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The Ghost Variations: One Hundred Stories
Ghost stories tap into our most primal emotions as they encourage us to confront the timeless What comes after death? Here, in tales that are by turn scary, funny, philosophic, and touching, you’ll find that question sharpened, split, reconsidered—and met with a multitude of answers.
A spirit who is fated to spend eternity reliving the exact moment she lost her chance at love, ghostly trees that haunt the occupant of a wooden house, specters that snatch anyone who steps into the shadows, and parakeets that serve as mouthpieces for the these are just a few of the characters in this extraordinary compendium of one hundred ghost stories. Kevin Brockmeier’s fiction has always explored the space between the fantastical and the everyday with profundity and poignancy. As in his previous books, The Ghost Variations discovers new ways of looking at who we are and what matters to us, exploring how mysterious, sad, strange, and comical it is to be alive—or, as it happens, not to be.
A spirit who is fated to spend eternity reliving the exact moment she lost her chance at love, ghostly trees that haunt the occupant of a wooden house, specters that snatch anyone who steps into the shadows, and parakeets that serve as mouthpieces for the these are just a few of the characters in this extraordinary compendium of one hundred ghost stories. Kevin Brockmeier’s fiction has always explored the space between the fantastical and the everyday with profundity and poignancy. As in his previous books, The Ghost Variations discovers new ways of looking at who we are and what matters to us, exploring how mysterious, sad, strange, and comical it is to be alive—or, as it happens, not to be.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published March 9, 2021
187 people are currently reading
7678 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Brockmeier
40 books494 followersBorn and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, Brockmeier received his MFA from the Iowa Writer's Workshop in 1997. His stories have been featured in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, Crazyhorse, and The Georgia Review. He is the recipient of an O. Henry Award, the Nelson Algren Award, and a National Endowment of the Arts grant.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 246 reviews
August 6, 2020
Ghost stories! The title does not mislead. Very well written. I am just not into ghost stories. If you are, you will love this book. The stories are very imaginative and original. The rating, as always, is about my personal experience with the book.
November 20, 2021
3.5 stars, rounded up.
Kevin Brockmeier's The Ghost Variations is a quirky and creative book.
Happy Halloween, y’all! Hope your day has been or will be as spooky and fun as you want it to be. I know I’ll be handing out candy later and trying not to eat as much as I give out. (“Trying” probably being the operative word.)
I’m not a fan of horror or ghost stories. I used to read Stephen King’s early stuff but somewhere down the road I got tired of being frightened, lol. So while so many of you have accumulated the creepy and witchy reads this month, I’ve stuck to my usual stuff.
But then, thanks to my Bookstagram friend Deedi, I saw this. (This is the second "Deedi made me do it" book I've read in about a week.) I love the concept—100 ghost stories, each just a few pages. However, these aren’t traditional ghost stories, these are more thought-provoking, poignant, esoteric in nature, and they touch on a variety of subjects. If there’s haunting to be done, no one’s really upset about it. (Even the ghost who spends every day of her existence being asked if she’s going to Toledo.)
I loved the concept of The Ghost Variations perhaps a bit more than the execution, and like any collection of stories, some are stronger than the others. But if you want an interesting twist on traditional ghost stories, curl up with this one!
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/.
Kevin Brockmeier's The Ghost Variations is a quirky and creative book.
Happy Halloween, y’all! Hope your day has been or will be as spooky and fun as you want it to be. I know I’ll be handing out candy later and trying not to eat as much as I give out. (“Trying” probably being the operative word.)
I’m not a fan of horror or ghost stories. I used to read Stephen King’s early stuff but somewhere down the road I got tired of being frightened, lol. So while so many of you have accumulated the creepy and witchy reads this month, I’ve stuck to my usual stuff.
But then, thanks to my Bookstagram friend Deedi, I saw this. (This is the second "Deedi made me do it" book I've read in about a week.) I love the concept—100 ghost stories, each just a few pages. However, these aren’t traditional ghost stories, these are more thought-provoking, poignant, esoteric in nature, and they touch on a variety of subjects. If there’s haunting to be done, no one’s really upset about it. (Even the ghost who spends every day of her existence being asked if she’s going to Toledo.)
I loved the concept of The Ghost Variations perhaps a bit more than the execution, and like any collection of stories, some are stronger than the others. But if you want an interesting twist on traditional ghost stories, curl up with this one!
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/.
August 16, 2020
Beware, these ghost stories are REALLY short !
I dove in this book expecting spooky reads, chills going down my spine and so on ! In fact, it was a bit cleverer than that. We get stories about ghosts, and mostly about normal people who turned into ghosts, both physically or mentally. I thought it nice to explore all the aspects of how people can be ghosts, and what ghosts could actually do IRL, instead of just exploring the traditional representation of ghosts.
Some stories were really deep and meaningful, which I found impressing. However, since I expected a spooky book, I didn't connect much with the more philosophical stories. I must admit this isn't only due to the themes. It's also because the plots are so short ! Every story is less than 5 pages (on Kindle, I don't have the reference for the physical copies), which made me unable to engage emotionnaly with approximately 75% of them. Add to that the fact that I didn't understand all the stories and you get a quite confused Jade !
That being said, I thought the author's writing style was fabulous. I should probably look into his other works if he has any. Even though I couldn't connect with all stories, some of them were so well written I managed to dive in their little world within the 5 pages, which is pretty hard to do !
I also really liked the fact that the book and the stories are divided by theme. You get an "animals" theme, a "creepy" theme, etc. If there are some topics you don't like, you can skip them ! Every theme and story is detailed in an index at the end of the book, so it's really practical !
This could be a read for you if you don't want to engage in a big book, with a looooooooong plot. Here, everything is short and efficient. With so many differents themes in the book, you're bound to find something you like. There's something for everyone, and every taste !
I dove in this book expecting spooky reads, chills going down my spine and so on ! In fact, it was a bit cleverer than that. We get stories about ghosts, and mostly about normal people who turned into ghosts, both physically or mentally. I thought it nice to explore all the aspects of how people can be ghosts, and what ghosts could actually do IRL, instead of just exploring the traditional representation of ghosts.
Some stories were really deep and meaningful, which I found impressing. However, since I expected a spooky book, I didn't connect much with the more philosophical stories. I must admit this isn't only due to the themes. It's also because the plots are so short ! Every story is less than 5 pages (on Kindle, I don't have the reference for the physical copies), which made me unable to engage emotionnaly with approximately 75% of them. Add to that the fact that I didn't understand all the stories and you get a quite confused Jade !
That being said, I thought the author's writing style was fabulous. I should probably look into his other works if he has any. Even though I couldn't connect with all stories, some of them were so well written I managed to dive in their little world within the 5 pages, which is pretty hard to do !
I also really liked the fact that the book and the stories are divided by theme. You get an "animals" theme, a "creepy" theme, etc. If there are some topics you don't like, you can skip them ! Every theme and story is detailed in an index at the end of the book, so it's really practical !
This could be a read for you if you don't want to engage in a big book, with a looooooooong plot. Here, everything is short and efficient. With so many differents themes in the book, you're bound to find something you like. There's something for everyone, and every taste !
May 22, 2022
3 Stars
Review:
This was a cool idea, even if it wasn't quite for me. There was so much creativity. Just a bunch of ideas and scenarios about how ghosts might manifest, or how they could impact things, or some version of an afterlife, or... it's hard to explain. It's more than that. Like one story about ghost fruit that people could eat that would allow a ghost to temporarily form a connection with them and share their body and mind. Or another story about some humans who invented a machine that let them see ghosts leaving people's bodies, only to realize it didn't just happen at death but also at almost death, like when you trip and could've hit your head but didn't. Just so many unique takes on ghosts.
Most of the stories were about literal ghosts, but there were a few about figurative ones, though they almost always had some weird time/space, fantastical, or sci-fi element to them.
The stories were very short, since there were 100 of them, not meant to delve deeply into characters or plots, but rather to entertain or make you think.
Obviously stories about ghosts are sometimes going to involve death, aging, etc., but overall I didn't find this depressing. Nor were there many spooky stories (I only recall one kinda spooky one, in the sense that I was concerned for the character).
I'm not going to explain them because they're so short that it'd just spoil them, but my favorites stories were "Thirteen Visitations," "How to Play," and "Ghost Brothers."
The book is organized by broad themes, and the back of the book (at least, it was at the end in the audiobook) has a list of more specific themes (e.g. ghosts and family, ghosts and technology, ghosts and language) and all the stories that fall under each theme. Some stories fall under multiple. It's useful if you're looking for certain types of stories. It does take up time/space though, so the audiobook ends around 6 hours, 15 minutes, and I assume the book also ends early in the ebook/print versions.
The audiobook narrator, Vikas Adam, did a wonderful job of adjusting his reading style to suit each story, and it all sounded natural and was enjoyable to listen to.
Overall, a really creative collection of stories about ghosts with, well, lots of variation!
*Rating: 3 Stars // Read Date: 2022 // Format: Audiobook*
Recommended For:
Anyone who likes very short stories, collections, and unique takes on ghosts.
More Reviews @ Metaphors and Moonlight
Review:
This was a cool idea, even if it wasn't quite for me. There was so much creativity. Just a bunch of ideas and scenarios about how ghosts might manifest, or how they could impact things, or some version of an afterlife, or... it's hard to explain. It's more than that. Like one story about ghost fruit that people could eat that would allow a ghost to temporarily form a connection with them and share their body and mind. Or another story about some humans who invented a machine that let them see ghosts leaving people's bodies, only to realize it didn't just happen at death but also at almost death, like when you trip and could've hit your head but didn't. Just so many unique takes on ghosts.
Most of the stories were about literal ghosts, but there were a few about figurative ones, though they almost always had some weird time/space, fantastical, or sci-fi element to them.
The stories were very short, since there were 100 of them, not meant to delve deeply into characters or plots, but rather to entertain or make you think.
Obviously stories about ghosts are sometimes going to involve death, aging, etc., but overall I didn't find this depressing. Nor were there many spooky stories (I only recall one kinda spooky one, in the sense that I was concerned for the character).
I'm not going to explain them because they're so short that it'd just spoil them, but my favorites stories were "Thirteen Visitations," "How to Play," and "Ghost Brothers."
The book is organized by broad themes, and the back of the book (at least, it was at the end in the audiobook) has a list of more specific themes (e.g. ghosts and family, ghosts and technology, ghosts and language) and all the stories that fall under each theme. Some stories fall under multiple. It's useful if you're looking for certain types of stories. It does take up time/space though, so the audiobook ends around 6 hours, 15 minutes, and I assume the book also ends early in the ebook/print versions.
The audiobook narrator, Vikas Adam, did a wonderful job of adjusting his reading style to suit each story, and it all sounded natural and was enjoyable to listen to.
Overall, a really creative collection of stories about ghosts with, well, lots of variation!
*Rating: 3 Stars // Read Date: 2022 // Format: Audiobook*
Recommended For:
Anyone who likes very short stories, collections, and unique takes on ghosts.
More Reviews @ Metaphors and Moonlight
November 2, 2021
Knowing that a book like The Ghost Variations can get published gives me hope and confidence that innovative, well-written literature is not dead. This book is an excellent example of flash fiction done well (unlike those written by an overrated flash fiction writer who shall remain nameless), and Brockmeier is to be commended for his imagination, skill, economy, and insights. If you like flash fiction, give this book a read.
Each of the one hundred stories in this collection is no more than two pages long, most just one long paragraph, and each tells a different ghost story. Relax, there's nothing scary or spooky here. The ghosts that take residence in these tales are more often than not displaced beings, as perplexed by their circumstances as humans are by their mere presence. Brockmeier uses this conceit to make a host of comments on the human condition, spanning love, loss, isolation, jealousy, theology, philosophy, ecology, philology, and other matters. These stories stand out:
"Wishes" (#8)
"Thirteen Variations" (#24)
"Every House Key, Every Fire Hydrant, Every Electrical Outlet" (#44)
"Playtime" (#46)
"The Abnormalist and the Usualist" (#61)
"Countless Strange Couplings and Separations" (#64)
"The Apostrophes" (#69)
If Kevin Brockmeier can accomplish so much in short form I'm eager to see what he does with a novel. I'll be checking out his other works. You should too.
