Back on Track

New reviews coming soon! I'll be importing my work from the past two years, but in the meantime,
I'm reclaiming my small place on the web.

Monday, September 10, 2001

Non-Fiction/Paranormal Review

Grave's End
by Elaine Mercado
ISBN-10: 0738700037
Review by Heather Froeschl

It was supposed to be their dream house, an escape from apartment dwelling, home sweet home. It turned out to be a nightmare that didn't go away even when you slept with the lights on. In 1982 Elaine Mercado, her husband and two daughters moved into the house they had bought in Brooklyn, N.Y. With her husband's business in the upper two floors, Elaine was rarely alone in the house, but she never felt alone anyway; she had a constant feeling of being watched.

Over the course of 12 years there would be a great deal more than feelings of being watched. The house was haunted. It took Elaine quite a long time to admit that fact; admitting it would make it real. But there were dreams that she and her daughter both experienced, dreams that were suffocating in nature. In fact it felt as though something were holding them down, pressing them into the bed to such an extent that they were unable to move and at times, unable to breath. Balls of light danced about the house and small blurry shapes of shadow crept along the floorboards. A figure of mist would sometimes pass by one daughter's bedroom door and at times there would be whispering, right in their ears, of things like, "You leave us alone, and we'll leave you alone."

After years of not getting a decent night's sleep, years of feeling terrified on an almost constant basis, Elaine does some digging into the past of the house. Many stories are uncovered, but none of them are very comforting. The decision is made to call in a psychic investigator. Someone had to know what was going on and how to make it stop.

This is a true story, told by Elaine herself, a registered nurse and a woman of great strength of character. She admits her terrible fear and frustration in an effort to let people know that they are not alone in situations such as these. The lost spirits that shared her home were in great misery and pleading for help, though in ways that would scare even the bravest of people. It took an understanding to help the souls that Elaine did not posses at the time. This book is her passing on of the knowledge that even challenges such as this can be remedied.

The book goes into great detail of the haunting and the writing is such that you truly feel the hair standing up on the back of your neck. You may feel a desire to leave the lights on at bedtime, or the need to look over your shoulder for the feeling of being watched is contagious. You may even go so far as to do a great deal of research before purchasing your next home.

A foreword by the famous Parapsychologist and Author, Prof. Hans Holzer, who incidentally played a large part in the resolution of Elaine's unwanted houseguests, lends additional validity to the book, but the work is well written and most definitely believable.