I found this to be such a fascinating book. Very interesting story (memoir) for a person in such a small town, and have so many things happening there. I found it to be well-written and enjoyable to read. Hard to put down, too. I would feel like the town was cursed if I was there growing up, as well. Great read!

Its been as of late that I have been getting into true crime and biographies. I' am so glad I was approved for this!

This was up my alley. A child in a small town really believes the town is cursed because of all the events that take place. Its amazing that in the span of 13 years, there were more than 40 accidents and murders which is unbelievable.

One would think after reading this, that this was going to be one of those great mystery, super natural books but nope. This is a true story. Author Ann Margaret Johns lived in the small town of Clarkston , Michigan. Between the years 1969 through 1982, these tragic events took place.

Johns has an amazing memory and writes in a way that keeps your attention. My only ONLY complaint in this was the lack of proofreading but then again, this is an arc so hopefully the finished copy has the errors fixed.

Thank you so much #NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I admit I could not get into this book. I will absolutely try again in the future. The few pages that I did read would seem to suggest an interesting book for the future.

A family moves from Detroit to Clarkston to flee violence occurring in Detroi. Living in the country upsets Ann and gives her nightmares. As Ann learns about people dying from a mysterious death or an accident, she can’t help thinking that the town is cursed. Where does she get the idea that the town is cursed? She graduate from high school early. She gets an apartment and a job while attending night classes at the local college. She asks Sue to help her end the curse the town is under. She wants to protect her family and friends from the curse. Sue and Ann both believe it is cursed due to all the deaths that have happened in their town. Ann leaves Clarkston for Florida as her employer wants her to work there. Will she come back to live in Clarkston?

The time setting for this book is the 1960s to the 1970s. Ann has written it through her eyes as a child. You experience what it was like living in a small town. Our lives in small towns are very different from that time period. Reading her life reminded me of what my life was like then. It is well written in spite of misspellings. It’s a true story that makes me reflect on my life at the present

I thought it was a very interesting way, from a child's voice, growing up and her perception of a town's curse with an unusual amount of deaths for a small town. I enjoyed the story and reminiscing with her down memory lane as I too was a child of the 70's. If you are looking for details on these deaths - this story is not going to give it to you but the author has a detailed appendix with info for further investigation. I truly enjoyed hearing her story and about her family.

I generally tend to avoid memoirs, but this one just looked too interesting to ignore. I wasn’t wrong, it is interesting, but it also has issues with how it flows, jumping back and forth between time periods and different phases the author was going through as a youth.

I found the story the author told fascinating and indeed, it does seem that this little town has suffered more than its own share of tragedy and misery, but after finishing this book, I’m still not positive where the idea of a curse came from. In any case, it is an entertaining read if you can stick with it. I struggled a bit with the organisation of the book and the voice of the author, but that was probably just me. I mostly read non-fiction history books, so the fault may be my own.

Even so, I believe there are parts of this book that every person can relate to, especially those who have grown up in a rural area.

If you are interested in stories of unusual events and small towns, this would be a good book to choose.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

"Clarkston’s Curse", by Ann Margaret Johns, is a biography of sorts. It is also a tale of horror, of sorts. Finally, it seems to be an experiment in stream of consciousness, of sorts. It is a mostly well written, but inexplicably disjointed retelling of Ms Johns’ early life, dominated by her obsession with the accidents and deaths in her city.

The telling is interwoven, non-chronological, and often seemingly randomly connected. However, there are two lines in each chapter: one, Ms Johns’ family story and her personal experiences at the time; and two, the abundant cases of misfortune which traumatise her. By the end, she appears to make a case for it all resulting from a curse on the town, that she helped clear in a basic ritual. What is less certain is whether her own psychological issues (nightmares, substance use, and others) are successfully treated.

The connection to the supernatural, or even the simply extraordinary, is too feeble despite the many news-worthy cases mentioned in the book. They never demonstrate anything other than coincidence and wider-spread lack of common sense among the population. The effects of alcoholism, domestic abuse, neglect, etcetera, on young women, however, make this book otherwise interesting.

Ms Johns is a good writer in the sense that her use of language, her descriptions and dialogues, come across clearly so that it is an enjoyable despite the gruesomeness. Sadly, the incongruence of the jumps in the narrative, both in connection, subject and time, as well as the sudden breaks and starts of chapters, overwhelm the reading experience.

This book is a great read!
I wish I had even half the incredible memory that this author has about her childhood.
The detail she goes into is amazing and extremely well written.
It is compelling reading and her theory of a curse is very hard to argue against.
It reads almost like a real life Stephen King novel set in a real life Derry.
I’m sorry for all of the memories of death and loss that the author has of her youth but I’m so glad she shared it with us
A great read.

