Non-fiction memoir of Frances Kermeeen of her time being the owner of The Myrtles Planation. At times very good and other times you want to question her sincerity. Follows from just prior to buying the plantation to a few years after selling it. Follows her experiences with learning that there are ghosts there as well as losing a number of close friends over the years. Interesting read for a first person haunted house book, unfortunately no pictures. ( )

I bought the book because I thought it was a “true” story, but finding out that it was fiction kinda knocked the wind out of me. Of course, didn’t know it was fiction until AFTER I bought the book, but whatever. Whenever it comes to paranormal nonfiction, the writing style is usually lacking, but this was just poorly written fiction. All well. ( )

true story ( )

The Myrtles Plantation is an actual plantation located in Louisiana that has had a documented history of being haunted almost since it was built in the late 1700s. Frances and her husband Jim bought the plantation while on vacation in the 1980s. Since the first time they set foot on the premise, Frances knew that there was something wrong with the house. Yet, they still went through with the purchase and eventually opened the house to the public as a bed and breakfast. From the first night, Frances saw and felt ghosts in the house. Some had an ambiguous presence and others were more malevolent and eventually caused damage to Frances' loved ones. The ghosts ranged from slaves to children to locally prominent men. Frances spent many nights running from the ghosts and seeking residence in other people's houses in order to get out of the clutches of the spirits. Still, she refused to sell the house. Her best friend, Charles, moved into the house to help her restore and run the property. After a couple of years, Charles became a belligerent alcoholic who went from being a good willed and high spirited man to a depressed and pessimistic burden. Similarly, Frances' once faithful husband began to waver in his affections after living in the house for a period of time. Lastly, was Frances' "adopted" daughter Joanie who Frances took in and cared for like her own. Under the Myrtles' roof, Joanie became disobedient and betrayed Frances in ways that she never thought possible. Overall, the house took prisoner all of its residents and left their lives changed forever.

In the beginning, Frances wove an incredibly enthralling tale. The ghostly appearances gave me the precise chills that I was looking for. For nights on end, I had to sleep with my TV on for fear that the ghosts would come through the Kindle and plague me where I sleep. Once I got through half of the book, it seemed that Frances began to run out of steam. The story changed from the ghostly encounters at the Myrtles to Frances' trite memoir. I was extremely sadden by this change because Frances' own story was not nearly as exciting a that of the Myrtles. In addition, her entire tone changed and became blaming and sorrowful. She was judgmental of each character that she presented and described in great detail all of their flaws. Yet, she never turned the introspection on herself. Numerous times she told the same story about how she made her own money to pay for the place and yet was never accepted into the clique in town. This was not the only story in which she complained about situations in which she placed herself.

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true story ( )