Tag: ghosts

Book Review – The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror

~ A. Siegelster

The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror by Tori Bovalino

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The Gathering Dark is probably one of the best contemporary horror anthologies I have read so far. While this book is marketed to teens and young adults, these stories are some of the creepiest I have read (which further goes to show that, often, middle grade, teen, and young adult books can be better reads than adult books). Although, unlike many adult horror stories, several of these stories have a happy or at least ambiguous ending – it gives the reader hope for the main character.
Each story features a young person, usually a teenager about to go to college, who is trying to live and fall in love or make strong friendships, but something in their lives goes wrong or prevents them from living a somewhat normal life. Usually that preventative thing is something of the supernatural, often with an evil presence. Each story definitely takes something from folklore, though it is sometimes difficult to know what aspects of folklore or cultures they come from (unless explicitly said by the author). What I love about most of these folkloric tales, though, is that all of them have something to do with death or with the dead. To me, there are no creepier stories, nor stories that tell more truths about the nature of humanity.
I loved the atmosphere in these stories, the feeling of being trapped while simultaneously seeing an escape just around the corner. I liked the sense of leaving something behind, whether it is the thing that creates the horror, or an old life traded for a new and improved one. I also love that several of these stories feature lgbt protagonists. Every story was so well-written, I want to check out more stories written by these authors. I recommend this anthology to anyone who wants a good and creepy atmosphere.

This is the end of my short review. In the next section, I will review individual stories, which means there might be spoilers.


Stay by Erica Waters

This is, in my opinion, the saddest story of the whole collection. A young woman, who takes care of her grandmother and cousin by herself, also has to tend to the spirits in their family’s graveyard, else they drag her down into her own grave. Our protagonist wants to leave this town, wants to have a relationship with the beautiful daughter of her boss. What she doesn’t realize, though, is that she has been tending to the dead more than she realized. This is a story about grief, and how memories and loved ones stay with us, long after they have departed. It is also a story about remembering to live, which, in times of grief, is hard to do. I loved the way this story was written and, though it was short, you could feel all the emotions put into it. Definitely my favorite story of this anthology. I am not sure what folklore this is based on, though I would guess it is based on Hispanic/Latino folklore (but please correct me if I’m wrong).


The Tallest Poppy by Chloe Gong

This story had so much potential to be the creepiest ever, but it feels like the author didn’t see it through. This story has the creepy, perhaps haunted house with a curse apparently on it. Our protagonist goes to work and live at this house as a nanny, and she knows that whoever lives there has died pretty quickly. No one, however, knew why. She starts to work there and you have the elements of a haunted house: sleepwalking family members, seemingly in a trance; haunted dolls; and perhaps a haunting connection with the sea. That last bit was what I wish the author had gone into more. The main character says over and over that the sounds of the sea drive her nuts, and then she starts having hallucinations of drowning. But then the author makes the villain, or haunting presence, the dolls and the house, with no real connection to the sea. The folklore isn’t really explained. Again, so much potential, but this story felt a bit messy.


Loved by All, Save One by Tori Bovalino

Now this is a story for long winter nights. This story has everything: a vengeful ghost, kids trapped in a house on their own in the middle of nowhere. There is so much suspense in this story because you can imagine being one of those kids, alone in the dark house, jumping at every little noise that could be a ghost or a burglar. And, speaking as someone who lives in one of the coldest places on earth, there is no worse feeling than being surrounded by a whiteout of snow. What I love about this story, though, is that instead of just a figure of malice and revenge, the vengeful ghost acts as a protector too. We need more stories where the vengeful spirit acts out of a desire to protect and prevent the past from repeating itself, rather than just being angry for the sake of being angry (although those stories can be very suspenseful too). Unfortunately, though, this is another one of those stories in which someone gets left behind in order for the others to live.


