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100 Ghastly Little Ghost Stories by Robert E. Weinberg, Mary Hunter Austin, Stefan Dziemianowicz
leonore_book's review
3.0
What nice little stories. Some are very old and I looked up some of my favorite ones. Short stories can be wonderful when you have a busy life. :)
housedesignerking's review
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Finishing this compilation took longer than originally intended. Much like the assumptuously titled 'The World's Greatest Ghost Stories' which most weren't, it had been planned to finish this one by Halloween (2017). Sadly, the one quoted was finished the first week of November, and this one not until New Year's Eve, 2017. Oh, well!
Again, much like the previously reviewed compilation, I have reviewed some of the stories within (making this have reviews within a review). Also, there is a list of favourites. I did not list/favourite/review every single story. Any, if you so desire to check, that are not listed were basically neither loved nor hated by me and my guy (we read this book together).
------------------------------------------------
"Away" by Barry N. Malzberg.
You can't touch a ghost, so how were the cops able to grab him and take him off the stage?? 2/5
"Black Gold" by Thorp McClusky.
Captain Manly???? Smh. Also: decent story, but the use of the n-word could have been omitted and changed. 2/5.
"The Burned House" by Vincent O'Sullivan.
I'm not sure how this is exactly a ghost story. 2/5.
"Clocks" by Darrell Schweitzer.
Good story, but what is the main character's name? 2/5.
"The Cold Embrace" by Mary E. Braddon.
Decent ghost story. Bit predictable once halfway through, though. The first two lines had my eyes bugging out. "He was an artist- - such things as happened to him happen sometimes to artists." The next line is the same sentence save for the absence of 'artist' and replaces it with 'German.' To this I say, "WHAT????"
Also: they were first cousins in LOVE with each other??? FIRST COUSINS??? 1/5.
"Coming Home" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman.
"The upstairs is smaller and sits on top of the downstairs..." YOU DON'T SAY?!! Also: The main character was 9 years old and her best friend was 10. Her best friend said once "Livvie, if I had your brain, I'd put it in a glass bowl and ask it questions." LIVVIE! WHAT KIND OF FRIENDS DID YOU HAVE? Maybe this is why you're dead! <-- my thoughts before I finished it.
"Concert to death." By Paul Ernst.
Predictable. 1/5.
'Daddy' by Steve Rasnic Tem.
Creepy, and a little sad, but I got the impression that the child had a mental disorder. 2/5.
"A Dead Secret," by Lafcadio Hearn.
A pointless story about a dead woman that wants a letter burned so she can rest forever, and you never even find out what's in the letter. 1/5.
"The Door" by Henry S. Whitehead.
Predictable and filled with unnecessary repetitive mentions of the main character being unable to unlock a door. 1/5.
"Dust" by Edna Goit Brintall.
This could be a decent beginning to a novel without its ending. It was very predictable. I just didn't particularly enjoy it. 1/5.
"Edge Of The Cliff." 1/5.
It kind of glorifies suicide. Horrible and should have never been allowed to be published.
"Fancy That." by J. N. Williamson. 1/5.
WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST READ????????????? Is this someones recollections of their time on acid?
"Father Macclesfield's Tale" by R. H. Benson. 1/5.
Seemed like random events, some that were mere tricks of light, after the death of a man. Didn't really feel like a legit ghost story at all.
"The Furnished Room." by O. Henry.
Dismal, dragged and dragged for a little over five pages. Idk what the author was thinking when they decided to release this as a ghost story. I honestly got the idea that the man was overly obsessed and merely desperate to have some sort of success in finding the lady. Then the ending didn't even make reading this worth it at all. Just dismal. 1/5.
"The Garret Of Madame LeMoyne."
This story fell flat, much like how the author described Annette's telling of the history of the attic. Seems to me, despite the author's intention, that the husband got ideas from Annete's story on how to kill his wife. Meant to be a ghost story, this is a ghost story fail. 1/5.
"The Ghost And The the Bone-Setter" by J. Sheridan La Fanu.
The only fun part of reading this was when I got sort of close to getting the accent right. Reading It was hilarious. It failed as a creepy story, but succeeds as a comedy. There id no use in purtendin'. God be marciful to us all. This one iv an ould misherable one. 3/5.
"A Ghost Child" by Bernard Capes.
Incredibly overwritten; far too much description, and near the ending, the story was borderline pedophilic.1/5.
"Ghost Story" by Alan Brennert.
