| Title | : | 100 Ghastly Little Ghost Stories |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1402709730 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781402709739 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 546 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1993 |
So be warned: you might not want to read these while you're all alone in the house...
100 Ghastly Little Ghost Stories Reviews
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As the introduction confirms, this book particularly set out to collect the "short-short" or "compact" ghost story. Snagging the list of stories from
this review (so glad not to have to type them all out!), I'll make notes on the ones that interested me most, that I'd read before, etc. Also will attempt to avoid spoilers, but since stories are so short this means that I'll have a lot of cryptic sounding commentary. Meanwhile when an author is particularly good you really do notice it, because of the brevity of the stories - to pull you in, quickly set and tell the tale, and then make you like or at least think about it - well, in the short length that's all the more impressive.
100 stories:
Across the Moors by William Fryer Harvey
[Let's make the governess do this! Poor governess. Good story. Note to self, check out more by
this author. Can read his short story online:
The Beast with Five Fingers.]
Attorney of the Damned by Renier Wyers
[Gangsters, lawyer, and revenge.]
Away by Barry Malzberg
Behind the Screen by Dale Clark
Black Gold by Thorp McClusky
[Past trade in slavery and revenge.]
Bone to His Bone by E.G. Swain
[A past Vicar's library, loved the book descriptions. Also mentions The Compleat Gard'ner of de la Quintinye, which I believe is an actual book. Reading this, and looking up Swain, reminded me that I have
a book of his stories (which I should reread) and that he was a friend of M. R. James.]p 29 "...The books there are arranged as he arranged and ticketed them. Little slips of paper, sometimes bearing interesting fragments of writing, still mark his places. His marginal comments still give life to pages from which all other interest has faded, and he would have but a dull imagination who could sit in the chamber amidst these books without ever being carried back 180 years into the past, to the time when the newest of them left the printer's hands."
The Burned House by Vincent O'Sullivan
[A sort of pre-vision-ish ghost story]
Clocks by Darrell Schweitzer
[Sad. Also still trying to figure out image of room in basement at the end.]
The Closed Door by Harold Ward
The Coat by A.E.D. Smith
[Very creepy for some reason.]
The Cold Embrace by Mary E. Braddon
Coming Home by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Concert to Death by Paul Ernst
The Considerate Hosts by Thorp McClusky
Daddy by Steve Rasnic Tem
[I think you could put together an entire book on "ghosts that are way too creepy with children." Creepy in an uncomfortable way, also spouse abuse.]
Dark Mummery by Thorp McClusky
[Problem for me was that final reveal was sorta what I thought had happened so wasn't sure if I'd read that earlier bit wrong or just jumped to reveal without it being revealed. In my brain I was expecting more deaths, which could mean I've been reading too many ghost stories and should maybe rest a bit.]
Date in the City Room by Talbot Johns
[Makes a nice one to read alongside the previous story Behind the Screen, to ponder differences/similarities.]
A Dead Secret by Lafcadio Hearn
[I like how we don't get full details on the letter. Have had
Hearn recommended for ghost stories, haven't gotten around to reading what I found at Gutenberg and elsewhere.]
The Door by Henry S. Whitehead
Drowned Argosies by J. Wilmer Benjamin
[I rather liked the idea of what happens to sailors in the afterlife here.]
Dust by Edna Goit Brintnall
Edge of the Cliff by Dorothy Quick
Faces by Arthur J. Burks
[Creepy realism in its seeming accuracy of injury-related hallucinations. ...or are they? (Well, it's supposed to be a ghost story, so I have to add that, right?)]
Fancy That by J.N. Williamson
Father Macclesfield's Tale by R.H. Benson
The Furnished Room by O. Henry
[Much anthologixed]
The Garret of Madame Lemoyne by Kirk W. Mashburn, Jr.
[Story uses some of facts/folklore from historical person of
Delphine LaLaurie. (I'm a New Orleans history buff, so this kind of hops out at me.) Note appearance of words/sentences like "I've seen buck niggers working on the wharves with arms as big as my thighs, and knotted with muscles until they looked like limbs of an oak." Author, who also went by name of W. K. Mashburn, Jr. (1900-1968) was born in Mississippi and published this story in 1928 (
source).]
The Ghost and the Bone-setter by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
[Humorous-ish. Sort of.]
A Ghost-Child by Bernard Capes
[Lots of symbolism frolicking about in this one.]
The Ghost Farm by Susan Andrews Rice
Ghost Story by Alan Brennert
[Post apocalyptic future. I think. Very sci fi and fascinating for trying to figure out exactly what might be going on, past and present.]
The Ghosts at Haddon-le-Green by Alfred I. Tooke
Ghosts of the Air by J.M. Hiatt and Moye W. Stephens
[Story of wing walking in a flying circus. I think it's the only ghost story I've read with that setting. Interesting to read the bio of
Stephens - now I need to track down their other coauthored story: "The Assault Upon Miracle Castle".]
Gibbler's Ghost by William F. Nolan
[Hollywood setting. Vaguely humorous.]
A Grammatical Ghost by Elia W. Peattie
[A ghost with very particular priorities.]
The Grey Room by Stephen Grabinski
Guarded by Mearle Prout
Harmless Ghosts by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
[Harmless is a matter of opinion]
The Haunted Burglar by W.C. Morrow
[There's actually
a real medical symptom in this story, sort of.]