One-Lane Bridge by Hannah Whitten

This story reminded me of the Alton Bridge in Texas, you know, the one that Ryan and Shane stole from the demon? I do wonder if the bridge in this story is supposed to be based on Alton Bridge. It wouldn’t surprise me, though bridges are often sites of hauntings and demons, as they are somewhat liminal spaces – places for transition. We follow a group of highschoolers in their senior year. The protagonist of this group has been cheated on by her boyfriend, and feels resentful towards him and her friend group. They go to this bridge to make a deal with the demon who resides there. The protagonist, however, does not finish her deal in time, and the demon, who really feeds on fear and the blood of the living, plagues her friends to kill her and give the demon her blood. I sort of wish the story went more into the folklore aspects of the bridge, but I know that the purpose of this story is about the strength of friendships (or lack thereof). I thought the atmosphere around the bridge was very well-written. However, I think I just wasn’t as keen on the plot overall. I think this could be a better story if it were longer. But other than that, give me a spooky demon bridge any day.


Ghost on the Shore by Allison Saft

This ghost story reminds me of stories about the woman in the well, or the lady in the lake (not the Arthurian versions), wherein the dead come back from a watery grave to see to unfinished business they left behind. The protagonist knows such stories, and goes to the lake where her beloved has drowned, to tell her of her feelings. But the ghoulish entity of this beloved friend seems wrong to the protagonist, but that doesn’t stop the protagonist from giving the ghoul a lift and trying to talk things out. This is a story about moving on from grief, and a reminder that grief is best shared and experienced with someone who understands. This story has such a gloomy atmosphere, perfect for an undead presence who rises from the water. What I wasn’t thrilled by in this story was that it was a lot of just driving around with the ghoul, instead of getting more into the folklore. Totally relatable story (minus the driving the ghoul around), but I really wanted to know more about the folklore and the history behind the undead that come from the lake in this story.


Petrified by Olivia Chadha

I loved this story. It was atmospheric, it was about trees and a creepy forest! This story has themes of colonization, revenge, and nature. The main characters, who are either indigenous to the land or who settled there before the “bad” colonizers (it’s hard to tell), seek to avenge their stolen land and livelihood by killing those who have or who are related to the ones who have done so. To do this, they use their connection to the forest to help trap their victims. Stories that take place in seemingly haunted forests are some of my favorites. There’s always something ancient and foreboding about the trees that have been on the land forever, and that is, in my opinion, how it should be. This story, actually, would have been a good one for the anthology Weird Woods, if it took place in Britain and not (what I presume is) America. The way it is written, you get such a sense of the darkness in the story, of the possibility of getting lost in the woods and never finding your way out.


Third Burn by Courtney Gould

You could easily imagine that the town this story takes place in is Salem (though it is actually in Oregon, and not Oregon’s Salem). The main character is an outcast from her hometown, though she is back and met without much welcome. She knows she must get out of this town, but the price to do it might be too high. It is definitely dangerous; though, with the help from the ghosts of the witches who were burned in the town long ago, our protagonist might just be able to escape, and maybe become a witch (or a ghost) herself. This is a story about prejudice – prejudice against lower classes, prejudice against women, prejudice against anyone who is different. It is a story in which the Church, as a negative entity, plays a sort of villain or antagonist to our protagonist. It definitely recalls the days of the witch trials, but also reminds us that such prejudices still exist. I have to say, I really disliked everyone in this story, but for good reason. The other characters seemed relentless in their hatred of the protagonist, even though she did her time and was trying to get back to normal. I do wish, though, that there was more interaction with the protagonist and other characters – she only interacts with her former best friend/love interest, and the rest of the feeling from the town is implied. I definitely got VVitch vibes from this story.


It Stays With You by Aden Polydoros

This story is based on the classic Bloody Mary game we would all play as kids in front of a mirror in a dark bathroom. Except, this time, it is not just Bloody Mary who will get you from the mirror, but your own deepest fears. This story struck me as the Bloody Mary game meets Stephen King’s IT, in which the main characters are haunted by their worst fear that threatens to come out of the mirror and destroy them. I can’t say much more except that this story really does have Stephen King vibes, and there is the atmosphere of a creepy carnival that reminds me of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. It wasn’t my favorite story of the bunch, as the paranormal elements were not as ghoulish as I usually like, but that’s just me. This is, essentially, a story about memories, trauma, and moving forward (in this case, the moving forward might include beating a monster up with a baseball bat).


