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rodneywilhite's review
2.0
Apart from the Stephen Gallagher and Kelly Link stories, this doesn't have much to reccomend. I enjoyed the little one-paragraph statements following each story in which the author shares their favorite ghost story far more, exponentially more, than I enjoyed the stories themselves.
Overall, I'm just glad to be done.
Skip this one.
Overall, I'm just glad to be done.
Skip this one.
smalefowles's review
4.0
Not terribly scary, but generally always evocative. Some big names here, and not just "big in horror." Joyce Carol Oates and Kelly Link contribute, their idioms being horror-adjacent. Actually, a lot of what Oates writes is horror, come to think of it. Link's story here is not scary (though her "The Specialist's Hat" is very scary). There's a wide range of styles here, which I appreciate, because I like to find new things to like.
Loved the blurbs after each story in which the authors would briefly discuss their own favorite ghost stories. What a brilliant idea, and now I have more stories to look up and read! I wish all anthologies would do this.
Favorites:
"Velocity" by Kathe Koja. Ugh, I love her.
"Limbo" by Lucius Shepard was a clever and dark tale, with tight writing. Former crime henchman running from his demons encounters a woman by the side of a lake.
Probably "One Thing About the Night" by Terry Dowling. Pretty unique and clever.
Loved the blurbs after each story in which the authors would briefly discuss their own favorite ghost stories. What a brilliant idea, and now I have more stories to look up and read! I wish all anthologies would do this.
Favorites:
"Velocity" by Kathe Koja. Ugh, I love her.
"Limbo" by Lucius Shepard was a clever and dark tale, with tight writing. Former crime henchman running from his demons encounters a woman by the side of a lake.
Probably "One Thing About the Night" by Terry Dowling. Pretty unique and clever.
pamwinkler's review
4.0
Overall, this was a good collection. Most stories were good, even the ones I didn't like. I would say that quite a few of them seemed more fancy than I'm entirely comfortable with, but that's something that happens.
The Trentino Kid by Jeffrey Ford was very good.
The Ghost of the Clock by Tanith Lee was also good.
One Thing About the Night by Terry Dowling was fantastic, just lovely.
The Silence of the Falling Stars by Mike O'Driscoll was something that was probably good, but I really didn't like it.
The Dead Ghost by Gahan Wilson was good.
Seven Sisters by Jack Cady was ok; there were parts I liked and parts I wasn't as fond of.
Subway by Joyce Carol Oates was very creepy.
Doctor Hood by Stephen Gallagher was pretty good.
An Amicable Divorce by Daniel Abraham was kind of strange.
Feeling Remains by Ramsey Campbell was also kind of strange.
The Gallows Necklace by Sharyn McCrumb was good.
Brownie, and Me by Charles L. Grant was good, and I'm not sure if I understood it.
Velocity by Kathe Koja was good.
Limbo by Lucius Shepard was also good, and really kind of bizarre.
The Hortlak by Kelly Link is really strange. I think it's good too, but it's mostly really strange.
Dancing Men by Glen Hirshberg was also really weird, but good.
The Trentino Kid by Jeffrey Ford was very good.
The Ghost of the Clock by Tanith Lee was also good.
One Thing About the Night by Terry Dowling was fantastic, just lovely.
The Silence of the Falling Stars by Mike O'Driscoll was something that was probably good, but I really didn't like it.
The Dead Ghost by Gahan Wilson was good.
Seven Sisters by Jack Cady was ok; there were parts I liked and parts I wasn't as fond of.
Subway by Joyce Carol Oates was very creepy.
Doctor Hood by Stephen Gallagher was pretty good.
An Amicable Divorce by Daniel Abraham was kind of strange.
Feeling Remains by Ramsey Campbell was also kind of strange.
The Gallows Necklace by Sharyn McCrumb was good.
Brownie, and Me by Charles L. Grant was good, and I'm not sure if I understood it.
Velocity by Kathe Koja was good.
Limbo by Lucius Shepard was also good, and really kind of bizarre.
The Hortlak by Kelly Link is really strange. I think it's good too, but it's mostly really strange.