He Walked by Day by Julius Long
[He tells them he's a ghost but at first no one quite believes...]
Her New Parents by Steve Rasnic Tem
[Psychological]
Highwaymen by W. Benson Dooling
The Honor of Don Pedro by Wallace J. Knapp
The House of Shadows by Mary Elizabeth Counselman
How He Left the Hotel by Louisa Baldwin
[A ghost and an elevator. Seems reminiscent of
the old "Room for One More" legend, around since 1906, that link is the Snopes version with history. Which is also the year E. F. Benson wrote of it in the story "The Bus-Conductor" (
full text here, if you're curious).]
Jerry Bundler by W.W. Jacobs
[A joke goes wrong]
John Charrington's Wedding by Edith Nesbit
Much anthologized. As always, still think this is too harsh on the bride - it's not like she did anything to deserve the ending. Seems unfair.]
Kharu Knows it All by Renier Wyers
[Revenge and a fake medium]
The Last of Squire Ennismore by Mrs. J.H. Riddell
[I'm left wondering who the dead and living folk from the shipwreck were - or at least where they were from. Author also known as
Charlotte Riddell, another one who I have multiple books on my ereader thanks to Gutenberg, etc.]
The Light was Green by John Rawson Speer
[Train/railroad setting]
McGill's Appointment by Elsie Ellis
[Story told from prison, mainly via phone call. Extremely short.]
The Man on B-17 by Stephen Grendon
[Ghost story with train/railroad setting. Told as a sort of deposition/interrogation.]
Mandolin by Will Charles Oursler
[Ghost or not? Author gives us an explanation, which is annoying depending on whether you like the idea of the ghost more or the other spin.]
The Metronome by August W. Derleth
[Sad tale of revenge, yet no sympathy (from me anyway) for the one revenge is aimed at.]
Miss Prue by Fred Chappell
[The living are much more clueless than the ghost.]
Monsieur De Guise by Perley Poore Sheehan
[Swamp setting. Good wistful, other worldly feel to this one.
Author was novelist and film writer.]
Mordecai's Pipe by A.V. Milyer
[Note: do not use stuff that was owned by evil dead person. This sounds like an obvious thing not to do, right?!]
The Murderer's Violin by Erckmann-Chatrian
[Sometimes you can't tell whether the old fashioned feel to a story is because it is actually old or because the author has a wonderful way of making you feel that. Or in this case authors - this is a
writing team. Multiple copies of their work available online for free, I have several waiting on my ereader for me to get around to reading.]
The Night Caller by G.L. Raisor
[Sad story of loss. I always dislike these too modern/too real sorts of stories.]
The Night Wire by H.F. Arnold
[Set in office of
news wire service on the night shift - and I must love this for the outdated technology, always fun to see that documented in fiction. And second, the story is nicely creepy with a good "not entirely sure what happened" sort of ending. Can't seem to find any biography on Arnold - except for the bit here with the
full text of this story. And also this line at the end of the info about the author/story segment:"Astute fans of horror will also find some similarities between this story "The Mist" by Stephen King and the film, John Carpenter's The Fog, but any comparisons I will leave to the reader..."
- and yes, I couldn't help but think of those other fog-related stories.]
O Come Little Children... by Chet Williamson
[Unexpected Christmas ghost, yet somehow we should have expected it, right?]
On the Brighton Road by Richard Middleton
[Memorable one I've read before. Tramps on the road, possibly for eternity. For some reason reminded me of themes in Waiting for Godot, though style is nothing like it.]
Our Late Visitor by Marvin Kaye
[Sometimes the dead are completely clueless.]
Out of Copyright by Ramsey Campbell
[Completely delicious story about author's revenge, plural. Though one author specifically. You very much feel this is a revenge story written on behalf of all authors.]
Pacific 421 by August W. Derleth
[Ghost of a train]
The Pedicab by Donald R. Burleson
[Ghost of the pedicab? Maybe? Hmm. Ghost could be multiple things.]
The Phantom Express by H. Thompson Rich
[Ghost of a train.]
The Piper from Bhutan by David Bernard
[About-to-be-expelled student attempts to explain his remarks to a professor. Voices of the dead.]
Rats by M.R. James
[It's not just rats under that bedsheet....]
The Readjustment by Mary Austin
[Actually it's the title of this that made me stop and ponder the story again. Multiple things readjusted.]
Rebels' Rest by Seabury Quinn
[Homesick Irishfolk and love.]
Relationships by Robert Sampson
[I was going to say that this is a story of an old man, but I looked back and he's 48, so let's just say that he acts as though he's in his 90s (and worries about having mental problems), which is indeed the issue at hand. A bit I found amusing, probably because I was a long time owner of a pet cat, til recently:p 384 "...He lived with two cats, Gloria and Bill. He had developed the habit of reading aloud to them: selections from news magazines, the poems of Emily Dickinson. The cats were unconcerned by his choices."
Those aren't the important sentences in that paragraph plot-wise, but they are wonderful in setting the scene.]
Rendezvous by Richard H. Hart
[New Orleans area setting]
The Return by R. Murray Gilchrist
[Usually a good idea to propose first, then go on the journey to make your fortune. Guys, stop doing this without stating your intentions first. Not that it definitely would have helped in this case, but still.]
