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Book Review: A Good House for Children by Kate Collins

March 2, 2023 Leave a Comment

Title: A Good House for Children
Author: Kate Collins
Genre: Horror, Ghosts
Rating: 5 stars
Publication Date: March 2, 2023
Purchase: Amazon

The dazzling debut novel from Kate Collins—a feminist gothic mystery spanning decades, in the vein of Mexican Gothic and The Essex Serpent.

Once upon a time Orla was: a woman, a painter, a lover. Now she is a mother and a wife, and when her husband Nick suggests that their city apartment has grown too small for their lives, she agrees, in part because she does agree, and in part because she is too tired to think about what she really does want. She agrees again when Nick announces with pride that he has found an antiquated Georgian house on the Dorset cliffs—a good house for children, he says, tons of space and gorgeous grounds. But as the family settles into the mansion—Nick absent all week, commuting to the city for work—Orla finds herself unsettled. She hears voices when no one is around; doors open and close on their own; and her son Sam, who has not spoken in six months, seems to have made an imaginary friend whose motives Orla does not trust.

Four decades earlier, Lydia moves into the same house as a live-in nanny to a grieving family. Lydia, too, becomes aware of intangible presences in the large house, and she, like Orla four decades later, becomes increasingly fearful for the safety of the children in her care. But no one in either woman’s life believes her: the stories seem fanciful, the stuff of magic and mayhem, sprung from the imaginations of hysterical women who spend too much time in the company of children.

Are both families careening towards tragedy? Are Orla and Lydia seeing things that aren’t there? What secrets is the house hiding? A feminist gothic tale perfectly suited for the current moment, A Good House for Children combines an atmospheric mystery with resonant themes of motherhood, madness, and the value of a woman’s work.

It’s been a long time since I read a book that gripped me the way A Good House for Children did. I still can’t quite get over how amazing I thought this book was.

If you know me, you probably know I’m a huge fan of haunted house stories. It’s literally my favourite type of story. Gothic novels featuring sprawling mansions set in a desolate landscape? I’m in. I never turn down any book that has this kind of premise. Still, after reading dozens, if not hundreds, of books with more-or-less the same premise, it’s difficult to surprise me when presenting me with the haunted-house-trope. But then came along A Good House for Children, and I’m not just surprised; I’m completely blown away.

The Reeve. A haunted house like no other. Standing on the edge of the Dorset cliffs, it looks down upon the village below, upon the unforgiving sea, and upon mankind itself. The sprawling estate, large and (un)welcoming, seems the perfect house to raise kids.

At least, that’s what Orla’s husband Nick, tries to convince her of. But the moment Orla moves into the house, she already feels something is wrong with the bones of the house. The house is wrong. Its atmosphere, but also the way time moves inside the house, sometimes crawling slowly, other times making hours disappear in the blink of an eye. It doesn’t help that Nick is away for most of the week, leaving Orla alone with her young son Sam and her baby daughter Bridie.

The book alternates between Orla’s story and Lydia’s story, set in the 1976s, so a good forty years earlier. Lydia moves into The Reeve as live-in nanny for four young children who have recently lost their father. Offering also emotional support to the mother, Lydia struggles to find a balance between taking care of the children and urging their mother to spend more time with the children.

Loneliness plays a pivotal role in this book. We are all ghosts, as Kate Collins so pointedly writes in her novel. Ghosts of our pasts, ghosts of our what-could-be’s and what-will-never-be’s. Although Lydia is surrounded by another adult and four children, she is at her core, alone. For Orla, the loneliness is even more suffocating as her partner is not hidden in an upstairs room, but commutes to the city for most of the week, leaving her to fend for herself–and her kids–against forces that prey on every weakness.

The book takes it time to set the pace, to picture the characters, allowing you time, as a reader, to get to know the inhabitants of The Reeve. But as you devour page after page, an unsettled feeling starts creeping in. This isn’t in-your-face horror, no. It’s the subtle, atmospheric horror that is a million times more terrifying. It’s the type of horror that makes you wonder if you really did leave that piece of paper out on the kitchen table the next morning, or if you did leave your keys where you found them and not in another location. Is your memory foggy, or is something more troubling going on? That’s how the events in The Reeve start, with small, unsettling tidbits that gradually develop into an all-consuming horror that leaves the reader shaken, long after having finished the tale.