Dancing Men by Glen Hirshberg was also really weird, but good.
megapolisomancy's review
3.0
Almost a year since I read this one, but I just stumbled across my notes, so let's see how much has stuck with me (and how much sense I can make of said notes). Datlow's introduction says she set out to collect "very scary" ghost stories, but many of these stories don't even make a pretense of trying for that affect (surely Kelly Link did not intend "The Hortlak" to scare anyone, for example, unless they have a morbid fear of pajamas), so I'm not sure how successful she was. That aside, this is kind of a standard collection of freshly-commissioned modern ghost stories, with most of your usual suspects for authors and your usual ratio of great-to-good-to-bad. The standouts were the always-reliable Ford and Lee, the new-to-me O'Driscoll, and Koja.
The Trentino Kid by Jeffrey Ford
A clammer who's afraid that he might have misspent his life encounters the ghost of a drowned boy. I recall that this was all caught up with the death of the narrator's father in some way. Reminiscent of Graham Joyce's "Black Dust" in its use of the ghost story to explore issues of class and work. Existentially scary, but the ghost himself is not scary or even malevolent.
The Ghost of the Clock by Tanith Lee
A young woman goes to live with her mean old aunt in a mansion by the sea. I have “I don’t believe in ghosts.” written down, which I think was the first line of the story, so it's one of those ironical post-modern deals, but it's Lee, so it's a good one, even though it's less baroque/more conversational than I usually expect her work to be. There's a haunted clock, and even now the ghost (the Woman in Yellow, evoking both the wallpaper and the king-in-) sticks out to me as being one of the scarier ones in the collection, and thematically we're concerned with aging (clocks, get it) and, again, work and class. The twists felt a bit forced, though, and apparently I thought the ending was weak. Also it reminded me of "Thurmley Abbey" but I don't remember why.
One Thing About the Night by Terry Dowling
A modern-day psychomantium provides a promising set-up - a man had bricked up his house's windows (after his wife and kids died) and created a mirrored hexagonal room, and then vanished, I think, leaving our ghost-hunting protagonists to come investigate. A weird combination of science fiction and horror as they endlessly discuss “mancy words” (ie "sciamancy") and atavism, specifically in terms of humankind's fear of darkness/night. For a horror story revolving around creepy mirrors, you'd be better served by Arthur Porges' "The Mirror" (1966).
The Silence of the Falling Stars by Mike O'Driscoll
An existential Western collides with the Weird Place in Death Valley, the haziness from the heat artfully reflected in the dreamlike and increasingly-distorted narrative. Our emotionally-stunted protagonist, a ranger, encounters a British family visiting the park. Rocks move inexplicably, someone is a ghost(s?), the timeline gets confused, and a sense of wrongness pervades everything, in an almost Kiernan-ish way. I loved this one, need to re-read it, and need to find more by O'Driscoll.
The Dead Ghost by Gahan Wilson
A club story, sort of, about a corporate lawyer in the hospital who sees “not a corpse, but the ghost of corpse.” Aiming for humorous, but it didn't connect (for me, anyway).
Seven Sisters by Jack Cady
I have no memory of this one - my notes tell me it was an oddly-written and tiresome ode to the creative spirit centered on seven mansions in the Pacific Northwest along with something having to do with immortality and ghosts.
Subway by Joyce Carol Oates
Oates at her most oblique, which is not my favorite mode of hers - a teenage runaway, desperately lonely, looks for love in all the wrong places.
Doctor Hood by Stephen Gallagher
A woman visits her widower father, who is a mad scientist researching dark matter and/or death. Full of awkward writing, as in “She sat tight, like someone scared of making an erroneous bid at an auction.” This one was also kind of ghostbuster-y, with the dad refusing to let go of the mom, who just wants to be released.
An Amicable Divorce by Daniel Abraham
An obnoxiously whiny divorced guy blames his ex-wife for the death of their child, which is now possibly haunting her.
Feeling Remains by Ramsey Campbell
The younger halves of dual mother/son pairs break into a dead neighbor's house and get haunted by means of a photo album, which allows Campbell to ruminate on the isolation of the elderly. Absolutely fantastic ghostly stuff unfortunately coupled with absolutely obnoxious characters who are more caricature than anything else.
The Gallows Necklace by Sharyn McCrumb
Another one that hasn't really stayed with me, this was a very old-fashioned English ghost story about a woman whose suitors drowned, the ending of which I found unearned/unconvincing.
Brownie, and Me by Charles L. Grant
A melancholy, low-key affair about a lonely old man planning for death after outliving his wife and son. Another story that weaves in work, this time on trains.