The Return by G.G. Pendarves
[Revenge when a lost traveler finally tracks down his foe... I'm totally getting flashbacks to Tom Hood's The Shadow of a Shade in
65 Great Tales of the Supernatural. Very different setups, and yet there are parallels.]
Rose Rose by Barry Pain
[Artist's model]
Safety Zone by Barry Malzberg
[You never know when H. P. Lovecraft will come up in conversation...and elsewhere...]
Shadows Cast Behind by Otto E.A. Schmidt
[Customs guard on a ship discovers a "who shot first" ghost story.]
Shadows in the Grass by Steve Rasnic Tem
[A man tries to take on other's griefs, because he somehow can't find out what his own causes of depression are.]
The Sixth Tree by Edith Lichty Stewart
[Geologist narrator/main character. Trying to "out-science" ghosts is probably always a bad idea.]
The Soul of Laploshka by Saki
The Sphinx Without a Secret by Oscar Wilde
[And do we know what that secret is? Er, not exactly, not that I can tell...]
The Splendid Lane by S.B.H. Hurst
A Sprig of Rosemary by H. Warner Munn
[The scenario of "child/children in ghost stories," if written in just the right way, has a high probability that I will become maudlin and tearful. Dammit, ghost story, stop that. Sooo yeah, this is one of those.]
The Stone Coffin by "B"
[I had two years of high school Latin which is just enough for me to think I might know what something might say yet still not get it exactly right. Thankfully there are now online translation sites -
Google's is usually best. But it didn't like "Quare inquietasti me ut suscitarer." - something about the word inquietasti wasn't checking out in the database. Thankfully this entire story can be found online
here - with the footnote:A quote from the Vulgate, 1 Samuel 28, v.15 - given in the King James Bible as: "Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?". This is what the ghost of Samuel says to King Saul after it has been raised by the Witch of Endor.
And it's moments like this that make me wonder how I can ever read again without the internet handy. Also I should just go look up a latin copy of that whole chapter of Samuel because the
Witch of Endor is always popping up here and there, where you'd least expect her. Prior to the story on
the webpage containing The Stone Coffin is this note:"This neat little story, set in Magdalene College, Cambridge, is firmly in the tradition of M.R. James. It was published in the December 1913 edition of the Magdalene College Magazine, where it was simply signed 'B'. The mystery of 'B's' identity remains unsolved, although it must have been known to M.R. James, for a proof copy of the story exists among his papers at King's College. The most likely candidate seems to be A.C. Benson, who had close connections with Magdalene and became Master of the College in 1915. However, "The Stone Coffin" is not written in his usual style, and the author may yet prove to have been someone else entirely. Five other supernatural tales by the mysterious 'B' have been collected together and published under the title When the Door is Shut, and other ghost stories (Haunted Library, 1986). [All of the 'B' stories can be found in the G&S Archive]"
Because of course you have to wonder who an author only known as B really is, right? G&S stands for Ghosts and Scholars, and often the scholar Rosemary Pardoe's name can be found as well. She's sort of like the Kevin Bacon of M. R. James and James-esque ghost story research. I'm always rather pleased when I bump into her name again.
Five more stories by B can be found
here.]
A Strange Goldfield by Guy Boothby
[Setting: Australian gold fields of "Gurunya." I really must track down a more comprehensive history book on Australia than what I've read so far... someday. Because I'm fuzzy on Aussie geography I'm not sure
which gold rush this one's referring to.
Here's this same story at Gutenberg Austrailia.]
The Stranger by Ambrose Bierce
[Four ghosts from the Arizona desert. Bierce always does this sort of story well.p 464 -465 "...We were not so new to the county as not to know the solitary life of many a plainsman had a tendency to develop eccentricities of conduct and character not always easily distinguishable from mental aberration. A man is like a tree: in a forest of his fellows he will grow as straight as his generic and individual nature permits; alone in the open, he yields to the deforming stresses and tortions that environ him."
]
Summerland by Avram Davidson
[Spiritualists. Revenge, but not entirely sure what manages enact that vengeance. (Nature? God? Spirits? Justice?) Definitely a just deserts story.]
The Terrible Old Man by H.P. Lovecraft
[Multiple creepy details, like the jars that can somehow communicate.]
The Terror by Night by E.F. Benson
[Not sure why this particular terror visits whom it does - I mean yes, reasons, but purpose not entirely clear to me, certainly not vengeance.]
The Theater Upstairs by Manly Wade Wellman
[Movie theater showing a talking picture of
de Maupassant's
The Horla starring Valentino (who didn't live to make a talking film), among others. Revenge by film.
Author wrote a long list of books and screenplays.]
Thirteen Phantasms by Clark Ashton Smith
[Which is the ghost of the true love?]
Three Gentlemen in Black by August W. Derleth
[Not those Men in Black, but these are operatives of revenge/justice.]
The Tree-Man Ghost by Percy B. Prior
[It's not nice to steal from the dead/the church/]
The True Story of Anthony Ffryar by Arthur Gray
[Not entirely sure why Ffryar is the one to have the incident happen to him - doesn't seem any more or less deserving of it.]
Two by Al Sarrantonio
[Realistic and sad and I suppose well written but I really hate this sort of thing. Parents, child, death, misery, hopelessness. Psychological trauma, nowhere and no one to turn to for help, and no way to escape - anything - in the end. It's the horror of depression and not a ghost tale, and thus I don't see how it can be anything but deeply depressing to read. Not at all close to anything I find enjoyable. I'm also tired of reading this kind of story.]
