This was very thoroughly researched and it was put together well! It's dense on information, so the pacing is a little slow, but very compelling!

As with all of Kate Summerscale's books, this one was expertly researched and tells a compelling story. She leaves just enough room for readers to come to their own conclusions about the strange case of Alma Fielding.

Not the best horror/paranormal book I've read; but it is good! Was a slow start but picked up towards the end.

I adore Poltergeists and fraud in the Spiritualist Age, so this should have been a slam dunk for me, but instead it was…ok.

There’s a huge danger with a topic like this of conflating junk science with the real thing, and while Summerscale does try to explain this with respect to psychosexual manifestations of mental illness, there’s still so much we don’t know about the topic, which begs the question, why write the book?

If in the end, we’re forced to concede that we’re really just guessing and can’t know for certain, it’s tough to swallow a book that is presented in the form of scientific history. The unknown, unsolved mystery aspect of it is great if you’re actually debating the existence of a poltergeist or other supernatural phenomena, but that was never really on the table here, and the psychology of what occurred is neither interesting enough nor well proven enough to merit a full book on the topic.

To Summerscale’s credit, she takes a detached view of the subject and isn’t trying to present anything theoretical as fact. Unfortunately that just doesn’t make for a worthy read regardless.

Alma is far from likable, and Fodor doesn’t present all that well here either, though I feel I should mention that I have read other more compelling accounts of Fodor and his work.

Summerscale has done admirable research here and presented it well, but I’m just not certain it coalesced into a book we needed.

I’m hard pressed to remember a historical non-fiction that I’ve enjoyed more than Alma Fielding. It has everything, twists, intrigue, and even a touch of spooky.

The Haunting of Alma Fielding promised to be one that explored supernatural gifts and crime. In that vein the book did not disappoint. From the standpoint of readability, I found it to be... intense. There is a huge amount of detail, and at the end of each chapter, expecting closure, the intensity merely continues. If you like a book that keeps you wanting more, this will do it for you. If you want some relief from time-to-time, this is not for you. The story of Alma Fielding is intriguing, and will certainly entertain many true crime and psychical research enthusiasts.

This was a major disappointment. While its certainly interesting to to look at the correlation between a rise in paranormal activity and the onset of WWII Kate Summerscale incredibly dry dispensing of the facts of Alma Fielding's particular haunting are anything but. The story is somehow simultaneously moving far to quickly for the reader to follow the action and utterly banal.

This engaging read traces the investigation of the weird happenings surrounding a London housewife. The author leads the reader on a journey from doubt to belief and back again as scratch marks, broken crockery, and stolen goods trail a woman through London in 1938

London, 1938. In the suburbs of the city, an ordinary young housewife has become the eye in a storm of chaos. In Alma Fielding's modest home, china flies off the shelves, eggs fly through the air; stolen jewellery appears on her fingers, white mice crawl out of her handbag, beetles appear from under her gloves; in the middle of a car journey, a terrapin materialises on her lap. Nandor Fodor - a Jewish-Hungarian refugee and chief ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical Research - reads of the case, and hastens to the scene of the haunting. But when Fodor starts his scrupulous investigation, he discovers that the case is even stranger than it seems. By unravelling Alma's peculiar history, he finds a different and darker type of haunting: trauma, alienation, loss - and the foreshadowing of a nation's worst fears. As the spectre of Fascism lengthens over Europe, and as Fodor's obsession with the case deepens, Alma becomes ever more disturbed. With rigour, daring and insight, the award-winning pioneer of non-fiction writing Kate Summerscale shadows Fodor's enquiry, delving into long-hidden archives to find the human story behind a very modern haunting.

REVIEW PROVIDED BY: Kimberly NUMBER OF HEARTS: 3 Hearts

REVIEW:
Review featured at www.books-n-kisses.com

I am so on the fence about this one. The story was interesting. I found the investigation interesting too. But the writing! Holy crud that is hard to read.

I love ghost stories. And I expected this to be more of the ghost story than an oversized article with facts.

Honestly, I am still trying to figure out what I just read.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I am a big fan of Kate Summerscale so I was thrilled to receive and arc of her upcoming nonfiction book, The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story. In London in 1938 a woman begins to experience possible supernatural phenomena in her home. Could it be a poltergeist? Enter Nander Fodor the chief ghost hunter for The International Institute for Psychical Research and so begins this most unusual tale.

This is not just the story of Alma, but of a country just beginning to recover from the scars of WWI amidst a new threat of war. Spiritualism and seances have become popular and women are transitioning from homemakers to entering the work force. All of this is the back drop for Fodor’s investigation. And what began as the investigation of a possible haunting, soon turns to the investigation of the human psyche and how it can be molded and shaped by trauma and loss.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found the exploration of the social context in which the events took place fascinating as well as the examination of the rise of spiritualism during this time. What begins as an investigation of the paranormal becomes a study in abnormal psychology and the real demons that haunt human kind. It is a clear that a lot of research went into this book, but it manages to avoid the usual pitfall of feeling like an academic journal. Instead it reads with the ease of a novel and I devoured it in a day.