Very misleading title. This is not a ghost story. This a collection of sentences that only occasionally flow well together to form a picture of what's going on in this story within the reader's mind. Otherwise, it sounded like a bunch of people in the middle of a desert who have sex in front of everyone and sometimes let others join. This may may have been written during the use of illegal drugs because the story makes no sense whatsoever. Say no to drugs, kids. 1/5.
"The Ghosts Of Badden-le-Green" by Alfred I. Tooke.
A poem? Unexpected and unsuccessful. Nothing actually happened except a possibly drunk man making claims, and another man capturing butterflies. 1/5
"The Grey Room" by Stefan Grabinski (translated by Miroslaw Lipinski).
Honestly, I didnt didn't get the impression that the main character was dealing with a haunting. Truly, the impression I got was that the main character was obsessed with a coincidence and the room he'd moved into. 2/5.
"Harmless Ghosts" by Jessica Amanda Salmonson.
Had the main character not been a Nazi sympathizer, I was just gonna leave this as one of the unmentioned ones since it's just a story of a conversation years after the only other character's mother's death. Unfortunately, the whole Nazi Sympathizer thing hit home, and this gets 1/5.
'The Haunted Burglar" by W. C. Morrow.
What this lacks is believability. The idea that an arm can be haunted without it being possession just makes no sense to me. He wasn't haunted. He was a lunatic. 1/5
"Her New Parents" by Steve Rasnic Tem.
Good premise, went kind of nicely till a little over halfway through, and then the ending disappointed me. 2/5.
"Kharu Knows All" by Renier Wyers.
The ending was not very good. I was hoping for something a bit more theatrical, but the ending was merely a reveal without shock or awe. 2/5.
"The Last of Squire Ennismore" by Mrs. J. H. Riddell
.... It's just a conversation with a judge.... I feel like we read another one just like this before. 1/5
"McGill's Appointment" by Elsie Ellis.
I didn't get it... there wasn't enough back story, nor did very much happen. It just seemed like two random short scenes put together, and whatever else that isn't told might have made this a better story. 1/5.
"The Man In B-17" by Stephen Grendon.
Felt like this was only one side of a conversation; like whoever the second person was had their questions removed from the story, and only the answers remained. Also, this is yet another conversation. 1/5
"Mandolin" by Will Charles Oursler.
Hmm. This didn't seem like a ghost story at all. It seemed like a man who was silently desperate for some reason to go on, and heard something that wasn't there; he heard it because he wanted to hear it. As a story about changing one's mind, it was okay; but since this is supposed to be a ghost story, I can't even give it 2 stars. 1/5.
"Miss Prue" by Fred Chappel.
Anything that glorifies suicide gets a one star rating from me. 1/5.
"Mordecai's Pipe" by A. V. Milyer.
Very little story, and very little story development. Much like 'McGill's Appointment', it felt like random scenes put together. This time, it was three. 1/5
"The Pedicab" by Donald R. Burleson.
This felt like the beginning of a story that wasn't completely submitted. 1/5.
"The Piper From Bhutan" by David Bernard.
Didn't like this on the grounds that they forced a confession out of someone who had an alibi simply because they 'knew' he did it. Unfortunately, speculation does not hold up in court as fact. Also, the whole idea of music reanimating a corpse just seemed stupid to me. Also, there were several parts with '. . .'; they made me wonder if they were the same as dots placed in quotes to show that the whole quote isn't there; like parts of this story were omitted. 1/5
"The Dream" by J. Sheridan Or Fanu.
Neither hated nor liked this story, but I mention it to say that this is not even a ghost story, so it's inclusion in this compilation is most odd. This is a religious story about a man who bargains his soul to the devil for one more season of life. Not one ghost was found within the text.
"The Readjustment" by Mary Austin.
The 'ghost' in this one is described as a presence, which makes me wonder if there was really a ghost or if it was just a feeling the widower and the neighbour had. *shrugs* 1/5.
"Relationships" by Robert Samson.
It is mentioned in here that the main character felt he had the symptoms of dementia, and honestly, it makes me wonder if any of these women existed as ghosts, as odd as that sounds. Maybe they were creations of his mind. 1/5.
"Rose Rose" by Barry Pain.
The ending seems to justify suicide. 1/5.
"Safety Zone" by Barry N. Malzberg.
