8/3/2019: Favorite Ghostly Tales

I love ghost stories, but they have to be just ghost stories - no veering into psychological horror, or slasher type stories.  My imagination is too impressionable and I value my sleep and the ability to stay home alone without sedation.  For this reason, my ghost story collection is small.

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde has made several lists already.  I used to faithfully watch the US adaptation (b/c it was the only one aired in my area), and when I finally read the book I was bowled over by the hilarity; the tv adaptation focused on the ghost's redemption, and in doing so, short-changed the viewers.  As almost always, the book is better.

The Haunted Grange Of Goresthorpe by Arthur Conan Doyle is one of the first stories he ever wrote, and Holmes 'aficionados' consider it an amateur effort.  Horsefeathers.  It's delightfully spooky and creepy, especially given its short length.

The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James, and all the other books I've listed by her, are the only ghost stories I've read by a current author.  I love her writing; she writes a tale that is spooky and a little hair-raising in the best old-fashioned sense.  For me, her books are just scary enough to make me wonder if I'll sleep that night, but not so scary that I actually can't.  There's an element of romance to most of them, but I don't care, because the ghosts get center stage.

Now I must check St. James' website... surely it must be time for a new book?

Ghost stories are a little tough to really scare me because I'm 99% sure I don't think they exist. When I was younger, Scary Stories to tell in the Dark was a sleepover staple, we'd read (ok, me) aloud trying to scare the bejebus out of each other.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was one I read somewhere in early teens and remember loving the setting, slight creep factor, and relationships.

Pet Sematary I probably read in mid-teens and while I didn't feel too scared being an animal lover drew out the emotions in me. 

The Lovely Bones seems to be a book that likes to divide people. It seems weird to say I enjoyed the story because of how freaking awful some things in it are but gawd, talk about a story that will emotionally wring you out. 

I think it was last year for Halloween Bingo I read The Haunting of Maddy Clare and I still remember that barn scene, hair on neck standing up.

And because I'm a punk, I added a romance that has a main character that likes to investigate the supernatural and a ghost, seemingly, comes to the rescue.

Shout-out to people doing today's prompt, adding some to my potential Bingo reading list :)

“The ghost in Waringstoke is female,” he explained. “She was, apparently, a servant girl who worked for the family. She hanged herself in the barn at the age of nineteen.”

I've been wanting a more creepy Halloween Bingo story and this delivered. Told in first person, Sarah gets a call from her temp agency telling her about a job opportunity. She's to be an assistant to Alistair Gellis, who turns out to be young, rich, handsome, and oh, a ghost hunter. Sarah doesn't necessarily believe in ghosts but she needs the money and has been feeling adrift.

“Please tell me. Why was your husband afraid of Maddy?”

Tears began to course down her cheeks. She seemed hardly aware of them. “He always said—he always said that night she came, she looked like she’d been buried. She looked like she’d come from a grave. My husband believed Maddy was dead before she even came to Falmouth House.'

The story starts rolling right away and keeps a very quick pace, you'll want to devour this story in one sitting. The story is somewhat tight knit starting off with our heroine Sarah, Alistair bringing her into the mystery, Alistair's assistant Matthew, our ghost Maddy Clare, and a handful of townspeople. I immediately started side-eyeing people as their personalities and actions seemed dark and murky. The first person dialogue was a double edged sword for me as it kept the mystery alive but also felt like forced manufacturing mystery and drama. 

Matthew’s words hung between us, the war a chasm that could not be traveled. I could not go there; he could not come back.

The ghost story is pretty front and center but a close second is the discussion of World War I and all the emotional and mental damage that did to Alistair, Matthew, and others. A more distant third was the romance between Sarah and Matthew, I even want to hesitate to call it romance because it kind of pops in jarringly and then hovers at the edges. At times it felt like there were some hitches in the juggling act between the three, I think a longer page count allowing the romance to be given more time and depth and a longer time spent with the characters dealing with PTSD would have given this a more even flow. 

Heels, barefoot, kicking against the wall. Something sat in the sill of the high window, and kicked its heels as it dangled its feet. It was behind me, only six feet away.

I thought the mystery was done well but as an avid horror movie watcher, I've see this type of story done before (a similar movie 

[spoiler]

Gothika

[/spoiler]) and was able to guess what some of the answers were halfway through. You'll be devastated and probably start wanting to bend your moral feelings on accepted justice. The creepy factor was still done really well here and thinking I knew what was going on didn't stop me from looking extra hard into corner shadows as I went to bed. I definitely recommend this if looking for a spooky story that deals with some discussion about PTSD or battle fatigue as it was referenced as after World War I, first person pov that will keep some character mystery alive, a romance that could be described more as intensity, and a ghost that will have her revenge. 

I screamed, but I tasted their blood, she said, as if I had not spoken. Each of the three. They each tasted different. I took orders, but I knew I would taste it again. Every one of them. I will do it, little girl. I will have my revenge.

Maddy Clare let me escape the barn, where I could finally scream and scream.

This is fairly creepy and has been off and running from the get go. I'm also side-eyeing a whole bunch of people.

I nodded. Taking notes, organizing clippings—it was easy enough. “Certainly I’ll help you,” I said.

He held up a finger. “Ah—I haven’t finished. Don’t agree just yet. You said you have no opinion on the existence of ghosts.”

“I’ve certainly never seen one,” I conceded.

His smile was like sun breaking through the clouds.“How lucky for you, then. Because you’re going to see one this week. For me.”