I was so excited for this book because The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is one of my all time faves, and I love nonfiction about paranormal phenomena. While this book did a good job setting this poltergeist phenomenon amid the anxiety in the runup to WWII, I don't think it contextualized Alma's story with our current understanding of what might have been going on with her. I felt quite icky reading the details of the obviously toxic relationship between Alma and Fodor, who was the person studying her, because he was indulging her illness while knowing the paranormal aspect was not real, but relying on her to keep up the pretense nonetheless. And the book did show the pop culture ripples caused by Alma's case and those similar, which was my favorite aspect about Mr. Whicher, but I don't feel like we ever got to the root of it all.

Interesting and timely; everyone loves a good true crime story these days and this one in particular was a good blend of the supernatural and crime.

In the fantastic (in both senses of the world) The Haunting of Alma Fielding, Kate Summerscale brings us a strange case from the past. (I really liked The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher). This book sees Summerscale diving into the archives of Britain’s interwar spiritualist and paranormal societies and the news to tell the story of Alma Fielding. In 1938, Fielding called the police to report that something was throwing and breaking things in the London apartment she shared with her husband and son. The police couldn’t help. There wasn’t anyone to arrest. But Nandor Fodor wanted to investigate. Fodor was not a detective—at least not a police detective. At the time of Alma’s haunting, Fodor worked for the International Institute for Psychical Research. He believed that the culprit was a poltergeist.

In another example of the serendipity that seems to dog my reading choices, I recently listened to a series of episodes of You’re Wrong About, a podcast that debunks moral panics and fraud. In the relevant episodes, hosts Michael Hobbs and Sarah Marshall do a very deep dive into Michelle Remembers, by Lawrence Pazder and Michelle Smith. That book, which helped spark the American Satanic panic of the 1980s, shows a troubling, unethically close relationship between a patient and a therapist in which both parties encourage each other in creating a series of false memories. The relationship between Fodor and Fielding is not that close, but there are some very interesting similarities. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Shortly after Fielding and Fodor met, Fodor invited her to the Institute so that he and other “psychical researchers” could figure out if Fielding had a genuine poltergeist or if she was just a very good fraud. In the 1920s and 1930s, spiritualists popped up across Great Britain like mushrooms after a rain. The appalling losses of World War I lead many surviving relatives to seek out mediums who could help them talk to their dead. Fodor did a fair amount of debunking for the Institute, but he truly wanted to believe that Fielding and others represented real evidence of the supernatural and life after death. At first, there is no sign—as far as Fodor can see—that Fielding is using any of the known tricks that fake use to making objects appear to fly and break, rap at tables, etc. It’s only several months into the investigation that Fodor sees slight signs that Fielding is doing all of the weird poltergeist-y behavior, although it was hard for me to wrap my brain around how some of the events were achieved.

Which brings me back to Michelle Remembers. Fodor does, in spite of his desire to believe, begin to understand that Fielding wants the investigators to keep their attention firmly fixed on her and the “manifestations.” The investigators try increasingly elaborate methods to catch Fielding red-handed and her poltergeist’s actions escalate from flying crockery to visits from rapacious ghosts over the course of months. When Fielding appears to slip up, Fodor reluctantly turns from paranormal explanations to psychoanalytic ones. (Sigmund Freud makes a brief cameo late in The Haunting of Alma Fielding.) Instead of diving wholeheartedly into the supernatural, Fodor starts to ask questions that make everyone uncomfortable. He also starts to ask himself questions about whether he, Fielding, and the other investigators were just committing a big folie à deux (or whatever is the right number in French for everyone).

Just like The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, The Haunting of Alma Fielding reads like I was dropped into another place and time. With a light hand, Summerscale shares the fruits of her research to recreate the intellectual and emotional settings of the cases she delves into. I have learned so much from reading Summerscale’s books. As a bonus, there is a lot of humor in this book. More than once I would laugh out loud at the absurd situations Fodor would find himself in in his quest to find proof of the paranormal. Summerscale is one of my absolute favorite nonfiction authors.

I have slowly been getting into True Crime Non-Fiction. I may take a while to read one but, like this one, it is worth the wait. Thankful to NetGalley for providing me a copy to read.

I thought this was astonishing. Ghost stories are sometimes to cerebral, or gory, or both. Summerscale has written a magical feeling story that will captivate literary readers and lovers of horror. Very well done.

I'm gonna say it up front: This Review Is Full of Spoilers. Here Be Spoilers. Etc, Etc.

I'm a natural-born skeptic, and I'm also one of those people who has to get All The Facts whenever I get interested in a new topic. I go into books like this expecting there to be a very factual breakdown of what was Really Happening, because obviously it's Not Ghosts. And I know, I know, it was a different time, but I really wish half of the people in this book had gone in doing the same.

