This is a personal memoir of Ms. Crosby’s discovery of her psychic abilities, including clairvoyance, clairaudience, and the ability to contact the dead.
The author believes that when people die, they sometimes cross over to Heaven, sometimes remain on Earth, able to speak with the living, and sometimes manage to travel between the two, contacting those with the ability to speak to and understand them. She gives accounts of conversations she had with the spirits of slaves who once worked on or near the site of her home and with other spirits, including a pair of Confederate soldiers shot in the area. The book’s main focus, however, is on her growing realization that she could neither hide nor get rid of her ability, and of her final acceptance of and surrender to her new calling.
The book has many moving moments, particularly the author’s account of her mother’s death and of the romantic entanglements of her primary spirit contact, a slave woman named Jannette, who must choose between her master/lover and her husband, a fellow slave. The author gives us a clear account of her own worldview and beliefs, allowing the reader the chance to understand her background and her perspective and make their own judgments of her conclusions accordingly. Her story is given in simple, matter-of-fact language, without unreasonable embellishment or polish, making her statements sound more convincing than they otherwise might.
It is perhaps natural for her, given the topic, to devote a substantial portion of the book to assertions of her own sanity, but it does become repetitive after a bit. Also, her perceptions seem a bit skewed by her perspective (a skeptic, particularly a Northern-leaning one, might reasonably be suspicious of the assertion by a devoted Southerner that she has made contact with the souls of plantation full of slaves who all loved their benevolent master).
In the end, though, the main impression is of a pair of slice-of-life stories told side by side – Crosby’s awakening to her abilities, along with accounts of her background and her family, and Jannette’s story of her loves and her family. If a combination of historical biography and the paranormal appeal to you, and you are willing to believe, or at least suspend disbelief, you might find this book intriguing.
Reviewed by Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader