Cursed in New England: Stories of Damned Yankees »

Known alternately as "Vermont's Ghostmaster General" and "New England's Bard of the Bizarre," Joseph A. Citro is doing more than anyone else to keep the region's legends and lore alive in popular culture. He has written five Vermont-based thrillers and three collections of "strange-but-true" stories. Since 1992 his commentary series on public radio has featured the region's best-loved ghosts, monsters, madmen, and mysteries. He is an expert in New England's occult lore, including Spiritualism.

A collection of riveting stories about preternatural revenge, numerous in Yankee lore, with each New England state providing its favorites. Some are well known, at least regionally. Others are nearly forgotten. All are cursed.

Samantha Musher - KLIATT

This is a collection of stories and legends about New England curses and their unpleasant results. Many of them are related to the Salem witch trials or the destruction of Native American tribes in the area, but some take place in the 20th century. Unfortunately for its fascinating subject matter, Cursed is a book with an identity crisis. It can't seem to decide whether it's a well-researched collection of tales from New England history or simply a series of spooky stories. (Each chapter lists sources but gives no specific citations, and there is no index.) The author claims "journalistic objectivity," but gives the book as "evidence that there are powers in this world so subtle and sinister that they can work inexorably against us without our even knowing it." This is definitely not a children's book, and should be approached with caution as a book for YAs: it is graphically violent and gruesome (not to mention the sacrilegious nature of its subject matter, if your institution is concerned about such things). Still, as a New England librarian it would be hard not to love a book that begins, "New Englanders curse all the time." KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2004, Globe Pequot Press, 232p. notes., Ages 15 to adult.

CONTENTS

Preface
1. Damned Yankees
2. "A Dreadful Wizard"
3. The Burton Ail
4. Saga of the Saco River
5. A Blighted Campaign
6. The Phantom Foot
7. The Missing Man
8. Connecticut's Village of the Damned
9. Nix' Mate
10. That Old Sand Farm
11. No Mercy from Mercie Dale
12. Fate and the Phoenix
13. The Witch and the Virgin
14. The Tree of Knowledge
15. An Idol Revenge
16. Haunted Waters
17. A Shadow Over Crompton
18. The Crash of Camelot
19. A Cluster of Curses

APPENDIX 1-Commination Service Acknowledgements / Bibliography Index