Annie Wilder

I liked the author's previous book much better. This one the first few chapters read like a genealogy of the author's family which is nice on one hand but strange reading about a complete strangers relatives. When she does get into the paranormal and ghost story sections of the book it does get some better. But most are stories about her family and them having abilities or odd experiences. Many of her relatives have precognitive capabilities. Nearly all of her siblings have had some sort of ghost interaction. There's a whole chapter of ghost animals, like the family ghost dog that always rings the doorbell at Christmas. Nice overall but really seems to be the author reminiscing on previous family experiences. Her first hand experiences are better but maybe that's because their first hand and not re-telling of someone else's stories.… (mere)

Trucker Ghost Stories
And Other True Tales of Haunted Highways, Weird Encounters, and Legends of the Road
Editor: Annie Wilder
Publisher: TOR
Published In: New York City, NY
Date: 2012
Pgs: 254

REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
A quiet, empty highway, middle of the night, things that shouldn’t be real, can’t be real, shouldn’t be there...but are. Stories told by truckers and those who wander alongside them along the higways and byways of North America. Millions of miles of road, millions of stories: women in white, wandering soldiers, phantom hitchhikers, the ominous, the strange, uncanny visions, mysterious apparitions, roaming spirits, angry demons, ghostly passengers, phantom highways, text messages from beyond, skinwalkers, the restless dead, ghost brides, and the Highway to Hell.

Genre:
History
Horror
Mythology
Non-fiction
Occult
Paranormal
Religion and Spirituality
Short stories
UFOs

Why this book:
Dad was a trucker. So is my brother. Love a good ghost story.
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The Girl in the Window
The Feel:
The first story in the collection that made my hair stand up and gave me goosebumps.

Favorite Scene:
Love that glancing out the window and finding “someone” staring back at you.

Pacing:
Very short, very quick story. Very creepy, Well done.
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UFO Encounter in Wyoming / US Highway 26
The Feel:
The descriptiors in this story give it a believable ring. The melted truck and burned driver...woof!

Favorite Scene:
When the narrator locks up his brakes to keep from hitting the lead truck where it stopped...was stopped in the middle of the road.

Pacing:
Very fast story.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
Wish we found out who the burned driver was. What hospital he was taken to after the “event.”

Hmm Moments:
The description of what the UFO had done to the truck is incredible.

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
Would make a great movie, sort of a Race with the Devil only with UFOs and aliens instead of cultists/satanists.
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A Not-So-Good Night’s Rest
Favorite Scene:
When he throws back the curtain on the truck’s sleeper and looks out the passenger window only to see “something” staring back at him...at eye level.

Hmm Moments:
Wonder if the other driver started up and drove away cause he had already gotten a visitation from Sasquatch.
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Red-Eyed Man on Wisconsin Highway A
The Feel:
The forcing someone off the road in the middle of nowhere and, then, chasing them after they wreck is creepy as hell.

Favorite Scene:
Getting mad and advancing on the person after the wreck only to find them with red eyes and a horror movie face and, then, being chased by themj.

Hmm Moments:
Vampire or ghost...the awakening in the hospital after it caught the driver with a vague recollection of another car finding the driver near the road. Doubt I would have been going back out there after I got out of the hospital.
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Two Dead Rabbits
The Feel:
Magnum creepy.

Favorite Scene:
From the second the sunburned, heatstroked guy walks out in the road, the creepy factor jumps off the scale. What would have happened if the driver had walked out in the desert with the guy to see the “two dead rabbits.”

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
I would have been very interested in what happened, especially if I had called the County Sheriff.
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Last Good-Bye
The Feel:
The smile this one brings to your face is genuine. I hope the story is true.

Favorite Scene:
When it cranks up.
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Last Page Sound:
Meh.

Editorial Assessment:
More “And Other…” than Trucker Ghost Stories. Many of the stories could have been expanded and padded just a bit to give them a bit more flavor. I bet in the tellings they have been embellished to make them...more. Some pretty good ones here, but in the hands of a good storyteller, they could have shined more than they do. I respect the editor’s choice to present the stories as close to the original telling as possible. I believe the stories could have handled a retelling.

More UFOs than ghosts and haunts too. Just wanted more trucker oriented stories.

All of these could have handled a bit more ghostwriting. The whole second half could have stood a bit closer to the editor’s pen.

Knee Jerk Reaction:
not as good as I was lead to believe

Dewey Decimal System:
133.122
Wi

Would recommend to:
no one
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Errata:… (mere)