Paranormal Morgue Stories, Eve S Evans
Author
Eve S Evans (America, ?-still alive)
She’s prolific author (paranormal and fiction), podcaster, voice actor. Fair play to her. Most of her paranormal books are collections of other people’s stories. Having never done it, I have no idea how labour intensive this is. Considering she has so many out, I’m not sure that they are?
Sections
1 Proximity
The gist:
• A funeral director.
• Visits a very old morgue.
• Staffed with one person who leaves the director on their own a lot.
• Oh god!
• How do you chew the inside of your own gum? I tried. And failed.
• That fucking mortician.
Interest?
This is a good one to start with. Very short and we get the goods early.
Read it?
Read it to a young teenager. It will scare the ever loving crap out of them. Also, I had to go and turn the light on. So, I would say yes.
2 Patients From The Past
The gist:
• Kid moves with his parent into an old house that once served as a temporary morgue.
• Kid knows what’s up, because completely changes their sleeping patterns.
• Night-time glow dudes.
• Olde timey stone tape recordings.
Interest:
Not as spooky as the first, but it sounds legit.
Read it?
Yes. To children. Before bedtime.
3 Help Me
The gist:
• Nurse. So, I automatically believe them. That may be a failing of mine. But nurses are tough.
• The hospital they work in, the morgue is small and designed to give you nightmares.
• Two nurses heard “it”.
• The HEAD NURSE knew about “it”.
Interest:
I’m sure there is a subreddit somewhere about ghost stories from hospital staff. I’d read more about them.
Read it?
Yes.
4 A Chance To Say Goodbye
The gist:
• Mother.
• Guilt.
• Kindly nurse.
• Who may be more.
Interest:
Squeeze of the heart on this one. I’m also enjoying how Eve has managed to keep the voices of the individuals who wrote these stories.
Read it?
Do. It’s one of those classic tear jerkers.
5 The Marks
The Gist:
• A pathologist who enjoys their job. To be fair, I have read several accounts from pathologists over the years, and they all like their jobs.
• But! There was a week of terror!
• Mysterious fingerprints and streaks.
• Doc decides to film this because it’s nuts.
• Orbs.
• Provokes and existential crisis in the doctor.
Interest?
This one is less for scares.
Read it?
Of course.
6 Scratching
The gist:
• Another doctor.
• A recent doctor who’s passing grade was just that, so: morgue.
• Is it a trapped rat? (hint – it’s never a trapped rat. Same way it’s never a mannequin in a field).
• My stomach turned too.
• Not only is it not scared of you, it knows you’re scared of it.
Interest:
There’s something quite authentic about this one. It’s something quiet…something insidious.
Read it?
Do!
7 Creepy Crawley
The gist:
• They had me at the name. Then that was it.
• Also, this is a badly written chapter. It’s hard to read.
• Doctors can be superstitious.
• The journey to the morgue told in excruciating detail. I'm beginning to bore. Because its all terrible writing.
• Ticking/tapping noises in a room that definitely has more metal than the drawers and it all goes black.
• Then something from a horror film.
Interest:
• No, none, not feeling this one. I think this one is made up.
Read it?
You can skip it.
8 Extreme Contact
The gist:
• Childish hijinks in a morgue by a grandfather who was worn down by begging.
• Ouija!
• By 11.30 shit is getting real.
• Suddenly, the text becomes cantered. I’m wondering if this is for emphasis, or the book had to be got out in a hurry.
• Oh my god, what’s in the corner?!
Interest:
Who doesn’t love a Ouija story? We are predisposed to fear them.
Read it?
Do, because it’s creepy. And you love this.
9 The Pub
The gist:
• This is a pub story! Which, last time I checked, wasn’t a type of morgue. But sure look, in the olden days they used poisons as facewashes and cures for indigestion. Who am I to quibble?
• It’s set in England. I can tell by the accent.
• It’s an old pub that used to be a prison with an awesome tunnel system.
• Landlord’s son had some stories to tell.
• Oppressive feeling in the early hours.
• Holy fuck!
• The sun is setting as I write this. It’s beginning to get a bit creepy now.
• Three people heard a child’s giggle. I won’t lie. I’d have soiled myself.
Interest:
Yes! There’s a lot of interest here. It’s a proper haunted pub in England, with a storied history.
Read it?
Do indeed. But perhaps not at the same time I did. Dusk. I don’t advise at dusk.
10 Pray
The gist:
• Her husband works in a prison, but her aunt’s house is creepy. Which is also, not a morgue.