The prose is haunting (what a fitting word here), lyrical without being overdone, and it really lifts this book to the next level. I’m actually surprised this is the author’s debut, just because of how solid the prose is. Reading this almost feels like a poem, or a lullaby, where one sentence guides you effortlessly into the next.

I can’t wait for this author’s next book. If you enjoy haunted house stories, or just really well-written stories with a creepy vibe, then don’t hesitate for a second, just read A Good House for Children. You won’t be dissapointed.

 

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Book Review: The Haunting of Nelson Street (The Ghosts of Crowford Book #1)

February 9, 2023 1 Comment

Title: The Haunting of Nelson Street (The Ghosts of Crowford Book #1)
Author: Amy Cross
Genre: Horror, Ghosts
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon

Crowford, a sleepy coastal town in the south of England, might seem like an oasis of calm and tranquility. Beneath the surface, however, dark secrets are waiting to claim fresh victims, and ghostly figures plot revenge.

Having finally decided to leave the hustle of London, Daisy and Richard Johnson buy two houses on Nelson Street, a picturesque street in the center of Crowford. One house is perfect and ready to move into, while the other is a fire-ravaged wreck that needs a lot of work. They figure they have plenty of time to work on the damaged house while Daisy recovers from a traumatic event.

Soon, they discover that the two houses share a common link to the past. Something awful once happened on Nelson Street, something that shook the town to its core. Before they can face Crowford’s horrors, however, Daisy and Richard have to deal with the ghosts of their own recent history. What is Daisy hiding, and why does Richard feel strangely drawn to one of the town’s oldest inhabitants?

The Haunting of Nelson Street is a ghost story about a young couple fighting for their future, and about a town trying to escape the clutches of its past.

The Haunting of Nelson Street is the first book in The Ghosts of Crowford series by Amy Cross, one of my favourite horror authors. I first read the book when it was released back in 2020 but recently did a re-read for the purpose of this review.

Crowford is a sleepy coastel town in the south of England that seems to be home to more ghosts than living beings. Literally every place in Crowford is haunted: regular houses, the theater, museums, hotels; you name it, it’s haunted.

The first book in this series is about two houses on Nelson Street, a picturesque street in the center of town. One house is ready to move into, requiring little to no work, and the other was heavily damaged by a fire. The houses are bought by unsuspecting couple Daisy and Richard Johnson after they move to Crowford in hopes of getting a new, fresh start. A hint for everyone who decides to move towns looking for a fresh start: there’s about a fifty-fifty chance you’ll run into ghosts.

But the houses are hiding a terrible secret, and soon, Daisy and Richard find themselves trapped in a nightmare.

I found this to be a solid start to The Ghosts of Crowford, and I liked the twist at the end–of course, I won’t reveal what it is, and although I did feel it coming, I still liked how it was executed. With a good mix between scary and intriguing, this is an enjoyable read for cold winter nights spent under blankets.

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Book Review: The Haunting of Edward House

August 9, 2021 Leave a Comment

Title: The Haunting of Edward House
Author: Amy Cross
Genre: Horror
Rating: 3,5 stars
Purchase: Amazon

Twenty-five years ago, Edward House and his sister Meg ran screaming from their family home. They claimed that a ghost had attacked their parents, that some kind of evil spirit had been trying to possess Edward and take control of his body. Their father lay dead on the floor, and their mother had lost her mind. Now Edward and Meg only had each other.

Today, Edward is a married man with a daughter of his own. When he and his family move into a new home, they have no idea that a dark force from the past is once again beginning to stir. Edward is certain that the events of his childhood are over, but his sister’s not so sure.

And when Edward’s daughter Molly starts seeing the same ghost that tormented Edward and Meg a quarter of a century earlier, history looks set to repeat itself.

The Haunting of Edward House is a ghost story about a man who refuses to face his past, a woman can’t let go of one moment of horror, and a deadly evil that will stop at nothing to get what it wants.

