A couple of years ago, I received a book from my good friend and paranormal expert, Rosemary Ellen Guiley. The book in question is called Haunted by the things you love(Visionary Living, Inc., 2014), and is written by demonologist John Zaffis and Rosemary Guiley. This book is all about haunted objects, which is an endlessly fascinating subject. I myself have encountered a haunted doll by the name of Robert, and it was truly a strange experience. However, the objects described within this volume have much more violent spirits and disturbing histories attached to them, as we shall soon see.In this book, some of John’s most frightening and disturbing cases are recalled and examined in great detail, sometimes to the point of morbidity (which just makes it even more interesting). Some of them are short, while the others are quite long. John and Rosemary’s research and their attention to detail are painstakingly thorough, and are based in the two’s decades of experiences with supernatural forces. It is simply amazing that they have managed to survive (mostly) unscathed! Prepare yourself, for within these pages is the stuff of nightmares.
This book is divided up into nineteen chapters, with sixteen of them dealing with John’s investigations, and three of them are on understanding how and why haunted objects come into existence, dealing with those objects, and on John’s career and his paranormal museum. In this book, Rosemary and John make it very clear that literally anything can be haunted. The book’s chapters deal with nightmarish clown dolls (*shivers*), a very evil possessed idol, an African deathbed, a mirror inhabited by evil spirits, a century-old magician’s robe, a malevolent cherub statue, a wooden statue named Mr. Sinister (and rightly so), a cursed jester doll (this chapter becomes emotional very quickly), an evil haunted mask, a pair of hideous bookends imbued with a scorned lover’s curse, an antique violin that plays its ownmusic, a clay oil lamp with a malicious Djinn attached to it (the Djinn are one of Rosemary’s specialties), a possessed cadet’s dress jacket, a pig-faced statue with a demon inside, a bone-inlaid wooden box full of jewelry cursed by a witch, and a Chinese porcelain figurine with the power to literally shock you and give you a headache for good measure afterwards. The other three chapters, to reiterate, deal specifically with how and why these objects become haunted, how to deal with haunted objects, and a brief chapter on John’s Museum of the Paranormal in New England, with the former two chapters being my favorite parts of the book. If you want to know more, pick up a copy of the book.
Overall, John and Rosemary’s book is verywell-written, free of flaws, and incredibly thorough. Plus, these accounts are truly frightening! It has a very short bibliography containing books by both authors for further reading and research, and very brief biographical section about the authors. Personally, I love this book! It is both very informative and highly entertaining. I owe my sincerest thanks to Rosemary, who was not only kind enough to send me a copy of this book free of charge, but she has waited patiently for over two years for this review! Furthermore, Rosemary is a true friend who has always been kind to me and has always been willing to answer my seemingly endless questions to the best of her ability. I extend my sincerest apologies to Rosemary for making her wait so long. I have been struggling with my life for almost four years now, with one bad thing happening after another. Anyways, this book is simply amazing, and answers a lot of questions that I’d had about haunted objects. Honestly, I cannot recommend this book more! But allow me to give you some final words of advice: Do not read this book after night has fallen. It will give you nightmares, and you will inevitably become suspicious of everything that you own. You have been warned!