What do you think?
Rate this book
A Good Haunting: Stories
A beautifully written and often speculative story collection infused with Caribbean and African myths and cultures, exploring love, betrayal, motherhood, death, and home.
GROUNDED IN CONTEMPORARY LIFE AND INFUSED WITH TRADITIONS of Africa and the Caribbean, A Good Stories spins myth, magic, and realism into heartrending tales of characters seeking love and connection. Death is the primary antagonist in each of these stories, sometimes appearing as death of self, other times as death of a loved one, and often as both.
In the title story, “A Good Haunting,” a widower in the midst of an unorthodox death ritual uses humor to deal with grief and guilt while coming to terms with unsavory details about his spouse’s sudden death. In “The Way of the Volt,” an eighteenth-century African queen is made immortal, sold into slavery, and left to face a series of impossible choices that force her to struggle with what it means to be human. In “The Sunset Toll,” members of the last community on earth disappear one by one until there are just three people left, trying to maintain hope even as they question the forces that keep them trapped on earth.
The characters wrestle with foes, agonize at crossroads, and face painful truths, all while grappling with grief, love, betrayal, motherhood, and ideas of home. Some triumph, some do not—but they all emerge irrevocably changed by their experiences.
GROUNDED IN CONTEMPORARY LIFE AND INFUSED WITH TRADITIONS of Africa and the Caribbean, A Good Stories spins myth, magic, and realism into heartrending tales of characters seeking love and connection. Death is the primary antagonist in each of these stories, sometimes appearing as death of self, other times as death of a loved one, and often as both.
In the title story, “A Good Haunting,” a widower in the midst of an unorthodox death ritual uses humor to deal with grief and guilt while coming to terms with unsavory details about his spouse’s sudden death. In “The Way of the Volt,” an eighteenth-century African queen is made immortal, sold into slavery, and left to face a series of impossible choices that force her to struggle with what it means to be human. In “The Sunset Toll,” members of the last community on earth disappear one by one until there are just three people left, trying to maintain hope even as they question the forces that keep them trapped on earth.
The characters wrestle with foes, agonize at crossroads, and face painful truths, all while grappling with grief, love, betrayal, motherhood, and ideas of home. Some triumph, some do not—but they all emerge irrevocably changed by their experiences.
183 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 3, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Book described in Emojis:
👻🌊🪞🖤🥀🎭🌫️❓
Reading Mood | Read This When You're Craving...:
Something dark, strange, and a little unsettling that goes beyond your typical ghost story. Think Caribbean folklore, complicated family relationships, supernatural encounters, and stories that leave you sitting there thinking about what you just read.🖤
Quick Summary:
A Good Haunting by Carol Mitchell is a collection of nine short stories blending Caribbean folklore, horror, and the supernatural. From mysterious transformations to unexpected hauntings, each story explores grief, family secrets, betrayal, and the darker side of human relationships.
Worldbuilding, Characters, Plot and Pacing:
One thing that makes this collection stand out is how much Caribbean culture is woven into the stories. The traditions, dialogue, family dynamics, and spiritual beliefs give everything a distinct atmosphere. The characters aren't necessarily people you're going to agree with, and I think that's part of what makes them interesting. They're complicated, sometimes frustrating, and dealing with very human problems even when their circumstances are anything but ordinary. 👻 As for pacing, this leans more toward literary horror than fast-paced scares. Some stories take their time developing the characters and their relationships before revealing just how strange things are about to get. And not every story wraps everything up neatly, so be prepared for a few endings that leave you with questions.
Tropes/what to expect:
🌊 Caribbean folklore and supernatural elements
👻 Ghosts, hauntings, and unexplained encounters
🪞 Body horror and transformation
🖤 Complicated marriages and family relationships
🥀 Grief, betrayal, and generational trauma
🎭 Morally complicated characters
🌫️ Atmospheric, thought provoking horror
❓ Open ended and unsettling conclusions
Final thoughts:
What stood out to me most about this collection was how often the human experiences were just as haunting as the supernatural elements. One story that really stayed with me was Transformation. There was something heartbreaking about watching a woman devote so much of her life to her marriage and children while quietly losing pieces of herself along the way. She was surrounded by people, yet seemed so alone within herself. I found the story bittersweet because while I appreciated where her journey eventually led, I couldn't help but feel sad about the years she had spent putting herself aside.. And I think that's what I appreciated most about this collection. I went in expecting supernatural horror, but I came away with stories that explored so much more. Not every story resonated with me equally, but several left me thinking long after I'd finished reading.
Thank you, Holly Watson PR, for the ARC! As always, all thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.
👻🌊🪞🖤🥀🎭🌫️❓
Reading Mood | Read This When You're Craving...:
Something dark, strange, and a little unsettling that goes beyond your typical ghost story. Think Caribbean folklore, complicated family relationships, supernatural encounters, and stories that leave you sitting there thinking about what you just read.🖤
Quick Summary:
A Good Haunting by Carol Mitchell is a collection of nine short stories blending Caribbean folklore, horror, and the supernatural. From mysterious transformations to unexpected hauntings, each story explores grief, family secrets, betrayal, and the darker side of human relationships.
