Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places
As a Bookshop affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
A chilling cross-country journey into America’s most haunted corners—and the dark truths they refuse to let rest.
From the author of The Unidentified comes Ghostland, a spellbinding expedition through eerie mansions, shuttered asylums, forgotten prisons, and ghost-ridden graveyards. But this isn’t just a tour of phantoms—it’s a deep dive into the buried histories these places refuse to surrender.
When a house hunt in Los Angeles leads Colin Dickey to “zombie homes” and real estate relics, his curiosity ignites. Why do some places feel haunted? What do ghost stories reveal about the fears, guilt, and unfinished business of the living? With wit and intellect, Dickey ventures coast to coast, uncovering the uncomfortable truths that haunt both our buildings and our collective past.
Some locations boast their notoriety as “the most haunted” in the nation. Others—like cursed burial grounds or crime-stained hospitals—echo with the stories America would rather forget. In every shadowed hallway and creaking floorboard, Dickey listens not only for what happened, but how we choose to remember—or rewrite—it.
Ghostland is at once a historical excavation, a cultural critique, and a ghost story in its own right—revealing that the specters we chase are often reflections of ourselves.