Truth or Dare by Alex Brown

Not going to lie, this story reminds me so very much about a scary story my counselors told me at camp, about some tunnels under UCLA, and the people who went in there. One escaped, and one didn’t, supposedly killed and eaten by a man or creature who lived in the tunnels. This story has a similar premise: tunnels underneath a school, and when two people go in, only one comes back out. In this story, however, the tunnels only appear to someone who has to make a decision, and as a result leave the other person behind in the tunnels. There is some creature or entity in these tunnels that seems to make this possible, and it is implied that this entity does kill the person who is left behind. I really loved the atmosphere in this story. You could imagine the dark and damp of the tunnels, the urge to press on and get out. What I was less keen on – though it is super relatable – is the relationship between the protagonist and the boy she brings with her into the tunnels. They have a very toxic relationship, which is why the decision comes to the protagonist in the form of going into the tunnels. I think the biggest issue I had with the protagonist is that even when she leaves behind the boy in the tunnels, realizes she’s better off without him, she still doesn’t seem to have much agency. I have no doubt that that is done on purpose by the author, and I understand why: the protagonist is supposed to represent all who have to make a decision in the tunnels, and we don’t really know what happens to either party when one escapes with their decision. It makes sense, but I still wish she had more agency. This is just a personal feeling, and one that has no bearing on how good the story actually is.


The Burning One by Shakira Toussaint

This story can easily be summed up as: “girl in a toxic relationship goes feral”. I believe this story uses Caribbean folklore as its basis, which is utterly fascinating and a topic I would love to read more about. Themes in this story include colonization (always a true element of horror and terror), racism, and slavery. I won’t go into too much detail about these themes in relation to the story, but I think you can guess where it’s headed. What I thought was so interesting was the transformation of the protagonist from curious girl to a creature hungry for revenge (literally), was that it is sort of left open to interpretation. One could interpret the transformation as a sort of werewolf or vampiric transformation. Otherwise, the protagonist could simply have just become so overcome with her hunger for revenge that she literally eats those she wants to punish. I am sure there are stories in the folklore that refer to such a transformation or woman, but I am not versed enough yet to make the connection. I very much want to though! The language that Toussaint wrote this story in was very interesting as well. It was English, but a purposefully simple and/or broken English to illustrate the limited worldview of the protagonist. I’m not always a fan of this writing style – it’s a bit hard to read, and it is not always consistent. However, for the purposes of this story, it seems to work.

Thank you so much for reading!






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Book Review – The Widow’s House by Carol Goodman

~ A. Siegelster

The Widow’s House by Carol Goodman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



In The Widow’s House by Carol Goodman, couple Jess and Clare Martin travel from New York City to the New York countryside where Clare grew up, to get away from their troubles and to repair their marriage. Or so Clare is led to believe. They become caretakers of the house of their old, wealthy writing instructor, but are uneasy as ghosts, both real and imagined, start to come out of the house.

This is the second novel I’ve read by Carol Goodman; the first I read was The Lake of Dead Languages. Overall, I very much enjoyed this novel. The atmosphere of Riven House was palpable – you could feel the secrets seeping out of its walls (sometimes literally!). Adding the touch of Winter to the landscape as well made this novel a bona fide ghost story (like in The Children of Green Knowe), even if the ghosts were only in the characters’ minds.

The characters were good, and mostly believable. There were times, however, when their decisions didn’t feel so realistic – though if you are frightened out of your wits, how realistic can you actually be? For Clare, though, Goodman did a fantastic job narrating the mind of someone who is almost certainly paranoid and delusional, but whose delusions are proved to be based in reality more and more over time. By the end of the story, you can’t be certain if Clare has overcome her paranoia or has been more soundly rooted to it. But, after reading her story, you can’t blame her for it, instead you feel empathy, like you feel that you yourself have her wits. And that is why Goodman’s characters are so well-written, even if I very much don’t agree with a lot of their decisions.

