Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep: Ghost Stories

by Adam Soto

A collection of short stories moving through time and place, exploring the spaces where we haunt each other and ourselves through our choices, our institutions, and our dreams.

Adam Soto, author of the debut novel This Weightless World, which Robin Sloan called “the social novel for the 21st century,” returns with Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep.

In the title story, a one-armed Harlem Hellfighter goes in search of his specially altered military uniform while Influenza ravages Philadelphia. In “Sleepy Things,” a man is bound to the bedside of his comatose girlfriend who haunts his mother’s dreams. In “Wren & Riley,” a couple travels to Wyoming to visit a childhood friend who killed her abusive husband. And in “The Vegetable Church,” a pair of Syrian sisters, refugees of the civil war, find themselves at a crossroads in the home of their European hosts while their dead father whispers to them words of comfort and guidance.

The stories in Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep, strange and unsettling, explore the quiet spaces where the living and the dead alike haunt one another through their choices, dreams, and institutions.

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Fiction, Speculative Fiction

Audible Audio

Published October 4, 2022

Reviews

[inciminci · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are perfectly good contemporary stories. By marketing this as horror or unsettling, not only do the publishers do the author no favor, they literally throw him under the bus that are us horror fans expecting to indeed read unsettling and disturbing stuff because it has been marketed so, and if you read the reviews that explains the low rating. Too bad really.

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting collection of ‘ghost stories’ but not in a spooky or gothic sense. They are stories for a dystopian era, the writing is quite dreamy sometimes, often I didn’t realise a character was a ghost until it became obvious. People don’t usually react in a scared way, they have conversations with them in some of the stories. One is set in the future where Mars has been colonised, death conquered and AI bots carry on for any person who does die. It’s global, there’s disease in many of the stories, some violence, some set in the past or in a distorted present. There’s also lots of literary references (Borges, Kafka, Ballard and a lot more). Unfortunately some of the stories didn’t work for me at all, I just didn’t understand them but others were very good. My favourites ‘YA’ about setting up a bot to write YA books! and the title story about where people go after death, I really liked the atmosphere of this one.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not in any sense conventional ghost stories. Strange, almost inexplicable at times, and as well-written as any so-called literary fiction.

[Sky • aquariusannotations · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m still trying to pinpoint what exactly kept me reading Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep, but there was something that kept me going until the end. A few of the stories stood out and offered moments that I enjoyed, but overall, many of them felt a bit scattered, which made it difficult for me to form a deep connection. The writing leaned into a dystopian style, which I typically find intriguing, but in this case, it didn’t quite evoke the haunting or thought-provoking atmosphere I expected. Instead, the tone felt somewhat flat, which took away from the potential impact.

I haven’t read a lot of horror, but I did find the genre label a little misleading. I didn’t get the sense of dread or fear that I usually associate with horror, so this book might not resonate with readers who are looking for something truly unsettling. That being said, there were definitely glimpses of creativity, and I think some readers may still find value in its unique approach to storytelling. While it wasn’t quite what I had hoped for, it might resonate with those who enjoy more experimental narratives.

[Corrine Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adam Soto’s short story collection Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep gives the reader glimpses into strange worlds not far off from our own that explore the complexity of moving on at the end of things. Whether it’s the end of the world, relationships, or some form of an afterlife, Soto introduces characters in the midst of change and transition to focus on the brief denouements in life rather than the climaxes, which leaves the stories and their characters with a sense that there is always a new beginning.

[Chirp · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 rounded up.

I really wanted to like this book. Desperately so.

Not that I want to, but some blame has to go to some of the bookstores I went to that put this in their "Horror" section. Though with the short story collection touting "Ghost Stories" on it, I can't blame them for thinking what I was thinking.

Also, "Ghost Stories" is really stretching it when the idea of a ghost or that general haunting feeling is really vague. Like it's only a brief mention of ghosts in each story, and it's a really big stretch at that :/

Needless to say my expectations weren't met when I 1st started reading, but I am not one to DNF a book, especially a short story collection since you can just easily read a story to get to a better one.

My god, did I have to wade through to get to stories I actually enjoyed in this.

Highlights of this book (in my opinion, the best short stories in this collection) are Sleepy Things, Immanuel, Wren & Riley, Ransoms, and The Prize. These ones were really enjoyable and if you can find them on a literary magazine or lit. website (as some of the stories from the collection were published online), please do so.

As for everything else...

Well...

The descriptions are good.

But the actual structure of some of the stories and such were a pain to get through. Like I wanted to like the titular short story but it was annoying that the character you meet at the beginning isn't actually the main character you're following, because then it bounces to her father, and then it bounces to his client who is the actual person you were to follow, maybe just start with the client's perspective so that way we can be invested in him instead of introducing him HALF-WAY through the story.

TL;DR:
2.75 stars.

If you're expecting actual ghost stories from this short story collection, then you are sorely mistaken.

There are some good short stories in here, but in the end, is it worth it for 5 short stories that are really good? In my opinion, go to a library and read the short stories I mentioned above if they have this book. The rest of them are either forgettable or not well paced/structured.

[Love Them · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.4/5. DNF after a few stories. Not a book for me. Not scary. I suppose horror doesn't have to be scary but this is terribly boring for me. I enjoy some of the descriptions, and some of the writing style (the story Ocelots was decent with a non-ending), but I'm not invested in any of these stories. Not worth continuing.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars. I’m sure people will like this book. It just wasn’t for me. I thought a lot of the stories had a lot of promise and good ideas, but in the end they just felt too disjointed for me to enjoy them.

[Jared Bartman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Soto does not disappoint!

[Rose Chauvin · Rating 1 out of 5]

The stories are not very good

[Michael K Matteson]

For me this anthology (which I would refer this as) was hard to get enthusiastic about. I understand what a dream state stream of consciousness this was supposed to be, and kept on hoping it to get better for me, but it just never did. Disjointed plots and unresolved thoughts make it hard to follow, like watching a streaming series of random and unrelated pictures from some Internet rabbit hole nothing seemed to connect.

[Kelsey Weekman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm honestly not sure how or why I finished this. I liked one of the stories. Just one. It was hard to stay engaged, not particularly unsettling or haunting at all. Dreamy and dystopian, I think, but ultimately disjointed.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought "YA" was phenomenal and found the rest of the stories to be much less intriguing or even enjoyable.

[Gina · Rating 1 out of 5]

what. was. that.