I found myself thinking of 'My Side Of The Story' by Will Davis, and 'The Boys On The Rock" by John Fox, because there was very little punctuation. Periods and commas. Also, there was a mention of dogs that allegedly had some sort of ghostly meaning, but it was never explained. Hearing dogs barking does not imply paranormal activity unless you're overly obsessed and dying for an experience and succeed in fooling yourself. It was also just a random scene in some bar with a guy who wanted to take a walk with this Donna and probably try to sleep with her. There's nothing paranormal about that. 1/5.
"Shadows In The Grass" by Steve Rasnic Tem.
The main character, Mark, is a somewhat disturbed character. He has no depressing memories of his own, so he seeks to absorb the memories of others. A boy had been riding his bike when he got hit by a car, and the boy's mother eventually is spotted a little too conveniently by Mark. She is in a completely understandable state of denial, and Mark, despite his own mental instability, has it in mind to have her handed over the proper authorities. So the only character I really felt for was the boy's mother. The main character seemed heartless and in need of professional help himself. There was also no ghost in this story. The main character perceives a windy storm as the presence of a ghost. This is not a ghost story. This is also not a very enjoyable story. 1/5.
"The Sphinx Without A Secret" by Oscar Wilde.
Yet another conversation. This is not a ghost story, but a lost love story 1/5
"The Splendid Lie" by S. B. H. Hurst.
Predictable, but i wouldn't want to be Lord Daywater. 1/5
"The Stranger." by Ambrose Bierce.
*sigh* yet another story about someone telling a story to people. 1/5.
"Summerland" by Avram Davidson.
I didn't really care for this one. Kind of dull. 1/5.
"The Theater Upstairs" by Manly Wade Wellman.
Um. I don't really understand, nor does my guy, what the character 'Luther' had to do with the lady on the screen. Plus, this isnt so much paranormal as much as it is abnormal. How would this even be possible -- even within the paranormal realm? 1/5.
"Thirteen Phantasms" by Clark Ashton Smith.
Um (again). We didn't get the point of this one. 1/5.
"The Tree-Man Ghost" by Percy B. Brior.
A MAN WITH A TREE'S SHADOW?????? 1/5.
"Two" by Al Sarrantonio.
?? Hmm. I'm starting to wonder if Dziemianowicz, Wrinberg, and Greenberg ran out of actual ghost stories at some point while compiling, or just wanted better stories than the actual ghost stories they were sorting, and added some stories even if they weren't paranormal; because this isn't paranormal. This is a story of a mother with ptsd because of the death of her husband, and a son who had moved on and used an odd machine that was never completely described to create an animated (?) version of his mother. 2/5.
Favourites:
"Bone To His Bone" by E. G. Swain. 4/5 stars.
"The Burned House" by Vincent O'Sullivan. (Despite what I said above.) 4/5 stars.
"The Coat" by A. E. D. Smith. (Bring wine, in the name of God!) Lmbo!! 5/5 stars.
"Coming Home" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman. 4/5.
"The Considerate Hosts" by Thorp McClusky. (Ten times better than his 'Black Gold' story. I'd give this by itself 5 out of 5 stars)
"Dark Mummery" by Thorp McClusky. (3 out of 5 stars)
"Drowned Argosies" by Jay Wilmer Benjamin. (4 out of 5)
"Faces" by Arthur J. Burke. 3/5.
"The Ghost Farm" by Susan Andrews Rice. 3/5.
"Ghosts In The Air" by J. M. Hiatt & Moye W. Stephens. 3/5.
"Gibbler's Ghost" by William G. Nolan. 5/5.
"A Grammatical Ghost" by Elia W. Peattie. Funny in a simple way, and simple yet graceful. 5/5.
"The Ghost In All The Rooms" by Daniel Defoe. 4/5.
"He Walked By Day" by Julius Long. 5/5.
"The Light Was Green" by John Rawson Speer. 4/5.
"Monsieur De Guise" by Perley Poore Sheehan. 4/5.
"The Murderer's Violin" by Erkmann-Chatrian. 3/5.
"The Night Caller" by G.L. Raisor. 4/5.
"Oh Come Little Children . . ." By Chet Williamson. Insulting to Christians when labeled as a ghost story, but otherwise a well-written one; I discerned no ghost within this one. I'm surprised it gets 5/5.
"On The Brighton Road" by Richard Middleton. 3/5.
"Our Late Visitor" by Marvin Kaye. "Thus my friend was amply qualified to break into the refrain of 'La Calunnia' at three o'clock in the morning." Hilarious. 5/5.
"Pacific 421" by August W. Derleth. 3/5.
"Rebels' Rest" by Seabury Quinn. It was merely narration for a good chunk of it, but it all fit together. 3/5.