These themes, atmosphere, and characters (especially the crazy wife) recall such stories as The Yellow Wallpaper, Dragonwyck, and Jane Eyre, making this book feel wonderfully gothic, and a short version of the Bildungsroman story.

The Widow’s House was a good book to end the Autumn season with. I still like The Lake of Dead Languages much better, I felt it was a more interesting story, but that could just be because I’m biased towards people who study Latin. This story was still very compelling and had me anxious for Clare through to the end.



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Book Review – Gallant by V.E. Schwab

~ A. Siegelster

Gallant by V.E. Schwab

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Gallant by V.E. Schwab is about Olivia, who cannot speak, but who can see ghosts. One day, she receives a letter at her orphanage/school from her uncle, asking her to come home to her family estate, Gallant. When she gets there, however, she finds that her uncle did not in fact write her that letter. So what brought her to Gallant? And why had her mother warned Olivia, in the journal she left behind, to stay away?

V.E. Schwab has written the perfect haunted house/gothic tale in Gallant. It has hints of The Haunting of Hill House and Crimson Peak mixed in with Coraline. I loved the juxtaposition of life versus death, of mirrored worlds where the reflection is lifeless. To me, this is true horror, the true fear of what lies on the other side of the threshold – it’s what we see when we think of the Faerie realm, of the place over the garden wall, and Schwab captures that terror so wonderfully.

I really don’t have anything I disliked about this book, so I will talk more about the things I did like. I liked the atmosphere of Gallant, how it was definitely spooky, but also definitely alive with something.
I loved the way Schwab portrayed the ghosts (or ghouls in this book), and the system within which they worked – seen by Olivia, and even able to be manipulated to an extent that made a lot of sense for this story. A lot of ghost stories I’ve read fall short on their representation of ghosts, but this one joins the ranks of Shirley Jackson, and even Edgar Allen Poe.
I liked the characters, too. How Schwab portrayed their pain and grief so well, how she portrayed Olivia’s lack of understanding of this grief in the beginning, and led her to understand it later. The characters (the ones on our side) are warm, are a family, are what you want for the hero who must (very literally) face death.

I don’t want to say any more because that would spoil the story. But this book was nothing short of perfection, and I really want V.E. Schwab to write more ghost stories in this style.



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Book Review – Trick or Treat by Richie Tankersley Cusick

~ A. Siegelster

Trick or Treat by Richie Tankersley Cusick

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



In Trick or Treat, Martha, a sixteen-year-old high school student, moves into a new house with her dad, new step-mom and step-brother. She hates the situation, having been torn from her happy life in Chicago. Matters get worse, however, when she realizes that the house they’ve moved into, with its long hallways and secret passages, has a dark history she must soon contend with. Even worse, she might have to just get along with her new brother to survive.

You all know I love my spooky stories, my haunted houses, and this book had everything I wanted and more.
Here is what I loved about the book:

I loved the way the house is portrayed. You can imagine it as a house like Hill House or Hell House or Bly Manor, not just because the house is imagined so detailed and labyrinthine, but because you can feel the heaviness of its history (whether embodied by a ghost or not). I felt actual fear for the protagonists when they became trapped in the house’s winding passages, stuck in the dark with the evil of that house. I also loved the imagery of the woods surrounding the house, as if not only the house were trapping Martha, but the land as well.

I loved the way the history of the house was written, and how it was reflected in all the important characters of this story. For Martha and Conor, her new brother, it is walking into something dark, evil, and unknown; for Martha’s new friends, Blake and Wynn, it is reopening old wounds, but trying to move on the best they can (or so it would seem). For Martha and Conor’s parents, well, they couldn’t be more thrilled with a haunted house – I could get Martha’s frustration with them as she had her experiences.

There were few things I didn’t get on with in this book, but even these didn’t really affect my enjoyment of it. I didn’t really like how bratty Martha was (and even Conor, though he didn’t seem it). I understand why she was – moving to a new house with a whole new family – but it felt a bit much at times. I also wished that the book’s ending went beyond just the end of the mystery. Lots of horror/thriller books do this, but I do wish we could see their lives getting back to normal, or that we could see them coming to terms with their new life. Again, though, this was not bad enough to ruin my enjoyment.