Velocity by Kathe Koja
A question+answer format with a cranky conceptual artist (he crashes bikes into trees), fixated on the memory of his father, who was a famous suicide (who drove into a tree) and toxic asshole and is now a ghost. Interspersed with descriptions of a red house that I think was the father's and now the artist's.
Limbo by Lucius Shepard
Started off well - mobster type on the run starts encountering ghostly stuff in the fog around the rural, lakeside cabin he's hiding out in, he relates more to the dead than the living, etc etc - before a plot twist reveals that his love interest, a survivor of domestic abuse, is actually a monster whose abuser was a victim of her manipulation. Vaguely reminiscent of (but vastly inferior to) M. John Harrison's "The Great God Pan." On paper Shepard seems like he should appeal to me more than he actually does in practice (even the liminal ghostworld we find ourselves in here didn't do much for me).
The Hortlak by Kelly Link
Two convenience store employees - one a young naive guy, the other an older bullshitter - work overnights and plan on changing the face of retail with their new, surreal system of bartering and commodity organization (ie arranging candy by chewiness/meltiness). As usual with Link, I love about 90% of this, but the constant accretion of self-consciously quirky details does wear on me. This one would appear to be more about zombies (consumers) than ghosts, but there are suggestions that all is not as it seems with our narrator and his Turkish coworker.
Dancing Men by Glen Hirshberg
A Jewish American teacher shepherding middle schoolers around Europe deals with the legacy of the Holocaust, during which his (still-living, which is the rub) grandfather was interned in Chelmno. There's some questioning of identities, and victim-blaming, and anger and guilt, and a weird collision of the golem story with Native American folklore. I had a rocky start with Hirshberg ("The Two Sams"), but enjoyed "Mr. Dark's Carnival" maybe more than I should have and liked this one even more.
The Trentino Kid by Jeffrey Ford
A clammer who's afraid that he might have misspent his life encounters the ghost of a drowned boy. I recall that this was all caught up with the death of the narrator's father in some way. Reminiscent of Graham Joyce's "Black Dust" in its use of the ghost story to explore issues of class and work. Existentially scary, but the ghost himself is not scary or even malevolent.
The Ghost of the Clock by Tanith Lee
A young woman goes to live with her mean old aunt in a mansion by the sea. I have “I don’t believe in ghosts.” written down, which I think was the first line of the story, so it's one of those ironical post-modern deals, but it's Lee, so it's a good one, even though it's less baroque/more conversational than I usually expect her work to be. There's a haunted clock, and even now the ghost (the Woman in Yellow, evoking both the wallpaper and the king-in-) sticks out to me as being one of the scarier ones in the collection, and thematically we're concerned with aging (clocks, get it) and, again, work and class. The twists felt a bit forced, though, and apparently I thought the ending was weak. Also it reminded me of "Thurmley Abbey" but I don't remember why.
One Thing About the Night by Terry Dowling
A modern-day psychomantium provides a promising set-up - a man had bricked up his house's windows (after his wife and kids died) and created a mirrored hexagonal room, and then vanished, I think, leaving our ghost-hunting protagonists to come investigate. A weird combination of science fiction and horror as they endlessly discuss “mancy words” (ie "sciamancy") and atavism, specifically in terms of humankind's fear of darkness/night. For a horror story revolving around creepy mirrors, you'd be better served by Arthur Porges' "The Mirror" (1966).
The Silence of the Falling Stars by Mike O'Driscoll
An existential Western collides with the Weird Place in Death Valley, the haziness from the heat artfully reflected in the dreamlike and increasingly-distorted narrative. Our emotionally-stunted protagonist, a ranger, encounters a British family visiting the park. Rocks move inexplicably, someone is a ghost(s?), the timeline gets confused, and a sense of wrongness pervades everything, in an almost Kiernan-ish way. I loved this one, need to re-read it, and need to find more by O'Driscoll.
The Dead Ghost by Gahan Wilson
A club story, sort of, about a corporate lawyer in the hospital who sees “not a corpse, but the ghost of corpse.” Aiming for humorous, but it didn't connect (for me, anyway).
Seven Sisters by Jack Cady
I have no memory of this one - my notes tell me it was an oddly-written and tiresome ode to the creative spirit centered on seven mansions in the Pacific Northwest along with something having to do with immortality and ghosts.
