THE HAUNTED STATES OF AMERICA

Shiver your way across the United States of fear in this collection of paranormal stories by a diverse range of authors, including Dusti Bowling, Ellen Hopkins, and Padma Venkatraman.

It’s dark. Maybe it’s Halloween. Something isn’t right. Are those glowing lights? Strange sounds—screams, moans, whimpers, or more subtly ominous noises—float on the air. Your cellphone is useless. You’re impelled to do something you know you shouldn’t. Finally, the dramatic climax arrives, and you’re saved—or perhaps not. Variations on these elements with fearsome flavorings from every state, plus Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., confirm that whatever the setting, humans can find scares. Camping is risky, whether you’re in Washington state or in Florida, Hawaii, New Jersey, or Wyoming. Readers will certainly want to avoid haunted Seven Bridges, Wisconsin, and after reading the Arizona entry, they’ll never look at a cactus the same way again. The entries offer frights for a variety of tastes: Many of the stories are good for a mild frisson; a few are truly creepy and chilling. Among the most accomplished narratives are Chris Eboch’s “The Ghost in the Gold Creek Mine,” a ghost story set in Alaska, Freeman Ng’s “The Ghost of Angel Island,” a paranormal tale set in California, Giselle Anatol’s historical Pennsylvania entry, “The Jockey’s Ghost,” and Rae Rose’s “Hand and Sica Hollow’s Haunted Trail on a Blue Moon Night,” which takes place in South Dakota. Final art not seen.

An entertaining, fright-filled geographical tour.