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Category: Ghost novels

reviews of ghost fiction

Ghost Novel Review: Midnight Bayou

Ghost Novel Review: Midnight Bayou

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Midnight Bayou by Nora Roberts G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 352 pages. This book encapsulates Roberts’ strengths as a writer: eerie setting, mysterious mansion, endearing characters. Declan Fitzgerald renounces a glam, power-packed lawyer’s existence for decaying Manet Hall on the edge of New Orleans. Of course, New Orleans with its French Caribbean history is the perfect locale for all things surnaturel. And, in fact, ethnic and class conflict is the basis for the murder that preceded the hauntings. Declan, in the…

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Ghost Novel Review: In Honor of Lunar New Year

Ghost Novel Review: In Honor of Lunar New Year

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I wanted to get a review out in time for Lunar New Year, which begins tonight. Notice I didn’t say Chinese New Year. In addition to China, Lunar New Year is celebrated in Taiwan, Vietnam and Korea. As they say in Korea, “Sae hae bok manhi pah de saeyo!” (May you receive many blessings in the new year!) In honor of Lunar New Year, I had planned to review Water Ghosts and dutifully read that novel. But in my reading…

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Ghost Novel Review: The House Next Door

Ghost Novel Review: The House Next Door

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The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons Simon & Schuster, Inc., 356 pages. Colquitt and Walter Kennedy pursue a complacent lifestyle in an idyllic suburban enclave. Stimulating workdays. Patio cocktails. Garden parties. Tennis doubles. You get the idea. All that is threatened when an outsider buys the adjacent wooded lot, hires a brilliant architect and erects an imposing structure. Colquitt frets and bemoans the disruption of her perfect life and unobstructed sylvan view until I wanted to strangle her….

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Ghost Novelette for Christmas Giving: The Canterville Ghost

Ghost Novelette for Christmas Giving: The Canterville Ghost

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                        The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde With the advent of Christmas season, one’s thoughts naturally turn to sugar plum fairies. And ghosts. Yes, ghosts. What, Christmas doesn’t conjure spectral images for you? There’s a precedent. Think A Christmas Carol, now a standard eighth grade December read. Since I was short of time this month–who isn’t?–I went searching for a shorter example of ghost fiction. Imagine my surprise when…

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Ghost novel review: Ghost Orchid

Ghost novel review: Ghost Orchid

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The Ghost Orchid by Carol Goodman Ballantine Books, 336 pages Source: Pleasanton Library  I read a favorable review of this book on the Haunted Travels website and decided to check it out. After I was thirty pages in, I realized I had read this novel before. Here’s the interesting part: I enjoyed it more the second time. I think it’s because I wasn’t trying to figure out what would happen, and I could just relax and enjoy the flow. The…

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R.I.P. Challenge Wrap-up

R.I.P. Challenge Wrap-up

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Sadly, the annual Readers Imbibing Peril Challenge has met its inevitable demise. I feel so fortunate to have found this reading challenge in my first year of blogging. It was great fun, and I’m already looking forward to next year! Best of all, I will continue to peruse the posted R.I.P. reviews in my quest for the quintessential ghost story. To check out the hundreds of other reviews in the realm of the creepy at Stainless Steel Droppings, click here. By…

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R.I.P. Challenge for Readers and Writers of the Paranormal

R.I.P. Challenge for Readers and Writers of the Paranormal

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R.I.P Challenge As writers we always hear, “Connect with others who share your interests.” Everyone tells you to do it, but no one tells you how to do it. In my case, I find it hard to connect with folks in the ghost fiction genre because, well, there is no ghost fiction genre. Some ghost fiction comes to us from top-drawer masters like Henry James and Toni Morrison and are shelved in Literature. I’ve found some ghost novels in the…

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Ghost Novel Review: The Woman in Black

Ghost Novel Review: The Woman in Black

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The Woman in Black by Susan Hill David R. Godine, 138 pages   I do a writing assignment with my students called “Which is Better—the Book or the Movie?” Doesn’t matter if it’s a black-and-white classic or a Technicolor blockbuster, my students invariably plant themselves on the side of the book. (I don’t know if the knowledge that I’m a writer enters into their logic, so we should probably factor in the suck-up component.) Ironically, I don’t always agree with…

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Ghost Novel Review in Honor of Banned Book Week

Ghost Novel Review in Honor of Banned Book Week

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Read a banned book! Celebrate your subversive inner self! I came across an interesting post at Insatiable Booksluts. Did you know this is banned book week? This year it takes place from September 24th to October 1st. The American Library Association sponsors this week to promote awareness of our right to free speech and free (as in unhindered) reading. Think about the literary censorship and mind control of the Nazis and the Cultural Revolution and our very own McCarthy. In fiction,…

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Ghost Novel Review: Black Rose by Nora Roberts

Ghost Novel Review: Black Rose by Nora Roberts

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  Black Rose by Nora Roberts This is not Hamlet, nor was meant to be. Instead, it is a fun romp through the land of the good and the haunted with a satisfying measure of revenge thrown in. The prologue introduces Amelia, a jilted Victorian mistress (circa 1892), who wields revenge for her suffering from beyond the grave. To read my post on prologues, click here. Enter modern day Roz—tough but fair, hard-driven but forgiving—with ex-beau complications of her own….

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Book Review: The Distant Hours

Book Review: The Distant Hours

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The Distant Hours by Kate Morton Atria Books, 560 pages. I hesitated to review this book because the supernatural element is so subtle–as subtle as the wisp of a ghost’s gown, a ghost more suggestion than apparition. Yet within these pages you will find whispering stones and unexplained stains and distant laughter. Even a ghostly glimpse here or there. Or was that merely a trick of the light? Things go bump in the night, but, generally speaking, they assume humanoid…

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Book Review: The Keep

Book Review: The Keep

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Ghost Novel Review: The Keep by Jennifer Egan I had gone in search of A Visit from the Goon Squad for Laurie’s book group. My library didn’t have it, but I stumbled upon The Keep instead. Intrigued by the title, I picked it up and read the jacket. The only other Egan book I had read was The Invisible Circus, which I liked but didn’t love, yet I decided to give The Keep a try—possibly because of the hint of…

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Guest Review: The Haunting of Hill House

Guest Review: The Haunting of Hill House

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The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson Publisher: Penguin Classics, 182 pages Format: paperback Source: Guest review Hi Everyone, Today we are hearing from one of our dedicated readers, Allegra Johnson, who is offering her thoughts on a classic ghost novel. Thank you, Allegra, for sharing your insights! From Allegra: My path to reading The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, a long-time favorite of mine, really started with a movie—a bad movie at that.  I’m not above saying…

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