Cover Image: Ghosts of the Grand Canyon

Ghosts of the Grand Canyon

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

I love a good ghost story. This one had some interesting stories from the glorious grand canyon. I've never been there, but plan to go next year, so it should be interesting to see some of the places mentioned.

Was this review helpful?

I love ghost stories, so although I've never been to the Grand Canyon, I really enjoyed reading this book.

Was this review helpful?

I have been to the Grand Canyon twice and when I saw this title I thought it would be different. Many of the stories, while interesting did not have a backstory and this had my interest waning. It is a collection of experience people have had with the supernatural when at the Canyon. It is well written but it did not hold my interest for too long and since I could not finish it, I will be unable to review it on social media.

Was this review helpful?

I was excited about this book first because I have been to the Grand Canyon many times since I was a teen and even hike from Rim to Rim to Rim. I will say that as much as I have heard just a few of the stories or tails hear in this book, I have had no experiences of any of the ones talked about in this book. Mine were just of the beauty of the Canyon from the North Rim to the bottom seeing and hearing the powerful Colorado river then seeing the difference of the South Rim. Though to me it is still a magical place and I do feel a connection to it whenever I am there, so maybe that is my strange draw.
This book has many type o’s but I was reading an uncorrected proof, other than that I thought it was a good book, but as my wife says I like the Canyon so I am biased.

Was this review helpful?

Everyone know of the Grand Canyon, not everyone knows it's history. Especially the ghost stories that Brian Martinez and Judy Martinez have accumulated in this book. I loved the history behind the ghosts . A read for anyone interested in the Grand Canyon even if you never have or will visit this marvel. I have visited the Grand Canyon and will again. Now I will have to look for some of the sites mentioned in this book to make it even more of an adventure.

Was this review helpful?

Ghosts of the Grand Canyon is an entertaining memoir concerning the tales and rumors of ghostly doings in and around the Grand Canyon. Some are dated long ago - some are as recent as last year, all are offered with a grain of salt and a twinkling eye. Those sightings in the south rim sleeping options gave me pause. I know now what rooms not to ask for.

The chatty writing style makes you comfortable despite the subject matter and the information about the facilities available, the walking paths, comfort stations, etc at the National Park is timely and an important addition in your travel plans. I can happily recommend Ghosts of the Grand Canyon to friends and family and anyone with a Canyon trip in their summer plans.

I received an electronic copy of this memoir from Netgalley, Brian-James and Judy Martinez, and Llewellyn Publications. I have read and reviewed this work on my own volition.

Was this review helpful?

Ok, first things first - 1.) this copy isn't fully proofed yet and yes there are a lot of typos and grammar errors. This is obviously not the author's fault and I'm sure it will be corrected upon publication. I mention it here because it did impact the enjoyment I had as at times it was hard to get what the author was trying to convey. (Also the paragraphs and subject changes were abrupt as there was no spacing between them at all.)

2.) I am not exactly unbiased about this subject as I've worked at the Grand Canyon not once, not twice, but three separate times. I have lived in Colter Hall (it's mentioned right away) and I have heard many of these types of stories first hand. In fact I said out loud "Someone else wrote my book!" when I saw this on NetGalley because I have always wanted to write something like this and have never gotten around to it. LOL So when I say I am unbiased I really mean it. I know the places this book talks about very well and recall very vividly the way such tales would spread across the village and employee areas.

So all of that said - I really enjoyed this despite the typos and formatting issues. I imagine when it's officially published I may get the kindle version.

Some of the stories I'd heard versions of, some seem more like urban legends and some I hadn't heard of before and got chills reading. MAJOR Props to the authors for addressing the long withstanding rumor that Fred Harvey haunts the El Tovar when the man had never been there when he lived! I remember being asked that often when I worked at ET and always had to explain it was an urban legend. In fact this book has a lot of stories that aren't really ghost stories but just fun little stories about life in the canyon such as the story of when Paul McCartney stayed at the El Tovar . I suppose if one ONLY wants a list of ghost stories this might not be the book for them but because of my personal experiences I really enjoyed reading them.

My only real disappointment (other than the formatting issues) was that there is one story in particular I was hoping to see addressed and it wasn't. It's possible the authors haven't heard it as I don't know if it was widely known. I only heard it from one guy and it gives me chills to this day.

I'd recommend this to anyone who likes the Grand Canyon, ghost stories, and personal stories. :) (Also hi to the authors if you ever in a million years happen to see this - I'd love to hear from you and swap stories!)

