Afraid: The Best Philippine Ghost Stories

by Danton Remoto (Editor)

Gathered in this book are the best short stories written by Filipino writers. The stories are written in clear, accessible prose. There are clever turns in the tales. Chills will run down your spine. There is a delicious darkness in these stories. Often brilliant and spirited, they offer entertainment and delight to help s make it through the night.
(From the back of the book)

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Anthologies

94 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Danton Remoto was born on 25 March 1963 in Basa Air Base, Pampanga. He was an ASEAN scholar at the AdMU where he obtained his AB Interdisciplinary Studies in 1983. With his Robert Southwell scholarship, Remoto obtained his MA English Lit., 1989; then, on a British Council fellowship, another MA in publishing studies, 1990, at the University of Stirling, Scotland.

He was a Local fellow for poetry at the UP Creative Writing Center, 1994. He was at Hawthornden Castle, 1993, and later, at the Cambridge Seminar. Remoto teaches at AdMU where he manages the Office of Research and Publishing. He is also studying for his Ph.D. in creative writing at UP. He was an associate of PLAC and a member of the Manila Critics Circle since 1989.

He has won various awards, among them, the ASEAN prize for the essay, 1979; the Palanca for the essay in 1987; the CCP literary award for poetry; the Stirling District Arts Council award for poetry and the short story.
Among his works: Skin , Voices , Faces , Anvil, 1991; Black Silk Pajamas / Poems in English and Filipino , Anvil, 1996. He edited Buena Vista [Alfrredo Navarro Salanga's poems and fiction], 1989 and co-ed., Gems in Philippine Literature , 1989. More importantly, he has co-edited the Ladlad series with J. Neil Garcia.

Reviews

[Apokripos]

Ghost Stories Through the Night
(A Book Review of Afraid: The Best Philippine Ghost Stories
edited by Danton Remoto)

It was on a dreary afternoon on All Soul’s Day, November 2, just as dusk approaches, when I decided to put the book I’m currently reading aside for two weeks thence, and choose something more fitting this season of spooks, and also for my first book for the blog’s monthly reading scheme, November 2012: Ghoulish Reads .

Perhaps, it was my longing to hear or read tales of ghost encounters in the Philippine setting that I chose to pick up and crack open the slim volume of Afraid: The Best Philippine Ghost Stories to accompany me well through the night — or by whatever presence that was with me when I read alone in my room.

Edited by poet and essayist Danton Remoto, Afraid may look and sound like it belongs under the True Philippine Ghost Stories series published by PSICOM at first, but that’s where similarities end. The stories to be found in the not-more-than-a-hundred-pages anthology range from the ghost of a couple who still occupying the house of their dreams, a bizarre seller who peddles an equally odd piece of vintage photograph, people haunted by the ghosts of their past, houses with their own grisly histories to tell, to accounts of disturbing happenings and urban legends around the university vicinity.

In his introduction, Remoto claims why the tales in this collection can be deemed the best is because “these stories are told in well-written yet accessible prose.” Infused in the rich Filipino oral tradition, each piece is comparable to ghost stories no different from those recounted by some friends or relatives who experienced them but exhibiting a certain skillful and quality of storytelling — which is no surprising at all given the contributors are writers in their own right, esteemed in the country’s literary landscape.

To say whether the tales in this thin compilation are scary is another story in itself. I think it may well depend on a reader’s threshold of fright. Afraid may have fall short of giving me the heebie-jeebies, nonetheless, it’s not that bad all together — even though some of the pieces can be downright predictable — for plot execution carry the day (or night, rather).

Two of my favorites in the story collection are The Portrait by Jose Ma. Espino and Really, A Ghost! by Carlos Bulosan. Espino demonstrates some of the simple yet effective techniques for a continuous development of suspense that truly delivers the intended chill factor, while Bulosan’s wry humor (yes, this one made me laugh) as seen from his other short fictions, most notably My Father Goes to Court, gave a local folktale a striking patriotic twist.

Afraid: The Best of Philippines Ghost Stories is an entertaining read, presenting some of the finest in writing skills the genre could offer following the tradition of the Filipino’s fascination for tales about spooks and phantasms, stories whispered in the dark, told in the silence of the evening. It has certainly helped me made it through the night, with nary a scream.

[P.S. This is a part of the November 2012: Ghoulish Reads themed reading.]



_________________________
Book Details:
Book #55 for 2012
Published by Anvil Publishing, Inc.
(Paperback, 2005 Edition)
94 pages
Read on: November 2, 2012
My Rating: ★ ★ ★

[See this review on my book blog Dark Chest of Wonders and for many others.]

[Don Jaucian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Would have been zero stars if not for Tiempo’s closing story + two of the stories in the middle which are all worth this short takutan chismis thats obvs the more literary counterpart of the Philippine Ghost Stories eme.

[Tito Quiling, Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Standing on the bookshelf, this book may look similar to the True Philippine Ghost Stories series which were rampant during the early 2000s. I've read some of the books; the early ones still had a semblance of literary writing, but the succeeding collections were badly-written e-mails and recollections which killed the horror and suspense in the narrative.

Edited by Danton Remoto, Afraid: The Best Philippine Ghost Stories differs greatly from TPGS. Apart from being written by actual writers instead of pretentious netizens, this book has a seemingly historical taste with the stories because of the vividness in depicting local color without being too cliche or common. From accidental ghost occupants, to creepy family photos, houses with grim history, and even recent college horrors are included. Taking a leaf out of traditional oral literature, the pieces are well-written, the reader slowly becoming entranced with the quality of storytelling, until he gets pulled into the horror inside. Subtle and very Filipino, this one would be appropriate for turning over our taste for the supernatural, for future generations. So, what are you afraid of?