Review: 'Skinwalker Ranch: The Truth Beneath' – worth your time?

Just finished listening to the audiobook version of 'Skinwalker Ranch: The Truth Beneath' by James Ketchum and I've got mixed feelings so I thought I'd review it properly for anyone considering spending the £12.99 on it.

The good bits: It's well researched. Ketchum spent three years investigating the actual property in Utah, interviewed current and former owners, examined documented cases going back decades. The writing is accessible - he doesn't do that annoying thing where paranormal authors try to sound like scientists without actually understanding science. He's honest about what's documented fact versus anecdotal versus speculation.

The dodgy bits: The audiobook narrator sounds like he's reading the instructions on a tin of beans. Pretty distracting when you're trying to engage with genuinely interesting material. Also, about halfway through, Ketchum starts speculating quite heavily about interdimensional beings and ancient aliens and it feels like he's veering into fiction a bit. Fair enough if that's where the evidence points, but he doesn't argue it as convincingly as he does the earlier chapters about documented phenomena.

Overall verdict: If you're interested in the Skinwalker Ranch story, definitely read it. Better than the TV series, way more nuanced. But go in knowing you're reading speculation as much as investigation. Not a smoking gun or anything, but a solid deep dive. 7/10.

Cheers for this. Been wondering whether to splash out on it. Might grab the paperback version rather than the audiobook if the narrator's that annoying. Have you read any of his earlier books or is this your first Ketchum?

The audiobook narrator sounds like he's reading the instructions on a tin of beans.

The bit where he starts going on about interdimensional stuff is where he loses me too. There's not enough evidence for that leap. You can document strange activity without having to explain *what* it is. That's where a lot of paranormal writers fall down - they feel obligated to solve the mystery rather than just observe it.

Skinwalker Ranch is such an interesting location though. The amount of documented weirdness there across decades is hard to dismiss. Have you read the Robert Bigelow stuff about it? That's where a lot of the hard data comes from.

Solid review. I'm in the middle of this book now and your 7/10 seems about right. It's good enough that I want to keep reading but not mind-blowing. Was hoping for more concrete evidence but I suppose that's the whole problem with this stuff - never quite enough hard proof.