Ghost Stories: Scary Ghosts & Paranormal Horror Short Stories Anthology

by Ron Ripley

In his first collection of short stories, Ron Ripley delivers eight spine-tingling tales of the strange and the macabre. Weaving an intricate web of storytelling, listeners are asked to join him on a journey through some of the darkest of his works.

Book a room at the old Crowe’s Bed and Breakfast, but be certain you can leave.

Join the treasure hunter as he digs up graves and awakens more than just the dead.

Lay beside a homeless man in a shelter, but make sure you’re not trespassing.

Set up your cameras alongside the ghost hunters, just don’t follow them into the dark.

Ghost Stories promises to do more than just make you sleep with the lights on. It will plant a cold kiss on your cheek and draw you into the dark where no one will ever hear you scream!

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Paranormal, Ebooks, Fiction, Supernatural, Fantasy

Audible Audio

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

Ron Ripley is a husband and father surviving in New England, a place which seems to be getting colder every day. He grew up across from a disturbingly large cemetery where he managed to scare himself every night before going to bed. Mostly because of the red lights that people put in front of the headstones. Those things are just plain creepy to a kid.

Ron enjoys writing horror, military history and driving through the small towns of New England with his family, collecting books and giving impromptu lectures on military history to his family, who enjoy ignoring him during those dreadful times.

Reviews

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 3 out of 5]

All right, if you're unfamiliar with my reviews I have to give you context as to why the review is a down-the-middle review. I am a hardcore horror fan, but I don't like supernatural, ghost stories. A slamming door, or creaking house noises can all be attributable to a drafty house settling. Those are not scary to me. I have beheld some truly horrifying things in my life and I'm a little bit jaded, but a real-life killer wielding an axe 2-feet in front of me would cause me to poop my pants in a second. The tales found in this compilation are ghost stories, and although there are some that are legitimately terrifying (a haunted hotel room with bell pulls, a giant dog in a deserted house?), some are not. I think it's a fair rating for this very short horror anthology, collection of stories simply titled as Ghost Stories by Ron Ripley.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chilling Short Stories!

I am not going to do a backstory like normal since all the stories within are short stories, but I will set out the story with a cryptic note.

1) Crowe’s Bed and Breakfast: Haunted bed and breakfast is not what it seems.

2) The Dog Tracker: A ghost girl has a bad temper when it comes to her dog.

3) The Treasure Hunter: When you rob the dead bad things will happen.

4) The Rosary: If something is buried in the wall, leave it alone.

5) Safety: A creature entity appears and it is not happy.

6) Shelter: Breaking into a house turns deadly.

7) The Shepherd: Be mindful of your neighbor as you do not know "what" they are.

8) The Shortcut: A man gets an education on how to be respectful in a cemetery.

9) The Ghost Hunters: A haunted house that inhabits more than ghosts.


Thoughts:

It has been long time since I have read stories by this author and it was great to be back in his world as these stories just pulled me straight into the horrors of his mind. All the short stories had some kind of twist but packed a powerful punch which kept me glued to my seat. Giving this book four "Spooks and Scares" stars!

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love ghost stories. From classic tales of specters to more urban legend type stories, I'm always up for a good haunting. I figured a short story collection would be a good introduction to Ron Ripley's writing as well.

Ghost Stories is a collection of 8 stories. I would classify them as more supernatural horror than ghost stories, although there are ghosts in them. A creepy bed and breakfast. Grave robbers. Spirits who want to be left alone or love their dogs. A poor choice of shelter. The stories are varied and all very short. Most are pretty basic....and formula. Person enters ghost's domain....person does something stupid....person gets schooled. The sort of story that's fun to tell around a campfire. More horror than specter. And, I'm ok with that. These are short horror snippets....the tales build fast and then have a final twist stabby moment before moving on to a fresh story. Character development isn't necessary, except for what pertains directly to the plot.

I listened to the audio book version of this story collection. I think I would have enjoyed the experience more with a better narrator. Jack Nolan has a pleasant enough voice, but his acting performance is below average. Pacing could have been better. At key points in the stories, he would start rushing, as if he felt reading at double pace builds horror tension. Mispronunciations, awkward pauses (like he lost his place in the script), strange emphasis on words in sentences, and weird choices for character accents. I got the impression that he was maybe new to voice acting or was having an off day. The stories are still enjoyable....and it's a quick listen. Poor narration.

Nice quick intro to Ron Ripley. The stories are interesting and entertaining. Very short. Sometimes a bit too short. Narration needs some work. I will give this collection a solid 3 stars. And I'm definitely going to read/listen to more of Ron's writing.