Subway by Joyce Carol Oates
Oates at her most oblique, which is not my favorite mode of hers - a teenage runaway, desperately lonely, looks for love in all the wrong places.
Doctor Hood by Stephen Gallagher
A woman visits her widower father, who is a mad scientist researching dark matter and/or death. Full of awkward writing, as in “She sat tight, like someone scared of making an erroneous bid at an auction.” This one was also kind of ghostbuster-y, with the dad refusing to let go of the mom, who just wants to be released.
An Amicable Divorce by Daniel Abraham
An obnoxiously whiny divorced guy blames his ex-wife for the death of their child, which is now possibly haunting her.
Feeling Remains by Ramsey Campbell
The younger halves of dual mother/son pairs break into a dead neighbor's house and get haunted by means of a photo album, which allows Campbell to ruminate on the isolation of the elderly. Absolutely fantastic ghostly stuff unfortunately coupled with absolutely obnoxious characters who are more caricature than anything else.
The Gallows Necklace by Sharyn McCrumb
Another one that hasn't really stayed with me, this was a very old-fashioned English ghost story about a woman whose suitors drowned, the ending of which I found unearned/unconvincing.
Brownie, and Me by Charles L. Grant
A melancholy, low-key affair about a lonely old man planning for death after outliving his wife and son. Another story that weaves in work, this time on trains.
Velocity by Kathe Koja
A question+answer format with a cranky conceptual artist (he crashes bikes into trees), fixated on the memory of his father, who was a famous suicide (who drove into a tree) and toxic asshole and is now a ghost. Interspersed with descriptions of a red house that I think was the father's and now the artist's.
Limbo by Lucius Shepard
Started off well - mobster type on the run starts encountering ghostly stuff in the fog around the rural, lakeside cabin he's hiding out in, he relates more to the dead than the living, etc etc - before a plot twist reveals that his love interest, a survivor of domestic abuse, is actually a monster whose abuser was a victim of her manipulation. Vaguely reminiscent of (but vastly inferior to) M. John Harrison's "The Great God Pan." On paper Shepard seems like he should appeal to me more than he actually does in practice (even the liminal ghostworld we find ourselves in here didn't do much for me).
The Hortlak by Kelly Link
Two convenience store employees - one a young naive guy, the other an older bullshitter - work overnights and plan on changing the face of retail with their new, surreal system of bartering and commodity organization (ie arranging candy by chewiness/meltiness). As usual with Link, I love about 90% of this, but the constant accretion of self-consciously quirky details does wear on me. This one would appear to be more about zombies (consumers) than ghosts, but there are suggestions that all is not as it seems with our narrator and his Turkish coworker.
Dancing Men by Glen Hirshberg
A Jewish American teacher shepherding middle schoolers around Europe deals with the legacy of the Holocaust, during which his (still-living, which is the rub) grandfather was interned in Chelmno. There's some questioning of identities, and victim-blaming, and anger and guilt, and a weird collision of the golem story with Native American folklore. I had a rocky start with Hirshberg ("The Two Sams"), but enjoyed "Mr. Dark's Carnival" maybe more than I should have and liked this one even more.
catladyreba's review
2.0
My race this month is slow and steady. Almost every book I am reading is an anthology or a collection and I'm trying to read one story a day. So far this is an interesting collection. While not traditionally scary, I love the atmosphere created by Mike O'Driscoll for his entry, "The Silence of Falling Stars." I'm currently in the middle of "Seven Sisters" by Jack Cady, and he also does an impressive job with setting and atmosphere.
Granted, some of the stories are creepier than others, "Feeling Remains" by Ramsey Campbell definitely left me with my skin crawling. I just finished "The Gallows Necklace" and it was pretty good, again great with setting and detail. All in all, "getting through this" was how I felt about reading this collection. I did not love it.
Even though this book is part of my HS Library collection, there aren't very many of my students that I would recommend read this anthology. I just don't know if I can see them really getting into or embracing many of the stories. I might try suggesting it to a few and hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised by their reviews.
Granted, some of the stories are creepier than others, "Feeling Remains" by Ramsey Campbell definitely left me with my skin crawling. I just finished "The Gallows Necklace" and it was pretty good, again great with setting and detail. All in all, "getting through this" was how I felt about reading this collection. I did not love it.
