An engaging exploration of America's supernatural folklore. I particularly enjoyed how the book felt like a travel guide for the paranormal, taking readers on a journey across haunted locations and eerie landmarks in the United States. Corcoran’s research is thorough, yet her writing is accessible, making it easy to imagine these chilling sites. She weaves historical context and local legends seamlessly, providing fascinating insights into the myths and stories that shape the culture of each region.

As someone not originally from the States, Corcoran is able to provide fresh observations and perspectives, often pointing out the quirks and contradictions in American ghost stories that a native author might overlook. Her outsider’s view adds depth to her commentary, giving the reader a more objective and sometimes humorous take on how we approach the supernatural. While I wished for a bit more narrative flow at times, overall, Haunted States is a compelling and informative read for anyone interested in paranormal history or unique travel experiences.

This is an excellent book for the upcoming spooky season. Miranda Corcoran produced a part-travel account, part-cultural criticism book about the American Gothic. The book is not a guide to American locations associated with specific hauntings, as it might seem at first. Rather, Corcoran describes her journey through five specific locations associated with very particular iterations of American Gothic - ghostly New England, vampire and African American spirituality fuelled Southern Gothic, atomic New Mexico and Nevada and Hollywood/cult focused California, with a surprising bonus chapter on the Midwestern Gothic. In each location, Corcoran explains the location-specific iteration of Gothic through an analysis of various literary and film examples of these trends, with a hefty dose of historical context and background.

Look, I lap up books like these, and this one is very well put together. It assumes no prior knowledge of the subject, so it might not be of much interest to professional scholars or very well-read enthusiasts of the American Gothic. However, Corcoran does an excellent job of providing a concise yet wide enough selection of scholarship on the distinct subjects she chose to cover. The book never feels like just her own analysis, not grounded in previous research, she always gives credit where it is due (some authors of trade books like these cite no one and pretend by assumption to be the first people to have come up with the ideas they discuss). The bibliography occupies about 10% of the book, and as someone without prior comprehensive knowledge of the topics I found it very inspirational, there are quite a few books in it I now want to pick up (both primary and secondary sources). Corcoran covers a very impressive breadth of subjects, from the memory of Salem Witch Trials and the woes of Edgar Allan Poe to Zora Neale Hurston's anthropological work and 'desert horror' movies such as The Hills Have Eyes. I didn't want this book to end, and I stretched it out as much as I could.

In addition to cultural analysis, it is a very interesting travelogue of the USA. The author does not drive, so she primarily took busses on her epic journey from Niagara Falls to San Francisco via New York, New Orleans, Texas, New Mexico and Los Angeles (and back to New York via the Midwest, with some stops in Iowa and Chicago). She shows the sort of America one sees on these busses, the type of America most Americans will probably never get to see.

Although I want to give this book 5 stars, as I enjoyed it a lot, I had a couple of pretty serious issues with it.

Some minor issues first. Corcoran is fantastic at evoking a sense of place and making the chapters very distinct. The atomic chapter in particular was the one I learned most from, as I rarely think of atomic horrors as a part of the Gothic. The introduction implied the chapter would cover UFOs, and it doesn't, which made me a bit sad, as that chapter was by far the shortest (sans the Midwestern epilogue), so I felt like there could have been some extra material in it. Some of the analysis is also quite repetitive. It felt a bit like the author was told to make it more accessible, so they stressed the key points a tad more often than most readers would need.

Now we come to the meatier ones. Corcoran does generally a good job of emphasising the bloody past and present of the USA, especially in relation to race. However, the range of texts she covers does not always reflect her vocalised commitment to antiracism. Although she covers a couple of seminal Black authors and texts (Beloved, Their Eyes Were Watching God), most of the cultural output she discusses in detail was produced by white writers and filmmakers. It is especially jarring in her treatment of Indigenous themes - she fully acknowledges the genocide of Indigenous people, and yet she never includes Indigenous perspectives on the American Gothic (Indigenous horror is an absolutely thriving genre, throughout the 20C and especially now). In this book, Indigenous people are designated to the role of a passive victim, whose slaughter is to be reckoned with in white people's Gothic. Her choice to stick with the term 'Voodoo' as a descriptor for some forms of Southern Black spirituality (even though she did acknowledge its racist connotations) also raised my eyebrows.

Although she spoke of America's bloody past and sins, she rarely brought up specific issues with the individual authors she discussed (and the ways in which those issues impacted their work). Just by reading this book, we would never learn of Lovecraft's rampant racism or Poe's child bride (he was 27, she was 13 when they married, and all we learn from the book is his grief at her passing). These are not 'minor points' about these authors, they are integral to their experiences, their personalities and their work, ultimately, they're inseparable from their versions of the American Gothic.

With these issues in mind, this is still a very worthwhile book which I am popping onto my Christmas list as I want a paper copy in addition to my electronic one. If you liked Edward Parnell's Ghostland or Matthew Beaumont's Nightwalking, this is a perfect read for you.

Thank you NetGalley and Repeater Books for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This ghost story road trip has plenty of interesting things to say, but regrettably never quite has enough time to say them.

This is not a monograph on American hauntings. Nor is it exactly a handbook on local legends. Its several different modes—road trip, interview, film review, academic exploration, psychogeography—are each individually interesting, though they do not always fit together neatly. The book is never quite sure of what it wants to be or whom it is aimed at, and at times its central conceit (the varying manifestations of the American Gothic) seem stretched beyond its initial purview. Ruminations on the scars of slavery jostle side by side with tales of Hollywood gurus; it’s far more interested in the people behind the hauntings than the hauntings itself, which may disappoint the reader looking for more of the folklore in question. The writing style veers between diaristic and academic, from light pop-fic to dry and dense. Both are well-written, and Corcoran displays a self-evident expertise with regards to the Gothic, but because of the book’s scope and relatively short page count, there’s little time to linger on any one story, or in any one place, to really explore anything in as much detail as it deserves.

