Atlas of Paranormal Places: A Journey to the World's Most Supernatural Places (Unexpected Atlases)

This is a superbly researched book. I can only commend the author. She has worked exceptionally hard & travelled far and wide to complete this book. It’s exciting and very well written. I can only recommend this brilliant book.

This is a lovely book. Very sturdy with a nice cover. The contents are interesting, outlining different locations and their links to folklore or reports of supernatural events.

A beautifully presented an illustrated book. It is divided into paranormal themes given an outline of cases from across the globe. It does not offer an indepth analysis, but is enjoyable and interesting nonetheless.

Love this book, well written and interesting. I bought for myself and two more for presents.

This is a fantastic read if you’re interested in the supernatural! Evelyn has done a great job in describing a variety of spooky places across the globe. What I found particularly impressive is how much her knowledge and passion shines through this book. I learnt so much about the supernatural, from learning more about the ‘grey lady’ ghost to vampires. The book is beautifully written and also incorporates some beautiful photos. A MUST read if you’re interested in all things spooky! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Evelyn Hollow hails from Livingston in Scotland’s Central Belt. Her first name is pronounced in the Scottish way, as ‘ever-lin’, with the emphasis on the ‘ever’ part. The back cover of her book describes her as a 'leading parapsychologist’. But ‘parapsychologist’ is an ambiguous term. In the UK, it tends to be used for university-based academics who undertake laboratory-type research concerned with the paranormal. I’m not sure whether that applies to Hollow, although I know that she’s been an articulate commentator in numerous podcasts and television programmes hosted by the popular presenter Danny Robins. Helpfully, on pp. 4-5, there’s an outline map of the world, showing the locations discussed in the book. And it’s good to see that the book has an index. There are also nicely constructed maps of the locations mentioned, along with photos of them. Structure After a brief Foreword by Danny Robins, there’s a short Introduction by Hollow herself. Six chapters follow, each with a thematic title (e.g. ‘Haunted Places’, ‘Witchcraft’, ‘Sacred Sites’ and ‘Strange Nature’). Within each chapter, several locations are discussed. For example, in the ‘Sacred Sites’ chapter, there are sections dealing with places such as La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the Luxor Temple in Egypt. In some instances, more than one specific site is mentioned in connection with a location. The book ends with acknowledgements, picture credits, and the index. Evaluation The book focuses on 38 locations from around the world. Disappointingly, Hollow’s Introduction (on p. 9) doesn’t explain how she came to select them. Four of them are in the UK, and and one is in the Republic of Ireland. Only one location in Africa receives coverage (that relating to Luxor Temple). Likewise, only one location in Australia (Wycliffe Well) is featured. The Donbas region of eastern Ukraine receives coverage on pp. 210-13. Russia, the world’s largest country, contains so-called ‘anomalous zones’ (e.g. the ‘Molyobka Triangle’ in the administrative area known as the Perm Krai), but the book doesn’t discuss any of them. Similarly, there’s no mention of the Hessdalen valley in Norway, a well-known hot spot for aerial light phenomena. Based on its main title and subtitle, one might have expected the places discussed in the book to have been, and perhaps still be, very active paranormal hot spots. There’s some such ‘paranormal content’ in the book, but in respect of quite a few locations, Hollow’s focus is more on folklore, legends, religious traditions and cultural beliefs. For example, on pp. 160-63, she discusses a fire that’s been burning continuously, for decades, at a desert crater in Turkmenistan, which is a predominantly Muslim country. This fiery crater is known as the ‘door to hell’. However, there seems to be nothing paranormal about it: the flames are being fed by subterranean natural gas that’s coming to the surface. But Hollow uses the designation ‘door to hell’ as a reason to go into some detail, perhaps to a nerdish degree, about how Hell is conceptualized in the Islamic faith. In Chapter 2, which deals with witchcraft, there’s a section on ‘Pendle Hill’ (pp. 78-85). This hill is in eastern Lancashire, England, near the town of Nelson. But Hollow’s principal focus isn’t the hill itself, but the notorious 1612 witch trials. They involved a number of people from the locality, nine of whom were found guilty and hanged in August of that year. I don’t know whether anything ‘supernatural’ occurred in that area in the past, but Hollow didn’t leave me with the impression that the locality has any claim to being a paranormal hot spot nowadays. I noticed some grammatical errors in the book (e.g. the plural noun ‘phenomena’ being treated as if it were singular). At points (e.g. on p. 70), Hollow spells the adjective ‘indigenous’ with an inappropriate capital ‘I’. On p. 100, referring to a location in Turkey, she spells the name of the country as the Turks would (i.e. as ‘Türkiye’), which is bizarre for an English language publication. (It’s like saying that ‘Deutschland suffered heavy bombing during the Second World War’!) I also noticed a geographical error, on p. 152, where Hollow states that the Aokigahara Forest, a notorious suicide hot spot in Japan, is on the ‘south west edge of Mount Fiji’. In fact, it’s to the north-west of Mt Fuji.

I great book and well researched realy enjoyed it and the pictures are wounderfull..

Amazing book Well written and so very interesting

Not many spots in the USA discussed. However, very interesting spots from all over the globe are brought to light with the how’s and why’s.

OK

Truly magnificent and inquisitive