The Haunting of Edward House is the story of Edward House, a rather bland married man with a daughter of his own. He and his family move into a new home, and strangely enough, his daughter Molly starts seeing the same ghost that tormented Edward and his sister Meg back when they were children–although back then they lived in a completely different house!

As usual, Amy Cross manages to put an interesting, unexpected spin on your typical run-down-the-mill ghost story, making her books stand out from others in the genre. This is not one of my favorites by Amy Cross, but it’s still a decent story. What annoyed me the most was how long it took for Edward and his wife to finally admit they were being haunted. They did wrong by Meg by not believing her sooner. It also didn’t make much sense, given what had happened in Edward’s past, that he was so reluctant to believe.

Fans of ghost stories will find an interesting story here about trauma, family ties and also a lesson that not everything is always what it seems at first glance.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Book Review: One for Sorrow by Mary Downing Hahn

July 18, 2017 2 Comments

Title: One for Sorrow
Author: Mary Downing Hahn
Genre: Historical, Middle Grade, Ghosts
Age Group: Middle Grade
Rating: 3 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Against the ominous backdrop of the influenza epidemic of 1918, Annie, a new girl at school, is claimed as best friend by Elsie, a classmate who is a tattletale, a liar, and a thief. Soon Annie makes other friends and finds herself joining them in teasing and tormenting Elsie. Elsie dies from influenza, but then she returns to reclaim Annie’s friendship and punish all the girls who bullied her. Young readers who revel in spooky stories will relish this chilling tale of a girl haunted by a vengeful ghost.

One for Sorrow is an another addition to Mary Downing Hahn’s ever-growing oeuvre, and it’s a solid one, although perhaps not as refreshing or as creepy as I had hoped.

Against the influenza epidemic of 1918, Annie is a new girl at school. She’s immediately claimed as best friend by Elsie, a bossy tattletale classmate who Annie somewhat sympathizes with because of her horrible situation at home. Yet Elsie easily distances Annie from the other classmates, destroys her favorite doll, and soon turns out to be the worst friend in history. When Elsie is ill for a week, Annie makes new friends, much to Elsie’s dismay.

Then, the influenza epidemic strikes, and Elsie grows ill and dies. She returns from the dead to haunt Annie and her new friends, and to make Annie believes she’s responsible for Elsie dying. She makes Annie’s life a miserable, going so far as to get her locked up in an insane asylum. Annie must find a way to fight back against her unwanted ghostly companion.

It’s old school horror, but doesn’t have any of the delicious eeriness that usually accompanies those stories. The historical setting works, the writing is excellent, the children are cruel and wicked, but it’s still missing something. Elsie’s ghost isn’t particularly scary. She lets Annie do wicked things, but it’s not scary, not creepy, not eerie.

Also, all the characters are horrible. Even Annie. She decides to hate Elsie right away when it’s obvious and should be obvious to her that Elsie has a horrible childhood and could really use a friend. Maybe Elsie should temper it down somewhat, but she could still use a friend. I found it downright cruel how even the adults were mean to Elsie. That’s terrible. All the girl characters were nasty and spoiled, and the adults weren’t much better.

I was also rather annoyed by Annie not being able to do anything on her own. She wanted to get rid of Elsie’s ghost, but she didn’t really do anything about it. She didn’t try research, or try to contact anyone who could help her. She was very passive, and just let things happen to her.

Anyway, it’s a good story for middle graders, but not the best, although I did enjoy the writing and pacing, and the historical setting. The characters just weren’t very likeable, and the story wasn’t creepy enough.

Filed Under: Children's Books, Horror, Middle Grade, Reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Book Review: Shades: Eight Tales of Terror by D. Nathan Hilliard

October 28, 2012 Leave a Comment

16187498Title: Shades: Eight Tales of Terror
Author: D. Nathan Hilliard
Genre: Ghosts, Horror, Short Story Collection
Publisher: Amazon
Publication Date: March 18th, 2012
Goodreads | B&N | Amazon (Paperback) | Amazon (Kindle)
Review copy provided by the author in exchange for honest review.