"The Ghost And The Bone-Setter" by J. Sheridan La Fanu. 3/5.
"The Return" by R. Murray Gilchrist. 3/5.
"The Return" by G. G. Pendarves. 4/5.
"A Sprig Of Rosemary" by H. Warner Munn. A bit of a carbon copy of 'Scrooge' by Charles Dickens, but bittersweet and with a good message. 3/5.
"Three Gentleman in Black" by August W. Derleth. A story of poetic justice, sort of. I liked it. The scene where he moons the gentleman in black was a bit odd, though. 4/5.
"Under The Eaves" by Helen M. Reid.
Had some holes, and very little character developmemt, but decent for its length. 4/5.
"Waiter Number 34" by Paul Ernst.
Hilarious, uproarious in one part. A part was predictable, yes, but the hilarious scene made the predictability irrelevant, somewhat. Good message, too. 5/5.
"The Woman In Gray" by Walker J. Everett. 3/5.
"The Word Of Bentley" by E. Hoffman Price. 3/5.
------------------------------------------------
Well. Much like the other ghost story compilation mentioned above, I'm giving this a two star rating. I wish I could give it more stars because of my list of favourites, but (again) much like the other one, there was a pedophilic story in it. On top of that, a couple seemed to glorify suicide, and one that sympathized with Naziism. I don't know if I'm gonna read another compilation. So far, the only compilation I've given more than two stars to was a <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2895172034">Christmas compilation</a>. Start the fire with this one.
My Notes:
December 30th, 2017:
Pg 468, 85.71%: "We might yet actually finish this before 11:59 on New Years' Eve."
Pg 481, 88.1%: "65 pages left."
Pg 508, 93.04%: "38 pages left."
December 31st, 2017:
Pg 546, 100%: "F
EDIT 4-19-2022: I have since reduced my rating to only 1 star, but forgot to edit my review to reflect that.
Again, much like the previously reviewed compilation, I have reviewed some of the stories within (making this have reviews within a review). Also, there is a list of favourites. I did not list/favourite/review every single story. Any, if you so desire to check, that are not listed were basically neither loved nor hated by me and my guy (we read this book together).
------------------------------------------------
"Away" by Barry N. Malzberg.
You can't touch a ghost, so how were the cops able to grab him and take him off the stage?? 2/5
"Black Gold" by Thorp McClusky.
Captain Manly???? Smh. Also: decent story, but the use of the n-word could have been omitted and changed. 2/5.
"The Burned House" by Vincent O'Sullivan.
I'm not sure how this is exactly a ghost story. 2/5.
"Clocks" by Darrell Schweitzer.
Good story, but what is the main character's name? 2/5.
"The Cold Embrace" by Mary E. Braddon.
Decent ghost story. Bit predictable once halfway through, though. The first two lines had my eyes bugging out. "He was an artist- - such things as happened to him happen sometimes to artists." The next line is the same sentence save for the absence of 'artist' and replaces it with 'German.' To this I say, "WHAT????"
Also: they were first cousins in LOVE with each other??? FIRST COUSINS??? 1/5.
"Coming Home" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman.
"The upstairs is smaller and sits on top of the downstairs..." YOU DON'T SAY?!! Also: The main character was 9 years old and her best friend was 10. Her best friend said once "Livvie, if I had your brain, I'd put it in a glass bowl and ask it questions." LIVVIE! WHAT KIND OF FRIENDS DID YOU HAVE? Maybe this is why you're dead! <-- my thoughts before I finished it.
"Concert to death." By Paul Ernst.
Predictable. 1/5.
'Daddy' by Steve Rasnic Tem.
Creepy, and a little sad, but I got the impression that the child had a mental disorder. 2/5.
"A Dead Secret," by Lafcadio Hearn.
A pointless story about a dead woman that wants a letter burned so she can rest forever, and you never even find out what's in the letter. 1/5.
"The Door" by Henry S. Whitehead.
Predictable and filled with unnecessary repetitive mentions of the main character being unable to unlock a door. 1/5.
"Dust" by Edna Goit Brintall.
This could be a decent beginning to a novel without its ending. It was very predictable. I just didn't particularly enjoy it. 1/5.
"Edge Of The Cliff." 1/5.
It kind of glorifies suicide. Horrible and should have never been allowed to be published.
"Fancy That." by J. N. Williamson. 1/5.
WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST READ????????????? Is this someones recollections of their time on acid?
