Anna From Gustine > Recent Status Updates

I discovered that there are only 183 pages because the rest are footnotes. YAY!!!

2.5 stars. The Giant Wistaria by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1891). A merry group of English people rent a house with a tragic past. This story started off strong with an unmarried mother in colonial America suffering harsh treatment from her family. Fast forward to the 1800s and a haunting in the house. Ended too abruptly and I'm not quite sure what happened to the young woman. So much potential lost.

5 stars. "In A Far-Off World" by Olive Schreiner (1890). A man and a woman live in a world in of a far-off star. This story is only three pages long but it almost had me in tears. Short but impactful.

2 stars. The Gray Man by Sarah Orne Jewett (1886). The story of a mysterious stranger and the treatment he receives from a town. This story is quite short. I appreciated the writing but nothing else had much substance.

2 stars. The Gray Man by Sarah Orne Jewett (1886). The story of a mysterious stranger and the treatment he receives from a town. This story is quite short. I appreciated the writing but nothing else had much substance.

4 stars. Nut Bush Farm by Charlotte Riddell (1882). I liked this! It was fun with creepy moments! A man rents a farm whose prior tenant mysteriously disappeared. This had three parts and I would call it more of a novelette than a short story. It had supernatural elements but it was far more of a mystery than a ghost story with a lead sleuth, an investigation and suspects. Only downside was a way too abrupt ending.

2 stars. "An Itinerant House" by Emma Frances Dawson. A group of young men witness the unexpected death of their landlady and conduct an experiment. This was a discombobulated story. It was choppy and almost stream of consciousness at times with unnecessary poetry included (!) Frankenstein was probably an influence. Two stars though for having a positive portrayal of a Mexican woman!

4 stars. "What was the matter?" by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1869). A widow sends for her sister to come live with her but the sister never arrives. At first I was going to rate it 3 stars but the story's mood has just stuck with me. Melancholy and mysterious with secrets hinted at in the sisters' pasts. I just wish the story had delved into that past.

4 stars. "Lost in a Pyramid, or the Mummy's Curse" by Louisa May Alcott (1869). A young explorer tells his bride about a strange experience involving the mummy of an ancient Egyptian priestess. This was a fun and lively story with an ending that was unexpectedly dark.

3.5 stars. The Moonstone Mass by Harriet Prescott Spofford (1868). Wow! If I didn't know any better, I would have thought this was written by William Hope Hodgson or HP Lovecraft. A man goes on an expedition to the Arctic where his ship is stranded and he goes for help. Hallucinatory things happen. I'm not a big weird fiction fan; hence the lower rating. But this is impressive considering the time it was written!

5 stars. The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell (1852). This is at least the third time I've read this short story and it is still one of my favorites ever. An old nurse tells the story of when she was a young girl in charge of a child sent to live with relatives in an old manor. That manor turns out to be haunted by an old tragedy. Creepy and so hard to believe it was written in 1852!

2 stars. Monster by Elizabeth MacNeal. A man tries to gain scientific fame by searching for fossils. Big ones. I didn't care for this story. There's nothing wrong with it and I can see others enjoying it. I appreciated the dinosaur angle but I found all the characters unpleasant and I really didn't care what happened. I also kinda knew what would happen pretty early on. Again, I didn't care for it but others may.

A high 3 stars. Confinement by Kiran Millwood Hargrave. Back to Victorian times! A pregnant woman gives birth and goes through a period of confinement with her newborn. However, she is seeing things....I can't help but think of The Yellow Wallpaper which must have influenced the story. It was interesting with a few original details but predictable overall. I've seen it before.

A high 4 stars. The Hanging of the Greens by Andrew Michael Hurley. The only story set in modern times. A man carries a message of apology from a former lodger to a couple on an isolated farmstead. It's a little clunky at first but then it ramps up into brutal folk horror. Chilling.