Red-Haired Ash Reads

This was an interesting look at ghost stories featuring women. This collection is broken down into sections (Maidens, Witches, Mothers, Jezebels, Madwomen, etc.) and takes you through the history of the person and where they haunt. 

Quite a few of the women ghosts in this were ones I had heard of before, like the Winchester Mystery House, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire ghosts, and Lizzie Borden. The ones that really interested me though were the stories about people like Mary Surratt, who was hanged for helping to kill Lincoln. I had never heard of her before but her story was very fascinating. I also found the ghostly wives of West Virginia to be interesting, but also a bit disappointing in how sparse that chapter felt, especially as someone who was born and raised in WV. 

While I did enjoy this book and learned a lot about women ghosts, I think it fell a bit flat for me because I just read Colin Dickey’s Ghostland. Ghostland’s presented a few of these women already and talks about why we create ghosts in the first place. While this book just presented the history of these women ghosts and some of the author’s experience with ghosts and haunted places, which as a nonbeliever, I wasn’t really interested in. I think I was just expecting a little more questioning on why there are so many women ghosts and less on actual personal experiences. 

TW: fire; suicide; domestic violence; murder and death; racism; slavery; torture; 

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