"Father Macclesfield's Tale" by R. H. Benson. 1/5.
Seemed like random events, some that were mere tricks of light, after the death of a man. Didn't really feel like a legit ghost story at all.
"The Furnished Room." by O. Henry.
Dismal, dragged and dragged for a little over five pages. Idk what the author was thinking when they decided to release this as a ghost story. I honestly got the idea that the man was overly obsessed and merely desperate to have some sort of success in finding the lady. Then the ending didn't even make reading this worth it at all. Just dismal. 1/5.
"The Garret Of Madame LeMoyne."
This story fell flat, much like how the author described Annette's telling of the history of the attic. Seems to me, despite the author's intention, that the husband got ideas from Annete's story on how to kill his wife. Meant to be a ghost story, this is a ghost story fail. 1/5.
"The Ghost And The the Bone-Setter" by J. Sheridan La Fanu.
The only fun part of reading this was when I got sort of close to getting the accent right. Reading It was hilarious. It failed as a creepy story, but succeeds as a comedy. There id no use in purtendin'. God be marciful to us all. This one iv an ould misherable one. 3/5.
"A Ghost Child" by Bernard Capes.
Incredibly overwritten; far too much description, and near the ending, the story was borderline pedophilic.1/5.
"Ghost Story" by Alan Brennert.
Very misleading title. This is not a ghost story. This a collection of sentences that only occasionally flow well together to form a picture of what's going on in this story within the reader's mind. Otherwise, it sounded like a bunch of people in the middle of a desert who have sex in front of everyone and sometimes let others join. This may may have been written during the use of illegal drugs because the story makes no sense whatsoever. Say no to drugs, kids. 1/5.
"The Ghosts Of Badden-le-Green" by Alfred I. Tooke.
A poem? Unexpected and unsuccessful. Nothing actually happened except a possibly drunk man making claims, and another man capturing butterflies. 1/5
"The Grey Room" by Stefan Grabinski (translated by Miroslaw Lipinski).
Honestly, I didnt didn't get the impression that the main character was dealing with a haunting. Truly, the impression I got was that the main character was obsessed with a coincidence and the room he'd moved into. 2/5.
"Harmless Ghosts" by Jessica Amanda Salmonson.
Had the main character not been a Nazi sympathizer, I was just gonna leave this as one of the unmentioned ones since it's just a story of a conversation years after the only other character's mother's death. Unfortunately, the whole Nazi Sympathizer thing hit home, and this gets 1/5.
'The Haunted Burglar" by W. C. Morrow.
What this lacks is believability. The idea that an arm can be haunted without it being possession just makes no sense to me. He wasn't haunted. He was a lunatic. 1/5
"Her New Parents" by Steve Rasnic Tem.
Good premise, went kind of nicely till a little over halfway through, and then the ending disappointed me. 2/5.
"Kharu Knows All" by Renier Wyers.
The ending was not very good. I was hoping for something a bit more theatrical, but the ending was merely a reveal without shock or awe. 2/5.
"The Last of Squire Ennismore" by Mrs. J. H. Riddell
.... It's just a conversation with a judge.... I feel like we read another one just like this before. 1/5
"McGill's Appointment" by Elsie Ellis.
I didn't get it... there wasn't enough back story, nor did very much happen. It just seemed like two random short scenes put together, and whatever else that isn't told might have made this a better story. 1/5.
"The Man In B-17" by Stephen Grendon.
Felt like this was only one side of a conversation; like whoever the second person was had their questions removed from the story, and only the answers remained. Also, this is yet another conversation. 1/5
"Mandolin" by Will Charles Oursler.
Hmm. This didn't seem like a ghost story at all. It seemed like a man who was silently desperate for some reason to go on, and heard something that wasn't there; he heard it because he wanted to hear it. As a story about changing one's mind, it was okay; but since this is supposed to be a ghost story, I can't even give it 2 stars. 1/5.
"Miss Prue" by Fred Chappel.
Anything that glorifies suicide gets a one star rating from me. 1/5.
"Mordecai's Pipe" by A. V. Milyer.
Very little story, and very little story development. Much like 'McGill's Appointment', it felt like random scenes put together. This time, it was three. 1/5
"The Pedicab" by Donald R. Burleson.
This felt like the beginning of a story that wasn't completely submitted. 1/5.
"The Piper From Bhutan" by David Bernard.
