reviews of ghost fiction
One of my fellow readers suggested that I pick up Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle (author of The Last Unicorn). Tamsin is a time slip novel in which the melancholy eponymous ghost takes the reader back 300 years to a foiled rebellion that cost her the love of her life. Here’s the Goodreads blurb (because…well, yes, I’m feeling lazy): Arriving in the English countryside to live with her mother and new stepfather, Jenny has no interest in her surroundings, until she…
Hey, wait for me! I’m jumping into the fray! (image credit: Dannyphoto80 via Dreamstime) So, I wasn’t going to do this, but I kept seeing these great year-end reading lists so decided to jump into the book fray and satisfy your need to know. Without further ado, here are the ten books I enjoyed the most in 2013 in order of preference. Be forewarned, many (though not all) involve ghosts of one type or another. 1. The Orphan Master’s Son…
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher I read the first in the Dresden File series as part of the Goodreads October read-a-long. If you’re like me, and you want to start at the beginning of any series, you can access the non-spoiler discussion of the first book, Storm Front, here. I love the premise of a hard-boiled wizard detective though I felt the first book was a little uneven—vacillating in tone between noir and ribald. There is no such unevenness in the…
(image credit) Sadly, it’s time to wrap up Readers Imbibing.Peril VIII. It’s fitting that our cloaked heroine appears to be fleeing the scene, don’t you think? I had fun participating for my third time over at Stainless Steel Droppings and even surpassed past attempts. During the challenge, I viewed one movie and read six books. If you missed them, here they are: Ghost Town the movie with Ricky Gervais, Tea Leoni, and Greg Kinnear Notes from Ghost Town by Kate Ellison The…
Blog Tour and Review: Phantom Summer Welcome to the book review and blog tour stop for Amy Sparling’s Phantom Summer. First, I’d like to thank Dianne from Oops I Read a Book Again for making this process so easy. What a gift it is for authors to have a blog tour coordinator. It is my pleasure to host a blog stop (my first!), so I just hope I’m doing it correctly. Without further ado, here are the details: Title: Phantom…
Notes from Ghost Town by Kate Ellison Olivia will always regret not confessing her undying love to best friend Lucas, for just as she begins to tell him, fate intervenes. The next time Olivia sees Lucas, he’s a ghost. So begins Notes from Ghost Town by Kate Ellison that I read as part of the RIP challenge at Stainless Steel Droppings. Olivia, a promising artist, faces multiple problems for one so young. Someone killed Lucas, and she must discover who…
For my next selection of the R.I.P. challenge, I read The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo. This reading ended up as a serendipitous survey of literature based in Malaya (present day Malaysia). In the last two years, quite unplanned, I’ve read three works set in this country, all as different as they can be. The first novel I read is Old Filth by Jane Gardam about a cynical octogenarian barrister of British ancestry; the second was The Garden of Evening…
I read Richard Matheson’s A Stir of Echoes as one of my selections for Bout of Books. It’s been on my list for a long time, so it felt good to put it behind me, and the Bout of Books read-a-thon provided the perfect opportunity. Finding A Stir of Echoes, however, proved a challenge as I searched one library and three bookstores and finally had to order it. When a party stunt awakens Tom Wallace’s psychic abilities, he must learn…
Once Upon a Time: The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood In a word: Wow! I’m dropping this book into the fairy tale category thanks in part to a wonderful post by Buried in Print who first put me onto the notion that Atwood is playing with fairy tale motifs. What absolute fun it was to discover a hidden (much like the dense forests of fairy tales) level of meaning beneath this literary novel. Even the title is an allusion…
Ghost Novel Review: Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough Folklorists trace the origins of the Long Lankin legend and ballad to 15th century Scotland. Later the Scots brought the tale to the US when they settled in Appalachia during the 18th century. There is also an English version of Long Lankin that flourished in Northumberland. The folklore of Long Lankin is interesting because there are so many interpretations, both Scottish and English. Essentially, Lankin is a mason stiffed by a…
I’m a little late to the party, but I’m catching up fast. My goal is to achieve Quest the Second status in the Once Upon a Time Challenge over at Stainless Steel Droppings. Check it out! For this category, you must read 4 books: 1 folklore, 1 fairy tale, 1 fantasy, 1 mythology. On my list are Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler, for folklore; Messenger by Lois Lowry, for fairy tale; and Practical Magic or Skylight Confessions by Alice Hoffman,…
A funny thing happened this week. I received the following email from Amazon regarding my novel Moonlight Dancer: “We are writing to let you know that at least one of your readers has reported some problems with your book.” Uh-oh. Was Amazon planning to pull my book? Don’t laugh, I’ve heard stories. Gulp. I read on. “There are typos in your book…‘Hunter’ s BMW’ should be ‘Hunter’s BMW’.” Did you catch the problem? I didn’t at first. There’s an extra…
The clock is striking twelve on 2012! So, it must be time for those cherished year-end lists. Everybody’s doing it. At least all the book reviewers seem to be. And as Yossarian said in one of my very favorite books, Catch-22, “Then I’d be a damn fool to think any different.” So here are the top twelve ghost novels I read (with links if reviewed) in 2012: 12. In the Night Room by Peter Straub In the Night Room opened…