Each of the one hundred stories in this collection is no more than two pages long, most just one long paragraph, and each tells a different ghost story. Relax, there's nothing scary or spooky here. The ghosts that take residence in these tales are more often than not displaced beings, as perplexed by their circumstances as humans are by their mere presence. Brockmeier uses this conceit to make a host of comments on the human condition, spanning love, loss, isolation, jealousy, theology, philosophy, ecology, philology, and other matters. These stories stand out:
"Wishes" (#8)
"Thirteen Variations" (#24)
"Every House Key, Every Fire Hydrant, Every Electrical Outlet" (#44)
"Playtime" (#46)
"The Abnormalist and the Usualist" (#61)
"Countless Strange Couplings and Separations" (#64)
"The Apostrophes" (#69)
If Kevin Brockmeier can accomplish so much in short form I'm eager to see what he does with a novel. I'll be checking out his other works. You should too.
did-not-finish
September 6, 2020I love the idea of The Ghost Variations. 100 super-short ghost stories, divided by theme: memory; fortune; nature; time; speculation; vision; other senses; belief; love and friendship; family; and words and numbers. I also love the cover. In practice, however, I rarely feel fulfilled by flash fictions. I think this is the kind of book it would be great to have a physical copy of, to dip in and out of, choosing a story at random whenever the mood takes you. But reading it cover-to-cover isn't for me.
March 30, 2021
Eh. I listened on audio. I wasn't impressed. I really wanted to like it but many of the stories were forgettable. And I wasn't a fan of the narrator.
June 7, 2021
Although this book is about ghosts, it’s not really horror. The impeccably written stories are mostly quirky, often melancholy, but hardly scary.
I can’t say much about any of the stories, as each is only two pages. However my personal favorite gems include the amusing “Milo Karin,” “Every House Key, Every Fire Hydrant, Every Electrical Outlet,” the touching “Bouquet” (which actually had me tearing up a little), and “Roughly Eighty Grams.”
Warning to animal lovers that a few of these stories contain animal deaths or references to it.
I can’t say much about any of the stories, as each is only two pages. However my personal favorite gems include the amusing “Milo Karin,” “Every House Key, Every Fire Hydrant, Every Electrical Outlet,” the touching “Bouquet” (which actually had me tearing up a little), and “Roughly Eighty Grams.”
Warning to animal lovers that a few of these stories contain animal deaths or references to it.
February 15, 2022
I liked the format but there is a pair of tiddies on the cover so carrying the book around felt weird. I liked the story about the boy and the dog but there was also one about ghost nut so you win some you lose some
September 7, 2020
*ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
The Ghost Variations turned out to be an interesting read for me, mainly because I'm so mixed on my feelings. This book is a collection of short ghost stories; one hundred of them, to be exact. Having that many stories in the collections means that they really are SHORT stories - only a couple of pages each.
The book is broken down into chapters, such as Ghosts and Memory, Ghosts and Nature, Ghosts and Love and Friendship, with each section containing several stories that fit the theme.
The writing is lyrical, atmospheric, and beautiful, and the stories vary from touching to scary to heartfelt to funny. The most intriguing stories, I felt, fell under the Ghosts and Nature chapter, including the saddest - and my personal favorite - "Elephants."
That being said, each story was so short that I rarely felt satisfied when I finished them. Almost every story felt like it ended abruptly and left me wanting more. I do like that we see so many different variations of the ghost story theme, some of which are very original, but I wish they were longer and more gratifying.
This is a great book to have when you have ten or fifteen minutes to kill, but doesn't really work for me as a sit-down-and-read-for-a-while book. I've never read anything by Kevin Brockmeier before, but based on the prose alone I can't wait to pick up some other titles by this author!
The Ghost Variations turned out to be an interesting read for me, mainly because I'm so mixed on my feelings. This book is a collection of short ghost stories; one hundred of them, to be exact. Having that many stories in the collections means that they really are SHORT stories - only a couple of pages each.
The book is broken down into chapters, such as Ghosts and Memory, Ghosts and Nature, Ghosts and Love and Friendship, with each section containing several stories that fit the theme.
The writing is lyrical, atmospheric, and beautiful, and the stories vary from touching to scary to heartfelt to funny. The most intriguing stories, I felt, fell under the Ghosts and Nature chapter, including the saddest - and my personal favorite - "Elephants."
That being said, each story was so short that I rarely felt satisfied when I finished them. Almost every story felt like it ended abruptly and left me wanting more. I do like that we see so many different variations of the ghost story theme, some of which are very original, but I wish they were longer and more gratifying.
This is a great book to have when you have ten or fifteen minutes to kill, but doesn't really work for me as a sit-down-and-read-for-a-while book. I've never read anything by Kevin Brockmeier before, but based on the prose alone I can't wait to pick up some other titles by this author!