Under the Eaves by Helen M. Reid
[Unhappy marriage]
A Visitor from Far Away by Loretta Burrough
{Evil husband, woman in jeopardy scenario in snowbound house]
Waiter Number 34 by Paul Ernst
[Rich, greedy men plan another war, however their waiter has actually been in the last one.]
The Woman in Gray by Walker G. Everett
[What if you could command a ghost to kill...]
The Word of Bentley by E. Hoffman Price
[Wall street investor makes promise to one of his clients]
-
Finishing this compilation took longer than originally intended. Much like the assumptuously titled 'The World's Greatest Ghost Stories' which most weren't, it had been planned to finish this one by Halloween (2017). Sadly, the one quoted was finished the first week of November, and this one not until New Year's Eve, 2017. Oh, well!
Again, much like the previously reviewed compilation, I have reviewed some of the stories within (making this have reviews within a review). Also, there is a list of favourites. I did not list/favourite/review every single story. Any, if you so desire to check, that are not listed were basically neither loved nor hated by me and my guy (we read this book together).
------------------------------------------------
"Away" by Barry N. Malzberg.
You can't touch a ghost, so how were the cops able to grab him and take him off the stage?? 2/5
"Black Gold" by Thorp McClusky.
Captain Manly???? Smh. Also: decent story, but the use of the n-word could have been omitted and changed. 2/5.
"The Burned House" by Vincent O'Sullivan.
I'm not sure how this is exactly a ghost story. 2/5.
"Clocks" by Darrell Schweitzer.
Good story, but what is the main character's name? 2/5.
"The Cold Embrace" by Mary E. Braddon.
Decent ghost story. Bit predictable once halfway through, though. The first two lines had my eyes bugging out. "He was an artist- - such things as happened to him happen sometimes to artists." The next line is the same sentence save for the absence of 'artist' and replaces it with 'German.' To this I say, "WHAT????"
Also: they were first cousins in LOVE with each other??? FIRST COUSINS??? 1/5.
"Coming Home" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman.
"The upstairs is smaller and sits on top of the downstairs..." YOU DON'T SAY?!! Also: The main character was 9 years old and her best friend was 10. Her best friend said once "Livvie, if I had your brain, I'd put it in a glass bowl and ask it questions." LIVVIE! WHAT KIND OF FRIENDS DID YOU HAVE? Maybe this is why you're dead! <-- my thoughts before I finished it.
"Concert to death." By Paul Ernst.
Predictable. 1/5.
'Daddy' by Steve Rasnic Tem.
Creepy, and a little sad, but I got the impression that the child had a mental disorder. 2/5.
"A Dead Secret," by Lafcadio Hearn.
A pointless story about a dead woman that wants a letter burned so she can rest forever, and you never even find out what's in the letter. 1/5.
"The Door" by Henry S. Whitehead.
Predictable and filled with unnecessary repetitive mentions of the main character being unable to unlock a door. 1/5.
"Dust" by Edna Goit Brintall.
This could be a decent beginning to a novel without its ending. It was very predictable. I just didn't particularly enjoy it. 1/5.
"Edge Of The Cliff." 1/5.
It kind of glorifies suicide. Horrible and should have never been allowed to be published.
"Fancy That." by J. N. Williamson. 1/5.
WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST READ????????????? Is this someones recollections of their time on acid?
"Father Macclesfield's Tale" by R. H. Benson. 1/5.
Seemed like random events, some that were mere tricks of light, after the death of a man. Didn't really feel like a legit ghost story at all.
"The Furnished Room." by O. Henry.
Dismal, dragged and dragged for a little over five pages. Idk what the author was thinking when they decided to release this as a ghost story. I honestly got the idea that the man was overly obsessed and merely desperate to have some sort of success in finding the lady. Then the ending didn't even make reading this worth it at all. Just dismal. 1/5.
"The Garret Of Madame LeMoyne."
This story fell flat, much like how the author described Annette's telling of the history of the attic. Seems to me, despite the author's intention, that the husband got ideas from Annete's story on how to kill his wife. Meant to be a ghost story, this is a ghost story fail. 1/5.
"The Ghost And The the Bone-Setter" by J. Sheridan La Fanu.
The only fun part of reading this was when I got sort of close to getting the accent right. Reading It was hilarious. It failed as a creepy story, but succeeds as a comedy. There id no use in purtendin'. God be marciful to us all. This one iv an ould misherable one. 3/5.
"A Ghost Child" by Bernard Capes.
Incredibly overwritten; far too much description, and near the ending, the story was borderline pedophilic.1/5.
"Ghost Story" by Alan Brennert.
Very misleading title. This is not a ghost story. This a collection of sentences that only occasionally flow well together to form a picture of what's going on in this story within the reader's mind. Otherwise, it sounded like a bunch of people in the middle of a desert who have sex in front of everyone and sometimes let others join. This may may have been written during the use of illegal drugs because the story makes no sense whatsoever. Say no to drugs, kids. 1/5.
"The Ghosts Of Badden-le-Green" by Alfred I. Tooke.
A poem? Unexpected and unsuccessful. Nothing actually happened except a possibly drunk man making claims, and another man capturing butterflies. 1/5
"The Grey Room" by Stefan Grabinski (translated by Miroslaw Lipinski).
Honestly, I didnt didn't get the impression that the main character was dealing with a haunting. Truly, the impression I got was that the main character was obsessed with a coincidence and the room he'd moved into. 2/5.
