The writing is good and the story kept my attention. This book scared the hell out of me and deepened my concern for those who have lived this trauma. Living through a tormenting haunting is nothing you want to experience.

This book gave me more than a few shivers but it was enjoyable overall easy to read and kept my attention

Like haunted stories? Then you’ll enjoy this one. This book is a quick read that’s creepy and dives further into the evilness of the doll.

Thank you to the Publisher and Netgalley for the advanced e-reader copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

I read the first book on Norman about how the family acquires this doll. This book goes further into the wickedness of this doll. You may be a skeptic of haunted objects but after you read this book you will not be anymore. The story line is given so that each occurrence is presented in time to what happened when.
After I finished the book I went online and watched the videos of Norman. So creepy.
If you are into haunted stories you will definitely enjoy this book. You will need to keep the lights on too.

Good follow up to the first book. Writing was ok, not great. Quick read. Some parts kind of spooky, some parts not. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest opinion. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.

I'm usually pretty hesitant when a sequel book comes out for books having to do with haunting; I mean, how much more could you really go into a haunted doll? Whew boy, y'all, buckle up for Norman 2. Paranormal investigator Stephen Lancaster left off telling us about the strange death of his cat and the discomfort of his spouse and daughter.

Sorry Stephen, when I first picked up Norman 2, I rolled my eyes just a bit. Then I read the introduction by the late great Rosemary Ellen Guiley and put aside my critical brain to give it a shot. For a tiny Mattel doll, Norman was about to do some pretty shady stuff. Christmas has always been an active time for the doll. In the first Norman book it was posited that the essence inside the doll likely caused a house to burn down once before. After a period where there was only minimal activity, Lancaster woke up Christmas Eve to discover that the room Norman was in had caught fire. The only real victim appeared to be Norman's face itself.  However, Lancaster went back to bed only to be woken by the fact that his outside barn was on fire.  Wait...WHAT?

Norman 2 is full of sightings, attacks on Stephen and his wife, and some pretty wild reactions during investigations. Oh, and there are pictures. There's one particular picture of the entity that I don't recommend looking at right before you go to bed at night.  If you really want to freak yourself out, visit Lancaster's website devoted to the doll: https://www.normanthedoll.com/normanthedoll

If this stuff isn't real, then Lancaster has one hell of an imagination and a great film crew.

Norman 2 is available September 8, 2020 from Llewellyn.

This was a fantastic sequel to the first and extremely terrifying Norman book. I admire the courage and drive to fact find and obtain scientific data on Norman and other paranormal entities. However, I still think he was absolutely bonkers for bringing Norman home and giving him his own room instead of passing him off. Gift the doll don't welcome him into the family! I understand where he came from though. I have already shared the first Norman book with other paranormal obsessed friends, and am looking forward to adding a paperback copy of Norman 2 to my shelves once release date is upon us, but until then a big thanks to NetGalley and Llewellyn Publishers for providing me with an eARC of Norman 2. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and creeped myself out in the process.

Norman 2 is the sequel to Norman: The Doll That Needed to Be Locked Away. The earlier publication introduced Norman, a doll that the author and his wife discovered in a store. An ominous comment from the store owner piqued Lancaster’s interest, and he bought the doll and took it home. All too quickly, Stephen Lancaster claims, Norman began performing for his new audience. Almost immediately, sinister occurrences began to take place that forced him to utilize cameras to capture footage of the paranormal happenings. The author claims to have extensive footage relating to the possessed doll. The Lancaster’s lives become a nightmare that escalated exponentially over time. Eventually provoking the author to place the doll in a vacant room in an attempt to assuage the temper of Norman the doll.

It is now two years later and Norman 2 continues the haunting tale. As the saying goes, sensational claims require sensational proof and that seems to be where the wheels come of this project. I am only too aware that paranormal investigators claim that their methods are based in science but that just isn’t so. The scientific method requires a number of things: for example, the experiment is repeatable producing the same result. In addition, it must be possible for your peers to replicate the same experiment and attempt to prove your theory wrong. In the paranormal world it is impossible to find irrefutable proof derived from the scientific method.

In Norman 2 Lancaster attempts to prove with visual evidence the voracity of his claims. I remain skeptical as I felt the events described fell short of proof of paranormal occurrences.

Lancaster recounts various disturbing situations including a seemingly spontaneous fire claimed to have been created by Norman in its room. There are instances of exaggerations or sensational claims that reduce, rather than increase the probity of the claims. The telling of the story reminded me of the over elaboration of a bad liar. I came to the uncomfortable conclusion that I was being lied to.

CONCLUSION

Throughout the book there were examples of repetition, misspellings and an amateurish writing style. This devalued the trope almost as much as the outlandish claims themselves. The work could have been far more concise and measured. I found myself being less subjective in part due to the lack of skilled writing, language, grammar, and vocabulary.

If the family are so afraid of the doll it seems odd that they should wish to continue to house it in their home. Is the doll inhabited by a restless spirit, a demon, or the soul of a dead child? That question I leave for you to decide.

I am aware the force of my review may indicate I do not enjoy the entertainment value of paranormal entertainment shows and literature. I am intrigued with the subject and have been since I read The Amityville Horror as a child. I consumed the book in less than 24 hours, not stopping to sleep until I finished it.

Incidentally, I do enjoy reading publications on the paranormal, especially when they are well written, balanced, and subjective. I enjoy paranormal literature that present the claims and evidence that leave it for me to decide if the claims carry any weight or not.

This is simply my opinion and you have your own and that is why I recommend you read the first book and then decide if you would like reading Norman 2.

I might even be willing to go two and a half stars for this one, but honestly I am not sure.

I was really intrigued when I saw this up on NetGalley today. I read the author's initial account back in 2017.

I am a big believer in the paranormal, and have had countless experiences of my own that I will gladly recount when asked (and have even done extensive blog posts about). But I also insist on science to back up these events whenever possible. And some things are simply not able to be explained, I get that too.

At least for me in this case, it was not the events themselves being too outlandish, but the actual writing. I felt like this round was so much more sensationalistic than the first book. It was not only chapter endings, but paragraphs ending in such clickbait-y statements in the vein of...

"but nothing prepared us for what came next"

or

"what happened next was even more shocking"

And these statements often occurred more than once in a single chapter. A good run through an editor again would clear that up, and make the book cleaner and tighter. The stories and incidents themselves become almost harder to believe when accompanied by this kind of writing. And believe me, there were things that happened that even had me thinking, "No way, not a chance."

The thing that keeps from saying that this is exaggerated or fictionalized in any way is the fact that the author and his wife are paranormal investigators. They already know how maligned the field often is, so why would they do anything to damage their reputations, or make up such outlandish claims as these?

The story of this doll is one we are never going to fully know. Anyone connected to him has long since passed, as far as the author knows. The girl who owned him at one time had been a twin, but her brother was stillborn or died at birth. A few years later, that same little girl lost her mother and her home in a terrible fire. She and Norman, then know as Matty, were the only survivors. The doll was named Matty because he was the Mattel mascot, along with his sister Belle. The doll is creepy AF and you can find them for sale on eBay. Have at it if creepy dolls are your thing, Eleanor and I will never be coming to visit if that's the case.

Norman is not the only haunted/possessed doll, but it certainly one of the creepiest. Whether it is the angry spirit of someone who never got to live, or a demonic entity, I am glad that the author took the steps he did at the end of the book to protect himself and his family. Norman is buried somewhere deep in the woods of North Carolina, encased in a cement coffin. Lord help anyone who might discover him one day.

Recommended for those with interest in the paranormal, though it would help to read the first book before giving this one a try.