRP $19.99 ISBN 9781923514829

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

There are certainly many strange, spine-tingling real-life encounters in this book about death. One of the first stories tells of a woman who was buried wearing a valuable ring. The night of her burial, the gravedigger decided to exhume her body to steal it. However, when he went to take the ring, the ‘dead’ woman grabbed him and wouldn’t let go. After he ran away in terror, the woman returned to her home! In the story titled ‘The Prettiest Girl in Australia without a Head’, the author tells of Lucretia Davies, a young married woman who fell in love with a farmhand. The two lovers murdered the woman’s husband but were soon caught and sentenced to death by hanging. After Lucretia’s death, a phrenologist decided to take her head for study. Subsequently, Lucretia’s headless body is said to haunt the jail where she was hanged and decapitated.

Are ghosts real? Plenty of people say yes―especially those who’ve seen something they can’t explain. From ancient castles and abandoned prisons to school corridors, hospital wards and bedrooms where the shadows feel just a little too alive, this book explores the locations where ghostly activity refuses to stay quiet.

What actually happens in a near-death experience? Why do so many people describe the same visions, the same voices, the same mysterious feeling of being pulled back? And what about imaginary friends―are they always imaginary?

Packed with strange encounters, chilling folklore, eyewitness accounts and weird-but-true moments, this book mixes scares with humour and curiosity. Each story opens a door into a different corner of the afterlife―unfinished business, restless spirits, mysterious signs, creepy coincidences and the unforgettable moments when the world of the living feels just a little too crowded.

Ghosts and the Afterlife invites you to explore the biggest, boldest and most unsettling question of all: Is anyone ever really gone? Only one way to find out―turn the page.

This book has 11 chapters for readers aged 8 to 12. Some are about haunted places and people, others are titled ‘Buried Alive’, ‘Near Death Experiences’, ‘Horrors in the Hospital’, and ‘Imaginary Friends’. It also contains many humorous black-and-white illustrations that complement the written text, such as a head on a table in a bain-marie, a ghost in a prison, and one issuing from a hotel’s beer tap.

The author claims to have had 11 ‘spooky-strange experiences’ himself and believes there are plenty more waiting in dark corridors around the world.