Thirteen Tales:

by Scott Bailey

As the title says - thirteen tales about ghosts. Yet, while ghosts feature in them all - not all are traditional ghost stories.You will find the vengeful spirit but also the plaintiff one. The haunting message from the past and the playful spirits capturing the joy of their past lives.Some of these visitors from beyond lead the haunted to peace and joy - others take them on much darker paths to places with no return.Enjoy them - just don’t get too comfortable.Ideal for sitting around a campfire and late at night under the covers. Or maybe not if the stories themselves are any guide.

95 pages, Paperback

Published December 9, 2016

Reviews

[Kim Harnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each of the stories begins with such extraordinarily beautiful description. Scott Bailey certainly has his world building down to a fine art, and when he sets a scene I can actually see myself there. Unfortunately, though, this book quickly fell short for me when it came to the character’s internal feelings of pain, disgust, anguish, and terror. I love ghost stories so much, but throughout each of these thirteen there is too much “telling,” and not enough “showing.” For example, in the story Suspense, his character’s leg is “burning with intense pain.” This isn’t enough for me. I need much more detail than that. For someone who is dangling by his ankle over a cliff, I want to know exactly how it feels! And I want to know what his character is thinking in that moment other than to shout obscenities—it’s okay to give a tough, unlikeable character a few moments of weakness here.
Without that type of detail—for my personal tastes, anyway—it made each character two-dimensional and I wasn’t able to connect to their plights. And as a person reading a ghost story specifically to incite the thrill of fear within myself, I need way more intensity.
All in all, each of these stories had unique plotlines with amazing potential, but I think the most important parts were rushed, and left me wanting more. With these stories all being so short, and the book itself less than 100 pages, I think those areas could have been expanded upon to make them shine. :)