This book explores the lives of some of America’s most iconic female spirits, unraveling not just the stories of these ghosts but also the cultural and societal biases that shaped their legends. From Lizzie Borden to Sarah Winchester, these female specters reflect the anxieties, fears, and stereotypes of the eras they come from. It’s not just a collection of spooky tales—it’s a commentary on how women, both in life and death, have been boxed into limiting roles: the widow, the vengeful lover, the witch. The authors pull back the veil to show the real women behind the myths, offering an empathetic look at their struggles and the ways they’ve been immortalized, often unfairly.

I appreciated how the book was structured into different archetypes of female ghosts, and the thorough research the authors brought to each chapter. There’s also a sensitivity here that you don’t often see in books about the paranormal, as they explore not only the myths but the lives that preceded the hauntings. Whether you’re a believer in ghosts or just enjoy the history that surrounds them, "A Haunted History of Invisible Women" offers a thought-provoking read. It’s eerie, intelligent, and will make you rethink what you know about some of the most famous spirits in American lore.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

I have always been fascinated by ghost stories and tales of the supernatural, so I was looking forward to this read! A Haunted History of Invisible Women categorizes and details famous female ghost stories, as well as those that are more regional or lesser known. They reveal not only the back stories behind the legends, but also the cultural conditions that women were subjected to at the time, along with how their stories were perceived or passed down long after they were gone. It was a fascinating and interesting read, while thought provoking too.

This is exactly the type of nonfiction I love. Darkly curious with the expansion on women’s narratives that were previously overlooked. I loved this book! Thank you for allowing me to review a copy as I may otherwise have not heard of this title

I love a good ghost story, and I believe there are more things in this world than we can ever fully understand.
Focusing only on ladytype ghosts from American history was refreshing, and the issues such stories bring up about gender, race, our culture, and the struggles of life before death were insightful.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a unique experience delving into the real history surrounding the legends and mythology of maligned and vengeful female ghosts. My favorite was probably the White Lady, but they were all great! I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes history or reading about the paranormal!

A Haunted History of Invisible Women tells the tales of many female ghosts. I really enjoy ghost stories and definitely got what I was looking for with this book.

I live in Appalachia and was very intrigued to hear those stories. The Belle of Cincinnati still comes through my Southeast Ohio river town. I really enjoyed listening to this story and learned so much.

I also enjoyed learning about a haunting with Joan Rivers.

I enjoyed how most of these stories were told with a bit of history of women’s rights at the time.

I give this story 4/5 stars.

This was a nice overview of American ghost stories. However, I wish that some of the stories went into much more detail. I appreciated the insights about gender that were presented in this book. But I can't help feel like these stories and the reflections on them could be fleshed out a little bit more.

This was a very well constructed and intelligently researched look at female ghosts and the wider representation of women in the paranormal sphere. The book is split into different stereotypical female roles (the widow, the bad girl, the jilted bride etc.) and each section has a very interesting introductory essay which looks at how the social mores of the time affected the way female ghosts were discussed. I found a lot of the specific ghost stories really enjoyable to learn about (I particularly enjoyed the Lizzie Borden and Joan Rivers stories) and thought that the authors did a really good job at providing interesting content about spiritualism and the paranormal without telling the reader what they should believe. Overall, a fun read indeed.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

If I could give this book more than 5 stars, I absolutely would. It's so perfectly wistful and the mood is just right. I don't usually even like reading essays, but this is different - it's like all these small stories about women's ghosts, the ghostliness of how we are perceived by society and the cultural impact of it. Some of those are based on existing ghost stories, some on imagined ones. The authors don't even skip fake ghost stories and their histories, which I really appreciated. What a great read.

Some of my other thoughts about it that I wrote down while reading it... I never thought of ghost stories like that, but as I was reading the preface to this book? It's so true. Ghost stories are so often women's stories. Women are often more interested in them, and have historically been more involved with dealing (and I mean, dealing as a chore) with death more often than men. A lot of ghost stories were written by women, and were the first feminist tales, where the angry wife gets to exact her revenge, because she's is no longer tied to societal norms or expectations. A lot of these ghosts are tragic, but that doesn't change the fascinating fact that ghost stories, at least old ones, are indeed more often about women, and interest women moreso than men. Fascinating.

This book may be more meant for those who believe in ghosts, as it's very sincere and sensitive about these matters. There is also a lot of respect and empathy towards the living people who turned into these ghosts, whether real or not - before the ghost, there was always a living person's story with its sufferings and complications. So I think it doesn't really matter if you believe ghosts or not, it's a good book to read - and even if you don't believe in them, the book explores a lot of cultural impacts and our beliefs that have shaped or have been shaped by these stories. It's an incredibly interesting exploration, and the authors have done an amazing job in assembling all those facts and the lore that comes with the locations and ghost stories involved.

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

This was a really nice look into the women that history forgets about, or hides away depending on the context. It was well written and well researched.

Unfortunately this was too long, too academic, and had way too few ghosts in it for me to recommend it to any of my patrons. The only chapter I really enjoyed was the one about Joan Rivers. I could feel the author’s love for the subject as I read the story. Otherwise, I honestly felt like I was reading an overly long dispassionate academic text.

This book is well-researched feminist overview of how we tell ghost stories. I appreciated the ethical approach to storytelling and look forward to more titles by these authors.

There is a quote on the cover of A Haunted History Of Invisible Women: True Stories Of America's Ghosts that states "this book should not only be read but taught." I one hundred percent agree with this assessment. This book capture my attention form the first page. It is historical with a touch of the paranormal. As the authors delve into the history of female centered ghost stories, they find an understand how they came to life.