Didn't like this on the grounds that they forced a confession out of someone who had an alibi simply because they 'knew' he did it. Unfortunately, speculation does not hold up in court as fact. Also, the whole idea of music reanimating a corpse just seemed stupid to me. Also, there were several parts with '. . .'; they made me wonder if they were the same as dots placed in quotes to show that the whole quote isn't there; like parts of this story were omitted. 1/5
"The Dream" by J. Sheridan Or Fanu.
Neither hated nor liked this story, but I mention it to say that this is not even a ghost story, so it's inclusion in this compilation is most odd. This is a religious story about a man who bargains his soul to the devil for one more season of life. Not one ghost was found within the text.
"The Readjustment" by Mary Austin.
The 'ghost' in this one is described as a presence, which makes me wonder if there was really a ghost or if it was just a feeling the widower and the neighbour had. *shrugs* 1/5.
"Relationships" by Robert Samson.
It is mentioned in here that the main character felt he had the symptoms of dementia, and honestly, it makes me wonder if any of these women existed as ghosts, as odd as that sounds. Maybe they were creations of his mind. 1/5.
"Rose Rose" by Barry Pain.
The ending seems to justify suicide. 1/5.
"Safety Zone" by Barry N. Malzberg.
I found myself thinking of 'My Side Of The Story' by Will Davis, and 'The Boys On The Rock" by John Fox, because there was very little punctuation. Periods and commas. Also, there was a mention of dogs that allegedly had some sort of ghostly meaning, but it was never explained. Hearing dogs barking does not imply paranormal activity unless you're overly obsessed and dying for an experience and succeed in fooling yourself. It was also just a random scene in some bar with a guy who wanted to take a walk with this Donna and probably try to sleep with her. There's nothing paranormal about that. 1/5.
"Shadows In The Grass" by Steve Rasnic Tem.
The main character, Mark, is a somewhat disturbed character. He has no depressing memories of his own, so he seeks to absorb the memories of others. A boy had been riding his bike when he got hit by a car, and the boy's mother eventually is spotted a little too conveniently by Mark. She is in a completely understandable state of denial, and Mark, despite his own mental instability, has it in mind to have her handed over the proper authorities. So the only character I really felt for was the boy's mother. The main character seemed heartless and in need of professional help himself. There was also no ghost in this story. The main character perceives a windy storm as the presence of a ghost. This is not a ghost story. This is also not a very enjoyable story. 1/5.
"The Sphinx Without A Secret" by Oscar Wilde.
Yet another conversation. This is not a ghost story, but a lost love story 1/5
"The Splendid Lie" by S. B. H. Hurst.
Predictable, but i wouldn't want to be Lord Daywater. 1/5
"The Stranger." by Ambrose Bierce.
*sigh* yet another story about someone telling a story to people. 1/5.
"Summerland" by Avram Davidson.
I didn't really care for this one. Kind of dull. 1/5.
"The Theater Upstairs" by Manly Wade Wellman.
Um. I don't really understand, nor does my guy, what the character 'Luther' had to do with the lady on the screen. Plus, this isnt so much paranormal as much as it is abnormal. How would this even be possible -- even within the paranormal realm? 1/5.
"Thirteen Phantasms" by Clark Ashton Smith.
Um (again). We didn't get the point of this one. 1/5.
"The Tree-Man Ghost" by Percy B. Brior.
A MAN WITH A TREE'S SHADOW?????? 1/5.
"Two" by Al Sarrantonio.
?? Hmm. I'm starting to wonder if Dziemianowicz, Wrinberg, and Greenberg ran out of actual ghost stories at some point while compiling, or just wanted better stories than the actual ghost stories they were sorting, and added some stories even if they weren't paranormal; because this isn't paranormal. This is a story of a mother with ptsd because of the death of her husband, and a son who had moved on and used an odd machine that was never completely described to create an animated (?) version of his mother. 2/5.
Favourites:
"Bone To His Bone" by E. G. Swain. 4/5 stars.
"The Burned House" by Vincent O'Sullivan. (Despite what I said above.) 4/5 stars.
"The Coat" by A. E. D. Smith. (Bring wine, in the name of God!) Lmbo!! 5/5 stars.
"Coming Home" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman. 4/5.
"The Considerate Hosts" by Thorp McClusky. (Ten times better than his 'Black Gold' story. I'd give this by itself 5 out of 5 stars)
"Dark Mummery" by Thorp McClusky. (3 out of 5 stars)
"Drowned Argosies" by Jay Wilmer Benjamin. (4 out of 5)
"Faces" by Arthur J. Burke. 3/5.
