by Tananarive Due

Ghost Summer is a collection of imaginative Horror stories. The introduction tells us that the author is a black woman activist, which in my opinion makes it a little more interesting.

The stories are told in a casual, conversational tone, like someone telling a story round a campfire. At times the narrative moves a little slowly and becomes repetitive, but the payoff for Horror story lovers is some pretty bizarre stuff.

The title story, Ghost Summer, is novelette length and perhaps the best story of the collection, although I found the first story, The Lake, very interesting and it took me to some unexplored corners of imagination. Some of the plot points went by rather quickly, but the characters formed well and the experience of the narrator came across clearly.

This would make a good addition to any Horror book collection.

A special thank you to Prime Books and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Out of the fifteen stories in this collection, I enjoyed five of them; Ghost Summer, Free Jim’s Mine, The Knowing, Patient Zero and Herd Immunity. Those are the stories that I wish were novels; I loved the stories, the characters, and the pacing. The remaining ten just didn’t resonate with me. A lot of these stories felt slightly detached. It felt like somebody was telling me a story rather than allowing me to feel like I was experiencing the story. I love horror and when I read it, I want it to grab me and throw me into it. In some of the stories, the pacing seemed a little too slow for me at times. Just when the story was getting good, there were unnecessary details that just didn’t add to the story. I’d still consider buying this for family or friends who enjoy horror.

I don't normally comment on prose in my reviews; I generally feel like good writing fades into the background, so I want to take this first moment to state that Tananarive Due's writing is absolutely beautiful. 

While I didn't fall madly in love with any of these stories (I came close with Ghost Summer, which is practically a novella, Danger Word, one of the only zombie stories I think I have ever really connected with, and Free Jim's Mine, which I imagined as a horrifying Morrowind quest), I can't think of a single one of them I disliked, or even felt "eh" about, which is an astounding feat in a collection of this size. 

The characterization is all top-notch and several of these I would have happily read as a novel (I understand one of them was actually turned into a novel, and even a movie, and I'm going to have to pick that up). 

I'll be keeping an eye on this author and adding a few more of her books to my to-be-read list, because she's got the craft down and can keep my attention, and because authors good at short stories are few and far between. I'm not sure any of these strictly "scared" me, but quite a few of them made me think about the horrors of life, and that in itself suggests a skill worth watching.

This book was provided to me for free by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

words escape me right now...

Tananarive Due is an author to watch!

i have a couple more of things to say though: what an awesome awesome first collection of short stories and i promise that a full review will follow soon!

GRACETOWN 

The Lake  - 3.5

Summer  - 3.5

Ghost Summer  - 5

THE KNOWING 

Free Jim’s Mine - 4

The Knowing - 4

Like Daughter - 4

Aftermoon - 4

Trial Day - 4

CARRIERS

Patient Zero - 4

Danger Word (with Steven Barnes) - 4

Removal Order  - 4

Herd Immunity  - 4

Carriers  – 3.5

VANISHINGS

Señora Suerte (2006) – 3.5

Vanishings (2015) –  3.5

This is a truly good collection of shorts stories (and one novella). I can say the only fault I see is that every story could be a book. I will not write a review on each story for two reasons. First, the review would be way to long and second I feel that the stories should be read with no knowledge what they are about. I feel that they should be experienced without the reader knowing what they are about.

But I will say something about how I have rated the stories. The ones I gave 3.5 stars to are really good, great writing and everything. But I can't give them 4 stars because either they feel too short or the subject doesn't touch me as some of the other stories did. The 4 star stories are really good. I was tempted to give some of them 4.5 stars, but I do feel that they were a bit too short, they would have been incredible good if they just had been a bit longer because they are so good written and I love the characters.

That is why Ghost Summer gets the 5 star; here we have the books only novella. And, it's incredible good; yes it could have been an incredible book as well. But a novella is still a good length when it comes to a story. The story is given enough length to really get to know the characters and to tell a story.

I loved this collection. I would without doubt buy this collection because every single one of the stories is good.

I received this copy from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review! Thank you!