Ghosts and Goblins: Scary Stories from Around the World

World of Stories

by Maggie Pearson, Francesca Greenwood (Illustrator)

A lone traveler battles a ghost in a haunted house. A werewolf's bride is on the hunt to feed her husband dinner. A vampire waits outside a girl's window for the perfect moment to pounce. This collection of traditional tales and myths from cultures around the world looks at all things spooky. From magical to ridiculous, mysterious to terrifying, watch out for things that go boo in the night!

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Fiction, Supernatural

152 pages, Library Binding

First published August 1, 2016

Reviews

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had a really fun time with the shortest horror stories from around the world! The book is short and is perfect for a pretty quick read.

Some stories are really terrifying while some sound more like folklore. Nevertheless a good start for beginners and not-so-horrory readers.

[Kylie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love folklore so I snapped up this and another one of her books online when they were listed via PostScript, however these are really written with younger children in mind so they make little impression on an adult in this format. I did particularly enjoy 'The Grateful Dead' (stated to be from 'gypsy' folklore, by which I assume she means Romani but could be from any of a diaspora of travelling communities), but not enough to make me want to keep hold of the collection.

[Franchesca Cromwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never heard of this author before but I came across it in the library and decided to give it a try. I really enjoyed it and it was a very fast read, I’m curious to read the other books that are mentioned on the back.

If you enjoy ghost stories around the campfire, this is the perfect book

[Lana Lazar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each story was short and sweet, and surprisingly scary (it didn't help that I read it late at night, the hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end . . .). I honestly have nothing negative to say about this book. It was wonderful and pretty inspiring too :) All in all a terrific 5 stars.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really fast, fun read. Definitely for children who don't frighten easily.

[Amie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice little collection of tales.

[Suad Shamma · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this in May, and I am surprised that I have almost zero recollection of anything that happens. I'm usually good with stories, I can remember the overall storyline, or at least the overall theme quite well many many years later. Yet, I can barely remember ONE of the many stories that fill this book. This may be testimonial of the rating I had given it, but it also bothers me that I cannot really back it up with a single example of why I thought it was worth the 2 stars - there must have been a story or two that I enjoyed in order to give it 2 stars rather than one.

What I can tell you is that Maggie Pearson made an effort to put together a compilation of old folk tales and ghost stories from around the world and summarize them in as short as one page to as long as 4 or 5 pages. Some stories are OK, others are...meh. The writing wasn't very impressive or engrossing, and as you can see, the overall book is quite forgettable.

[♡ India ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was decent. It had 25 short stories, most of them being spooky.

I did skip a few stories, I think about 3, but the rest were good. My personal favourite short stories though were:
~The vampire of Croglin Grange
~The man of her dreams
~The haunting (it’s so dark istg 💀)
~The werewolf’s bride

There’s around maybe 5 others I liked but weren’t my favourite, and the rest were just average. I would give it 4 stars, but there’s nothing in this book that would allow me to give it 4 stars, so I’m keeping it to 3. If you want some spooky stories that won’t scare you too much, then definitely check this out!

[Alex H · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable little read for young readers. I wish more credit was given to the storytellers who the author for the stories from. And I wish they were scarier but the one about the black dog was my favorite! Loved the multicultural aspect. Fun read for kids.

[julianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice but not sweet, a collection of tales that can be found elsewhere. Pleasant enough but nothing groundbreaking.

[Suzie Robinson]

have not readed yet