Sunday, April 28, 2013

62. "Dark World" by Zak Bagans and Kelly Krigger



Bagans, Zak and Kelly Crigger. Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew. Victory Belt Publishing.

272 pages

Reviewed by J. d'Artagnan Love

Zak Bagans is the lead investigator of the TV show Ghost Adventures. In this show he and two of his buddies, Aaron Goodwin and Nick Groff travel around the world with high tech gadgets trying to document empirical evidence of the existence of ghosts. The show has aired around seven seasons and its fan base is continually growing.

Dark World contains information about how the Ghost Adventures series started, behind the scenes information about their experiences with the paranormal and various philosophies and research about the existence of ghosts. Zak starts the narrative explaining how he came to believe in ghosts and his experiences leading up to the original documentary created by himself and Nick Groff.

Zak explores his person struggles with anxiety and thrill seeking behavior as a young adult. He lacked direction in his life until greeted by a ghost at the foot of his bed one night. This experience led him to develop the life goal of documenting evidence of the paranormal and dedicating his energy to paranormal research. 

He attended film school in Michigan and met Nick Groff, a fellow filmmaker at a wedding they both attended. Getting into a conversation about paranormal experiences, the two hit it off and started planning what was to become the Ghost Adventures documentary wherein they capture some of the most convincing paranormal footage to date. From there, Zak describes how the show came into production on the Travel Channel and experiences his crew has behind the scenes.

While this is no work of literary prowess, it was really interesting to thumb through being a fan of the television series. The book answered lingering questions I had about the equipment the team uses and the research they do when conducting their “lock downs.” I would not recommend reading this book unless you are a fan of the show. If you are familiar with the series on Travel Channel, give this read a go.

3 darts out of 5.
Bookshelf Project status: KEEP

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