**I received a free copy of this audio book from the author. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ghost stories by Ron Ripley contains 8 hauntingly amazing paranormal tales. These were frankly uber scary and a few were shocking as hell.

1. Crowe's Bed and breakfast - A young couple who were on their way to their holiday destinations, decided to stay in a Bed and breakfast rather than a posh hotel. Turns out this place wasn't cozy as they thought.

2.The Dog's Tracker - When Adam finds out that a feral dog has slaughtered half of his chicken he decided to put an end to it. Searching for the dog with a shotgun he entered the abandoned town that had a creepy past. Soon he found the dog but he did not come back alive.

3.The Treasure Hunter - When a grave robber goes to a weird cemantary he thought he was in luck. There he learned his first and last lesson to never ever steal from the dead.

4. The Rosary - After living in the farmhouse for nearly 37 years, Connor knew every nook and corner yet one fine morning he found an antique rosary and a letter. Something from past came back.

5. Shelter - A homeless man finds a place to stay for a night. Contented with the house he soon fell in deep slumber only to be awaken by an unknown source in the abandoned house.

6. The Shepherd - A monster that has terrified the town folks by killing the farm animals. David, a fifteen year old boy took the matters in his hand and began hunting it down.

7. The Shortcut - After getting rejected by his crush, Mark vandalises a cemetery only to be punished gruesomely by a ghost.

8. The Ghost Hunters - When the Ghost Hunters duo Pete and Angela are invited to investigate a creepy house, they took the deal. The house which seems absolutely normal from outside holds monsters insides the walls.

These were the spooky stories from this book. I definitely enjoyed reading this collection of ghost stories. A five star read indeed!

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of modern horror short stories. I really liked them all. Just killers, no fillers. All stories have a nasty twist at the end. Extremely enjoyable and a clear recommendation. You will read this little book in one reading session and remember the goosebumps you had. Great find!

[Jeff McIntosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely prolific author, writing primarily in the horror and suspense fields.

Enjoyed this collection..my favorite was "The Shepard".

Got the book free thru Kindle Unlimited....certainly worth a read....


Jeff McIntosh

[BookLoversLife · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since these are short stories, it's hard to summarise them without spoiling something, so all I'll say is that this is 8 chilling and creepy tales. I've read a lot of Ron Ripley's books and always enjoyed them, and these are no different. Each is a little slice of creepy and scary and each is well written. Being short stories, there isn't much character development nor world building, but they are enjoyable little snippets into the authors mind. Good tales to tell around a camp fire!! :)

Jack Nolan did a good job with the narration, his voice is easy to listen to and is clear, but I found the production quality to be a bit echoey. It felt like he was talking in a big empty room.

*I received this as a gift, but voluntarily reviewed it. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.*

[David Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

It must be fun living in Ron Ripley's head!
Ever since the Sherman's Library trilogy, I have been a massive fan of this author.
This set of short stories, is a brief glimpse of what he is capable of. Although only a few pages long each, all will creep you out in one way or another. The characters don't stand out as in his novels, but that is only natural in such a short volume. What does stand out is the variety of the hauntings and the way that they impact on the unfortunate beings involved. Another great release.

[pambaweja52gmail.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again I sure am glad I found this author !!!

I found Mr. Ripley's first book, which I finished in one day!! I could not put it down!! Same with these short stories. They were short yes and had an ending....sort of. The were very tempting and made you think on what happened from where the book ended. Very mind stimulating for sure!! Keep up the good work!!l!

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really 2.5 stars but rounded up. These stories weren't all bad but there was very little 'creepiness' or sense of dread. And while the narrator was ok, he needs a wee bit more practice with tone and pace.
A good one for newbies to ghost stories.

[Hermit Hank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good stories

Ripley's stories are pretty darn good! I had a few laughs on some of them and some had a twist at the end but I enjoyed all of them. Great reading!!:

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Horror / Short Stories / Paranormal / Fiction / Fantasy / Anthologies / Supernatural

⭐⭐⭐/5

I love ghost stories, this is a bit darker than I would normally read. I like a bit more suspense and a little less gore, but it was enjoyable and I would read more.

[Stephanie Jenkins Ortiz Cerrillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great collection of short horror stories. A great read on this Halloween and it was free. I will have to check out more of Ron Ripley's stories.

[Heather Duvall · Rating 2 out of 5]

i’m begging for someone to put out a book without grammatical errors. BEGGING.

[Brianna Bello · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super well thought out short ghost/horror stories. I loved that each one was completely different than the next.

[Wulfwyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heart Pounding Terror

I loved listening to ghost stories as a kid. The older I got the scarier I wanted them to be. This book was awesomely scary. There are eight tales in the book. Usually I can pick out my favorite story and my least favorite. This time, though, I can't choose a favorite and I have no least favorite. All of the stories are creepy. They each turn into heart pounding, heavy breathing, scream stuck in the throat, terror. There aren't any truly gory scenes. These are the type of stories that engage the mind. You are in the moment with the characters. They hear creaking and you look around. In the words of Alice Cooper, "Welcome to my nightmare. I think you're going to like it."

[Joshua · Rating 1 out of 5]

"What are you doing"? a voice asked.

- Crowe's Bed and Breakfast A couple stays at an haunted b&b. Oh boy, this was quite a mess as a whole and didn't make a good first impression. The prose is clumsy, there's some things I can only think of as actual mistakes (e.g. "I've already served lunch" followed by "I'll see you at breakfast" from the b&b owner made no sense) and characters behaving as extremely suspicious things are totally normal. 1*

- The Dog Tracker A man follows a dog into an abandoned city. A very basic story with no real surprises, also the suicide angle found here makes no sense. 1,5*

- The Treasure Hunter A grave robber tries his luck in an haunted graveyard. Another unsophisticated tale, the ending here is particularly campy. 1*

- The Rosary An old rosary carries a curse. Somewhat decent in its story, but it's dragged down by the absurdity of the curse and what triggers it. 1,5*

- Shelter A squatter unknowingly picks an haunted house for sleeping. Better than the previous stuff, this one at least has a decent setup; the rest is predictable and not scary though. 2*

- The Shepherd A boy tries to defend the family herd from a mysterious beast. Nothing new but ok overall, decent pacing. 2*

- The Shortcut A graveyard vandal is punished by a ghost. Another story that is too basic and trite to be interesting. 1*

- The Ghost Hunters A ghost hunting team investigates weird noises in a residence. Starts pretty straightforward and then tries a twist that's simply too outlandish to be believable, it ends up being almost comical 1*

Final thoughts: Sadly this was a letdown for me, everything here is very basic, recounting mostly unoriginal stuff and hitting many tropes along the way. The writing isn't helping either as it suffers from excessive simplicity, repetitiveness and a few logical failures along the way.

[Casia Pickering · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ghost Stories by Ron Ripley is a compilation of horror short stories set in his fictional town, Mason. Each story shows a haunted piece of the small New England town and a terrible end to most of its residents. 

Some of the stories I actually didn't care for. They felt a tad bit corny or used in horror stories I've read before. That's the problem with most horror though. You will find similarities between stories just like you find similarities in horror movies. 

That said, I did like a few of them. My favorite had to be the first and sixth story. When I was listening to the first one, I had a funny moment. I had said, "Oh, Jesus." to an event that happens. No more than a breath later and the male lead said those exact same words. I had to laugh at that. 

The sixth made me want to know more. I want to read another story tied into the event of the story. If Ripley is going to work on a new horror series, I would love to see more of the mythos to the sixth story. 

In all, the shorts were good. Ripley is a fun writer and I do like reading his stuff. They are quick and fun reads. 

[J. Agombar · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a short story fan, I thought this would be right down my street. It was, and all were enjoyable in some ways, but not without flaws. I would have given this colletion more stars but the lack of explanation and narrative development bugged me. Some stories were outright gruesome with a lack of a twist or reason in the ending like the last story, 'The Ghost Hunters' which was particularly disappointing for the final story.
The author plays on classic scenarios, haunted houses, grave robbers, angry ghosts, poltergeist types. 'Rosary', 'Shelter', 'Crowe's bed & Breakfast' and 'the Dog Tracker' all have strong active sentences and poignant, scary moments, but even some of these become predicatble with a grisly ending almost every time. I do like however the clarity or the writing and the fact that the whole collection is set within the same town and locates different people within it well. A nice little escape from the real world, but more substance of narrative would attain a 3 star from me.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tales of encounters with the strange and macabre in connection with the supernatural lure in readers in Ron Ripley’s collection of eight short tales within Ghost Stories (Scare Street Horror Short Stories #1).

To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.

Each story contains its own eerie element that fosters deeper contemplation about what might exist just beyond the bounds of what you notice in everyday life as portions of the supernatural eek their way into the realities of life in a harsh manner and entreat a shiver to course through you as they manifest. This collection of short stories all feature ghosts to some degree, with their level of violence and ability to instill fear varying but ultimately resulting in a less-than-pleasant ending for those who cross the ghosts’ paths. These tales were incredibly brief, feeling more like snippets of a larger work than complete tales, and as such, were on the whole rather predictable given the space they had to establish and become developed, though they did offer a decently entertaining mental break and was well-suited for an October read.

