Reviews

Ghosts of Christmas Past by Tim Martin

amberlea_s's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

rachael_amber's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

littlemissgemreads's review

lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

laurav's review against another edition

5.0

Great collection. Highlights include "Dinner For One", "The Lady and the Fox", and "The Ghost of the Blue Chamber" but tbh they're all good.

wellwortharead's review

slow-paced

2.0

 

I have been dying to read this for over a year, but my anticipation and expectation did not match the reality. I love ghost stories, especially set at Christmas time or even during winter in general when the wind is howling and the snow is drifting higher.

I mostly bought this book because of M.R. James and Neil Gaiman but as it turned out the Gaiman "story" didn't fill an entire page even though they left a ton of blank space to stretch it to the other side. The M. R. James story was written as a series of letters to someone's brother concerning their missing uncle. I may have dozed off during that one.

 Dinner For One by Jenn Ashworth was the only tale I somewhat enjoyed. It was predictable as all get out but compared to the rest of this book it was the one high note. There was really nothing scary or spine tingly even in the one story that I enjoyed although it was well written. This is definitely not what I was hoping for. You might enjoy it more than I did provided you aren't looking for a scare or anything on par with Dickens. 

mes91's review

3.0

First half was 3.5 stars ⭐️ really great spooky stories but the second half was not as good unfortunately.

lori_demecs's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

midnightbookgirl's review against another edition

4.0

A good collection of Christmas ghost stories!

alan_c's review against another edition

4.0

Lovely collection of old & new. Atmospheric rather than scary.

amothersmusings1's review against another edition

3.0

"Ghosts of Christmas Past" edited by Tim Martin is a 'collection of seasonal chillers looking beneath Christmas cheer to a world of ghosts and horrors, mixing terrifying modern fiction with classic stories by masters of the macabre'.
Having forgotten to read this over Christmas, I was to keen to pick up as soon as possible and keep the spirit of Christmas going. Sadly I don't think I actually 'got' some of the stories, the first one being very difficult to follow due to the classic style of prose, though the premise of a Punch and Judy show involved in the tale did make it rather perturbing. As with all anthologies, there will always be some you like and some you don't, there were a couple I did enjoy and I believe the book does contain something for readers of all ages. Being a collection of very short stories it's great for just picking up and reading in between longer novels especially during the Christmas holidays and I would recommend if you like traditional and modern ghost stories alike.

3 stars