<i>The Haunting of Alma Fielding</i> is a book very much in the tradition of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24724228-the-witch-of-lime-street?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=VKo05Y3lMk&rank=1">The Witch of Lime Street</a>, which took a specific case of Spiritualist phenomena and deconstructed it, looking at not just all the facts of the matter but also looking at it in the context of the time. Women's lib and the deaths from the first World War and Spanish Flu played a big part there; in <i>The Haunting of Alma Fielding</i>, we're a little further on in time, and Alma's case is plagued by the specters of the second World War, psychoanalysis, and trauma. And I have to say, for as much as the first third of this book made me narrow my eyes and say to the involved parties, "But you know it's not ghosts though. You must know it's not ghosts," I honestly really appreciated the way this book was set up, with the introduction and exposition taking Alma's claims at their face, before slowly but surely showing the cracks in the story along the way.

The writing here is very un-ornamented and plain, which I think does it a great service in getting its point - and characters - across. The (sometimes lengthy) side tracks into the other people involved in the case, most notably Fodor, our Hungarian psychical researcher, always pay off in the end (though at the time I had to admit I was ready to shout "YES BUT WHAT ABOUT THE HAUNTING CAN WE PLEASE GET BACK TO THE HAUNTING"). And the treatment of everyone involved, from Alma to Fodor to all of the side characters in Alma's family and Fodor's institute, is always understanding and kind, never judgmental, just the facts, ma'am.

In fact, books like this always risk falling into the trap of being too good to their subjects, as in the case of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30971741-the-apparitionists?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=wIXjU5wJzE&rank=1">The Apparitionists</a> and <a href=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49520788-the-in-betweens">The In-Betweens</a>; of being a bit too understanding, a bit too credulous. <i>The Haunting of Alma Fielding</i> avoids that trap expertly. It understand that Alma Fielding was an incredibly troubled woman with a trauma-filled past, a past that had a deep grip on her and expressed itself in ways that might understandably be mistaken for the supernatural. But it also comes to a balance, an understanding: Alma Fielding was a liar, a con artist, and a thief. Both of these things can be true at the same time. Her trauma does not excuse her con, but neither does her con detract from her trauma; her lies do not belittle her truth. It is perhaps sadder still, then, that the only way she felt like she could cope, to get the attention she needed, to shine a light on the terrible things which had happened to her, was to spin an elaborate web of supernatural phenomena, simultaneously distracting from and drawing attention to things of which she felt, either because of her class, her gender, or her era, she was unable to plainly speak.

This is a great ghost story book!! I never knew about this investigator and his work until reading this book! Have always been facinated by the paranormal and this was a great read!

I love the concept of poltergeists and whilst I have watched films concerning them, this was my first poltergeist read. Set in 1930s London, Alma Fielding is experiencing poltergeist activity, which is the reason for involvement from Dr Nandor Fodor, chief ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical research. The book is a non-fiction account of his investigation. On reflection, whilst I enjoyed this book I would have preferred a fictional supernatural tale.

Thankyou to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Circus for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I had a hard time getting into this book since the tone was flat and more journalistic. I was hoping to have a bit more suspense but this isn't that kind of book.

The Haunting of Alma Fielding
A True Ghost Story
by Kate Summerscale
This book was compiled into a readable format from notes and drawings from a famous researcher, Fodor, that was looking for the truth about whether there was life after death. The book contains some pictures too.
The book reads almost like a story crossed with a newspaper article. It follows Fodor and his search. It was in the late 1930's when spiritualism was spreading across Europe. WWI had finished with great lose of life along with the plague. People were just getting their bearings again and rumblings were starting there was another war possible. Death seemed everywhere. Loss was a constant theme.
People flocked to seances and there were many famous people performing them. Fodor went to investigate. He was a member of an International Research team that studied this. He was amazed by what he saw! He traveled to various events and witnessed "ghosts", ectoplasm, speaking to the dead, and more. He was convinced it was all real until a few journalists busted a few of the ones he had witnessed. He felt foolish since he was a researcher.
He then started to approach the subject with a keen eye. He revealed many deceptions and was shunned by his team because they were still all for spiritualism.
When he heard about Alma Fielding and her house, he sent an assistant there to check it out! Then he went himself!
The book logs everything that happens, inside and outside the house. At first, it sounds haunted. The researchers all think it is a poltergeist and it is Alma herself. No one thinks ghost! But as more and more information comes about, more things happen, well...then my view changes completely!
I enjoyed this book for the sociology of the time, of women, of spiritualism, and more. It was completed with notes so it doesn't flow real smooth. If the author wanted to get some of the side things in, which I am glad she did, it had to be written like this. I found all these odd stories fascinating! I won't give my opinion on what I felt was really going on in the house, I think everyone needs to read all the facts and make their own decision.
I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for making it possible for me to read this book. The review is all my own opinion. I recommend this book heartily.