Title: The Mistletoe Bride & Other Haunting Tales
Author: Kate Mosse
Genre: Short Stories, Gothic, Ghosts
Age Group: Adult
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
A wonderfully atmospheric collection of stories from one of our most captivating writers, inspired by ghost stories, traditional folk tales and country legends from England and France. These tales are richly populated by spirits and ghosts seeking revenge; by grief-stricken women and haunted men coming to terms with their destiny – all rooted deep in the elemental landscapes of Sussex, Brittany and the Languedoc.
The collection will include The Mistletoe Bride, La Fille de Melisande, Red Letter Day, The Lending Library, The House on the Hill…
The Mistletoe Bride & Other Haunting Tales is, as the title suggests, a haunting collection of stories, most of them inspired by ghost stories and folklore. Some of the stories are slightly scary but I wouldn’t classify the collection as horror – most of the stories have a romantic, or sad touch, or a gothic-inspired feel. They’re mysterious, haunting, slightly eerie, but not all that creepy.
What I enjoyed the most was reading about the author’s inspiration – why she wrote the story, where she got her inspiration from, and so on. I really enjoyed “The Drowned Village”, and “The Mistletoe Bride”. Some of the stories were a little off, like “In The Theatre at Night”, “Why the Yew Tree Lives So Long”, they didn’t really seem to fit the collection, but I enjoyed them all the same.
The prose was slow, lyrical, and haunting, and fit with the stories. All in all, it was an enjoyable collection and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys gothic fiction.
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