This is the perfect book to read during the spooky season and Halloween. I know Cusick wrote many other books like this, and I will be checking out more, especially during this coming October!


I read this book on Scribd.



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Book Review – The Bewitching of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes

~ A. Siegelster

The Bewitching of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Bewitching of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes


I am so, so happy that the first book I finished for 2022 was The Bewitching of Aveline Jones! I have been waiting to read this book after I read The Haunting of Aveline Jones last year, and just like that first book, this wonderful sequel did not disappoint.

In this book, Hickes brings back Aveline and her friend Harold into another dark and haunting mystery. However, instead of just an angry ghost to contend with, they have to deal with witches too. Now that was a great combination of paranormal plots!

As usual, I loved the haunting and paranormal elements that Hickes wrote. I also loved the folklore elements that he brought into this sequel – about the witches of England and the ways people used to ward against them (some of which I had only heard about recently from the Lore Podcast!). There are other elements of folklore that are included that I cannot mention (spoilers), but every single bit of folklore adds wonderful things to the story.

As always, I loved Aveline as a character. She reminds me so much of myself when I was around her age – always eager for the supernatural and the macabre. But The Bewitching of Aveline Jones also shows her ability to be the best of friends, and to be compassionate to those who are in need. She is a wonderful character, and I wish I had known about her when I was her age.

I do wish we had seen a bit more of Mr. Lieberman and Aveline’s aunt, I really enjoyed them in the first book. But this book featured Harold a lot, and I quite enjoyed his part in the story. What a knowledgeable lad!

I can predict that this is already going to be my top book for 2022, it was so good. This book and the first are easily two of my favorite books of all time. What a way to start the year!



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2021 Reading Wrap-Up

~ A. Siegelster

I feel like I have not needed books so much in a long time as I have needed them this year. It’s been a tough, though happy, year – I’m in a period of transition, and lots of waiting for things to happen. But reading many of the books I did has gotten me through the time. I wanted to share with all of you the books that helped me, the ones I enjoyed so fully and made my heart feel warm.

This year I read 40 books for the GoodReads yearly reading challenge, which is a little more than my normal average of about 20-30 books. I wanted to share with you the ones I loved the most, my top 5 I think, maybe with a special mention or two. Now, the ones I loved the most do not necessarily have a 5-star rating from me – some of them have 4 or 5 stars.

The first one I want to mention is The Haunting of Aveling Jones by Phil Hickes. This was the perfect ghost story for me this year: it had an inquisitive bookworm for a main character, a haunted house, a stormy sea where ghosts and deaths repeat themselves. So spooky and fun, Hickes really found the perfect style and atmosphere for a great haunting tale.

Next is Widdershins from the Wyborne and Griffin mystery series by Jordan Hawk. First, let me just say, what an author! Hawk has written so, so many books, probably hundreds as far as I can tell! In addition, he is a trans author who writes mostly lgbt fiction, and it’s all GOOD from what I have read so far. But I digress. Widdershins, the first book in the Wyborne and Griffin series, is probably one of my favorite mlm romances ever, and definitely one of my favorite paranormal romances ever. My friend and I, who are both classicists (she is an archaeologist and I am a philologist), joke that I am like Wyborne, who is a philologist of ancient languages, and she is like Christine who is an archaeologist. It’s so up my alley, and up the alleys of any classicist and paranormal lover. It’s so well-written and fun as well. I could gush over this book forever, and I know I’m rambling, but it’s just so good!!

I read so much lgbt fiction this year, especially mlm fantasy, and Widdershins was only one of them. I think I read at least 10, but I will only mention a few.

The next one I want to mention is Magic’s Pawn by Mercedes Lackey. Not only is the lgbt representation wonderful in this book, but the world-building and characters are absolutely amazing. I also like that she makes the main character grow so much into himself – he’s very unlikeable in the beginning, but grows to be a compassionate and real person. I’m actually kind of afraid to read the rest of the books in this trilogy for fear that they don’t live up to the standard that this one set for me. I am going to read them at some point though!

