What do you think?
Rate this book
A Winter's Tale: Horror Stories for the Yuletide
The Yuletide. The time of the longest, darkest evenings of the year, and once, a time for stories of ghosts, demons, and other night creatures, by authors like M.R. James, E.F. Benson, Jane Gaskell, and Amelia B. Edwards. A Winter’s Tale seeks to revive those days with all new stories by some of the best horror writers of today. These stories run the gamut in setting and time, from traditional Victorian ghost stories to all too contemporary tales of terror. This is an anthology to be read by the fireside on cold nights with the wind howling at the windows. Or just in your favorite spot.
247 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 6, 2020
9 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 14, 2021
This one was a lot of fun!
Very different stories in varying tones, styles and genres made for entertaining reading that never got boring.
From slightly nostalgic to delightfully silly, from a bit scary to haunted, from a bit weird to academic, from vengeful to creepy, from contemplative to Lotus-Eater inspired, from good old military to navy and a brilliant entertaining story with some bookish VIPs for the ending, this book definitely had something for every taste!
From what feels Victoria to Sci-fi, it really has it all.
The order of the stories was very well planned and they followed nicely from one to the other. Some really short, some rather more than a short story, all well chosen!
My personal favourites where the stories by the following authors:
Amanda Dewees I had to pause to buy the first book in the accompanying series right after finishing the story! I love the witty, no nonsense main character and the tone.
Josh Reynolds again for the characters and the uncanny feeling he provided.
John Linwood Grant once more for the main character who was just right to my taste in his pragmatism. Also for the whole setting of the story.
Jim Beard for catching me off guard more than once and turning my head with some twists.
And the last story by James A. Moore and Charles R. Rutledge for the tone and voice, and the amazing mix of characters. Charles Dickens, magic wielding Crowley, and Kharrn, a big brute with an axe - I'd love to read a whole series of these! One of my favourite pieces I've read in the whole year!
Very different stories in varying tones, styles and genres made for entertaining reading that never got boring.
From slightly nostalgic to delightfully silly, from a bit scary to haunted, from a bit weird to academic, from vengeful to creepy, from contemplative to Lotus-Eater inspired, from good old military to navy and a brilliant entertaining story with some bookish VIPs for the ending, this book definitely had something for every taste!
From what feels Victoria to Sci-fi, it really has it all.
The order of the stories was very well planned and they followed nicely from one to the other. Some really short, some rather more than a short story, all well chosen!
My personal favourites where the stories by the following authors:
Amanda Dewees I had to pause to buy the first book in the accompanying series right after finishing the story! I love the witty, no nonsense main character and the tone.
Josh Reynolds again for the characters and the uncanny feeling he provided.
John Linwood Grant once more for the main character who was just right to my taste in his pragmatism. Also for the whole setting of the story.
Jim Beard for catching me off guard more than once and turning my head with some twists.
And the last story by James A. Moore and Charles R. Rutledge for the tone and voice, and the amazing mix of characters. Charles Dickens, magic wielding Crowley, and Kharrn, a big brute with an axe - I'd love to read a whole series of these! One of my favourite pieces I've read in the whole year!
December 16, 2023
A Winter's Tale: Horror Stories for the Yuletide is a fine collection of seasonal horror tales and a good introduction to writers some may not have encountered before. It is one of the most satisfying anthologies I have recently read. Many of the stores are set in earlier times and are reminiscent of Victorian yuletide, without their literary ponderance. All 13 stories are competently written and well-worth reading, even though one wasn't quite to my liking.
"Snowfall" by James A. Moore effectively uses the encroaching winter storm to complement the creeping dread that settles on a Christmas Eve after-dinner gentlemen's gathering for cigars and brandy. The denouement is not a surprise.
Amanda DeWees' "Haunted Harbor" is a slow burn, cozy haunted house tale that seems a bit too long but with a compelling voice that is interesting.
Bram Stoker, pondering the development of Dracula, is the central figure in "The Headless Horror" folk horror adventure that involved Charles R. Rutledge's recurring Kharrn. The seasonal setting here is tenuous but the tale is compelling.
"Not More Lovely than Full of Glee" by Leanna Renee Hieber is poetic and haunting in its depiction of the unexpected results of an artist trying to capture the essence of his wife in his paintings ... moody and horrifying in implications.
Obsession and pathos lie at the dark heart of Cliff Bigger's "Who Wouldn't Go." It is a very interesting premise.
