Review: Book offers scary tales of North Country ghosts
LEE GOODEN, For The Saratogian
03/18/2005

'Still More Haunted Northern New York' by Cheri Revai, North Country Books 2004 Nonfiction 109 pages $15.95

When the world is in turmoil, we tend to dwell more on the question of an afterlife rather than concentrate on the here-and-now. The here-and-now is scary stuff.

A prime example of our fascination with the afterlife is the demand for books about 'true-to-life' ghosts and the supernatural, like Cheri Revai's 'Still More Haunted Northern New York.'

The book is a follow-up to her other two popular and successful books about the spirits dwelling in areas of New York -- 'Haunted Northern New York' (2002) and 'More Haunted Northern New York' (2003).

There are more people now than ever before that have publicly claimed to have experienced some kind of haunting or believe in ghosts.

Revai writes, 'Because of increasing acceptance of paranormal phenomena, most people today no longer fear mockery for their beliefs in the supernatural. Indeed, ghost hunting has become the in-thing. As a result, paranormal investigation is a booming business.'

In 'Still More Haunted Northern New York,' Revai lists in the preface with an apt but corny title, 'Dying To Be Seen,' the different types of apparitional manifestations people have seen and or have captured in photographs and cites an anecdote for each. These include orbs, which are ... 'simply balls of spirit energy that move about unfettered and easily ... an orb is said to be the most basic form of a spirit presenting itself -- they (orbs) are to apparitions what embryos are to full-term infants -- the simple to the very complex.'

Next is what is called spirit mist, '... yet another form that spirit energy takes...it seems to be somewhere between the orb and the final apparitional form,' The final stage is an actual apparition,' Revai writes. 'An apparition is spirit energy that clearly takes on an animal or human form. It is the rarest and most exciting type of spirit energy to capture on film.'

Revai provides the reader with examples of these photographs in her book. Unfortunately, they are blurry black-and-white copies of scanned photos. Even with Revai helping out the reader with circles and arrows highlighting these supposed apparitions, it is hard to discern them from other images or if they are mistakes within the actual photographic process.

The 109 pages of Revai's book is a quick read, and she covers a lot of territory in northern New York -- Tupper Lake, Lacona and Evans Mills.

For example, Chapter 2, entitled 'Close Encounters With Orbs,' is a story that comes from Lake George: 'Rick Dalrymple has had several visitations by deceased loved ones since he was a child, so he knows what a spirit looks like ... he saw something he'd never seen before. Ghost lights, presumably: better known as orbs.'

Yes, Revai has written a book of ghost stories told to her by 'real people.' But, as in her previous books, the reader feels as if the stories are third- and fourth-hand information, like a secret whispered in someone's ear and then passed down a line of people until the message is garbled and lost in the translation.

Unlike contemporaries such as David Pitkin, who places the reader in the stories but retains a somewhat healthy skepticism, Revai seems to accept at face value the validity of her sources and their experiences.

If one can overlook Revai's over-eagerness to believe, her excessive use of exclamation points and is interested in learning about local haunts, then 'Still More Haunted Northern New York' is a book to buy and enjoy.