Here there be ghosts…
Within these pages lurks a cast of phantoms who have returned from the grave with a vengeance. You will find no friendly ghosts here, just eight deathly horrors with their own personal bones to pick with the living. These are the ghosts of our nightmares. Whether driven by madness, vengeance, pain, bloody evil, or primordial rage…they are all specters that are as dangerous as they are frightening. So get comfortable, get that night light ready, and find out who survives and who doesn’t in this anthology of the baleful dead. Stories within include…
Death and White Satin – A young bride-to-be unearths the wrong wedding dress and discovers that horror and madness can echo down through the decades.
An Echo of Blood and Mirrors – A young man is surprised in the boy’s bathroom by the head cheerleader. But things quickly take a turn for the worse as he discovers she’s on the run from a triple murderer who has been dead for over a century.
Dance of the Ancients – Three lawmen search for a missing state trooper on a hill doomed to disappear under the rising waters of a new lake. Fearing the worst, they find something even worse than they feared.
A Memory of Me – A night spent in a forgotten graveyard lands three college boys in a situation that none of their classes have prepared them for.
Legacy of Flies – A young woman discovers she is the heir of a vast family fortune. But she also finds her inheritance comes with a ghoulish legacy that may very well be the death of her.
Storm Chase – A hurricane approaches and Bernie March’s wife is standing down the hill beside the tractor he needs to bring in ahead of the storm…exactly where he buried her three years earlier.
A Singularity of Purpose – A callous young punk discovers that returning from the dead isn’t just the prerogative of humans when he finds himself in one last desperate race with the dog he tormented in life.
A Long, Cold Forever of a Night – On a humid July night, a middle-aged couple find themselves alone in a deserted rural intersection…with the deadly phantom of a high school classmate who died in an ice storm decades earlier.

Shades: Eight Tales of Terror is a collection of short stories that focus on ghosts. Some of these ghosts are terrifying and murderous, while others are less frightening. What these stories have in common is that all of them leave shivers running down your spine. I had to glance behind me several times while reading this collection, in order to make sure a phantom wasn’t standing behind me, breathing down my neck. Scariness guaranteed.

“Death and White Satin” is the first story of the collection and immediately starts out strong. Jessica is getting ready to get married to the love of her life, when she discovers an old wedding dress from a dusty box on the attic of her mother-in-law’s home. The mother-in-law, Marge, is anything but pleased to see the wretched thing belonging once to the woman who murdered her brother, Priscilla Hatcher. She tells Jessica the story of Priscilla, a young woman who was beautiful and superficial, and murderous on top of that. When Marge leaves afterward to go to the shop, Jessica is alone in the house with the wedding dress…And Priscilla’s ghost decides this is the perfect time to pay a visit to the future bride-to-be. I liked this story, mainly because it gave an original spin to the supposed ‘haunted wedding dress’ urban legend I’ve heard plenty of times before. It’s great when an author manages to take things that have been done before, but add an original spin to it.

“An Echo of Blood and Mirrors” is a dark, gruesome story. Corvin and his classmates visit a museum located in a house once belonging to a supposed mad man, nicknamed The Necromancer. One of his class maters decides to impress his girlfriend by stealing a pen from the museum, thus unleashing the spirit of the mad man. Since she has the pen, Laura’s been chased by strange apparitions in mirrors and glass windows, apparitions of the murderer. Although Corvin is initially convinced the dead can’t harm them, he may have to rethink that assumption…This story was a bit too bloody for my tastes, especially toward the end. I did enjoy it though, but it wasn’t my favorite.

“Dance of the Ancients” however, was one of my favorite stories in the collection. Sherrif Carl Gartner is forced to go to a small island, once called Deerhunter Hill, to recover a missing trooper. The island is inhabited by a man named Luther Cole, who was always a bit eccentric, but grew crazy during the time he spend on the island. What the Sherrif and his officers find on the island however, is a lot more than they bargained for. Mutilated corpses and ancient spirits are only the tip of the iceberg. What I liked here was the originality of the plot, and Sherrif Carl – he was an intriguing character, complex and well-developed, which isn’t an easy feat in short stories.