• Small child being freaked out.
• Night time assault. Christ.
• Strange crossing of dimensions?
• Interest:
• It’s creepy. It’s bizarre.
Interest:
It makes you think different kinds of things about the world. The Others style.
Read it?
Yes.
11 Historic
The gist:
• Southern y’all!
• It’s a courthouse. Which ….is not a morgue.
• The pregnant narrator is sensitive to emotions around old things.
• A psychic war time re-enactment.
• Day time assault this time.
Interest?
It’s set in America, but I’m not sure what war she was referring to in the museum. Possibly all of them. So, pick your war?
Read it?
I strangely wasn’t as scared of this one. Could be because I’m writing in the morning, and therefore feel safer. Which makes no sense. I could be haunted in the morning just as well as at night. Read it. If there are any writerly qualities in you at all, you’ll want to write that story.
12 Whispers Between The Drawers
The gist:
• Back in a morgue!
• Spill in the morgue required a mopping. And the orderly had learned long ago not to ask what that might be.
• The second trip in one evening was suspicious.
• He hoped it was someone messing with him, Someone…human.
Interest:
This has similar motifs to one of the earlier stories, but better written.
Read it?
Yes, because it’s creepier in a way that the other similar one wasn’t.
13 Mis-Identification
The gist:
• The late night phone call any parent dreads. Already, I’m upset for her.
• And off she goes to the morgue. And it’s as bad as she imagined.
• She describes the atmosphere as oppressive, or humid. I haven’t heard that word used before to describe this kind of atmosphere.
• Oh god!
Interest:
For carry ons and if not demonic, then unpleasant.
Read it?
Yes, these are the things we live for as paranormal fans. I got the chills reading this one. And it’s morning!
14 Sarah
The gist:
• Family moves to a new house. Which is not a morgue. But is in the sketchier parts of town.
• They properly lived with the dead, though, so it may as well have been a morgue.
• At one point, the narrator describes a sensation I’ve experienced more than once. It’s awful. The waiting.
• The whole family, including her mother, have any number of experiences with the ghosts. They’re harmless, but not residual. They’re active, and interactive.
• There’s a brief mention of a morgue.
Interest?
This is a friendlier version of The Haunting of Hill House, or The Conjuring. Like, way friendlier.
Read it?
Yes, it’s chilling. However, the ghosts are quite cosy in a weird way. They’re all just living together. I wonder if they even know they’re dead?
15 Discomfort
The gist:
• We’re back in a morgue!
• A full body reaction – this person was listening to their gut.
• And a carry on. The nightmare itself.
• Dude, it’s not a draft.
• The bathroom cabinet mirror! The trope comes to life! Felt a bit nauseous reading that.
Interest:
A morgue worker who suddenly becomes super attractive to the dead. I have mixed feelings about that.
Read it?
Oh yes.
16 The Asylum
The gist:
• Already, the title of this is quite promising.
• I have a feeling, though it’s not names, we probably know this place quite well. Especially if we are into it.
• A very well organised ghost hunting trip is embarked upon. They are given recorders to get EVPs. I know this may be done as a money making thing, however! This is an excellent way to get a lot of observation done. Keep letting people in to do the work for you.
• So! It’s all fun and games until the sun sets.
• Isolation room. More popularly known as a padded cell. Which, depending on the context, sounds quite comforting.
• As soon as the narrator was ready to seriously engage, the atmosphere ramps up.
• Despite having a terrifying experience, they go on. Fair play to them.
• And we get to the morgue! Yes!
• An episode of genuine panic quite beautifully described.
Interest:
If this is the place I’m thinking of, it’s been fed a lot of energy over the years. I’m not surprised what happened, happened.
Read it?
Yes!
17 Sneak Peak of Author’s Fiction – Frost Falls
It’s a very long sneak peek. It looks competently written, but I didn’t have any strong feelings about it. There was so much of it, that I feel like the everything that went before was to get you to read this. I’m not going to give any details about it, because I don’t care.
Conclusion:
Despite it not being entirely about morgue stories, the majority were, so I was happy. Some genuinely creepy stories in here. And they are just that. Eve has collected stories, put them in a kindle book, and that’s it. There’s nothing else here to engage.
Buy it?
This is the sort of book you buy as a quick read during the spooky season, to keep you in the mood. So, if you don’t mind that, then yes, I would say buy it. As a study of anything paranormal…only in the sense that most study of the paranormal is anecdotal. Some bits you can prove, most you can’t. So, if that’s what you’re looking for, a serious study, then no. Avoid.
