Haunted: The Incredible True Story of a Canadian Family's Experience Living in a Haunted House

Joanne Wotypka is a branch library assistant in the Cameron Library and
the University of Alberta.

A family is irresistibly drawn to a quaint old house. Despite visions,
cold spots, and various poltergeist activities, they stay … but for
how long? Though superficially akin to The Amityville Horror, Haunted is
not a story for those who need severed heads, pits of blood, and action
on every page.

Quite frankly, the pace of this book is very slow, but that is what
makes it interesting (and creepy). The author simply, and without
superlatives, relates the story of the haunting of her family’s house.
In an unusual twist, the entities seem to tolerate, if not accept, the
family, and endeavor to communicate with them. However, the constant
ringing of smoke alarms and the refusal of the dog to venture upstairs
signify that this is not simply a benign circumstance.

The (under)reaction of most of the family members seems odd at first,
but gradually the reader comes to understand that living with ghosts is
not the same as reading about them. The children seem especially unfazed
by most of the supernatural events, while Dorah’s husband, Ted, seems
largely uninvolved. It is Dorah who attempts to bring peace to the
house, among and between the bodied and the disembodied.

More than a ghost story, Haunted is a tale of family resilience and the
meaning of home. We are left with the eerie feeling that this family’s
encounter with the paranormal could happen to any of us.