A strong majority of the ghost stories of haunted houses were built around the views of women during various time periods. For the most all women were to be seen but not heard. If a women dared to cause a scene, she was usually not looked at in the most favorable light. It is usually these women who become part of the folklore and are believed to be the spirits doing the haunting. The authors, Leanna Renee Hieber and Andrea Jones, break down these women and their stories into seven sections: death and the maiden, witches; mothers and wives; bad girls, jezebels and killer women; mad women, spinsters and widows; and frauds, fakes and mythmaking. Each of these sections is a way in which women have been viewed in American society. I really liked the way it was broken and how specific the focus was to the topic at hand.

I was not personally familiar with several of the ghost stories mentioned through out the book. I guess I'm just not very up to date on my paranormal history. The ones that I was slightly familiar with were those in Salem, MA. I took a trip there with two of best friends and we took a night time ghost tour. It was a unique experience taking a trolley through historical Salem especially in the places where the witch trials had occurred. It wasn't necessarily spooky but, it was interesting. I would love to go on another similar trip in the future.

A Haunted History Of Invisible Women features some of the most famous ghost stories as well as some that were personal to the authors. They use these ghosts to create their argument about the way society viewed women and their roles over time. These ghosts off women voices which they may not have been able to have when they were alive. hey could also be used for warnings against women regarding certain behaviors. These arguments provide openings for more discussions and there are many resources available in the back of the book for future research. This will also provide opportunity for new readers to have an introduction to feminist and the paranormal. It could be the start of a fun and eerie adventure.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

I found this book a fascinating read and perfect to get into the spooky spirit. I read this book around halloween, but it can be read at any time of the year. The book really gives the in-depth feeling history of invisible women and how they live during the time periods. Anyone looking for a good history read should check out this book.

My thanks to Kensington Publishing and NetGallery for a digital copy of this book for my review!

This is a book that I would enjoy reading over and over again in a heartbeat. The ideas and tales presented in "A Haunted History of Invisible Women: True Stories of America's Ghosts" have a feminist as well as a historical impact on me (i.e., I would advocate for women who were victims in both life and death), and the book is titled "A Haunted History of Invisible Women: True Stories of America's Ghosts." In addition, it is a book that helped me become aware of other accounts of paranormal occurrences in the United States.

Regarding the different aspects of dark tourism, I have done research on this subject, and I am very interested in expanding upon this topic through the course of my work. I even suggested to my sister, who was in Boston over the past few weeks, that she take a ghost tour and hear the stories of a variety of women and locations; thankfully, she found the experience to be enjoyable.

When I discuss spooky holiday spots and haunted locations, this book will continue to serve as an indispensable resource for me. I don't make frequent reference to particular books or the information that is found within them.

Interesting and thoughtful book. Glad to have been able to read/found it available on the site. I don't think it would have come along my path otherwise.

What a great start to spooky season!

This book is BY women and ABOUT women... the ghostly and eerie kind! Whether you believed in the supernatural or not, these stories are an entertaining and respectful peek into the past. You'll recognize several names, including Lizzie Borden and Sarah Winchester. You'll quickly be able to pick out contrasts and similarities between various spooky stories. It's a great accompaniment to your Halloween festivities.

I'm in two minds about this book.

On the positive it was interesting finding out about the ghost stories, which as a UK reader were mostly unknown (other than Lizzie Borden), and the New Orlean's ghost from American Horror Story, so that was quite interesting.

On the negative side, I couldn't work out what this book was meant to be. The authors analysed the history behind the stories, threw in some feminism studies, some personal experiences and a lot of judgement even though they both make a living with ghost tours.

On one hand they heavily criticised the 'fake' ghosts of Matilda and Molly, but also loved the idea of Joan Rivers' ghost which also had no basis in fact. Both the house and Rivers made money from the story. It seemed a contradiction.

There was a lot of criticism of ghosts associated with slavery and the problematic facts surrounding it, but didn't really cover why there are only ghosts from the Victorian era with a mere gloss of native ghosts. Surely if ghosts exist (as I think the book is trying to promote) they would go back further than than the nineteenth century.

I think the book was wonderful in theory but the execution was messy and could have done with tightening to make it clear what they were trying to achieve.

I found this book fascinating. I did know a few of the stories but there were so many I didn’t. Some of the stories really sent me in a rabbit hole to learn more about the women. Really interesting book.

A Haunted History of Invisible Women: True Stories of America's Ghosts is everything you could want from a book.

Co-authors Leanna Renee Hieber and Andrea Janes know what they're talking about. They spend their nights as guides for the ghost tour company Boroughs of the Dead in New York City. Ghosts are their area of expertise.

In this book, Hieber and Janes present us with multiple tales, both long and short, of female ghosts. While some of the tales themselves may be purely fiction, within these pages they are presented in a purely factual and critical way. Reports are given, but skeptical questions are asked. This is Haunting Time for the Discerning Skeptic.

The hauntings are broken up into the following sections based on general similarities between the supposed ghosts:

Death and the Maiden,
Witches,
Mothers and Wives,
Bad Girls, Jezebels, and Killer Women,
"Madwomen",
Spinsters and Widows,
Frauds, Fakes, and Mythmaking.

But the real beauty of this book is that its authors do a deep dive into examining the reasons for these stories, from an entirely feminist perspective. They look at the societal and cultural climate during which each story sprang to life, and discuss how that climate promoted each particular type of haunting.

Both a fascinating repository of ghostly lore and a philosophical and psychological essay on the role of women - alive and dead - throughout history, I found this book both informative and thought-provoking.