“A Memory of Me” added another nice twist to a well-known story. Three friends spend the night at a graveyard, and one of them, Jack, destroys a grave marker. Unfortunately, that sets loose a murderous spirits who will kill them one by one if they don’t remember her name. I’ve heard plenty of times of teens spending the night at the graveyard and then being chased by a spirit, but never because they destroyed her grave marker and she doesn’t want to be forgotten. It’s a nice twist, and this story was fast-paced and enjoyable.

“Legacy of Flies” was disturbing, horrific, and exciting at the same time. Janie is asked to come to the large, majestic estate of her family, a family she’s never known, being the bastard child of one of its ancestors. The current ladies of the house need her help: the family fortune will keep decreasing unless there is a ‘master of the house’, a descendent of the family, present in the house. Persuaded by luxuries and money, Janie agrees. She goes outside to sit near a tree where something horrible happened centuries ago, not expecting to be tormented by the spirit of the boy who had his father murdered by Janie’s ancestor…Because of its originality and unique approach, its great descriptions and oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere at the end, this was my favorite story of the entire collection. I actually read it twice – that’s how much I enjoyed it.

“Storm Chase” went more down a familiar road than the previous stories, and left me with a lot of questions. One day, Bernie sees the spirit of his deceased wife – a wife he and his mistress murdered – down the hill of his house. Convinced his wife has come to claim him and take her bloody revenge, he flees. It’s not a bad story, it’s definitely scary and fast-paced, but continuously I wondered: why now? Why does Charlotte decide to rise from the dead after being dead and buried for three years? It’s never properly explained – or if it is, then I missed it – and this kind of made me like the story not that much. It makes no sense, unless something strange happened to anger her spirit, that she’d come back now of all days.

“A Singularity of Purpose” is about a ghost dog, and well, I never thought ghostly animals could be scary as well, but I’ve now changed my mind. Russell takes the same route home every day, straight through the territory of Purvis, a dog who likes nothing more than to chase Russell and try to bite him. This day though, he’s not being chased and soon after, Russell finds out why: the dog is dead. Unfortunately that doesn’t keep Purvis from following him home, and appearing seemingly out of nowhere, ready to do in death what he couldn’t accomplish in life. I loved this story. Purvis may not be the typical villain one has in mind when thinking ghost stories, but he’s delightfully creepy. I didn’t like Russell – he could’ve just stopped going through the neighbor’s territory – and I actually liked Purvis’ revenge on him (I wouldn’t like it in real life, of course, just saying that as this is a story, the revenge seemed fitting).

“A Long, Cold Forever of a Night” brought me on the verge of tears. A ghost is haunting the road Carol and her husband stranded on, the ghost of a girl who died there many years ago, a fellow schoolmate of theirs. A terrible accident happened on that road, and while all students helped each other, they all forgot about the poor girl. She was found with her face half frozen. Her spirit still haunts the road, but soon enough, Carol and her husband will learn that all the girl wants is not to be left alone…This story isn’t as horrifying as it is saddening, and I really felt for the girl ghost. It must’ve been terrible to be left all alone, in the coldest night in history, slowly dying with no one around to safe you.

As a whole, this collection offers a wide variation of ghost stories, from surprisingly original ones to stories offering a surprise twist to more classic tales. Some of these stories left chills running down my spine, while others, especially the last one, brought me near tears. The writing throughout the collection is strong and solid. The characters are well-developed, and come from various social and cultural backgrounds as well. There’s variety here: something for everyone.

I highly recommend this collection as a Halloween read, and to all fans of ghost stories.

Author Interview

I asked author D. Nathan Hilliard some questions about his writing, his short story collection Shades and his upcoming work.

1) When did you know you wanted to become a writer?

After I came down with Charcot Marie Tooth in my forties, I started hunting around for something new to do since I could no longer do any of the jobs I had held in the past. I remembered that I had been pretty good at writing in high school, so I decided to try and approach that with the same seriousness that I would any of my former jobs.

2) What was the inspiration behind Shades: Eight Tales of Terror?

Having grown up in assorted small towns in Texas, I was exposed to different tales of ghosts and hauntings that had a decidedly local flavor to them. They usually involved ordinary, small-town people and combined a sense of local history with a flair for the ghastly. These tales were usually told by kids to each other, although I imagine they were handed down from their elders. I tried to capture some of that flavor in this anthology.