The last lgbt book I want to mention that I absolutely loved was Seven Tears At High Tide by C.B. Lee. Not only does this story have folklore, the sea, and good lgbt representation (bi characters!), but it is such a wholesome and sweet story, I found myself tearing up multiple times just because the story was so lovely. I love going back and rereading sections of the book that have our two protagonists together being cute. I really want to check out C.B. Lee’s other books. I know she (pretty sure she) has written an lgbt Treasure Island retelling, which sounds really intriguing.

And last, but not least, is the most recent book I’ve read, In The Company Of Witches by Auralee Wallace. This is just the coziest book ever. It has everything I could want in a book: mystery, cute towns with b&bs, witches and magic, ghosts, and just the most loving, if not totally crazy, family. This is a book you read cozied up under a blanket with a hot drink on a cold evening. I really need more books like this.

I just want to list some honorable mentions for books I really enjoyed this year, without getting into detail about them – just know I loved them a lot, and you all should very much check them out.

Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann

The Faerie Hounds of York by Arden Powell

The Lost Spells by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris (This one actually got me through the beginning of winter in Winnipeg)

The Hobbits of Tolkien by David Day

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

~~~~~~~~~~

And those are all the books I loved this year! I can’t wait to find out what next year will bring, both in terms of books and in terms of where my life is headed. I’m hoping the transitional periods end soon, but until then, I have many books on my tbr to keep me occupied!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, a happy New Year, and a good start to 2022!

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Book Review – In The Company of Witches by Auralee Wallace

~ A. Siegelster

In the Company of Witches by Auralee Wallace

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the Company of Witches by Auralee Wallace



In the Company of Witches is about Brynn, who, after the loss of her husband, feels she can no longer do magic. However, when a murder happens right inside her family’s inn, she goes to try to solve the mystery of who committed the crime to clear her family’s name. During this harrowing experience, she realizes that maybe she can reconnect with her magic.

I loved this book, pure and simple. It has everything I could want in a story: mystery, magic, witches, ghosts, a loving family in a small town. The writing style is simple, but Wallace really brings each character and place to life with those simple words. I could imagine being in the small town and interacting with everyone that Brynn interacted with.

My favorite part, I think, was that even though they were all a little bit crazy in their own ways, Brynn’s family, the Warrens, were so loving to each other and tried to be supportive when they could. Even the animals, Dog the crow and Faustus the cat, lent their support where they could. That plus the witches and ghosts is everything I could ever want in life, and Wallace portrayed this family so, so well. Also, it brought back some nostalgia as it reminded me a bit of Sabrina the Teenaged Witch (from the 90s)!

The mystery was fun as well. You really could not be sure who did what in terms of the crimes committed, and that kept me on the edge of my seat. A whole family is involved, well, technically two families, and secrets are kept everywhere.

I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who wants a little magic and mystery in their life. What a great book to end my reading challenge on this year!



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Book Review – The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

~ A. Siegelster

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving



I cannot believe how long it’s taken me to read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I grew up with the Disney version, which definitely creeped me out as a kid (in a good way), and I watched the tv show (the recent one where Brom is the headless horseman). I was not prepared for how much better the original story was!

Firstly, the characters are so much worse than in any adaptation I’ve seen, and it is marvelous. If Ichabod Crane was alive today, he’d totally be an antivaxxer and use healing crystals. Brom is so much more of an asshole, but honestly he and Katrina Van Tassel truly deserve each other.

What I loved most, though, were the elements of folklore presented in this story. I’d heard of similar legends in many parts of the United States – the ghost of a grey or white woman wailing in the woods or a graveyard; witches in the woods and their ghosts; the ghosts of soldiers trying to find one missing body part or another. These are common stories, but the way Irving told them through the reception of the superstitious Ichabod Crane, made the legends come to life in dark and fastastical ways.