Even though this book is part of my HS Library collection, there aren't very many of my students that I would recommend read this anthology. I just don't know if I can see them really getting into or embracing many of the stories. I might try suggesting it to a few and hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised by their reviews.
crowyhead's review
5.0
FANTASTIC collection of ghost stories. There were stories I didn't like as well as others, but there are no duds in this collection. Particularly good is Kelly Link's story "The Hortlak." It has zombies!
pezski's review
Leaving the house without a book this morning meant that I *had* to go book shopping at the first opportunity. This collection was an excellent find; it will be interesting to compare it to the collection of classic ghost stories I picked up a while ago.
evavroslin's review against another edition
5.0
"The Subway" by Joyce Carol Oates is a masterpiece in particular that really resonated with me
lauriereadslohf's review
4.0
Though there are a few small duds, the majority of the stories here were genuinely creepy.
Jeffrey Ford's "The Trentino Kid" starts things off on a slightly creepy note. It's about a guy who has frittered his youth away in what he thought was an easier route. He's regretting the choices he's made when he comes across a ghost that will force his hand in a new direction. This is a story that will resonate with anyone who wishes they had taken a different path years earlier. I know it certainly struck a nerve with me!
Tanith Lee's "The Ghost In The Clock" is atmospheric as is her usual style and features a tale of a clock with a horrific past, a ghost and a good dose of madness. Descriptive writing and a creeping sense of unease make this one a chill inducing read.
"The Thing About the Night" just wasn't my taste. Too scientific, me thinks. I skimmed, things went way over my head and then it was done.
"The Silence of the Falling Stars is about a park ranger whom I didn't care for at all. I can't pinpoint where it went wrong. I just found it dull and slow going.
Gahan Wilson's "The Dead Ghost" was a short and to the point recounting of an injured man's encounter with an overweight, naked ghost. I enjoyed this one, maybe because it was a nice breather after the previous two stories which I thought were both tedious and overly long.
Oates "Subway" This is a haunting but somewhat familiar story of tragedy and a woman's never-ending search for love.
The Seven Sisters is a story about seven formerly grand homes now falling to ruin. This one didn't resonate with me in any way and I can't really remember much else about it.
Doctor Hood was more accessible than the previous story. It's about a woman returning to her childhood home because she's worried about her increasingly distant father. It's about loss, letting go and features a good dose of ghost-busting. I enjoyed the originality of the end of this one.
An Amicable Divorce is a story rooted in tragedy and is deeply emotional. It's about a man still deeply in love with his ex-wife. Sadly, she isn't at all in a good place to return his love but calls him often and begs for help with a creature that is inhabiting their home late at night. This one gets under your skin and lives up to the promises made by the editor and, despite its gloominess, was probably my favorite of the bunch.
Feeling Remains This is about a young boy whose feminist mom is completely disinterested in him. After forcing him to care for an aging neighbor who then dies, he's haunted by the old lady's treasured book of photo's. This story about the neglect of the child and the over-the-top selfishness of the mother annoyed the heck out of me.
The Gallow's Necklace by Sharyn McCrumb was a "past coming back to haunt you" type of ghost story that was very enjoyable. The idea of the Gallow's Necklace was so utterly chilling it won't be something easily forgotten.
Brownie, and Me Charles Grant has always been a difficult read for me. His quiet style of horror didn't work for me when I was younger and more into the likes of Clive Barker and Poppy Z. Brite but this story, about a group of elderly friends who are all experiencing strange haunting phenomena is disquieting in a way that kept me turning the pages. Or, maybe I'm finally old enough to appreciate him ;) I'll have to track down his other work.
Velocity Unlike Grant, I adored Kathe Koja's earlier work (Cipher and Skin especially) even though her style is somewhat of an acquired taste. I worked my through her books of body modification and love affairs gone sour and always looked forward to more. Somewhere along the way I lost touch with her work and no longer have patience for the fractured writing style when I try to go back and re-read them. This story wasn't nearly as difficult as her longer novels but it didn't move me and isn't one I'll remember come tomorrow.
Limbo by Lucius Shepard is a novella length tale of a former criminal finding love. Or so he thinks. I loved the revenge theme of this one and how it all tied together so nasty-like at the end.
The Hortlak by by Kelly Link is the kind of weirdly quirky short story that I really enjoy. It's sort of a David Lynch-like version of "clerks". The world has been turned upside down, zombie's wander through convenience stores, a strange clerk revels in bizarre pajamas, and a woman gives homeless dogs one last glimpse of fun and freedom. It's all very strange and doesn't always come together in a cohesive way but I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.