3) Which short story in the collection did you enjoy to write the most?

‘Storm Chase’ came the easiest, because I actually incorporated a lot of elements from a recurrent childhood nightmare in that one. I used to dream as a child of looking out my bedroom window and seeing a distant ghost getting closer and closer to the house. So I got to get that one out of my system.

4) Which story was the most difficult for you to write?

I would say ‘A Long, Cold Forever of a Night’ due to the issues and emotions involved in that story. Life is sometimes monstrously unfair, and takes things from people in the cruelest ways. Yet in the end, it’s up to us to find a way to make things right as best as we can and go on. Because this story dealt with those issues, it ends in a different tone than the rest.

5) How long did it take you to write Shades: Eight Tales of Terror?

About eight months. It was originally going to be a simple anthology of horror tales, some of which I had already written, but about two months into the project I decided to make it a more focused work that dealt exclusively with ghost stories.

6) Which story did you find the scariest?

Depends on the setting. ‘Death and White Satin’ is the one that comes to mind when I’m alone in a house, but if I’m taking a walk outside alone then ‘A Singularity of Purpose” is the one I don’t want to think about. That’s the one my sister complained about when walking down to mailbox out at her house in the country.

7) Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

Right now may be one of the most exciting times in history to be a writer. The opportunity to get your work published has never been greater. So go for it, because the only thing that is holding you back is you. But it’s also important to remember that due to that opportunity there is a lot of poorly written and edited work out there, so it is vitally important to take the time and effort to apply that extra layer of polish and editing to your story. In this field, your work is your resume.

8) Are you working on something right now? If so, can you tell us more about it?

I have just released my latest novel, Dead Stop. It is the story of a diverse group of people trapped in a rural Texas truck stop during a howling storm by the denizens of a nearby graveyard. The dead are now staring in the windows and they discover they only have until dawn to escape. Now that I have that one published, I’m studying different ideas, and also a couple of unfinished novels, before starting on my next project.

Thank you for answering my interview questions!

Giveaway

Mr. Hilliard was kind enough to offer an eBook copy of Shades: Eight Tales of Terror for giveaway. Fill in the Rafflecopter form to participate!

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Book Review: The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women

October 23, 2012 Leave a Comment

13587206Title: The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women
Author: Marie O’Regan (editor)
Genre: Anthology, Ghost Stories, Horror
Publisher: Running Press
Publication Date: January 1st, 2013
Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Review copy purchased by yours truly.

25 Chilling Short Stories by Outstanding Female Writers
Women have always written exceptional stories of horror and the supernatural. This anthology aims to showcase the very best of these, from Amelia B. Edward’s ‘The Phantom Coach’, published in 1864, through past luminaries such as Edith Wharton and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, to modern talents including Muriel Gray, Sarah Pinborough and Lilith Saintcrow.
From tales of ghostly children to visitations by departed loved ones, and from heart-rending stories to the profoundly unsettling depiction of extreme malevolence, what each of these stories has in common is the effect of a slight chilling of the skin, a feeling of something not quite present, but nevertheless there.
If anything, this showcase anthology proves that sometimes the female of the species can also be the most terrifying.

The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women is an anthology you have to own. One by one, I found the stories mentioned to be breathtakingly unique, and each of them deal with the subject of ‘ghosts’ in their own, distinct way. Some stories are pure horror, spine-chilling, offering goosebumps. Others are more mundane, and talk about the departure of loved ones. Others are set in a purely fictional world, with necromancers and warlocks.

Because of the length and the diversity of this anthology, it’s hard to say something about it as a whole, apart from the fact the editor picked strong, varying stories with interesting premises. The first story is “Field of the Dead”, which talks about a haunted cathedral and a pack of ghost busters trying to exorcise the ghosts and poltergeists. I thought it was an entertaining read with rather prosaic prose, very descriptive as well. “Collect Call” is the next story and one of the best in the anthology. Lee calls collect, and then makes a phone call to his Dad who promises to pick him up. But the call, and the desolate town Lee sees from across the street, may not be what they seem. This was an absolutely wonderful read, one that gave me chills at the end – I love a story that keeps me guessing, and this one definitely succeeded.

