Post by merangel on Apr 13, 2016 23:51:35 GMT -5
I admit, because I'm oblivious to the wrestling scene, I had no idea who this guy is other than he wrote this book. Once I got into the book, by the first short chapter, I realized and hooboy I knew I would be reading a bit about his life as a wrestler. Thankfully not too much, though, compared to Corey Taylor's paranormal book. So, that is a plus. AND it's not as crude with metaphorical gross references as Corey's. Another plus.
So, what is this one about? What makes this book different than the rest of any book about ghosts and such? The guy's a wrestler first and foremost but has an old-time interest in the paranormal since a few childhood incidences. Sounds just like how anyone becomes a paranormal enthusiast. However, this book is about someone who is trying to start his own paranormal investigation group and what he has to endure in the process, all the places he visits and how he is building a reputation and experience in the field. I am impressed with Brian's, or Ian's, (whatever you want to call him) no-nonsense, logical approach. He asks questions in the book and comes up with plausible explanations when odd things occur. For example, there was a hotel with a grim story and people claim the door slam shut on it's own in a certain room. He debunked this by testing the door and, with a team mate, confirmed that the floor is uneven and the wooden slats move when someone walks around near the door causing the door to slam shut. He goes onto say that he was not there when people have experienced things in the room so he cannot judge whether or not the claims are legit, but he is providing alternate solutions. Very refreshing to have someone do this in a book.
There are some eerie experiences that he admits he cannot explain and when he describes these encounters it's very odd indeed. One incident that sticks out is at another hotel, I think it's a different one than the one above. I can't remember. Brian and 3 others were investigating and broke up into 2 pairs so one pair was investigation one floor and the other 2 were in the basement. The basement is made up of rooms and a hallway. Brian and this girl were in a room in the basement for sometime and there were some thing's that were going on but it was near the end when they heard what they thought sounded like popcorn popping and the sound was coming down the hall and getting closer to their room. Brian and the girl stepped out to see what was causing the noise. The other came down and they continued to hear the sound and someone said it almost sounds like horse hooves and that the basement was once a holding area for horses. Brian followed the sound and as he walked towards it the sound started to move away down the hall and led him to a room that was dug up. One of the teammates told him that the hotel owner said they were digging in that room and found animal bones. He was perplexed and felt that the horse or someone with a horse wanted him to see that one room. I thought it was interesting.
Other things in this book describe times where he interviewed some people with loose marbles in their head. Such as the guy with the melted clock. I'll let you read up on that. Apparently this guy is infamous with paranormal groups as afterward, Brian was warned to go far, far away from this guy by another investigation group.
One thing you will notice that will drive you up the walls if your a grammar or perfectionist is the spelling and grammar errors all throughout the book. Some sentences I had to reread because it looks like it was written using autocorrect to fill in as editor.
I've only gotten half way done the book but so far it's going good. I like the short paragraphs and short chapters. So short I don't realize how many I've passed until I actually pay attention to a new one. Like, 2 and a half page chapters.
The only other criticism, and just because I'm a girl, is he get's sidetracked by hot girls in a very obvious and, sometimes, offensive way. He's not a complete arse, but I don't need to read about how hot some girls arse is.
He tells of videos and photos where he's captured things but didn't include any pictures. I'm going to try and find them online. Hopefully he's posted something.
All in all I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. I deduct for the spelling errors and the being side-tracked with hot girls thing. And the lack of pictures.