Howdy, all! I am slowly emerging from this covid enwrapped cocoon to begin to feel like an almost normal person. However, I’m still going to do a few quickie reviews more because I wasn’t impressed with the books and not because I’m lacking for things to say. (Yes, isn’t it amazing how I can find lots to say about books I’m not impressed with? But I’m not going to do that to you all today.) Because I read several mediocre books, I did begin to think it was me (or, well, me with covid) but I finished Megan Miranda’s latest book in one day and that wiped that theory out. I will write up a review for that book, maybe tomorrow. Megan Miranda rules! (Spoken like a true fan girl.)
Anyway, we’re here today with A Haunted Road Atlas by Christine Schiefer (Author), Em Schulz (Author), which I expected to be a lot of fun but only ended up being irritating.
A Haunted Road Atlas
Christine Schiefer
Em Schulz
May 31, 2022
Andrew McMeel Publishing
Blurb: Pack up your Ouija board, wine bra, and squirt guns full of holy water … we’re going on a road trip! From the hit podcast And That’s Why We Drink, this is your interactive travel guide to the hosts’ favorite spooky and sinister sights. The world is a scary place … and that’s why we drink!
Jam-packed with illustrations, fun facts, travel tips, and beverage recs, this guide includes some of the country’s most notorious crime scenes, hauntings, and supernatural sightings. You’ll also find Christine and Em’s personal recommendations to the best local bars and ice cream parlors, oddity museums, curiosity shoppes, and more. Explore some of the most bizarre cases you’ve heard on the show, as well as exclusive new content from bayous, basements, and bars!
Purchase Link:
Amazon
Evidently the authors of A Haunted Road Atlas, Christine Schiefer and Em Schulz, are podcasters whose show And That’s Why We Drink is famous. This I didn’t know when I asked to review, but, of course, I do now. It’s for their fans that this book exists. Their fans will overlook the errors I found like the 1800s is the 19th Century not the 1900s. That amateur snake charmer is not an oxymoron. And, I’m pretty sure they meant consonants when they said vowels in relation to the name Megan. Their fans will probably also overlook the lack of sensitivity that allows work place mass shootings to be listed under fun facts. In (not fun) fact, I’m pretty sure that very little thought went into the section title “Fun Facts.”
They have pages and pages of references, which is not in and of itself odd, except that probably 99% of those references were websites. I mean, why bother using books to research? What is this the 20th Century? 19th? 18th?
On the flipside, the places they list can be of interest to those who want cursory information regarding regional haunted sites or true crime. Information is presented in a pretty perfunctory manner (the sounds the ghosts make almost become painful to read because they have not been finessed one iota and end up sounding the same after a while) with what are intended to be humorous asides tossed in. Other, not haunted, places are listed because the authors have visited them and recommend them.
Sorry to say that A Haunted Road Atlas failed to scare me or make me laugh. The fact that the authors sounded freaked out by some of what they wrote makes me think that scary is not what they’re going for. This one is completely for their fans or wannabe fans.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
(This doesn’t count as quickie, does it?) 😉
Normal eh 🙂
It’s relative, isn’t it? (I could add, especially in my family. ) lol
Ha, you should meet mine, no wait, maybe not …..
The 19th Century is 1800-1900, Sascha. The first century was 0-100. Oops…
Thanks. I have a pretty good handle on the centuries. The authors of the book were making a claim that a term was being used in 1986 that I had never heard of. I looked it up and discovered it was coined in the 1820s and was popular in the mid-19th century…which is not 1986 (not that that’s “mid” anyway). While I can’t know their knowledge, it seemed they might (hopefully) have had a brain fart and forgot that 1986 was actually 20th century. Heck, I don’t know what these kids are and aren’t learning these days.
Ah.. I understood that you were saying the 1900’s were the 19th century and they were wrong in saying the 1800’s were the 19th century…
Yes, the other way around. Maybe I need to rephrase my sentence. I am probably not expressing myself clearly enough. Thanks, Judy.
I always appreciate when people point out my mistakes so didn’t do it to criticize…just to clarify… ;o)
A concise and effective review. I’m glad and relieved to hear you’re feeling better.