"Harmless Ghosts" by Jessica Amanda Salmonson.
Had the main character not been a Nazi sympathizer, I was just gonna leave this as one of the unmentioned ones since it's just a story of a conversation years after the only other character's mother's death. Unfortunately, the whole Nazi Sympathizer thing hit home, and this gets 1/5.
'The Haunted Burglar" by W. C. Morrow.
What this lacks is believability. The idea that an arm can be haunted without it being possession just makes no sense to me. He wasn't haunted. He was a lunatic. 1/5
"Her New Parents" by Steve Rasnic Tem.
Good premise, went kind of nicely till a little over halfway through, and then the ending disappointed me. 2/5.
"Kharu Knows All" by Renier Wyers.
The ending was not very good. I was hoping for something a bit more theatrical, but the ending was merely a reveal without shock or awe. 2/5.
"The Last of Squire Ennismore" by Mrs. J. H. Riddell
.... It's just a conversation with a judge.... I feel like we read another one just like this before. 1/5
"McGill's Appointment" by Elsie Ellis.
I didn't get it... there wasn't enough back story, nor did very much happen. It just seemed like two random short scenes put together, and whatever else that isn't told might have made this a better story. 1/5.
"The Man In B-17" by Stephen Grendon.
Felt like this was only one side of a conversation; like whoever the second person was had their questions removed from the story, and only the answers remained. Also, this is yet another conversation. 1/5
"Mandolin" by Will Charles Oursler.
Hmm. This didn't seem like a ghost story at all. It seemed like a man who was silently desperate for some reason to go on, and heard something that wasn't there; he heard it because he wanted to hear it. As a story about changing one's mind, it was okay; but since this is supposed to be a ghost story, I can't even give it 2 stars. 1/5.
"Miss Prue" by Fred Chappel.
Anything that glorifies suicide gets a one star rating from me. 1/5.
"Mordecai's Pipe" by A. V. Milyer.
Very little story, and very little story development. Much like 'McGill's Appointment', it felt like random scenes put together. This time, it was three. 1/5
"The Pedicab" by Donald R. Burleson.
This felt like the beginning of a story that wasn't completely submitted. 1/5.
"The Piper From Bhutan" by David Bernard.
Didn't like this on the grounds that they forced a confession out of someone who had an alibi simply because they 'knew' he did it. Unfortunately, speculation does not hold up in court as fact. Also, the whole idea of music reanimating a corpse just seemed stupid to me. Also, there were several parts with '. . .'; they made me wonder if they were the same as dots placed in quotes to show that the whole quote isn't there; like parts of this story were omitted. 1/5
"The Dream" by J. Sheridan Or Fanu.
Neither hated nor liked this story, but I mention it to say that this is not even a ghost story, so it's inclusion in this compilation is most odd. This is a religious story about a man who bargains his soul to the devil for one more season of life. Not one ghost was found within the text.
"The Readjustment" by Mary Austin.
The 'ghost' in this one is described as a presence, which makes me wonder if there was really a ghost or if it was just a feeling the widower and the neighbour had. *shrugs* 1/5.
"Relationships" by Robert Samson.
It is mentioned in here that the main character felt he had the symptoms of dementia, and honestly, it makes me wonder if any of these women existed as ghosts, as odd as that sounds. Maybe they were creations of his mind. 1/5.
"Rose Rose" by Barry Pain.
The ending seems to justify suicide. 1/5.
"Safety Zone" by Barry N. Malzberg.
I found myself thinking of 'My Side Of The Story' by Will Davis, and 'The Boys On The Rock" by John Fox, because there was very little punctuation. Periods and commas. Also, there was a mention of dogs that allegedly had some sort of ghostly meaning, but it was never explained. Hearing dogs barking does not imply paranormal activity unless you're overly obsessed and dying for an experience and succeed in fooling yourself. It was also just a random scene in some bar with a guy who wanted to take a walk with this Donna and probably try to sleep with her. There's nothing paranormal about that. 1/5.
"Shadows In The Grass" by Steve Rasnic Tem.
The main character, Mark, is a somewhat disturbed character. He has no depressing memories of his own, so he seeks to absorb the memories of others. A boy had been riding his bike when he got hit by a car, and the boy's mother eventually is spotted a little too conveniently by Mark. She is in a completely understandable state of denial, and Mark, despite his own mental instability, has it in mind to have her handed over the proper authorities. So the only character I really felt for was the boy's mother. The main character seemed heartless and in need of professional help himself. There was also no ghost in this story. The main character perceives a windy storm as the presence of a ghost. This is not a ghost story. This is also not a very enjoyable story. 1/5.
"The Sphinx Without A Secret" by Oscar Wilde.
Yet another conversation. This is not a ghost story, but a lost love story 1/5
"The Splendid Lie" by S. B. H. Hurst.
Predictable, but i wouldn't want to be Lord Daywater. 1/5
"The Stranger." by Ambrose Bierce.
*sigh* yet another story about someone telling a story to people. 1/5.
"Summerland" by Avram Davidson.
I didn't really care for this one. Kind of dull. 1/5.
"The Theater Upstairs" by Manly Wade Wellman.
Um. I don't really understand, nor does my guy, what the character 'Luther' had to do with the lady on the screen. Plus, this isnt so much paranormal as much as it is abnormal. How would this even be possible -- even within the paranormal realm? 1/5.