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy.

Was this review helpful?

Who knew the grand canyon had so many mysteries! This is an easy to read book about many supernatural stories that center around the grand canyon. I found it really interesting and recommend it to any fan of the supernatural

Was this review helpful?

Rating: 2.5 Stars

I am not what you would call and "outdoor girl". In fact, I am pretty much what Jack thinks of when he calls Rose and "indoor girl" the first night they met. I don't like nature (close up, at least. I can admire from afar), I don't want it to touch me, I don't want to be in it, I don't like humidity and being sweaty and gross (winter is a whole different story, I love winter and I love snow). Even so, there is something about the Grand Canyon that draws me in, that I would be willing to set aside all my 'nature rules' in order to go hiking up, down, and all around. So when I saw a new paranormal book up on Llewellyn's page AND it was specific to the Grand Canyon, I was pretty interested.

Sadly, this one was not a favorite - and I have read a ton of these types of books that Llewellyn offers.

First, I want to address the issue of the errors in the proof. This is not the author's fault in any way and what I am about to address did not impact my rating in any way. However, this is now the second or third book from Llewellyn where the proof copy has been terrible. I don't mean typos and such, those are expected at least somewhat in an uncorrected proof. This issue goes beyond that. Any time a word should have had an 'ff', that set of letters was missing. There is another combo as well, I believe either 'if' or 'fi', I can not recall, but it was hugely distracting. And as this is not the first proof I have found that in recently, I am wondering what the purpose is? Sometimes it was obvious was the word was meant to be, and other times it made a different word, which then lead me to believe there were many typos, until I caught on to the pattern of what was missing. Again, this part did not impact my rating, but it was suuuuuper annoying.

As for the book itself, as it went on, I found myself skimming toward the later half, especially when stories became very similar. I don't to discuss anything too in-depth about the kinds of experiences people had and continue to have, because there are some great stories. But I do think some of the more repetitive ones could have been left out. Another major frustration and part of the reason for the score of 2.5 stars instead of 3 has to do with the fact that there is little verifiable information. We often do not even get dates or a time frame for when any of the experiences supposedly occurred. I understand that putting a date to all would be impossible, given the fact that so many stories are passed on from one staff member to the next, and information gets lost over time, but it certainly would have lent some credibility to some of the stories if there was more meat to them overall.

The authors are very familiar with the setting, living and working in the area. I mistakenly thought when I first grabbed this one though, that these were all their personal stories and I should have read the synopsis a little more carefully. They do share some of their experiences, but overall the majority are accounts that other people have reported to have had. I realize there simply is no real plausible way to do any kind of investigation within the canyon, the amount of contamination in the evidence would be astronomical. Even so, I would have appreciated some more concrete evidence within some of the stories.

Something else I think the authors did well relates to their knowledge of the Grand Canyon. We get plenty of historical information not only related to the supposed hauntings, but of the canyon itself and its surroundings. I think that part is just as important, so readers and would-be investigators get a feel for why a place might attract spirits or why guests might linger, long after their earthly body has departed. I also have never really given much thought to what a vast complex of buildings must cover the site at this point, and it was interesting to learn about that aspect of the history as well.

Was this review helpful?

If you can overlook the extreme typos in this draft there are some interesting stories in this. I would read the corrected version of this book.

Was this review helpful?

Years ago, my family and I visited the Grand Canyon and found it amazing, so I was excited to see this book up for review. I usually love books about ghosts, but I just couldn't fight through this one. Not because of the writing, but because of the formatting. combinations of fl, fi and ff were completely left out of this uncorrected ARC. The human brain is pretty impressive and can fill in the blank most of the time, but it was still a tough read.

The bits I managed to get through were interesting, so I will give it 3 stars, but the poor formatting was just too much for me to finish.

I am still very interested in reading the final version of this book, and I will keep an eye out for it in my local book store.

Was this review helpful?

I love ghost stories of all kinds. This one just didn't hit the spot with me. This book does have stories of personal encounters and describes in detail places that "hauntings" take place, but is very thin on factual historic evidence.

Was this review helpful?

I liked this book, it was full of entertaining and exciting stories.
After reading it I'd be curious to visit the Grand Canyon and see the places that are described.
I liked the style of writing and how the story were told.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Llewellyn Worldwide and Netgalley for this ARC

Was this review helpful?