"The Ghost Farm" by Susan Andrews Rice. 3/5.
"Ghosts In The Air" by J. M. Hiatt & Moye W. Stephens. 3/5.
"Gibbler's Ghost" by William G. Nolan. 5/5.
"A Grammatical Ghost" by Elia W. Peattie. Funny in a simple way, and simple yet graceful. 5/5.
"The Ghost In All The Rooms" by Daniel Defoe. 4/5.
"He Walked By Day" by Julius Long. 5/5.
"The Light Was Green" by John Rawson Speer. 4/5.
"Monsieur De Guise" by Perley Poore Sheehan. 4/5.
"The Murderer's Violin" by Erkmann-Chatrian. 3/5.
"The Night Caller" by G.L. Raisor. 4/5.
"Oh Come Little Children . . ." By Chet Williamson. Insulting to Christians when labeled as a ghost story, but otherwise a well-written one; I discerned no ghost within this one. I'm surprised it gets 5/5.
"On The Brighton Road" by Richard Middleton. 3/5.
"Our Late Visitor" by Marvin Kaye. "Thus my friend was amply qualified to break into the refrain of 'La Calunnia' at three o'clock in the morning." Hilarious. 5/5.
"Pacific 421" by August W. Derleth. 3/5.
"Rebels' Rest" by Seabury Quinn. It was merely narration for a good chunk of it, but it all fit together. 3/5.
"The Ghost And The Bone-Setter" by J. Sheridan La Fanu. 3/5.
"The Return" by R. Murray Gilchrist. 3/5.
"The Return" by G. G. Pendarves. 4/5.
"A Sprig Of Rosemary" by H. Warner Munn. A bit of a carbon copy of 'Scrooge' by Charles Dickens, but bittersweet and with a good message. 3/5.
"Three Gentleman in Black" by August W. Derleth. A story of poetic justice, sort of. I liked it. The scene where he moons the gentleman in black was a bit odd, though. 4/5.
"Under The Eaves" by Helen M. Reid.
Had some holes, and very little character developmemt, but decent for its length. 4/5.
"Waiter Number 34" by Paul Ernst.
Hilarious, uproarious in one part. A part was predictable, yes, but the hilarious scene made the predictability irrelevant, somewhat. Good message, too. 5/5.
"The Woman In Gray" by Walker J. Everett. 3/5.
"The Word Of Bentley" by E. Hoffman Price. 3/5.
------------------------------------------------
Well. Much like the other ghost story compilation mentioned above, I'm giving this a two star rating. I wish I could give it more stars because of my list of favourites, but (again) much like the other one, there was a pedophilic story in it. On top of that, a couple seemed to glorify suicide, and one that sympathized with Naziism. I don't know if I'm gonna read another compilation. So far, the only compilation I've given more than two stars to was a <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2895172034">Christmas compilation</a>. Start the fire with this one.
My Notes:
December 30th, 2017:
Pg 468, 85.71%: "We might yet actually finish this before 11:59 on New Years' Eve."
Pg 481, 88.1%: "65 pages left."
Pg 508, 93.04%: "38 pages left."
December 31st, 2017:
Pg 546, 100%: "F
EDIT 4-19-2022: I have since reduced my rating to only 1 star, but forgot to edit my review to reflect that.
vermidian's review
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
So as I read these, I rated each of these stories out of 5 total possible stars and averaged the difference at the end. I wound up with a 2.86 rating. Since the average rating on Goodreads was much higher and the fact that I don't recommend reading this book, I rounded down. This book had some good stories, but they were few and far between. I'll list the ones I found worth reading and their scores out of 5 in the parenthesis next to them, in case you're scouring for good ones among the many boring and bad ones.
The Burned House (4)
Clocks (5)
The Coat (5)
Coming Home (4)
Concert to Death (4)
The Considerate Hosts (4)
Daddy (4)
Faces (4)
Harmless Ghosts (4)
He Walked By Day (4)
Highwaymen (4)
The House of Shadows (4)
Monseuir de Guise (4)
The Night Caller (4)
The Night Wire (5)
Our Late Visitor (4)
A Sprig of Rosemary (4)
The Theater Upstairs (4)
Waiter Number 34 (4)
The Woman in Grey (4)
The Burned House (4)
Clocks (5)
The Coat (5)
Coming Home (4)
Concert to Death (4)
The Considerate Hosts (4)
Daddy (4)
Faces (4)
Harmless Ghosts (4)
He Walked By Day (4)
Highwaymen (4)
The House of Shadows (4)
Monseuir de Guise (4)
The Night Caller (4)
The Night Wire (5)
Our Late Visitor (4)
A Sprig of Rosemary (4)
The Theater Upstairs (4)
Waiter Number 34 (4)
The Woman in Grey (4)
skjam's review
3.0
This was my Halloween season read this year, an anthology commissioned for the Barnes & Noble stores in 1995. There are indeed one hundred stories in this hefty tome, averaging about six pages. They are not all about wicked witches, however–some witches are good, some are just mischievous and others are hard to pin down on a moral spectrum.
