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A review by obscene_jack
Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories by L.P. Hartley, Alfred McClelland Burrage, E.F. Benson, Mary Treadgold, Jonas Lie, F. Marion Crawford, Robert Aickman, Rosemary Timperley, Cynthia Asquith, Richard Barham Middleton, Roald Dahl, Edith Wharton, J. Sheridan Le Fanu
2.0
This is a really depressing book. In his weirdly sexist preface, an author I greatly respect says that he has read through 749 ghost stories to select these 14 as the very pinnacle of the genre. And, let's ruin all the intrigue from the start, they kinda suck. So either these 14 really are the best stories the genre has to offer, which is at least as depressing as your girlfriend breaking up with you on your anniversary to date Roald Dahl's son, or one really good writer, who succeeded in creating so many unexpected peculiar endings, had no taste, which, let's face it, is a far more realistic option.
There're 14 stories in this book (oh come on, couldn't you do 13? And print it in 36 bold, so they would take up 666 pages? MWAHAHAHAHA), but they only have in common a certain accessibility - they're quite easy and fairly pleasant to read. Also, in most of these the ghosts are benevolent, which is cool - in a perfect ghost story ghosts are just sad remnants of the sad times, not good people turned into homicidal maniacs after death.
But of these fourteen only two are worth mentioning.
Elias and the Draug by Jonas Lie sucks, and the coolness of the author's surname doesn't help much. It's a very silly tale with characters that evoke zero sympathy, and an absolutely demented plot. I get it, it's supposed to be read as a dark fairy tale made peculiar by its Norse theme, but it doesn't even try to be a good story. And that is downright offensive.
Ringing the Changes by Robert Aickman is everything a ghost story should be... until about the middle of it. The first half succeeds at being the noble kind of horror - it dips you into the eerie atmosphere and continuously throws unsettling events and phrases in your direction, but doesn't go overboard with it, like everybody in David Lynch's movies, so it stays believable, yet very strange and creepy, and makes you anticipate the ending thrice more zealously. But then it loses it's appeal by smacking you in the face with very literal things, and ends in a very vague cryptic remark, that makes you regret a lot of the life choices you've made, including buying this book and that incident with a cactus and a pack of diapers neither of you will ever mention or ever forget.
The rest of the stories are pretty universally ok. They're not really spooky, and the big reveal in the end is usually 'and it was actually a ghost!'. Come on, I'm reading a book of ghost stories, I've kinda figured already. But on the other hand, they're at least pleasant, not boring, and, most importantly, fairly short.
So you know, whatever. Just don't believe anybody who says you should absolutely read this. The chances are, they're a ghost, and will disappear in a few minutes, and you'll be stuck with this book for hours. Which is not really the worst fate as things go, but hey, you could've been reading Chris Priestley the whole time instead.
P.S. I liked how Penguin deemed necessary to include the ad of this book into this very book, so you could think about buying this book all the while you're reading this book. But the cover is pretty stylish, so you didn't hear me complain.
There're 14 stories in this book (oh come on, couldn't you do 13? And print it in 36 bold, so they would take up 666 pages? MWAHAHAHAHA), but they only have in common a certain accessibility - they're quite easy and fairly pleasant to read. Also, in most of these the ghosts are benevolent, which is cool - in a perfect ghost story ghosts are just sad remnants of the sad times, not good people turned into homicidal maniacs after death.
But of these fourteen only two are worth mentioning.
Elias and the Draug by Jonas Lie sucks, and the coolness of the author's surname doesn't help much. It's a very silly tale with characters that evoke zero sympathy, and an absolutely demented plot. I get it, it's supposed to be read as a dark fairy tale made peculiar by its Norse theme, but it doesn't even try to be a good story. And that is downright offensive.
Ringing the Changes by Robert Aickman is everything a ghost story should be... until about the middle of it. The first half succeeds at being the noble kind of horror - it dips you into the eerie atmosphere and continuously throws unsettling events and phrases in your direction, but doesn't go overboard with it, like everybody in David Lynch's movies, so it stays believable, yet very strange and creepy, and makes you anticipate the ending thrice more zealously. But then it loses it's appeal by smacking you in the face with very literal things, and ends in a very vague cryptic remark, that makes you regret a lot of the life choices you've made, including buying this book and that incident with a cactus and a pack of diapers neither of you will ever mention or ever forget.
The rest of the stories are pretty universally ok. They're not really spooky, and the big reveal in the end is usually 'and it was actually a ghost!'. Come on, I'm reading a book of ghost stories, I've kinda figured already. But on the other hand, they're at least pleasant, not boring, and, most importantly, fairly short.
So you know, whatever. Just don't believe anybody who says you should absolutely read this. The chances are, they're a ghost, and will disappear in a few minutes, and you'll be stuck with this book for hours. Which is not really the worst fate as things go, but hey, you could've been reading Chris Priestley the whole time instead.
P.S. I liked how Penguin deemed necessary to include the ad of this book into this very book, so you could think about buying this book all the while you're reading this book. But the cover is pretty stylish, so you didn't hear me complain.