"Thirteen Phantasms" by Clark Ashton Smith.
Um (again). We didn't get the point of this one. 1/5.
"The Tree-Man Ghost" by Percy B. Brior.
A MAN WITH A TREE'S SHADOW?????? 1/5.
"Two" by Al Sarrantonio.
?? Hmm. I'm starting to wonder if Dziemianowicz, Wrinberg, and Greenberg ran out of actual ghost stories at some point while compiling, or just wanted better stories than the actual ghost stories they were sorting, and added some stories even if they weren't paranormal; because this isn't paranormal. This is a story of a mother with ptsd because of the death of her husband, and a son who had moved on and used an odd machine that was never completely described to create an animated (?) version of his mother. 2/5.
Favourites:
"Bone To His Bone" by E. G. Swain. 4/5 stars.
"The Burned House" by Vincent O'Sullivan. (Despite what I said above.) 4/5 stars.
"The Coat" by A. E. D. Smith. (Bring wine, in the name of God!) Lmbo!! 5/5 stars.
"Coming Home" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman. 4/5.
"The Considerate Hosts" by Thorp McClusky. (Ten times better than his 'Black Gold' story. I'd give this by itself 5 out of 5 stars)
"Dark Mummery" by Thorp McClusky. (3 out of 5 stars)
"Drowned Argosies" by Jay Wilmer Benjamin. (4 out of 5)
"Faces" by Arthur J. Burke. 3/5.
"The Ghost Farm" by Susan Andrews Rice. 3/5.
"Ghosts In The Air" by J. M. Hiatt & Moye W. Stephens. 3/5.
"Gibbler's Ghost" by William G. Nolan. 5/5.
"A Grammatical Ghost" by Elia W. Peattie. Funny in a simple way, and simple yet graceful. 5/5.
"The Ghost In All The Rooms" by Daniel Defoe. 4/5.
"He Walked By Day" by Julius Long. 5/5.
"The Light Was Green" by John Rawson Speer. 4/5.
"Monsieur De Guise" by Perley Poore Sheehan. 4/5.
"The Murderer's Violin" by Erkmann-Chatrian. 3/5.
"The Night Caller" by G.L. Raisor. 4/5.
"Oh Come Little Children . . ." By Chet Williamson. Insulting to Christians when labeled as a ghost story, but otherwise a well-written one; I discerned no ghost within this one. I'm surprised it gets 5/5.
"On The Brighton Road" by Richard Middleton. 3/5.
"Our Late Visitor" by Marvin Kaye. "Thus my friend was amply qualified to break into the refrain of 'La Calunnia' at three o'clock in the morning." Hilarious. 5/5.
"Pacific 421" by August W. Derleth. 3/5.
"Rebels' Rest" by Seabury Quinn. It was merely narration for a good chunk of it, but it all fit together. 3/5.
"The Ghost And The Bone-Setter" by J. Sheridan La Fanu. 3/5.
"The Return" by R. Murray Gilchrist. 3/5.
"The Return" by G. G. Pendarves. 4/5.
"A Sprig Of Rosemary" by H. Warner Munn. A bit of a carbon copy of 'Scrooge' by Charles Dickens, but bittersweet and with a good message. 3/5.
"Three Gentleman in Black" by August W. Derleth. A story of poetic justice, sort of. I liked it. The scene where he moons the gentleman in black was a bit odd, though. 4/5.
"Under The Eaves" by Helen M. Reid.
Had some holes, and very little character developmemt, but decent for its length. 4/5.
"Waiter Number 34" by Paul Ernst.
Hilarious, uproarious in one part. A part was predictable, yes, but the hilarious scene made the predictability irrelevant, somewhat. Good message, too. 5/5.
"The Woman In Gray" by Walker J. Everett. 3/5.
"The Word Of Bentley" by E. Hoffman Price. 3/5.
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Well. Much like the other ghost story compilation mentioned above, I'm giving this a two star rating. I wish I could give it more stars because of my list of favourites, but (again) much like the other one, there was a pedophilic story in it. On top of that, a couple seemed to glorify suicide, and one that sympathized with Naziism. I don't know if I'm gonna read another compilation. So far, the only compilation I've given more than two stars to was a
Christmas compilation. Start the fire with this one.
My Notes:
December 30th, 2017:
Pg 468, 85.71%: "We might yet actually finish this before 11:59 on New Years' Eve."
Pg 481, 88.1%: "65 pages left."
Pg 508, 93.04%: "38 pages left."
December 31st, 2017:
Pg 546, 100%: "F
EDIT 4-19-2022: I have since reduced my rating to only 1 star, but forgot to edit my review to reflect that. -
Barnes and Noble has done horror fans a wonderful service by publishing several of these 100 short story books. I've read two others - 100 Hair Raising Little Horror Stories and 100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories - and they've published others, such as 100 Menacing Little Murder Stories and 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories.
The previous two I'd read were great and this one is no different. Most of the stories are good, with a few exceptional ones and the occasional stinker.
Let's get the stinkers out of the way first. Oscar Wilde's "The Sphinx Without a Secret" is a story without a ghost, or even a fright. Very disappointing from such a talented writer. That is by far the worst story, so let's not dwell on it.
"The Sixth Tree" shows promise but suffers from a predictable ending, though it does offer a good little moral about man's misplaced reliance on science and, by extension, his own intelligence.