Now (kind of spoilers here but also not cause most know this story), it is very likely that Ichabod’s demise at the hands of the headless horseman were actually carried out by Brom and his friends, but it couldn’t be proved. And, truly, isn’t that how legends are born? Through speculation and superstition.

I really enjoyed this story, and it was very nice to listen to on audiobook – I listened to the narration of Anthony Heald, who did a fantastic job. It really is a story to listen to with a warm drink and under a cozy blanket, and maybe even in front of a fire on a chilly autumn night.



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Book Review – The Ghost Garden by Emma Carroll

~ A. Siegelster

The Ghost Garden by Emma Carroll

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Ghost Garden by Emma Carroll


The Ghost Garden takes place just before the start of WWI. Fran is a young girl working with her father in the garden on the estate where they live. One day, Fran finds a bone in the garden. She thinks this is odd and mysterious, until more odd and mysterious things start to happen around the estate.

I wouldn’t call this a ghost story; rather, it is a coming-of-age story with ghosts in it. I really like how Emma Carroll portrays the mystery and childhood wonder in Fran’s explorations of the gardens and the mysteries they bring to her. There is a sense of whimsy, but also of fear as the mysteries turn into predictions of terrible things to come.

The writing is very beautiful. This is my first book by Carroll, but I am eager to read her other works (of which, I am happy to say, she seems to have many!). In this particular story, I get a lot of Secret Garden vibes, and, especially with the exploration of tombs and ghosts, I have ended up feeling very nostalgic for my own childhood. I usually don’t like war stories, but this one dealt with the impending war in a very healthy and subtle way.

I recommend this book to those who want some nostalgic feelings, and some sense of whimsy.



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Why Ghost Stories?

~ A. Siegelster

As most of you dear readers know, I love ghost stories. About half of my reviews consist of ghost or paranormal stories. They are probably my favorite things to read in the whole world.

You might be asking, A. Siegel, why ghost stories? I often ask myself this question, and upon thinking of some answers, I thought I would share them with you.

First I’d like to answer “why ghost stories?” for me personally.

Most importantly, I think that they are fun! I love reading these stories, imagining I am the one exploring the haunted house or the haunted woods, trapped in the dark with some unknown presence that could end or change my life forever. And that oh so wonderful creepy feeling! It is my favorite feeling reading a book.

Really, though, I think my love for these stories stems back to my love and interest in ghosts in general. I think I always believed in ghosts in some capacity, but I never was truly intrigued by ghosts until I was around eleven years old. I think it must have been an episode of Ghost Hunters or some such show that triggered my hours and hours of researching reported hauntings of famous sites, of ways to tell when there was a ghost, of the scientific proof that evidenced these spirits. Suffice it to say, it had become an obsession that is with me to this day.
As I’ve gotten older, though, the energy that I had to try to find ghosts has calmed down a little. Now, my energy is spent in finding all the great ghost stories ever told! And believe you me, that is the most fun.

Next I will try very hard to answer the other aspect of “why ghost stories?”

Why are ghost stories important?

For a more academic and well-researched answer to this question, I recommend reading The Ghost by Susan Owens, which talks about the history of ghosts in human minds, art, and literature. However, I want to attempt to answer this from my own observations.
Ghosts have been on the minds of humans even before writing was a thing, and, of course, we know that humans have always had a perfectly understandable obsession with what happens when we die. I think the best answer that we have for why it is such an obsession even now is said very well by Susan Owens: “[Ghosts] remain as elusive as ever, and we still have no more idea now of what they are” than people did thousands, even hundreds of years ago. And I think that’s why humans chase ghosts.
Humans are always searching for what they don’t know – hell, people are still trying to figure out what dark matter is, and that is even farther away from us than ghosts are supposed to be. I think ghosts add one more thing on our own planet, even in our own psyches that we still haven’t figured out yet, and I think that is beautiful. I think it’s important that humans keep striving to figure out the mysteries of the world, and part of me is glad that ghosts are so unattainable. The other part of me, of course, wishes that I could have a conversation with a ghost. Maybe someday!
In any case, this elusive mystery to the human species has left us with so much art and literature and creativity, and I think that is the most important result of the (maybe) existence of ghosts.