March 15, 2021
Before there was flash fiction, there was something called the short-short. These were stories usually 500-1,000 words in length, and usually captured a 'slice of life', commenting on human nature or a funny moment.
Kevin Brockmeier does something similar here, with precisely one hundred stories about ghosts. However, he defines 'ghost' rather loosely. A ghost could be human, animal, object, or just a feeling. His book is cleverly arranged into chapters of themes: Ghosts and Memory, Ghosts and Fortune, Ghosts and Time, Ghosts and Words and Numbers, etc.
When you write at such short lengths, every word must count. He is a careful writer and uses language effectively, sometimes for a humorous point, sometimes a poignant one. He also comes up with some pretty clever metaphors which I won't spoil here but will make you blink or laugh when you encounter them.
These stories are perfect gems for reading in short doses: When you're standing in line at the grocery store, waiting for a bus, on hold with the government agency you have to deal with. They'll give you something to think about while you go about your quotidian duties, waiting for a finality that Brockmeier has thought about quite a bit.
Kevin Brockmeier does something similar here, with precisely one hundred stories about ghosts. However, he defines 'ghost' rather loosely. A ghost could be human, animal, object, or just a feeling. His book is cleverly arranged into chapters of themes: Ghosts and Memory, Ghosts and Fortune, Ghosts and Time, Ghosts and Words and Numbers, etc.
When you write at such short lengths, every word must count. He is a careful writer and uses language effectively, sometimes for a humorous point, sometimes a poignant one. He also comes up with some pretty clever metaphors which I won't spoil here but will make you blink or laugh when you encounter them.
These stories are perfect gems for reading in short doses: When you're standing in line at the grocery store, waiting for a bus, on hold with the government agency you have to deal with. They'll give you something to think about while you go about your quotidian duties, waiting for a finality that Brockmeier has thought about quite a bit.
March 28, 2021
I’d been looking forward to this for a while and it did not disappoint! A really cool-fun-good collection of microstories! Very cohesive but never too restrictively anchored to/literal with the ghost story theme. The last two sections were my favorite by a lot, and it’s always nice to go out on a high note. Highly recommended for people who liked Sum by David Eagleman (I’m sorry to say it is impossible not to compare them).
May 30, 2021
Disappointing. I usually enjoy Brockmeier’s books, but this collection of stories is a bust. I actually fell asleep reading these. Some of the stories had cool ideas that could be expanded on into longer works, but for the most part, I did not enjoy this book.
August 4, 2021
In The Ghost Variations, Kevin Brockmeier delivers one hundred micro ghost stories, each about one-and-a-half to two pages long. There’s a story about ghost who haunts the fortunes in the fortune cookies at a Chinese restaurant, one about a newly discovered ghost letter of the alphabet, one about the rules for a ghostly board game, and more than a few featuring a character who thinks they’re a living person being haunted...but ends up discovering they’re the one doing the haunting.
I’ve never read anything quite like this book. The closest thing I can compare it to is Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street, but only because these micro stories are similar in length and creative intensity to the prose poem vignettes in that classic book. Maybe if Mango Street and The Twilight Zone had a baby, The Ghost Variations is what you’d get. Of course, in a collection of one hundred stories, there are bound to be some misses, and several did fall a little flat for me. But overall, I was simply blown away by the originality and inventiveness of The Ghost Variations. I need to read more by Kevin Brockmeier. Amazing writer.
I’ve never read anything quite like this book. The closest thing I can compare it to is Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street, but only because these micro stories are similar in length and creative intensity to the prose poem vignettes in that classic book. Maybe if Mango Street and The Twilight Zone had a baby, The Ghost Variations is what you’d get. Of course, in a collection of one hundred stories, there are bound to be some misses, and several did fall a little flat for me. But overall, I was simply blown away by the originality and inventiveness of The Ghost Variations. I need to read more by Kevin Brockmeier. Amazing writer.
June 14, 2020
The Ghost Variations: One hundred -Haunted- Stories
A ghost story for every mood and every aspect of the afterlife. 👻 This book is really fun and whimsical. Some stories may lack some backbone while others stay with you long after the last page. Some of them introduce very touching and even haunting ideas, in their own way. My only minor edit would be that the book could be shorter without missing any of its overall value.
