The Curse of Oak Island: The Story of the World’s Longest Treasure Hunt by Randall Sullilvan

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The Curse of Oak Island: The Story of the World’s Longest Treasure Hunt by Randall Sullilvan




        The first time I ever heard of Oak Island was during an episode of "Ancient Aliens." This had been years ago. But the idea of this island with a buried treasure no one had ever been able to reach stuck with me. I googled it a time or two after first hearing about it but didnt search too much into it. I didn’t even know it now had a reality show so I was pleasantly surprised when I found out about this book discussing the history of the island and the latest developments.

        It’s a really interesting story. From the “discovery” of the what would be known as the money pit in 1795, to the search still taking place on the island now over 200 years later. Sullivan details what happened since the day a teenager canoed to the island until the reality show that exist now. There’s no denying in my opinion, especially after reading this book, that the structure is manmade. But I couldn’t even begin to hypothesize about what could be at the bottom of it. What I enjoyed about this book was that Sullivan made sure that the human element was present throughout this story. It’s easy to get caught up on the mystery of Oak Island but the reality is that people lost their lives, their savings and their sanity trying to get to the bottom of this pit. As the details continued to be laid out it’s easy to see how people can become entranced but it’s also extremely dangerous. Learning about the history of these excavations was very interesting. Learning about the conspiracy theories around the treasure though, bored me. Mostly because Sullivan was very detailed in regards to the different theories and the details were plentiful, almost overwhelmingly so.  It took away from the very real projects taking place on this island. With that being said they were also a driving force for the search.

      Overall I enjoyed this book. It’s a good mix of history and storytelling.  I thought it was really well researched and Sullivan did a great job keeping me engaged. He does inject his opinion a lot which I had to get used to, especially since I was so interested in the history. It became more obvious why he was giving his opinion when I realized that he was at one point an active part of the show. I did learn a lot about the island reading this book. After reading this my curiosity is peaked and I can see myself coming back this topic or even watching the show to stay aware of what’s going on. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

 Thank you Edelweiss for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 


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