With that brief explanation, I would now like to share with you a few of my favorite ghost stories and authors of ghost stories, and why I think they are so successful as ghost stories (I guess the question here would be “why these ghost stories?”).

The Haunting of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes

In my opinion, middle grade books do some of the best work with regards to ghost stories nowadays. This book is no exception, and has all the classic ghost story elements you could want from a spooky book: a haunted house in a spooky seaside town, a ghost bent on revenge, and a young hero who must face the ghost and win or be taken forever into whatever ghostly realm awaits her. A lot of more adult ghost stories don’t include as likeable a hero as Hickes does in his book, but I think that having such a character is very important. With this protagonist, you get a stronger dichotomy between the living and the dead, so you know where the protagonist stands, which side she is on (that of the living).

An example of a ghost story with a more ambiguous protagonist is

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

This is probably one of the most famous haunted house stories ever told, and it lives up to its reputation. A young woman goes to the purportedly haunted Hill House to help conduct an experiment regarding the existence of ghosts. During her stay, however, her fragile mind traps her on the bring of living and death.
The great thing about this book is what a lot of great ghost stories do: they don’t let you know what’s real and what isn’t. Nor do they let the protagonists know what is real or not, and that is the scariest thing of all. Are there ghosts, or is it just yourself? And if there are ghosts, have you really been one of them all along?
I think these questions that the book poses mirror what we as humans always seek to answer: are we real? Or are we just part of some sordid imagination?

Like The Haunting of Hill House, many ghost stories tend to be very simple and atmospheric, which makes the spooky feeling all the more prominent. Some of my favorite authors that write this way are,

Shirley Jackson

Susan Hill (The Woman in Black)

Henry James (The Turn of the Screw)

Ambrose Bierce (The Moonlit Road)

Edith Wharton (The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton)

Stephen King (The Shining)

Daphne DuMaurier (Rebecca)

There are so many others that I haven’t named, and many others that are still waiting for me to read!

Now, when you go back a while in history, the way ghosts are presented changes a bit. For those of you who don’t know, my expertise is in classical literature and folklore, including what the Greeks and Romans thought of the dead. We all know that the majority of spirits in these myths are seen in the Underworld – examples include the shade of Eurydice, Orpheus’ wife; the shades of Ajax, Agamemnon, and others who greet Odysseus and tell him what has happened since he left Troy; in a similar vein, the shade of Anchises who leads his son, Aeneas, through the Underworld and tells him of his destiny. However, there are stories from Roman writers that talk of ghosts in a more realistic setting.

Pliny the Younger, whom I have dubbed the silliest of boys, was a Roman political figure. He wrote many letters to his friends, and even the emperor! In one of these letters, he tells a story. Or, rather, he tells his friend that he heard from his friend that his friend’s friend saw a ghost once (yes he writes letters like this ALL THE TIME and it’s GREAT). One of the stories Pliny tells involves a man who buys a large house, but is warned that the house is haunted. So, the man stays up all night working and waiting for the ghost. Sometime in the night, he hears the clanking of chains, and sees a ghost with those chains pointing him to a spot in the house. In the morning, the man digs up the spot where the ghost pointed, and there finds a skeleton shackled with, you guessed it, chains. If that sounds familiar, you would be right, as we’ve seen the same theme of ghosts with clanking chains in such tales as A Christmas Carol.

These all have been done by Western authors, but one last one I want to mention is from Japanese mythology, called Kwaidan. These short stories, which were compiled by Lafcadio Hearn in the late 19th century, are very atmospheric and are very much tied into Japanese culture (I think the majority of it is Buddhist, but correct me if I am wrong). In many of these stories, ghosts are either helpful to our characters, or they offer some sort of warning or premonition of death.
I very much recommend Kwaidan, for not only are the ghost stories fun and spooky, but it gives an insight into how other cultures view the dead.

Ghost stories are so important, personally and to the human species in general, it is no wonder we keep writing them.

I hope this has answered the question “why ghost stories?” thoroughly, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about one of my favorite topics!
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