All that aside, though, ‘Haunted States’ does have an intriguing concept, even if, like a Gothic double, there’s a tension between the disparate parts of its own identity. It’s a primer, an overview; the author is an academic by trade, and perhaps we’ll see a more complete (and longer!) version of this book in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I was quickly bored. I felt like I was trying to slog through a textbook. I believe this book had the potential to be extremely interesting but fell a bit short

Interesting, entertaining, and incredibly well written. Corcoran takes us on a journey all the way around the United States of America, from East to South, across to the West, and back again, exploring each territory's own Gothic histories.

This was really well-researched, and I loved the fact she designed it to read as a travel log. If you’re interested in the Gothic, particularly pertaining to American culture, this is a must read. It covers everything from witches and folklore, Voodoo and the undead, monsters and mushroom clouds, to celebrity murders and cults.

I’m already familiar with Miranda Corcoran’s scholarship, so I jumped at the opportunity to read this. I will read anything she writes! Maybe a guidebook of her own haunted homeland (Ireland) next? Let’s hope.

This was a pleasure to read and review. Many thanks to @netgalley and @repeaterbooks for allowing me to read this early copy in exchange for my thoughts.

My thanks to NetGalley and Repeater Books for an advance copy of this book that looks at how the geography of the United States and history of the lost, the unremembered, the forgotten and those the victors pushed to the side, have influenced the art of horror in literature and thought, and the dreams of how America views itself.

I've lived in Connecticut for most of my life, but I think I've only passed through Sleepy Hollow New York and maybe went to Salem Massachusetts on a field trip, maybe a family vacation. I have always been drawn to the paranormal, books, movies, comics, music, have been a mainstay since I found a book about hauntings in my children's library. However my interest is not in the tourist sense. I've worked with people who love to do this. Go to Amityville to see the house. Do a Headless Horsemen tour, go to Salem on the Witch's Eve. I know places have energy, and sometimes that energy can be strong. And unsettling. However after reading this book a combination of biography, history and tour guide, I might have to make an exception. Haunted States: An American Gothic Guidebook by Miranda Corcoran is a view of America through its actual history and our paranormal one, and how these influences affected literature and the stories America tells about itself.

Miranda Corcoran is from Ireland, a place that she writes gives her a lot of leeway in America as many have such a fantastic view of it. After a introduction discussing books, and horror genres and America in general, we read how Corcoran crosses the border from Canada to Niagara Falls, using her own feet which makes her a stranger in this country. The book becomes a tour of America broken into four parts, New England, the South, the West, and of course California. Corcoran moves across this country in ways that are familiar to Europeans, exotic to Americans; by train, bus, ferry Uber and taxi. Corcoran hits all the big places, spending time learning about witches in Salem, Edgar Allan Poe, Voodoo, the South, and the cult of course the best coast, California. Along the way Corcoran writes about she sees, and how writers and artists have been influenced by this history, the American Gothic that remains so popular today.

I book that was not what I expected, but a book that I found really hit me in a lot of spots. I love history, love books, love to read about writing. This book did all this. And more. Corcoran is a really good writer, and as an outsider to America, being Irish and a person who does not drive, really gets to see America as even few Americans see it. From bus stations, ferry stops, train stations and more. Along with this Corcoran sees America through her feet walking and paying attention, rather than paying attention to a GPS giving directions. I enjoyed her take on the standard places, Salem and the like. However it is the small places, the ones with historical markers grown over by weeds, that are the most interesting and revealing. Graveyards for left do decay, numerous massacres and battles. Corcoran has a very good writing style, and I enjoyed the mix of history and paranormal. Also I enjoyed the lack of ghost hunting bro writing. No ghost detectors, no speakers, no ultrasound. Just a person walking, listening, learning and sharing.

A fun book for travellers, the paranormal interested, horror fans, and people who just like good writing. Sort of a Paul Theroux of the shadow world, without all the grumpiness. I really enjoyed this book and would like to read more by Miranda Corcoran.

What a perfect accompaniment to spooky season.

Not only is it sufficiently creepy in the general horror sense, but the author doesn't neglect America's dark history of oppression that is just as horrid.
As another reviewer mentioned, you can tell Corcoran put a LOT of time and energy into this.

Overall, a really well-research and interesting read!

(Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me with a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review!)

While this book was a bit too much like reading a school textbook, I loved the information provided. I learned quite a bit about American history and folklore that I didn't know before.

I was a little disappointed by this. I didn't find that it held my attention at all. It was extremely dry reading for a book that is about ghosts and hauntings. Very educational but read more like a textbook than I was expecting

I thoroughly enjoyed this one! There was so much love and research poured into this, I could tell how much Corcoran put into this. The book explored so much of America’s history, through folklore, ghost stories and true crime that became folklore over time. The incorporation of societal horrors contrasting against more fictional ghost stories was a really interesting addition. Overall, this was an incredibly well researched book, I really felt like I was touring America and it’s confusing, haunted history with the author. And I learned a lot too!

This was like a haunted tour guide. The author sounded like one of my history college professors and I liked it. I have not lived in all the places covered in the book and I there were stories I had never heard about. I wish there were more pictures but this is not a picture book so I get it. I too believe but have not had anything happen so like the author I will wait. I would love to read haunted Ireland! Will that be next?