The best story was a much harder call, but I nominate "The Night Caller" by G. L. Raisor. The first line sets a wonderfully malignant tone: "Sherry Elder's descent into madness began on a Thursday." The rest of the story is a fast-paced masterpiece of implied doom and ominous overtones. The word "ghost" isn't mentioned, nor is the identity of the "ghost" stated, but the author makes it clear, regardless. The story is so effective because readers are free to make their own conclusion.
But there are other fine stories. "The Coat" is menacing, "Mandolin" touching and endearing though it, like Wilde's story, doesn't have a ghost. "The Metronome" is pure vengeance from a murdered child, and Fred Chappell's "Miss Prue" deserves mention for its breathtaking descriptive prose, such as these gems: "His eyes were like cinders in the deep sockets. He seemed to belong more to the cool gray autumn wind than to the world of animal flesh." "His voice was windblown ash in a desert land." "She flicked her hand at the question as if it were a tedious housefly." "His voice was like the sound of wind in a ragged thornbush." Great stuff!
Finally, "Summerland" is effective, due to its cynical tone toward séances and spiritualism, in a subtle and understated way, and implies (again, without coming out and stating it) the truth about where our souls go. Or, more specifically, the soul of a man who rents out a decrepit house for the price of a mansion.
The editors have compiled a treasury of ghost stories, old and new, gothic to modern. No horror library is complete without it. -
PLACEHOLDER REVIEWs
"The Garret Of Madame LeMoyne" by
Kirk W. Mashburn Jr. - Two couples visit New Orleans, and tour a local "haunted house" - supposed to have been the sight of a hideous crime in olden days, when a French woman was discovered to have kept a torture chamber in her attic where she exercised her sadism on black slaves. One of the husbands is irked bis wife's eternal composure in all things, and plans a midnight surprise to scare her... The form of this is very familiar - the "individual intends to scare someone at a haunted site but runs afoul of real spirits". Here, it's a bit more gruesome (the torture chamber details, the final revelation) and a bit more racially insensitive (given the setting and historic time period, not more than one would expect - though the modern use of an epithet - not to mention the ultimate fate of the criminal in the past - may indicate that Mashburn *may* - or perhaps not - have been intending some minor reflection by his audience). An effective, if a bit anemic, piece.
"The Tree-Man Ghost" by
Percy B. Prior - one man kills another over some discovered treasure, and then is haunted by the shadow of the tree under which the event occurred. Eh - very folkloric (even has a weird variant of the "ghost points to treasure" folklore motif) but not very good. -
I am a fan of the short story and definitely of the grim or scary ones - and this collection is really, really quite good. Out of 100 stories the percentage that are really good to great little ghost tales is excellent. There are rare gems here and some better known pieces from better known scribes such as Lovecraft, Derleth, & M.R. James to name a few. All I know is - if you like a simple, ghostly tale or well written spooky shorts... you should own this collection.
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Got this book to read Nina's story but I'll pick out some more. Most of these are really, really, really old stories. I have a hard time with old dialect so I often stick to stories from 1970 unless something convinces me to break that rule like a good recommendation or a familiar name.
Read:
~Nina Kiriki Hoffman - Coming Home 1990 - 2* - This author must have had something bad happen to her as a kid :/ This one stayed with me a bit after reading. The ghost was her 9 year old self. She "died" after an incident when she was 9. As an adult she moves back into the house where it happened. That is where the ghost is. :(
~Fred Chappell - Miss Prue 1981 1* I got to the end but I don't really get it.
~Alan Brennert - Ghost Story 1977 DNF disjointed, not a story.
~Steve Rasnic Tem (3)
1. Daddy 1986 2*,
2. Her New Parents 1988 2* unreliable narrator I think,
3. Shadows in the Grass 1983 2*
~William F. Nolan - Gibbler's Ghost 1974 - 3* - haha the irony. He solves his first problem just to have it happen again.
~Jessica Amanda Salmonson - Harmless Ghosts 1990 3*
~August W. Derleth (2)
1. The Metronome 1934 3*,
2. Pacific 421 1944 4*
~M.R. James - Rats 1929 - 2* - I did struggle with the dialect. I didn't really understand the ending and all the reviews on GRs don't tell you the ending. Instead they say "read it for yourself". So I found this
http://literature.wikia.com/wiki/Rats which puts it in modern English. That was helpful and brought the story up to a 2*.
~The Night Wire (1926) by Henry Ferris (AKA H. F. Arnold) - ppl seem to highly recommend but I didn't enjoy. - 1* - A classic "weird tale". I'm sure in the 1920s it was great but at this point I'm at saturation and ready to move on. A bit of the Orson Wells aliens are landing combined with a Twilight Zone ending. -
The introduction was very brief, less than 2 pages, and didn’t mention half of the contents of the book. At 546 pages it works out to a little less than 5.5 pages per story, and it would be difficult to review all of them, but there were quite a few that stand out. The oldest story in the book, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1838 story “The Ghost and the Bone Setter” is one of my favorites. I read his 1872 lesbian vampire novella Carmilla in a horror fiction class I took in Grad school, so I was looking forward to it. Other standouts included “The Ghosts of Haddon-le-Green” which was one of the shortest and the most genuinely funny, The House of Shadows, A Sprig of Rosemary, Father Macclesfield’s Tale, and The Man on B-17. The entries from writers that I know well, like Ambrose Bierce (I helped format “The Devil’s Dictionary” while I was on a temp assignment), Oscar Wilde, and H. P. Lovecraft didn’t disappoint. There were a few that I didn’t like, such as Rebel’s Rest, which seemed to me to paint all women in such a bad light that it left a bad taste in its wake, but the lame entries are so easy to forget that they didn’t impact my overall impression, which is that this is a great book to pick up in the wee hours of the morning when you’re home alone or everyone else has gone to bed.
