Rating: 
Summary: confusing if you don't already know the story
Review: Like some other people here, I've long been fascinated by the Bell Witch legend, and I've been to the old place, having lived in and around Nashville for years. I had to reread Mr. Monahan's preface before I figured out that Richard Powell's manuscript was part of the "factionalization". As to the cause of the haunting, it just doesn't work for me. If such a thing could happen at all, it would happen a lot, in my opinion. But who knows? It's a mystery for the ages. If anyone would like to bat some theories around, I'd be glad to hear from you.
Rating:
Summary: The premise of a found manuscript is not true; it's a fake.
Review: Mr. Monahan's supposed transcription of Richard Powell's "lost" manuscript has too many dubious elements to be accepted. It would have been better had whoever wrote this fictionalized account put their own name to it rather than lied to the reader about it being authentic. If considered as a novelette based upon a factual (presumably) event, it's not a bad read. As an true eyewitness account from the 1820's, however, it's way too self-conscious, lacking in authentic idiom of the day (despite attempts not to be), pulls nearly all of its details from (well-known) existing sources, and deals in detail with the subconscious mind long before Freud brought us to recognize it. It also pussy-foots around the attitudes of master to slave--political corectness in 1820? The theory John Bell might have molested Betsy has been around for years. Whoever the author of this book is merely wove that rumor into a narrative and pretended it was authentic. Semi-nice try.
Rating:
Summary: Faction or Fiction?
Review: Mr. Powell, being deceased, and Mr. Monohan may very well be great at writing fiction. If you would like to read a true account of the "Bell Witch", purchase "The Infamous Bell Witch of Tennessee" here at Amazon.com, written by Charles Edwin Price. Who can say whether Mr. Powell's account of these events are a work of fact or fiction, since it is most doubtful that someone has spoken with him lately.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware of what you read & discuss in your home!
Review: My husband and I both read this book back in 1997 and it scared our family out of our wits, NOT because the book was so scary, but because we were, at that time, living in a house with similarly strange and scary events. Our personal experiences with a "haunting" over the previous couple of years (prior to finding this book) had begun and increased in a similar pattern to this Bell Witch account. It was also unnerving to find that my maiden name was listed as one of the family witnesses to the events, and I know my ancestors were in that state at the time. As we read the book, more frightening events happened in our house and became even more horrifying in the months after we were done reading it. Before you decide that I'm easily frightened or imaginative, let me state that many other people also experienced things in the house while we lived there. Scared for our children and afraid we had "stirred up" more activity by reading and discussing the book out loud, we finally threw this book and others like it away. Needless to say, things eventually got so bad in the house, we had to move away. Fortunately, whatever evil thing was there, did not move with us and we have had absolutely no trouble like it since. So, not to be an alarmist, but I would advise anyone to think twice before reading this type of material in their home.
Rating:
Summary: Great book- keep you up at night
Review: One worth buying to loan to friends. Based on a "true" story it's scary. Holds you with it's secret til the end then once you know the end you feel you should have known all along. Makes you wonder of this world.
Rating: 
Summary: A note from the author.
Review: Only one 'horror' book has ever scared me. That was Peter Blatty's The Exorcist. The reason was that Blatty had cobbled together several well-documented cases of demonic possession, so that his novel became 'faction.' This is the same with The Bell Witch. This story did occur, in some fashion, in pioneer Tennessee between 1817-1821. Clear documentation indicates a true poltergeist haunting, a multiple personality disorder, a form of possession, and murder. My 'factionalization' was necessary because the impetus for this famous haunting was so evil that those who wrote the diaries back then could not bring themselves to accept what had caused it. Rarely do we see the supernatural world emerging into the natural world with such clarity
Rating: 
Summary: Good Story, Bad Book
Review: The story of the Bell Witch has been of much interest to me for many years, mainly because I grew up and spent most of my life very close to Adams, TN. where the legend takes place. When I saw that there was a book containing an actual "manuscript" from Richard Powell, who was directly involved in the hauntings, I knew that I must order it. However, I was very dissapointed to find that the so-called "manuscript" contained basically the same information that can be found in many other books on the same subject. This made me very suspicious as to whether there really was a manuscript, and the way it ended basically removed all doubt. I have always enjoyed reading about the Bell Witch, but this book was definitely NOT scary and really it just tries to destroy the "mystery" behind the legend.
Rating:
Summary: A mystery, not horror
Review: There's nothing particularly scary about this account of the bell witch presented by Brent Monahan but purportedly written by Richard Powell, a close friend of the Bell family. It is more of a mystery as the reader tries to find out what the Bell witch is and why it is haunting the Bells. One gets the impression that it's fun to be a demon, ghost, or poltergeist that plays tricks, slaps people, interrupts lives, and even kills with impunity.Powell writes with a charming, old-fashioned style such as in this passage describing a character called Frank Miles: "Mr. Miles was not one of the community's most celebrated thinkers; manly brute force was his answer to most any problem. Despite his good intentions, he was often violent when opposed, either by animate or inanimate objects...Added to this, his vocabulary was limited to simple oaths and phrases, many of these of the crudest origin." The most amusing parts of the book are when psychics show up to rid the house of the ghost but get their clock cleaned or scared out their wits. President Andrew Jackson attended such a session and got quite a kick out of it. The account also presents a believable account of life on the frontier during the early 1800s. The book attempts to explain the phenomenom of a poltergeist attributing it to a disturbance that a young girl is feeling as she grows into a woman. As for the veracity of the account actually being from Richard Powell and not Brent Monahan, I'll play along and give Monahan the benefit of the doubt. The style does change between Monahan's introduction and Powell's account. Still one would like to see this manuscript and call up the people that Monahan mentions giving him the manuscipt. And besides, I have a tendency to believe in the fanciful and outlandish, afterall, what was once considered outlandish can become status quo and what is status quo today will be considered outlandish tommorrow. However, it does seem little implausible that Richard Bell would marry Betsy given that she is being haunted by a violent ghost.
Rating: 
Summary: More humorous than chilling
Review: This book is certainly an entertaining read, however this is due to the Bell Witch's numerous witty retorts and sharp tongued jabs. This book is not at all frightenting although it is a bit suspenseful. The ending is a surprise, if the reader hasn't heard of this certain theory already, but rather cliche. I found the reasoning behind the Witch's actions rather weak. Clearly this story is fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Bell Witch
Review: This book is hard to put down. I read it in 2 days. However, I believe some accounts reported in this book are true & others are false. I am very leery about this manuscript that was found. Also, I am not sure that I believe the ending & how the "witch" came to be. The Bell family are my relatives. I have heard stories all my life about the witch. Never have I heard that the witch came to be the way the author describes. I believe most of this book is fiction.
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