Troy Taylor

I’m giving this 3 1/2 stars, but I went ahead and rounded it up to four because I really did enjoy the book. It’s always interesting to learn about local history, and Jacksonville’s past is full of amazing and tragic stories.

It was the haunting stories I have some issues with. I love ghost stories and the supernatural, but a lot of the stories in Haunted Jacksonville felt like an afterthought. They didn’t seem to be very fleshed out or researched much. I would have enjoyed more information about how the authors went about their own ghost hunting as well as a bit more description of the experiences. There were a lot of sections with long, fascinating historical stories that ended with a small paragraph stating that many people experience footsteps or noises, so they think it might be haunted. They weren’t all like that; there are a few very creepy accounts in some cases; but I thought there would be more in a book titled, “Haunted Jacksonville.”

The book also ends rather abruptly without any conclusion or wrapping up. The last paragraph is an experience a girl had at Illinois College, which ended the chapter on Jacksonville schools. The next page was the bibliography instead of a conclusion or closing paragraph.

Despite these issues, the book really is a fun and interesting read full of rich historical information about the small rural town of Jacksonville, and I recommend it to anyone who’s interested in local history.… (more)

Taylor is a wonderful story teller. For many of the stories it's as much a history of the place as it is the ghost story or urban legend involved. He breaks the union into various parts of the country with several stories for each area. Bachelor's Grove cemetery near Chicago, The Winchester Mystery house in CA, the LaLure mansion in New Orleans, Gettysburg battlefield and it's surroundings and The Mount and the ghost of Edith Wharton. Very well written and again it's as much a history lesson as it is a book of ghost stories.… (more)