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Okay, at the outset I have to admit that I’m no fan of this particular sub-genre of horror fiction. So perhaps I’m not really qualified to say whether ghost story fans will get a kick out of this or not. All I can say for sure is that I found the vast majority of the 100 entries thoroughly insipid and dreadful. As usual, there were a couple of exceptions; for example, I thoroughly enjoyed Saki’s “The Soul of Laploshka.” But just about everything else here is the usual mish-mash of chain-rattling, floor-creaking, wrong-avenging clichés. In fact, a few of the stories aren’t technically even ghost stories at all; for example, Lovecraft’s “The Terrible Old Man” is a tale of ghosts only in a very loose sense of the word, and another dreadful bit of nonsense was haunted only by Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whom I don’t think technically qualifies as a ghost. I guess I’m glad that I can now add this tome to the shelf next to its betters in the series, but otherwise I’m not especially glad I read it.
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So as I read these, I rated each of these stories out of 5 total possible stars and averaged the difference at the end. I wound up with a 2.86 rating. Since the average rating on Goodreads was much higher and the fact that I don't recommend reading this book, I rounded down. This book had some good stories, but they were few and far between. I'll list the ones I found worth reading and their scores out of 5 in the parenthesis next to them, in case you're scouring for good ones among the many boring and bad ones.
The Burned House (4)
Clocks (5)
The Coat (5)
Coming Home (4)
Concert to Death (4)
The Considerate Hosts (4)
Daddy (4)
Faces (4)
Harmless Ghosts (4)
He Walked By Day (4)
Highwaymen (4)
The House of Shadows (4)
Monseuir de Guise (4)
The Night Caller (4)
The Night Wire (5)
Our Late Visitor (4)
A Sprig of Rosemary (4)
The Theater Upstairs (4)
Waiter Number 34 (4)
The Woman in Grey (4) -
Copyright 1994, this is a Barnes & Noble book. An anthology with stories from the 1920s to the 1990s.
So, I have 4 of these type of books that B&N put out in the 90s. I haven't read the weird stories yet, but this ghost story book was just ok. There weren't any stinkers, but I can't say there were any favorites either. It still delivers on the ghost stories though. -
Some of these stories are perfect little gems (I'm looking at you, Oscar Wilde); some are diamonds in the rough; and some are pyrite. Overall, this book was well-worth the less-than-$10 I paid for it, and the three evenings I spent reading it.
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Cool collection of very short ghost stories, though sometimes the plotlines were very similar. There were some gems that I really enjoyed however. Most of the stories are quite old and some by famous writers.
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Maybe about 15 to 20 of the stories are good. A lot of trains featured, if that's your thing.
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What nice little stories. Some are very old and I looked up some of my favorite ones. Short stories can be wonderful when you have a busy life. :)
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A great collection of short spooky stories that drop you anywhere and any place. Maybe you'll be in a haunted house on the cliffs of 18th century Ireland or perhaps you'll be in a swanky 1920s lounge. Ghosts are all around us!
I'd say 50% are easy-to-predict or slightly boring, the rest are pretty interesting, and the select few below were my favorites!
"Daddy" by
Steve Rasnic Tem
A little girl is separated from her father, but he seems to find his way back to her.
"McGill's Appointment" by Elsie Ellis
Prisoner McGill has an appointment and will do anything to keep it.
"The Metronome" by August w. Derleth
A stepmother commits a crime and is haunted by it to death.
"Miss Prue" by Fred Chappell
Miss Prue knows her friend has committed suicide, but still waits for him to make his regular visit.
"The Night Caller" by G. L. Raisor
A haunting phone call pierces the night that connects this world to the next.
"The Night Wire" by
H. F. Arnold
The man attending the telegram wire hears a frantic call come in, but is it real?
"The Theater Upstairs" by
Manly Wade Wellman
A husband and wife catch a movie, but the movie may bridge the gap to the next world.
"Two" by
Al Sarrantonio
A mother slides into a depression after a son loses his father.
"Waiter Number 34" by Paul Ernst
Two wealthy men who profit on war deal with a darkly comedic story of the true horrors of war. -
It’s ghastly, all right! Honestly, it’s a DNF. I read a smattering of the stories, and definitely read enough to know that I don’t want more. Unfortunately, these aren’t scary and most aren’t even ghost stories. A dusty, drab blah of a book.
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I love ghost stories but each story in this book seems to be lacking something. Most of the time it's plot. Or substance. Or my interest.
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amazon.com
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This one only gets 3 stars because half the stories didn't scare me. And it doesn't take too much to scare me.
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I liked it. Most of the stories I thought were funny and interesting. Some had some unique plots that I hadn't heard before or new variations of ones I have. I enjoyed it.
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Most of the stories are spooky, eerie, or creepy, but not very many were truly scary. However, they were good reads.
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This one is just as good as the witch book, full of ghosty stories. It doesn't hurt that I love paranormal stuff too.
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Good variety of short ghost stories.Some good,and not so good,but all brief.
