Eerie Whispers is a nonfiction title from last year with the subtitle: Exploring Canada’s Reluctant Relationship with Its Ghostly Lore. Despite my scientific profession and general skepticism, I’ve always been fascinated by and enjoyed ghost stories or any other paranormal or strange tale under the folklore umbrella. And people with that kind of interest are included among those for whom journalist Brian Baker (founder of The Supersitious Times) specifically wrote this book: “those who have an honest interest in Canadian ghost stories and feel at home with the spooky: historians, folkorists, archivists, anthropologists, investigators, mediums, parapsychologists, journalists, and enthusiasts.” The Canadian focus of Eerie Whispers drew my interest from among all the other similar books that get published each year, especially because of that word ‘reluctant’ in the subtitle. Canadians are reluctant to talk about their local ghost stories and experiences? The major focus of the start of Eerie Whispers is about this question, and the related question of why. Being in Buffalo, which at times feels like South Canada (and at times we might really wish it were), I hadn’t heard about or experienced this sentiment of paranormal discomfort from our Northern friends and neighbors. In fact, the only ghost tour I’ve ever gone on in my life was just across the border in Ontario. Now, the reluctance is of course a generality with certain exceptions, but apparently there is more of tight-lipped hesitance to delve into and dwell upon spooky ghostly claims with any remote suggestion that they may reflect a reality. Eerie Whispers is interesting to the ghost or general folklore enthusiast just in that regard alone.
