Corey Taylor: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Heaven review

\"AGhosts, spirits, bumps in the night, heebie jeebies and Corey Taylor…wait, what? He’s done it again, folks, put out a piece of art and work that will leave you speechless and thinking harder than you have in awhile.

Taylor’s second book, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to Heaven: or How I Made Peace with the Paranormal and Stigmatized Zealots and Cynics in the Process,  is set to release July 16, is probably more highly-anticipated than his first book and will have your hair standing on end, chills down your spine while making you laugh hysterically at some parts.

This book, however, isn’t just a collection of ghost stories. Nay, it’s far more and much more in-depth than most people could ever expect. Taylor is an atheist and he takes it upon himself to discuss, dissect and examine how he can be an atheist and believe in the paranormal at the same time. Paranormal is probably a better word to use that “ghosts” because paranormal is much more than just ghosts.

Taylor does an immaculate job at putting on his scientist hat and mathematically and scientifically defending the existence of the paranormal- there’s equations to back it up and the theories and hypotheses he presents make perfect sense.

His stance and explanations as to why he doesn’t believe in God or agree with organized religion are both very sensible and logical but can’t be argued with. Taylor is very understanding of each religion and respecting completely what others believe. You just can’t argue with a guy who isn’t bashing anything.

But let’s get to what everyone really wants to know about- the ghost stories.

Without revealing anything (you’ll have to buy the book for that), the stories Taylor tells will make your skin crawl to say the least. The book starts out very quickly with action picking up almost immediately with a story that will make you turn white as a sheet and send chills up and down your spine.

Being from Iowa, Taylor has seen a lot of ghostly things and been to many haunted places, many of which he researched solely for this book, including an old school building in Farrar, Iowa.

Being from Iowa, it was definitely fun to read about cities of familiarity because, quite honestly, Iowa has some of the creepiest and most haunted places you can find, this comes from personal experience.

He tells stories of houses he’s lived in and stayed in, including the Houdini Mansion in California while Slipknot was recording Volume 3: The Subliminal Verses and the stories from that house will make you have to check your pants and make you want to take a break from reading the book- but you can’t put it down.

Off and on, Taylor goes off on a random tangent and catches himself, followed by him giving you hell for making fun of him, which is always entertaining. Here and there he’ll throw in an analogy, quip, or sidenote from which you can’t help but laugh aloud from.

Taylor’s anecdotes are some of the most interesting ghost stories told in some time and it makes you wonder what he didn’t tell or have room for, which begs the question- will there be a sequel?

All-in-all, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Heaven is a well-written, in-depth, intellectual and bone-chilling piece of work that will go down in history as one of the best books written by a metal singer of all time.

Corey Taylor should be applauded for putting your paranormal secrets onto paper and releasing them to the public, which is never easy and can sometimes put you in a vulnerable position, opening the door for criticism, cynics and skeptics to fire the shots.

Taylor is the perfect person to flip both middle fingers to the sky, fire right back and have no regrets in what he’s written, just as he always has.

Rating: 10/10

 -Reggie Edwards