I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review
#TheGhostVariations #NetGalley
A ghost story for every mood and every aspect of the afterlife. 👻 This book is really fun and whimsical. Some stories may lack some backbone while others stay with you long after the last page. Some of them introduce very touching and even haunting ideas, in their own way. My only minor edit would be that the book could be shorter without missing any of its overall value.
I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review
#TheGhostVariations #NetGalley
October 30, 2021
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
The Ghost Variations is a fun and imaginative set of 100 flash fiction ghost stories. I read a few each day in October and loved it. Brockmeier has created something really creative here.
For you if: You like or want to read more flash fiction!
FULL REVIEW:
I received a gifted copy of this from Pantheon earlier this year, when the book was first published (thank you!) and saved it for October and ghost story season. It’s a collection of flash fiction ghost stories, and I read three or four each day throughout the month. It was such a fun reading experience, and I really really enjoyed my time with this book.
The book itself is exactly what it sounds like: 100 ghost stories, each exactly two pages long, about a whole variety of topics. The stories themselves are imaginative and thought-provoking rather than spooky, which is exactly my style. Basically, Brockmeier just said to himself, “What if X were ghosts?!?” 100 times. (What if the world ran out of songs and the radio static was ghost music? What if there were a dead, ghost letter of the alphabet? What if someone grew older in both directions forever? What if someone who was not actually a ghost snuck into the afterworld?) Then he uses that premise, that constraint, to look more closely at what makes us human — which is where the book’s magic really lies.
I found this collection to be delightful and funny, moving and thought-provoking, and just very creative and smart overall. I definitely recommend picking it up, but definitely spreading it across a longer period of time rather than reading it cover to cover in one go. If you were to rush through it, I don’t think you’d be able to get the full effect.
TL;DR REVIEW:
The Ghost Variations is a fun and imaginative set of 100 flash fiction ghost stories. I read a few each day in October and loved it. Brockmeier has created something really creative here.
For you if: You like or want to read more flash fiction!
FULL REVIEW:
“In April, the U.S. secretary of philology held a press conference to announce the discovery of a twenty-seventh letter, dead for some centuries, that had been haunting the alphabet at least since the time of Cervantes.”
I received a gifted copy of this from Pantheon earlier this year, when the book was first published (thank you!) and saved it for October and ghost story season. It’s a collection of flash fiction ghost stories, and I read three or four each day throughout the month. It was such a fun reading experience, and I really really enjoyed my time with this book.
The book itself is exactly what it sounds like: 100 ghost stories, each exactly two pages long, about a whole variety of topics. The stories themselves are imaginative and thought-provoking rather than spooky, which is exactly my style. Basically, Brockmeier just said to himself, “What if X were ghosts?!?” 100 times. (What if the world ran out of songs and the radio static was ghost music? What if there were a dead, ghost letter of the alphabet? What if someone grew older in both directions forever? What if someone who was not actually a ghost snuck into the afterworld?) Then he uses that premise, that constraint, to look more closely at what makes us human — which is where the book’s magic really lies.
I found this collection to be delightful and funny, moving and thought-provoking, and just very creative and smart overall. I definitely recommend picking it up, but definitely spreading it across a longer period of time rather than reading it cover to cover in one go. If you were to rush through it, I don’t think you’d be able to get the full effect.
June 27, 2021
I love the snack-sized nature of short stories, and “The Ghost Variations” seemed like a perfect fit for my tastes: a collection of a hundred two-page stories, all themed around ghosts. Perfect for a few minutes of distraction, or perhaps an hour’s worth of binge reading! And after reading the first few stories my hopes seemed fulfilled. Brockmeier writes with verve and a love of language, and he has a talent for establishing a theme and a mood in relatively few words.
But with each successive story, I found it harder and harder to work up the will to continue onwards. This was for two reasons. First, many of the stories started feeling repetitive: heartfelt emotional situation but GHOST (or sometimes METAPHOR FOR GHOST). The theme that links the stories ended up feeling repetitive to the point of dullness. Second, although each story is set up in an engaging manner, their conclusions were often unsatisfying. Characters felt more like sketches; philosophies seemed like ephemeral bubbles rather than anything of substance; denouements lost their weight.
This is probably a consequence of the form, so in the end maybe what I learned from “The Ghost Variations” is that bite-sized stories are too small to satisfy my appetite. And all that being said, I was truly entranced by 10-15 of them (especially the one about the elephants and the one that takes place in a Chinese restaurant). Those are the ones I’ll do my best to keep in mind.
But with each successive story, I found it harder and harder to work up the will to continue onwards. This was for two reasons. First, many of the stories started feeling repetitive: heartfelt emotional situation but GHOST (or sometimes METAPHOR FOR GHOST). The theme that links the stories ended up feeling repetitive to the point of dullness. Second, although each story is set up in an engaging manner, their conclusions were often unsatisfying. Characters felt more like sketches; philosophies seemed like ephemeral bubbles rather than anything of substance; denouements lost their weight.
This is probably a consequence of the form, so in the end maybe what I learned from “The Ghost Variations” is that bite-sized stories are too small to satisfy my appetite. And all that being said, I was truly entranced by 10-15 of them (especially the one about the elephants and the one that takes place in a Chinese restaurant). Those are the ones I’ll do my best to keep in mind.
March 8, 2021
GHOSTS. What do ghosts really represent? Are they a form of afterlife? Are they part of nature? Or are they a “living” form like us; humans?
The Ghost Variations by Kevin Brockmeir is a brilliant collection of stories that are equally thoughtful, exciting and chilling. They provide a new untouched version of afterlife!! This collection has 100 stories with concordance of themes from something as simple as colours to the wide unknown Cosmos.
AMAZING is the one word I’d use to describe these stories. I must be honest here, some stories were different and dense to understand, but overall it turns out that I really love literary + horror genre.
I chose to voluntarily leave this review after reading the arc from Netgalley & Pantheon Books.
The Ghost Variations by Kevin Brockmeir is a brilliant collection of stories that are equally thoughtful, exciting and chilling. They provide a new untouched version of afterlife!! This collection has 100 stories with concordance of themes from something as simple as colours to the wide unknown Cosmos.
AMAZING is the one word I’d use to describe these stories. I must be honest here, some stories were different and dense to understand, but overall it turns out that I really love literary + horror genre.
I chose to voluntarily leave this review after reading the arc from Netgalley & Pantheon Books.
March 16, 2023
It took me a few years to finish reading this… not because it isn’t excellent (it is), but because there is a sameness among these little flash stories that made it hard to read them from start to finish without a lot of breaks. I started to feel like I needed to step away before becoming a ghost myself. In Brockmeier’s world, such a thing could happen, almost without one’s knowledge.
In that this book is an experiment and a challenge the author gave to himself, it’s a great one to keep as creative inspiration.
Do I have any favorite stories from this collection? By God, there are 100. Ask me again after I’ve had a nap.
In that this book is an experiment and a challenge the author gave to himself, it’s a great one to keep as creative inspiration.
Do I have any favorite stories from this collection? By God, there are 100. Ask me again after I’ve had a nap.
March 16, 2021
(c/p from my review on TheStoryGraph) Gonna think about this one for a bit. It is for sure not above a three. I enjoyed a good chunk of these stories but there were others that..... Yeah. I'll give more detail later maybe?
TW for this book include: Sexual Content, Abuse (physical and emotional), Death (including death of a parent, death of a child), and Animal death
TW for this book include: Sexual Content, Abuse (physical and emotional), Death (including death of a parent, death of a child), and Animal death
October 30, 2021
A fun collection of one-hundred speculative ghost stories flashes--some humorous, some sad, some spooky.
March 1, 2022
The longest 288 pages I’ve ever read. The brevity of these stories masks their endless depths. Always charming, often surprising, with a few that rose above the rest and echoed the best of Kafka and Borges. This is a great collection to pop in and out of.
June 2, 2023
An author writing 100 stories about one topic is extremely impressive, so this author’s dedication to stories 1.5 pages long about ghosts definitely deserves some recognition. I absolutely loved a handful of the stories, didn’t care for an equal handful of them, but for me, the majority straddled between 3-4. If you like ghosts because of their spookiness, then surprisingly this is not the book for you, but if you want to read 100 creative interpretations of what ghosts can be or could be, then give this book a try.
March 9, 2021
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
I have to say I was incredibly impressed by this collection. Short stories are hard enough to do well, and micro-fiction infinitely more so, but Brockmeier manages to present one hundred two-page stories where every single one was interesting to read. Every. Single. One manged to be a complete story in two pages or less.
Given their length, I can't say that most of the stories were overly memorable, but the pure fact that each one was so deeply distinctive that you never thought you were reading the same story twice easily showcases what a unique talent Kevin Brockmeier is.
You won't read anything else like this all year.
I have to say I was incredibly impressed by this collection. Short stories are hard enough to do well, and micro-fiction infinitely more so, but Brockmeier manages to present one hundred two-page stories where every single one was interesting to read. Every. Single. One manged to be a complete story in two pages or less.
Given their length, I can't say that most of the stories were overly memorable, but the pure fact that each one was so deeply distinctive that you never thought you were reading the same story twice easily showcases what a unique talent Kevin Brockmeier is.
You won't read anything else like this all year.
May 23, 2021
The original version of this book was one hundred and one stories, but the additional story was cut because the editor felt the round number would be more palatable to readers. But that missing story... where did it go? Can't you still sense it? This is a complete collection, not standalone stories; a literary cats cradle where all the stories are intertwined in their themes and tone. One story can't be removed without its pulled thread leaving a mark up and down the entire tapestry, unweaving a finished thought. Was it the first story? The last story? The keystone? Each story bends to it now, the ghost of text, it no longer exists but it exerts its gravity on the whole of the words. It reminds us that no book makes it to its final form without leaving a trail of almost-books behind it, every book starts life with its own ghosts. To read is to be haunted by both a life of words and the not-life of might have been.
March 1, 2021
Review appears in the March 1, 2021 issue of Booklist and on the blog: https://raforall.blogspot.com/2021/03...
3 words: episodic, unease, thought provoking
I enjoyed how he indexed and categorized the stories both in the ToC and at the end. It increased the cohesiveness of the volume and made for an extra layer of enjoyment after completion.
Full range of "scares" too. And you aren't sure what the level of fear will be sometimes until the final line of the story.
3 words: episodic, unease, thought provoking
I enjoyed how he indexed and categorized the stories both in the ToC and at the end. It increased the cohesiveness of the volume and made for an extra layer of enjoyment after completion.
Full range of "scares" too. And you aren't sure what the level of fear will be sometimes until the final line of the story.
December 27, 2024
i can appreciate the concept of “short themed stories that include various versions of ghosts” but the length made me lose motivation to keep reading pretty quickly. they were so short that there’s no time to get invested in the story and as a result i simply do not care at all. they also weren’t spooky, so double disappointment.
January 12, 2023
The Ghost Variation is a collection of 100 short stories, and emphasis on SHORT. Each story lasted the front and back of a page, and there is so much skill that goes into a full story that quick. This author did not disappoint in creating quick stories that told of ghosts, but also told in human conditions. While some stories are much more memorable than other stories, I think that each person reading it would resonate with something different. And if I were to reread this, I would find new resonances. The only draw back to reading this collection of stories was that having such easy stopping points made me read it much slower than many books, and that none of the stories felt extremely scary. This book made me rethink what it is to be a ghost story, and the concept of ghost in general.
Of the stories there were a handful I have loved to read again. 9: How to play, 43: Spectrum, 91: Parakeets, 97: Telephone to name a few.
Of the stories there were a handful I have loved to read again. 9: How to play, 43: Spectrum, 91: Parakeets, 97: Telephone to name a few.
January 27, 2022
Oh, ugh. This is the least enjoyable book I’ve read (listened to) in ages. It’s a book of ghost stories, supposedly, but they are sooooooo short that there is absolutely no satisfaction in any of them. I would start to get interested in a character or a storyline, and then it would be done and on to the next, leaving me profoundly unsatisfied. Why? Why write something like this? I believe the author is a talented writer and could’ve written something really awesome, so why didn’t he? I don’t know, but I was desperately hoping the book would be over soon most of the way through it. (Side note: who the hell indexes a book like this, and includes the painfully tedious reading of the index as the last half hour of the book? And why? Just WHY??)
May 14, 2023
I have never read from this author before so maybe I wasn’t expecting this style of writing but…It’s just not great. These stories feel like something out of a college freshmen’s creative writing class. There were a handful of stories in here that I thought had potential but only 6 (I counted) that I thought were genuinely good. I really powered through this because I wanted it to get better and, to be fair, it did. The last two sections were much better than most of the other sections. I mean this in the least shady way possible: I think this is something that should be slightly edited and then marketed to kids. I would have thought this was very fun and clever as a middle schooler.
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