Overall, I’d give it a 2.5 out of 5 stars.

[Monte · Rating 4 out of 5]

It wasn't awful

Okay, here we are. I started reading this book an hour ago, so p?ease understand, these are SHORT stories, like two to five page short stories. If I had paid for this, I would have been PISSED! Unfortunately, I'm no closer to knowing if I like Mr. Ripley's writing, which was the whole reason I even bothered to read this. If you're looking for a very slight diversion, or if you have an extremely short attention span, then this is perfect. I will say though, the man is a great short story teller. Although there's nothing new here, and every story is predictable from beginning to end, he does nothing wrong, nothing to ruin the stories he tells. It was an enjoyable, if extremely short read.

[Mary Crabtree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three great short-stories!

There were 3 stories in this book that received a four star rating from me. I genuinely enjoyed the atmosphere, dialogue,and writing style in these stories! There were, however, several others that I found lacking or relatively uninteresting. The dialogue in some of the stories didn't match what was actually happening and some of their thoughts/actions just didn't make sense. One of the short stories in particular received one star from me. I do think it is an enjoyable collection with something for everyone though! Just because a few of them weren't enjoyable to me doesn't mean they won't be for someone else and I look forward to reading the other books. Quick/easy read with some creative ending.

[Greg Zielinski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really for adults

Unfortunately, I didn't find this book very appealing at all. I may be spoiled from reading full length novels, but I thought the short story format (and the subject matter) seemed to be geared toward adolescents/young adults more than (ahem) older readers like myself. The stories themselves read more like outlines or ideas for episodes of "Tales From the Crypt" or "Night Gallery." I think I'll be sticking to regular old horror novels that are three hundred + pages from now on, thank you!

[Christy Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some creepy some gross

I got this back in January for her YouTube and Instagram Winter ween. Now I've read it for spring fling o seen.

My favorites were Crowe's bed and breakfast the treasure hunter And the shepherd I gave those 5 stars. The rest I wasn't that thrilled about except for the shortcut and the ghost hunters I gave those 4 and 3 stars. The dog tracker there rosary safety and shelter I gave either or 2 or 1 star rating to. I just wasn't into those and didn't like them. Most of the people did not make it out of these stories alive.

[Christine Hunter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ghastly Not Ghostly

I read a lot of books and a lot of them are horror. This book may be considered horror but this one needs to be in a sub category of really crappy horror. Reading the first story, I thought it might be a fluke. But every single one is depressive and warped. Now maybe this is what the author is going for, but this drivel is way too "killing for the sake of killing". Don't quit your day job!

[Lexi · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.6 stars

This is a good collection of stories, I enjoyed them. Each story has its own essence, and I do think it was well written, both Mr. Ripley's pace and descriptions kept me reading this collection. I do find most commonly that there is an expectation of inevitable doom -- which may categorize this bunch in a sense, yet he still is able to manage to keep each story alive in it's own way. I'm interested to read one of this author's full length novels in the future.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very quick read; picked up for free on Amazon. Overall entertaining, but in a cheap one-dimensional way. Most stories are a simple formula - introduce character, character does something bad or unwise, ghost shows up and punishes them. A couple stories break that pattern, but on the whole there's very little character development and I found them to be very predictable. I'll think I'll give the author another shot as I really enjoy short horror, but this one didn't work for me.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a compilation of eight little short stories. All eight are good and full of ghosts. It is hard to say a lot on these stories as they are so short without giving away the storylines. These would be great campfire stories. All the stories are based out of one town, so you may not want to live there. I liked that none of the stories were gory, so these could be used at sleepovers or camp overnights. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.

[Ely Haeuss · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm looking at you 5 star reviewers truly wondering what you got out of this poorly developed slop of "horror". Maybe 2 of the shorts had an element or 2 that was "interesting" and that does not make up for bland characters, weak stories, and nonexistent purpose.
Lame, lame, LAME!
True horror lovers, don't insult the craft by reading buying and reading this. I'm just thankful I saw it on a "free reads" subreddit so none of my dimes supported more te~errible content.

[Crystal Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of the stories were good

Some of them could easily be made into longer stories or even their own books. The last story could use a bit more at the end. The creature isn't commonly known from the description and I want to know what happened with the homeowners.

The town and all of the stories could use a bit more of a look at the town history and the history of each of the individual buildings/hauntings/creatures.