I wish I had this book prior to visiting the Grand Canyon. I enjoyed that this book offered information about the sites and its history as well as short ghost stories. It was an enjoyable read and I will recommend it to those planning to visit. This would be a great recommended read for my Dark Tourism course.

Was this review helpful?

When I saw Ghosts of The Grand Canyon, I knew I had to read it. My husband and I lived in Arizona for many years and visited at least once a year. We have walked the Canyon as much as possible. The views are breathtaking. I never saw a ghost but I can see that there would be some. I immensely enjoyed reading these stories. The Bright Angel Lodge and Trail are special and should definitely be visited. I see that some of the paper towel holders would go crazy and empty out during the night. It is absolutely true. I experienced it in more than one place while there. If you like true ghost stories, you have to read this. I loved it. Recommend it highly. I received this book from Net Galley and and Llewellyn Publishing for a honest review. The opinions are my own.

Was this review helpful?

Ghosts of the Grand Canyon: Personal Encounters That Will Have You on the Edge by Brian James and Judy Martinez, was received direct from the publisher. I cannot honestly say that I have ever heard of Grand Canyon ghosts. I suppose it would only make sense, if you have ever been there then you know it seems as if any false step could be your last. Firstly if you have never been to the Canyon or if you are interested in its history, fun facts, etc about the Canyon, this book is great for those reasons, let along the ghosts. To end with, some of these ghosts are mean, not the happy goo lucky "did I just see a ghost" type ghost, some are the "jump/kill yourself" type.

5 Stars

Was this review helpful?

I really enjoyed this book. I honestly have read a lot of ghost stories and never found any related to the Grand Canyon. I have never been here and didn't know anything about this location. After finishing the book I looked up a travel guide and was able to picture all these places described. I thought this was an Awesome guide to the Grand Canyon, even if you don't like the ghosts. I thought the author did a wonderful job of describing the scenery and the buildings. This also had a really good mix of different types of scary activities that have gone on. I hope this author will write more about other locations.

Was this review helpful?

This was a very much uncorrected draft, and honestly that made it a little bit harder to read than it otherwise might have been. Anytime there should have been an ff or an fi in a word it was left out, which made for some very rough reading at a times. It was hard to believe that that was a problem and I'm not sure how that even happened!? Also why hadn't it been corrected before the book was presented for anyone to read?

I ended up giving the book a three, because it was pretty interesting content. I love the National Parks, and I hadn't thought much about Grand Canyon ghost stories before. I have read other books about the tragedies and deaths that have happened there, but the idea of haunting's taking place was unusual and I liked that. Mostly though I loved reading the history of the Canyon itself and how that related to the possibility of supernatural occurrences.

Overall I really hope the book gets a VERY heavy handed overhaul and gets all those issues corrected before final publication. I know it isn't just me either, because I read some other reviews that references the same problem with this ARC. Maybe it was a computer glitch?

The content is decent though, and I had a good time reading it!

Was this review helpful?

The copy I received from Netgalley was an astonishingly bad draft. There were major formatting issues (the letter combinations "ff" and "fi" were not included in ANY of the words) that seriously detracted from the reading experience. For example, the word "difficult" became "dicult." Even if I could have ignored that, the abundance of misspelled words gave the text a truly unpolished look. How could a book be published -- even in rough form -- without correcting the words "to" and "too"? In general, the writing needed a heavy editing hand. I couldn't make myself finish, and stopped reading at 34%.

Typos aside, I'm rounding up to 2 stars because the history of the Grand Canyon was interesting. I haven't seen a ghost book about this area before. The authors, who live and work in the Grand Canyon setting, openly share their personal experiences. The stories don't include much specific detail; for example, the dates of actual sightings or occurrences are rarely mentioned. Still, the historical information bolstered the overall appeal.

Was this review helpful?

I received an uncorrected proof of this book and had to overlook a lot of typos as one does with some advanced copies. However, it only took until the first ghost encounter before I completely forgot about them because I was enthralled with the supernatural stories.
This book is both a guide to the sites and history of the Grand Canyon and a collection of ghostly encounters. It made me at times jealous that I didn’t have the chance to work there when I was younger (what an experience!) and at other times want to immediately begin planning my family vacation.
I’ve already recommended this one to a few people for when it comes out. I’ve got several friends who share my interest in travel and the paranormal and can’t wait to read it as well.

Was this review helpful?