Next is “Dead Flowers by a Roadside”, by author Kelley Armstrong. It’s a short, but intriguing read. I liked “The Shadow in the Corner” better though. That story definitely had me spooked. It’s about a lonely, middle-aged man living in a large mansion where someone allegedly killed themselves plenty of years ago. When a young new maid comes to work for them, she has to spend the night in the room of the suicide…Deliciously creepy! “The Madam of the Narrow Houses” left me more confused than anything else. It’s about a self-proclaimed medium whose visited by spirits. A nice read, but like I said, it was a bit confusing.

“The Lost Ghost” was another awesome, spine-chilling read about a girl who goes to live in a house where a small girl died several years ago. Now the little girl’s spirit inhabits the house. This was my second favorite story in the entire anthology. The writing was not too flowery or descriptive, but it did give off that great, old-fashioned vibe. Next up is “The Ninth Witch”, which was, at least in my opinion not much of a ghost story, but more of a messed up fairytale. A girl is raised in a village where women are considered dirt. All eight of her sisters die, and she’s doomed to die herself, unless she manages to do something about it. It’s all told in a very fairytale-like way, but it’s a dark, wicked story with gore and blood flying off the pages.

“Sister, shhh” had a nice twist at the end, and the premise was highly original as well. It’s about a girl who runs away from a cult, to a new, vibrant city, only to be discovered. While that was a good one, the next story, “The Fifth Bedroom” went above and beyond that. Another nail-biting horror story, this tells us about Chloe Benn, retired supermodel and divorced from a billionaire husband who moves into the room of a former prima ballerina who lost her career when she couldn’t walk anymore. Growing into a bitter old woman, the ballerina occupied the fifth bedroom, a mysterious room Chloe can’t seem to find.

“Scairt” was a bit confusing, but not a very scary story. It was actually more a sweet story, although I didn’t like the prose that much with the Irish sentences here and there – for a non-native English speaker, those were annoying. “Seeing Nancy” was another shot in the rose for me though. The creepiness sipped in slowly throughout that story, about a house where people got murdered, and an author who sees her family change the longer they spend in the house.

“The Third Person” left me wanting to strangle someone. That story just didn’t work for me – what was real? what wasn’t? Usually I’m all for these stories, but at least they have to give me a hint. “Freeze Out” was a lot better – a mother has died, and her family is grieving – especially with the surprise twist at the end, one I didn’t see coming at all. “Return” was an excellent read as well. Not that scary, but touching, heartbreaking. “Let Loose” was nice, but not as good as some of the other stories in the anthology. It was about a guy who went into a crypt, unknowingly releasing an evil into this world. “Another One in from the Cold” had me at the edge of my seat. It was a beautiful, moving story, but deliciously frightening at the same time.

“My Moira” was probably my least favorite story in the entire anthology. It was fantasy, and the ghost only played a minor part. “Forget Us Not” was touching, and brought me on the verge of tears. Definitely an excellent short. “Front Row Rider” left me guessing till the very end, which makes me rank it highly in this anthology. It was a mysterious, but well-executed story, with a fast pace and some nice prose. “God Grant That She Lye Still” once again fell in the ‘scary’ category, and it definitely had me spooked. A Doctor meets a woman he might fall for, but she tells him she keeps on losing herself, and she can’t find the “Me” part of her. “The Phantom Coach” reminded me of many old, urban legends I once heard, when people get lost during the night and stumble upon a place where a terrible accident happened many years ago.

“The Old Nurse’s Story” was an excellent read. Delightfully frightening, the descriptions were so vivid I could practically imagine the ghosts standing in front of me. “Among the Shoals Forever” didn’t do anything for me though. Once again going on the more fantasy-like tour, I didn’t enjoy this story very much. “Afterward” was a nice read, although I figured out early on – as opposed to afterward – what was happening. Even though “A Silver Music” wasn’t scary at all, I did think it was an original story, with an unique premise, some nice protagonists and well thought-through.

All in all, The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women proved a varying, intriguing read. Of course I liked some stories more than others, but the general quality of stories in this anthology is very high. I recommend it to all ghost stories fans.

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