I have not read any book in a long time that was as engaging as Clarkston's Curse. This was very interesting and captivating knowing the fact that Ann Johns actually lived through the strange happenings in her small town. She took a different approach and just laid out the facts as they happened to get you the opportunity to decide for yourself, what was really going on. Why all these unexplained deaths, accidents, mishapps or what ever people want to call it. I completely enjoyed reading this book and believe anyone that has grown up in a small town can and will relate to her haunted/uneasy feelings about Clarkston.

Between 1969 and 1982 Clarkston was struck by unexplained deaths and accidents. Ann Margaret Johns was a child growing up in the midst of this.

This is her re-telling of these events as an adult trying to put events of one's childhood into perspective and trying to understand why things happened.

Although this book doesn't solve the mysteries of the events that took place I think it possibly helped the author to make more sense of them and put the memories to rest.

The book is written in a wonderful conversational tone which makes it almost impossible to put down despite its darker theme.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me the chance to read this book.

Annie John examines the inexplicably high number of tragic accidents and death in her childhood home of Clarkston, Michigan. Over 40 events occurred from 1969 to 1982 in this tiny town. While living in this seemingly cursed town, Annie has awful nightmares and night terrors which she attributes to the evil atmosphere. Good read!

Well I am sure that if this was not a true story I would never have believed it!!

The small town of Clarkston has seen far more than its fair share of grisly endings. Car accidents, drownings and murder and whilst this book does discuss those this is far more about how that felt for a community and particularly from a child’s point of view.

How scary for a child to be exposed to such experiences from such a young age and indeed tragedy befell her own family. Trying to make sense of life and death is difficult at any age but reading this made me realise just how affecting it can be when you are young.

Truly fascinating.

Very interesting read about a town that seems to have some really bad luck. Keeps your attention as you read about all the tragedies.

This book tells the story of a young girl growing up in a town that seems to have a heck of a lot of bad luck!
It's more of a memoir than I was expecting, but still an interesting read.

I found this book, Clarkston's Curse, quiet sad and depressing. Drinking, enabling, murder, In the 70's.

I just had to pick up this book, once I realized it was the Clarkston from my area growing up in Michigan. From Pine Knob to passing through her town on our way to Pontiac to our family’s business, we saw a lot of Clarkston. I found the book to be better than expected, with some decent story telling from her youth, and I could surely relate to much of it from my experiences growing up not far away in Holly. I sure never realized that there was so much tragedy going on nearby, that’s for sure though. Of course, we all know about the Oakland Child killings, which are still a thing, and are still being written about, but possibly solved, according to some. But all of the rest, well they were new to me, so it made for an interesting read, especially for a local area person. The lack of proofreading showed, but I’ve seen that in books from name publishers as well. Electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Ann Margaret Johns, and the publisher.

Memoir author Ann Margaret Johns grew up in the small community of Clarkston, Michigan. This quaint town, had just over one-thousand residents at the time.  

This idyllic setting should have been the epitome of the perfect place to experience an all-American country childhood. However, although her childhood was filled with such activities as tobogganing and skating on the local pond, it was also the setting in which she began to believe that her town was cursed due to the almost unbelievable number of tragedies and deaths that took place.

The town of Clarkston certainly had a dark side...

People kept dying in strange ways and in large numbers.  What do I mean by this? Well, here is one example:

"The Standring's were hosting a party in their home that spring. Eric Standring, a sophomore at Clarkston High School, accompanied family friend Paul Lammonds from the party to Paul's home to fetch a guitar. Two hours later, Eric returned covered in blood and incoherent. Deputies found Paul Lammonds' body in his home. He'd been beaten to death. Eric had never been in trouble before that night, at least that's what I heard. No one knew what came over the boy to make him do what he did. Paul's early, tragic, and unexplained death was the first of many to come in our idyllic small town."

Other deaths were determined to be accidental, but even these were strange and unusual. There were a couple separate deaths of men working on their cars and ending up crushed beneath them. There were even instances of children being dropped off on doorsteps and raised by the family inside, despite not knowing where the child had come from. There were multiple drownings and an incredible number of car accidents - many of which were almost too weird to be believable.

The author does list all her sources in the back of the book. I also looked up some of the cases online and was able to find newspaper reports that validated her claims.

"Over a 12-year period from 1970 to 1982, this village of 1,300 witnessed 11 different murders – NOT including the notorious serial killer who visited their small town as well."

"In addition to the murders, Clarkston experienced another 30 unexplained and accidental deaths, from car wrecks to drownings, from freak accidents to plane crashes."

Fascinating, unusual, unlikely, improbable, yet all true. If you enjoy real life mysteries and true crime, you will not want to miss this book.

As for the rating of this book, I have to admit that I am conflicted. The subject matter is compelling and my interest was piqued early and the level never waned, but, it is exceedingly obvious that this was written by an amateur author and is in need of a professional editor. I found several typos throughout the book. It is for this reason that I am rating CLARKSTON'S CURSE as 3 out of 5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐ 

*** Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book. ***