William Meikle's "The Fortingall Yew" is a Christmas tale of mystery and memory ... and a massive amount of "strong Scottish ale."
"Hold Your Breath" is a humorless Jeff Strand and a real horror with no yuletide element in sight.
In Josh Reynold's "The Campo" two folklorists spend the holiday in a spooky, chilling Venice finding old mysteries in dark places with encroaching, menacing shadows.
Kealan Patrick Burke's "I Use to Live Here" begins with unease, its off-kilter narrator oddly omniscient, and ends as a brutal, unsettling horror that lingers....
"By Chance or Providence" has an apocalyptic feel in James R. Tucks' developing yuletide festive decent into uncertainty, grisly horror, and despair.
"The Heron in Winter" by John Linwood Grant is a Victorian Christmas after-dinner ghost tale with a frigid setting, a twist on the nature of the ghosts, and a very satisfying ending.
While competently executed, Jim Beard's "The Wreck of the Charlie Sol" is the only story, with its science fictional setting and throw-away Christmas reference, that seemed at odds with the nature of this volume. I really didn't care for the story.
To me the most enjoyable of the stories is James A. Moore and Charles R. Rutledge's rousing "The Dollmaker," with an intriguing blend of spiritualism and demon hunting involving Charles Dickens and two immortals: Moore's John Crowley and Rutledge's Kharrn. I didn't even miss the non-existent yuletide setting.
A couple of the authors were unknown to me but now I have added them to my reading list and will track down more of their work.
"Snowfall" by James A. Moore effectively uses the encroaching winter storm to complement the creeping dread that settles on a Christmas Eve after-dinner gentlemen's gathering for cigars and brandy. The denouement is not a surprise.
Amanda DeWees' "Haunted Harbor" is a slow burn, cozy haunted house tale that seems a bit too long but with a compelling voice that is interesting.
Bram Stoker, pondering the development of Dracula, is the central figure in "The Headless Horror" folk horror adventure that involved Charles R. Rutledge's recurring Kharrn. The seasonal setting here is tenuous but the tale is compelling.
"Not More Lovely than Full of Glee" by Leanna Renee Hieber is poetic and haunting in its depiction of the unexpected results of an artist trying to capture the essence of his wife in his paintings ... moody and horrifying in implications.
Obsession and pathos lie at the dark heart of Cliff Bigger's "Who Wouldn't Go." It is a very interesting premise.
William Meikle's "The Fortingall Yew" is a Christmas tale of mystery and memory ... and a massive amount of "strong Scottish ale."
"Hold Your Breath" is a humorless Jeff Strand and a real horror with no yuletide element in sight.
In Josh Reynold's "The Campo" two folklorists spend the holiday in a spooky, chilling Venice finding old mysteries in dark places with encroaching, menacing shadows.
Kealan Patrick Burke's "I Use to Live Here" begins with unease, its off-kilter narrator oddly omniscient, and ends as a brutal, unsettling horror that lingers....
"By Chance or Providence" has an apocalyptic feel in James R. Tucks' developing yuletide festive decent into uncertainty, grisly horror, and despair.
"The Heron in Winter" by John Linwood Grant is a Victorian Christmas after-dinner ghost tale with a frigid setting, a twist on the nature of the ghosts, and a very satisfying ending.
While competently executed, Jim Beard's "The Wreck of the Charlie Sol" is the only story, with its science fictional setting and throw-away Christmas reference, that seemed at odds with the nature of this volume. I really didn't care for the story.
To me the most enjoyable of the stories is James A. Moore and Charles R. Rutledge's rousing "The Dollmaker," with an intriguing blend of spiritualism and demon hunting involving Charles Dickens and two immortals: Moore's John Crowley and Rutledge's Kharrn. I didn't even miss the non-existent yuletide setting.
A couple of the authors were unknown to me but now I have added them to my reading list and will track down more of their work.
Read
December 21, 2024For the story Not More Lovely Than Full of Glee, by Leanna Renee Hieber, heard on the PseudoPod horror podcast
January 5, 2022
Excellent collection of creepy, cozy, chilling ghost stories fo the winter season!
June 23, 2022
Favorites:
Snowfall
Hold Your Breath
I Used to Live Here
The Heron in Winter
Snowfall
Hold Your Breath
I Used to Live Here
The Heron in Winter
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews