Paranormal Intruder: Paranormal Book Review

Paranormal Book Review: Paranormal Intruder

It might be a little early in the season to bring out the paranormal books, but is it really ever? Sure, the leaves are still green and it’s hot out. Not really the mood – you know, the bright red and orange leaves adorning the lawn, the early sunsets, the slight chill in the breeze; the Fall. Still, one can dream. Rest assured, that time of season is just around the corner. This doesn’t stop me from picking up a book on the subject of ghosts and hoping it gives me a good scare.

It started with a call to 911. Caroline Mitchell, a police officer, answers the phone and listens as the frantic caller shouts into the receiver, neglecting to let her get a word in when. On the line is Neil Mitchell, her husband. There is something wrong, something is happening in their home. “I think our home is haunted,” he states. And thus, we are thrown into paranormal chaos and calamity for the duration of the book.

Paranormal Intruder is the alleged true-encounter with a supernatural entity that has taken over the lives of Caroline Mitchell and her family. It is a story that has been told ad infinitum to no resolve. If you read one of them, then you’ve read them all. So why do I keep reading them? That’s a good question. I honestly believe that I am hoping (praying) that one of these books will catch me off guard and deliver genuine frights, enough to keep me up at night. But, alas, that remains to become a reality. Once the believer, I have become so jaded by these alleged claims of purported hauntings. To date, there are only about a handful of books that left an imprint on me because they were genuinely frightening while also being well written. Those books are True Haunting by Edwin Becker, Skeleton Keys by John Klann, The House on Poultney Road by Stephanie Boddy, and The Uninvited by Steven LaChance. Of course, there are more, but again, these are the ones that I can rattle off the top of my head. It is difficult to rattle my bones and so I hoped to add Paranormal Intruder to my list of supernatural favorites.

The book starts with a bang as an unseen force wreaks havoc in the household. Utensils, cups, plates, even rocks seem to materialize from thin air, always whizzing by someone and always just missing striking someone’s head. These moments often lead to someone asking, “Did you throw something at me?” even after the umpteenth time it’s happened. I don’t think anyone ever got hit and if they did, it was by something light and nothing to render a serious injury. This entity (entities) was a bad shot, the Stormtroopers of the paranormal. There were phantom calls that threatened members of the household, in particular, Neil, who seemed to be the target for a reason that was barely explored. Many a time, the family was driven from their home in terror, only to come back the very next day. Then, again, flee in fear of their lives. Still, after a night away, they returned. Rinse, wash and repeat. This was the basis of nearly every chapter, and after the third or fourth time, it loses its sting.

As mentioned, the book started with a bang, and Mitchell neglected to apply the brakes. It was as if she wanted to tell us every single detail of what she experienced, barely giving us room to breathe. This is far from a good thing, especially if we aren’t allowed enough time to process the previous encounter. If these encounters varied, I might have forgiven Mitchell. But, most of what happened was very repetitive and, unfortunately, not very scary. Of course, if what she claims happened to me and my family, I too would be scared witless. With claims such as, “There was nothing there.” Or, “It materialized from thin air.” Or, “Did you hear that?” When something is described as being extremely loud, how could one not hear it? It was as if the author wanted to emphasize something even further for the readers. You just wrote about said sound, I don’t need it further explained through dialog. A mere nitpick, but a nitpick, nonetheless.

If you haven’t already figured it out, I did not like this book – at all. Mitchell describes too much of what was happening, not in a Stephen King way, but in a way my talkative 5-year-old would. She kept going and going and wouldn’t stop divulging more information than was necessary! While others might relish in trivial details, it came across as fluff – padding to add more pages to the book. Furthermore, the Mitchell’s once terrified at the beginning and middle of the book – even blaming the entity for starting a fire – all comes to a pass when the entity follows them to a pub and they seem to have a laugh with it as they “communicate”. The ending is very anticlimactic and there is no explanation nor any sort of investigation of what may have caused this nightmare. Did I mention that Mitchell is a police officer? There are a few mentions if Neil’s playing with an Ouija Board once upon a time in his life, but this doesn’t surmount to anything. The author also toys with the idea that Lee, Neil’s friend, is the root of the hauntings but, again, nothing comes out of it.

It is far-fetched when the author painstakingly tries to convince the reader by over-explaining the events that occurred. It was as if she wanted to paint such a clear picture in the mind’s eye that everything she wrote about must be true. On the contrary, this spelt hogwash and sounded made-up; a work of fiction disguised as a faux memoir. The other aforementioned books differed from this one in that the author’s voice in those books didn’t sound so desperate to get their stories across; they didn’t seem so out there and unbelievable. The authors left it up to the reader to fill in the blanks of what was in the dark, behind the door, or under the bed. It was what was in my mind where I could imagine the horrors and not be bogged down by spoons, forks and pebbles being hurled by an invisible force. Subtlety is key, in my opinion. This book was far from scary and very redundant. Paranormal Intruder was a complete disappointment. It was a rather boring read and added nothing new to the paranormal book world.

If you are so inclined to do so, you can check out Caroline Mitchell’s blog here.