Worldbuilding, Characters, Plot and Pacing:
One thing that makes this collection stand out is how much Caribbean culture is woven into the stories. The traditions, dialogue, family dynamics, and spiritual beliefs give everything a distinct atmosphere. The characters aren't necessarily people you're going to agree with, and I think that's part of what makes them interesting. They're complicated, sometimes frustrating, and dealing with very human problems even when their circumstances are anything but ordinary. 👻 As for pacing, this leans more toward literary horror than fast-paced scares. Some stories take their time developing the characters and their relationships before revealing just how strange things are about to get. And not every story wraps everything up neatly, so be prepared for a few endings that leave you with questions.
Tropes/what to expect:
🌊 Caribbean folklore and supernatural elements
👻 Ghosts, hauntings, and unexplained encounters
🪞 Body horror and transformation
🖤 Complicated marriages and family relationships
🥀 Grief, betrayal, and generational trauma
🎭 Morally complicated characters
🌫️ Atmospheric, thought provoking horror
❓ Open ended and unsettling conclusions
Final thoughts:
What stood out to me most about this collection was how often the human experiences were just as haunting as the supernatural elements. One story that really stayed with me was Transformation. There was something heartbreaking about watching a woman devote so much of her life to her marriage and children while quietly losing pieces of herself along the way. She was surrounded by people, yet seemed so alone within herself. I found the story bittersweet because while I appreciated where her journey eventually led, I couldn't help but feel sad about the years she had spent putting herself aside.. And I think that's what I appreciated most about this collection. I went in expecting supernatural horror, but I came away with stories that explored so much more. Not every story resonated with me equally, but several left me thinking long after I'd finished reading.
Thank you, Holly Watson PR, for the ARC! As always, all thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.
Did Not Finish
October 21, 2026While I really enjoy what I've read so far, I am going to DNF at the 50% mark. Truly my own fault as I know I'm not a huge fan of short stories. I just find it hard to connect with short stories and wanted to give it a chance. I would still recommend it because I did enjoy the few stories I did read, particularly Transformation and A Good Haunting.
November 6, 2026
Carol Mitchell writes a grand collection of horror stories
In A Good Haunting, the reader is brought into the mind of Carol Mitchell. Each story has a theme of horror, but horror is not just one thing, it's many things; supernatural, violence, grief, survival are just a few of them. I haven't read anything by this author before, and what a magnificent gem that I was so fortunate to be presented with. There are nine stories within this book, and one of my favorites is the titular story, A Good Haunting. Each story emerges slowly into the theme of the book, from various life pressures, such as abuse, racism, history, or displacement, and that in itself is the monster. I also like the way that Caribbean folk lore presents itself, with its speech, spiritual traditions, and the setting that shows and brings out the emotions of mix of life and the supernatural world. The Caribbean horror stories, which these are wonderful, inflect the reasoning on how to face the demons and secrets of the past or present, when they have been buried for so long. A Good Haunting is a definite recommendation by Amy's Bookshelf Reviews. I read this book to give my unbiased and honest review. Amy's Bookshelf Reviews recommends that readers of this book, be kind, and also write a review.
In A Good Haunting, the reader is brought into the mind of Carol Mitchell. Each story has a theme of horror, but horror is not just one thing, it's many things; supernatural, violence, grief, survival are just a few of them. I haven't read anything by this author before, and what a magnificent gem that I was so fortunate to be presented with. There are nine stories within this book, and one of my favorites is the titular story, A Good Haunting. Each story emerges slowly into the theme of the book, from various life pressures, such as abuse, racism, history, or displacement, and that in itself is the monster. I also like the way that Caribbean folk lore presents itself, with its speech, spiritual traditions, and the setting that shows and brings out the emotions of mix of life and the supernatural world. The Caribbean horror stories, which these are wonderful, inflect the reasoning on how to face the demons and secrets of the past or present, when they have been buried for so long. A Good Haunting is a definite recommendation by Amy's Bookshelf Reviews. I read this book to give my unbiased and honest review. Amy's Bookshelf Reviews recommends that readers of this book, be kind, and also write a review.
November 4, 2026
I really enjoyed the main theme of this short story collection: the "ghosts" of our past at the literally duppies that haunt us. I truly loved how Mitchell positions stories of traditional folklore that are commonly part of the Caribbean memory as a backdrop of how people are shaped. It was refreshing that these hauntings weren't taboo (the typical Obeah/ voodoo story of fear) but instead called us to recognize what an important role these play in what makes up the Caribbean.
I really liked the first half of stories - A Good Haunting (the second story) might be my favorite. The last 3-4 stories felt more abstract for me, and I didn't enjoy them as much. They left me with too much wondering on what happened, or in some cases, what is actually happening. Those last stories were the main reason I didn't rate the collection higher.
I really liked the first half of stories - A Good Haunting (the second story) might be my favorite. The last 3-4 stories felt more abstract for me, and I didn't enjoy them as much. They left me with too much wondering on what happened, or in some cases, what is actually happening. Those last stories were the main reason I didn't rate the collection higher.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews