Review: Stillwell: A Haunting on Long Island by Michael Phillip Cash

Stillwell: A Haunting on Long Island
written by Michael Phillip Cash
published by Red Feather Publishing

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Book Depository, Goodreads

Why did I pick this book: I hadn’t read a good ghost story in a while.  (I received a copy of this book for review purposes.)

Did I enjoy this book: It’s decent.  Cash’s writing isn’t the greatest, and I’ll admit I was more interested in watching the Russo family put itself back together than I was in the ghost story, but it wasn’t terrible.

I don’t want to say the ghostly bits weren’t believable (because that starts an entirely different conversation), so let’s just assume for the sake of discussion that we all believe in ghosts.  Now.  The thing about ghosts is that they’re notoriously inconsistent – even those super famous TV ghost hunter guys can’t seem to consistently document what they “know” exists.  It sort of detracts from a story’s believability, then, when in the span of only a week entire rooms worth of flowers rot instantly, dream demons scratch the main character, and everyone’s seeing orbs, collecting photographic evidence, and chatting with full-bodied apparitions.  If the book were set in some sort of alternate world where interactions between the living and the dead were more common it wouldn’t bother me, but real world Long Island just isn’t creepy enough for this level of paranormal activity.

Would I recommend it: Nah.  You should pass on this one.

About the book – from Goodreads: Paul Russo’s wife just died. While trying to get his family’s life back in order, Paul is being tormented by a demon who is holding his wife’s spirit hostage on the other side. His fate is intertwined with an old haunted mansion on the north shore of Long Island called Stillwell Manor. Paul must find clues dating back hundreds of years to set his wife’s soul free.