Ghost Writing: Haunted Tales by Contemporary Writers

by Roger Weingarten

Serving up chills and thrills, this collection of haunting tales offers the intelligence and emotional resonance that only comes from great writing. Whether it's John Updike writing about a shadowy Indian in a coastal New England town or T. Coraghessan Boyle's tale of a vengeful statue of the Virgin Mary, these stories show how delicious it can be to curl up with master storytellers and the things that go bump in the night.

Genres: Short Stories, Horror

328 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2000

Reviews

[S. Cole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd never heard of Ghost Writing prior to checking it out of the library. To be fair, I'm a believer in reading short stories more than once. I haven't had a chance to go back for the second read, and honestly probably won't. Except for three.

Floggings by Kathryn Davis
A little over 30 pages, this story is about two brothers who own a museum/tea room haunted by the ghost of a giant woman to whom the museum is dedicated. Every summer a female artist both brothers are in love with visits the tea room to vacation & paint. This year she is going to paint a portrait she hopes will ultimately reveal who she should marry. However, the ghosts decides to get involved with the paint's outcome.
The things that made me love this story are not the things I'm usually drawn to in horror stories. That's probably why it's so unique. The atmosphere, the characters, even the haunting (if you could call it that) were all so unexpectedly fun. A lot of this story is wrapped up in details which I would ruin (and probably butcher) if I tried to explain here.

A Troll Story: Lesson in What Matters, No.1 by Nicola Griffith.
There is this tiny place within me that gets overly excited about the prospect of a good troll story. I have no idea where it came from or why its there or if it was ever satisfied prior to reading this story. At its surface, this is a story about a hero that battles a troll. I didn't have high hopes starting out & had no idea where this story was going. All I can say is hang in there for the ride, because it has an impressive finish!

Doors by Pamela Painter.
The shortest of the three at under 10 pages this is weird fiction at its best! When a husband suggests downsizing to a condo after their children are grown, his wife begins closing & locking the doors to rooms in their large home - an effort to make it more condo-like. He becomes suspicious and investigates the rooms; and the story takes a supernatural turn. I think as readers we are getting the husband's side of what is really his wife's story. It works great in the telling and this might actually be my favorite in the book!

Twenty stories make up this collection and short story anthologies can be daunting! There were a couple of others I'm glad to have read, but discovering these three made reading the whole book worthwhile. If you are interested in short stories but can't get your hands on the book or don't want to read it in full - maybe try to check out Doors, A Troll Story, or Floggings. They are contemporary ghost/scary stories without being self-consciously modern.

[Victoria Fuller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many of the stories were entirely too vague or complete unrelated to ghosts.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed some of the stories and writing styles, some, not so much. Some stories were bizarre, some left me feeling let down because there was no resolution, and others were just right.