The volume opens with “Gramma Grunt” by Donald L. Burleson, about a man returning to the streets of his youth and regretting joining in the taunting of an old woman; and ends with “Wall of Darkness” by Basil Wells, about a piece of architecture that should be left strictly alone. The oldest story (1933) is “The Mandrakes” by Clark Ashton Smith, one of his Averoigne stories, in which a murdered woman gets revenge through the title plants (though her murderer really should have known better.) Most of the stories, however, are exclusive to this book.
As might be expected, most of these short tales depend heavily on a twist ending, but a few play it straight with an ending foreshadowed throughout. Sometimes good people win the day, other times evil triumphs, at least for now. There are many variations in kinds of witches as well, the most bizarre of which is “Fish Witch” by Lois H. Gresh, with a witchlike species of marine life; it’s got a garbled ending.
Some standouts include:
“The Only Way to Fly” by Nancy Holder: An aging witch who’s lost most of her magic through disuse is on a plane to her retirement home. Does she have one last spark in her?
“There’ll be Witches” by Joe Meno: Danny is haunted by witches that make him wet the bed. Too bad the grownups never see them!
“Beware of That for Which You Wish” by Linda J. Dunn: A woman who wants a son consults a wiser woman; the wheel turns.
“The Devil’s Men” by Brian Stableford and “The Caress of Ash and Cinder” by Cindie Geddes, a nicely matched pair of stories about witch hunts seen from the victim’s point of view, yet with mirrored perspectives.
“The Mudang” by Will Murray: A skull collector discovers a two for one bargain in Korea.
There’s a few duds as well, but they’re short and over quickly.
Scattered among the stories are a few with scenes of rape, abuse, suicide and other triggery subjects. There’s also a few iffy ethnic portrayals and those of you who are witches may not like some of the more negative portrayals.
You can probably find this for a modest price from Barnes & Noble; I see it’s been reprinted several times. Or try the library if you just want to read the bits by your favored authors.
The volume opens with “Gramma Grunt” by Donald L. Burleson, about a man returning to the streets of his youth and regretting joining in the taunting of an old woman; and ends with “Wall of Darkness” by Basil Wells, about a piece of architecture that should be left strictly alone. The oldest story (1933) is “The Mandrakes” by Clark Ashton Smith, one of his Averoigne stories, in which a murdered woman gets revenge through the title plants (though her murderer really should have known better.) Most of the stories, however, are exclusive to this book.
As might be expected, most of these short tales depend heavily on a twist ending, but a few play it straight with an ending foreshadowed throughout. Sometimes good people win the day, other times evil triumphs, at least for now. There are many variations in kinds of witches as well, the most bizarre of which is “Fish Witch” by Lois H. Gresh, with a witchlike species of marine life; it’s got a garbled ending.
Some standouts include:
“The Only Way to Fly” by Nancy Holder: An aging witch who’s lost most of her magic through disuse is on a plane to her retirement home. Does she have one last spark in her?
“There’ll be Witches” by Joe Meno: Danny is haunted by witches that make him wet the bed. Too bad the grownups never see them!
“Beware of That for Which You Wish” by Linda J. Dunn: A woman who wants a son consults a wiser woman; the wheel turns.
“The Devil’s Men” by Brian Stableford and “The Caress of Ash and Cinder” by Cindie Geddes, a nicely matched pair of stories about witch hunts seen from the victim’s point of view, yet with mirrored perspectives.
“The Mudang” by Will Murray: A skull collector discovers a two for one bargain in Korea.
There’s a few duds as well, but they’re short and over quickly.
Scattered among the stories are a few with scenes of rape, abuse, suicide and other triggery subjects. There’s also a few iffy ethnic portrayals and those of you who are witches may not like some of the more negative portrayals.
You can probably find this for a modest price from Barnes & Noble; I see it’s been reprinted several times. Or try the library if you just want to read the bits by your favored authors.
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