The Horror Writers Association Presents Peter Straub's Ghosts

by Peter Straub (Editor, Contributor)

They beckon you to a twilight world of flesh and spirit....

They are dream-spinners weaving macabre nightmares...phantasmic voices whispering words of dread...spectral visions taunting you into an early grave. They are ghosts, young and ancient, mischievous and maniacal, glimmering and ghoulish. Now, journey with Peter Straub, one of today's best ghost storytellers, as he and fourteen other premier peddlers of gooseflesh take you into the shivery haunts of "Ghosts."

Beginning with Straub's "Hunger," a magnificent story about the cravings of the restless dead, here are stories "never" to be read past nightfall .stories of an unholy seductress gorging on men's souls...a Hollywood B moviemaker unexpectedly cast in the role of ghostwriter...a psychic investigator who unearths far more than he bargained for...and a burned out novelist desperately seeking the phantom muses of his childhood....

CONTENTS
Hunger: An Introduction by Peter Straub

DARK:

Styx by Norman Partridge

Jubilee by Kathe Koja

Not Far From Here by Tim Smith

THE KIDS:

Momma Ghost by Alan Rodgers

Daddy's Girl by Gordon R. Ross

Coventry Carol by Chet Williamson

MOM AND DAD:

And He Who Mourns by David B. Silva

His Mother's Hands by Clark Perry

COLD:

Bill Smith's Sleigh Ride by Tyson Blue

Sotto Voce by Lawrence Greenberg

A Real Babe by Brad Linaweaver

OUR WORK:

Looking For Mr. Flip by Thomas F. Monteleone

Present In Spirit by Don D'Ammassa

The Wedding Party by Paul M. Sammon

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Peter Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Gordon Anthony Straub and Elvena (Nilsestuen) Straub.

Straub read voraciously from an early age, but his literary interests did not please his parents; his father hoped that he would grow up to be a professional athlete, while his mother wanted him to be a Lutheran minister. He attended Milwaukee Country Day School on a scholarship, and, during his time there, began writing.

Straub earned an honors BA in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1965, and an MA at Columbia University a year later. He briefly taught English at Milwaukee Country Day, then moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1969 to work on a PhD, and to start writing professionally

After mixed success with two attempts at literary mainstream novels in the mid-1970s ("Marriages" and "Under Venus"), Straub dabbled in the supernatural for the first time with "Julia" (1975). He then wrote "If You Could See Me Now" (1977), and came to widespread public attention with his fifth novel, "Ghost Story" (1979), which was a critical success and was later adapted into a 1981 film. Several horror novels followed, with growing success, including "The Talisman" and "Black House", two fantasy-horror collaborations with Straub's long-time friend and fellow author Stephen King.

In addition to his many novels, he published several works of poetry during his lifetime.

In 1966, Straub married Susan Bitker.They had two children; their daughter, Emma Straub, is also a novelist. The family lived in Dublin from 1969 to 1972, in London from 1972 to 1979, and in the New York City area from 1979 onwards.

Straub died on September 4, 2022, aged 79, from complications of a broken hip. At the time of his death, he and his wife lived in Brooklyn (New York City).

Reviews

[P. Aaron Potter]

My general policy is to give anthologies 3 stars on principal, since some stories are going to work better than others, and readers' tastes being as varied as they are, it's difficult to assign any sort of 'objective' measurement to a collection. There are rare exceptions (Skipp & Spector's remarkable Book of the Dead comes to mind) in which the quality of the entries is so universally superior that the entire anthology becomes something else, an entire meal which contains a sub-genre or trope.

Then there are cases like this one. I admire the hell out of Peter Straub. In a completely different voice, and for different purposes, he's a better writer than Stephen King, and a far superior thinker. What he is not, apparently, is a great editor. Other than Straub's own contribution to this anthology, what we have here is a lot of 'gotcha' short fiction, in which an O'Henry twist at the ending, like an old EC Horror Comic, spells Doooooom for one protagonist or other. These stories generally fail to evoke Straub's own deliberate pacing, or consistency of voice, or psychological insight. Even otherwise passable writers like Kathe Koja are not well represented here.

A much better work, if you're in the mood, is Straub's own self-edited one-man anthology Magic Terror, which ALSO contains the Straub story ("Hunger") which is the only redeeming part of this book. So go read Magic Terror instead. I'll see you over in that review.

[Killian]

Alright, so I've stopped writing Goodreads reviews mostly because who cares, but also because I mostly use this site and its companion app as a way to track the books that I've read or someday want to read. I feel that I must, however, make an exception for this collection of stories. The final tale in the volume––one of the longest in the entire collection--is an abortion of an Outer Limits episode that should be buried in a deep, forgotten well and never touched again (despite the fine prose of its author). It's a story whose entire engine rotates on a dumb, moralizing twist that would make M. Night Shyamalan blush at its boldness. It's titled, "The Wedding Party," and it is a gross waste of time, an insult to your intelligence, lazy, and a crock of literal shit.

"Sotto Voce," is pretty creepy though!

[Robin Nelson Moore]

A great collection of short horrors. I enjoyed it!

[Nikki]

This book got my attention with the way it was titled. The copy I have has the first part of the title in tiny print, and then has "Peter Straub's Ghosts" in bigger print to grab your attention. It is a good marketing tool, and since it was placed with his other books at Half Price Books, a good placement on their part.

The truth? There is one short story by Straub, and the rest are by other authors, most of them I have never read before. They all focus around, yep you guessed it, GHOSTS! Some are better than others, but that is usually something I come to expect from a collection of stories. This collection is broken up into sections based on themes.

It is an okay book, I wouldn't read it again and it will be going into my free for the taking book pile. However, if you want a well written ghost story by the master writer Peter Straub himself, I highly recommend "Ghost Story" It is old school horror and a delightful read for those of you like myself love that type of story. I still remember finding it at the library while I was a freshman in high school, over 20 years ago and it still sticks with me.

Happy Reading!

[David Matteri]

A great anthology of weird, unsettling, and terrifying ghost stories. Some stores are quiet and focus more on mood, while others are gory, fast-paced, and real screamers. I enjoyed reading most of these stories, except for "Mamma Ghost" by Alan Rodgers. It is well-written, but the ending's a real downer.

[Ian Mcmillan]

One word describes this book — disappointing.

[Julio Gagne]

Not a great story in the bunch