The Black Hope Horror: The True Story of a Haunting - Hardcover

Williams, Ben; Williams, Jean; Shoemaker, John Bruce

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688051766 ISBN 13: 9780688051761

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 1991

Synopsis

Odd occurences, violent storms, plagues of insects, and finally five swift deaths strike the Williams family upon moving into a quiet Texas subdivision, which, they soon discover, is situated on a graveyard

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

The fine line between documentary and dream is almost eradicated in this ``true'' haunted-house tale set in the Deep South. Ben and Jean Williams have ``uneasy feelings'' about their new Texas home the moment they discover ants invading their dishwasher. Soon, their toilets self-flush, knickknacks dance, ``freakish storms'' hover over them, flocks of crows attack, pet cats and gerbils go mad, and friends and relatives are stricken with fatal diseases. In relating their ordeal with ``ghostly forms,'' the Williamses get help from free-lancer Shoemaker, whose matter-of- fact, third-person narrative is so clinical and terse it sounds downright funny, if not apocryphal. The obvious homages to horror films give this ``non-fiction'' an ironic tension that may not even be intended. Perhaps the story's greatest conflict is not so much the actual tragedy as the slippery verisimilitude with which it is told. When it shifts to narrating the Williamses' frequent nightmares, ``the leap from the natural to the supernatural'' seems more a literary sleight-of-hand. The most effective concession to ``reality'' occurs when Ben and Jean attempt to sue their realtors for ``Abuse of Corpse'' after they discover that their house was built on a graveyard for black slaves whose angry spirits have apparently raised hell. However, the Williams family is in a ``legal Catch-22'' since they can't prove the graves exist unless they break the law and dig them up. The fact that the book is being pitched as following ``the tradition of The Amityville Horror and Poltergeist'' demonstrates how effective such ``real'' accounts can be when they imitate art. A short and breezy look at horrendous experiences that seems to be haunted by the presence of a ghost-screenwriter. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal:

YA-- Strange sinkholes opening in the backyard, severe storms confined to one neighborhood, toilets flushing by themselves, televisions turning on while unplugged, poisonous snakes and shadowy images appearing in the darkness--events usually supporting a horror novel but that were daily occurences in the lives of Ben and Jean Williams. At first they loved their newly built retirement home but as the months passed, they became more and more aware that things weren't normal. Marriages in the neighborhood deteriorated, pets died mysteriously, and plants failed to flourish. Most tragically, the Williamses lost three members of their immediate family to cancer and one daughter to a massive heart attack at age 30. Then the couple discovered that their community was built over the Black Hope Cemetery, and they became convinced that spirits were retaliating for the desecration of their graves. The Black Hope Horror is a fascinating and enlightening glimpse into the supernatural--made all the more terrifying because it is a true story. Even the most skeptical readers will be convinced of its authenticity and feel great compassion for these people who survived hell here on Earth. --Katherine Fitch, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA -
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0688051766
• ISBN 13: 9780688051761
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224