Dancing Men by Glenn Hirshberg's is a coming of age/innocence lost type of story where one young boy has to face his grandfather's horrific memories of the Holocast. This one is a gut-wrencher because the horror here isn't of the invented variety.
Jeffrey Ford's "The Trentino Kid" starts things off on a slightly creepy note. It's about a guy who has frittered his youth away in what he thought was an easier route. He's regretting the choices he's made when he comes across a ghost that will force his hand in a new direction. This is a story that will resonate with anyone who wishes they had taken a different path years earlier. I know it certainly struck a nerve with me!
Tanith Lee's "The Ghost In The Clock" is atmospheric as is her usual style and features a tale of a clock with a horrific past, a ghost and a good dose of madness. Descriptive writing and a creeping sense of unease make this one a chill inducing read.
"The Thing About the Night" just wasn't my taste. Too scientific, me thinks. I skimmed, things went way over my head and then it was done.
"The Silence of the Falling Stars is about a park ranger whom I didn't care for at all. I can't pinpoint where it went wrong. I just found it dull and slow going.
Gahan Wilson's "The Dead Ghost" was a short and to the point recounting of an injured man's encounter with an overweight, naked ghost. I enjoyed this one, maybe because it was a nice breather after the previous two stories which I thought were both tedious and overly long.
Oates "Subway" This is a haunting but somewhat familiar story of tragedy and a woman's never-ending search for love.
The Seven Sisters is a story about seven formerly grand homes now falling to ruin. This one didn't resonate with me in any way and I can't really remember much else about it.
Doctor Hood was more accessible than the previous story. It's about a woman returning to her childhood home because she's worried about her increasingly distant father. It's about loss, letting go and features a good dose of ghost-busting. I enjoyed the originality of the end of this one.
An Amicable Divorce is a story rooted in tragedy and is deeply emotional. It's about a man still deeply in love with his ex-wife. Sadly, she isn't at all in a good place to return his love but calls him often and begs for help with a creature that is inhabiting their home late at night. This one gets under your skin and lives up to the promises made by the editor and, despite its gloominess, was probably my favorite of the bunch.
Feeling Remains This is about a young boy whose feminist mom is completely disinterested in him. After forcing him to care for an aging neighbor who then dies, he's haunted by the old lady's treasured book of photo's. This story about the neglect of the child and the over-the-top selfishness of the mother annoyed the heck out of me.
The Gallow's Necklace by Sharyn McCrumb was a "past coming back to haunt you" type of ghost story that was very enjoyable. The idea of the Gallow's Necklace was so utterly chilling it won't be something easily forgotten.
Brownie, and Me Charles Grant has always been a difficult read for me. His quiet style of horror didn't work for me when I was younger and more into the likes of Clive Barker and Poppy Z. Brite but this story, about a group of elderly friends who are all experiencing strange haunting phenomena is disquieting in a way that kept me turning the pages. Or, maybe I'm finally old enough to appreciate him ;) I'll have to track down his other work.
Velocity Unlike Grant, I adored Kathe Koja's earlier work (Cipher and Skin especially) even though her style is somewhat of an acquired taste. I worked my through her books of body modification and love affairs gone sour and always looked forward to more. Somewhere along the way I lost touch with her work and no longer have patience for the fractured writing style when I try to go back and re-read them. This story wasn't nearly as difficult as her longer novels but it didn't move me and isn't one I'll remember come tomorrow.
Limbo by Lucius Shepard is a novella length tale of a former criminal finding love. Or so he thinks. I loved the revenge theme of this one and how it all tied together so nasty-like at the end.
The Hortlak by by Kelly Link is the kind of weirdly quirky short story that I really enjoy. It's sort of a David Lynch-like version of "clerks". The world has been turned upside down, zombie's wander through convenience stores, a strange clerk revels in bizarre pajamas, and a woman gives homeless dogs one last glimpse of fun and freedom. It's all very strange and doesn't always come together in a cohesive way but I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.
Dancing Men by Glenn Hirshberg's is a coming of age/innocence lost type of story where one young boy has to face his grandfather's horrific memories of the Holocast. This one is a gut-wrencher because the horror here isn't of the invented variety.
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