Supernatural Fiction Readers discussion

I love the classic ghost stories, long on shadows and unease, with the sudden chills, and a sense of the unknown. Ghost stories are probably my favorites in the supernatural fiction stories.

Do you have any novels or stories you'd say are your favorites out of the ghost stories you've read and enjoyed?

Phantom Nights by John Farris is one of my all-time favorites. It's 50s era Southern setting is beautifully (and sometimes horrifically) rendered, and I really loved the train/afterlife concept. The ghost story is simple: an African American woman is murdered by a man running for governor, and the boy who is her friend is visited by her ghost. What really got me about the story was the wonderful characters. The victim's father has a detective mentality and is constantly having to work around the fact that he's smarter than the white people he's surrounded by. But the relationship between the boy and the ghost really puts the story on the dramatic level of the movie The Sixth Sense. I can't recommend it enough.

Wow. That sounds great, Ben. I'll have to look for that book. Thanks so much.

It's hard to pick just one, but two volumes I've read with fantastic ghost stories are:

The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories

and The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories.

Of course, MR James is a master at the ghost story. Also H. Russell Wakefield has some really creepy ghost stories as well. "Old Man's Beard" by him is so creepy, I just shudder thinking about it. I think F. Marion Crawford wrote "The Empty Upper Berth." Another wonderful one. And William Hope Hodgson's "The Whistling Room."

One of the best ghost stories I have ever read was "CHOST STORY" by Peter Straub,the film version was quite good as well.

Robert wrote: "One of the best ghost stories I have ever read was "CHOST STORY" by Peter Straub,the film version was quite good as well."

Hey Robert!
Totally agree with you. Ghost Story is an awesome book. The movie's interesting but a very different experience. Some of the early stories in the book about the ghostly family that keeps revisiting the main characters were downright unsettling.

Wakefield's "The Red House" (or "The Red Lodge" - I don't have access to my lists at the moment) is another good one, as well as "The Waxworks"

I'll have to keep an eye out for those, Shawn.

Danielle, I've got The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories on my to-read shelf! And yes, "The Upper Berth" (great story!) was written by F. Marion Crawford.

Probably my favorite novel-length ghost story (and I haven't read as many of those as short ones) is The Turn of the Screw --I'm one of those who take it as a genuine ghost story. When it comes to short fiction in this subgenre, I can't pick a single favorite --there are just too many that I really like!

I still need to read The Turn of the Screw. I love the short ghost stories, so you're not alone, Werner.

I just finished The House of Lost Souls and really loved it. It's got great atmosphere!

Werner wrote: "Danielle, I've got The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories on my to-read shelf! And yes, "The Upper Berth" (great story!) was written by F. Marion Crawford.

Probably my favorite novel-length g..."

You are going to love the Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories!

Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural is one of my favorite anthology's.The Dark Descent was also a wonderful book of short stories.I have just received American Supernatural Tales ed. by Joshi in the mail today and can't wait to read it!
I've found that a lot of the 'older' Stephen King is quite terrifying.MR James has to be the master of the scary short story though.

Jeannie, I loved Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, too (I've reviewed that collection here on Goodreads)! And I've read and really liked a few of M. R. James' stories as well. When I'm visiting my wife's side of the family every summer, I always get in some time reading short stories in their local public library. Next time I come, I'm ready to start a new anthology --and The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories is waiting invitingly on the shelf for me!

Thanks for the other recommendations, too. (And as an aside to anyone following this discussion, you can find a lot of great possibilities in this sub- genre just by perusing our group bookshelves, and clicking on the reviews!)

Laura wrote: "I just finished The House of Lost Souls and really loved it. It's got great atmosphere!"

This sounds great. Thanks for the rec, Laura.

I've read Masterpieces of Terror and the Unknown. It was trippy and creepy and unsettling. Good stuff. :)

Danielle, I think you'll like it. Unfortunately, I wasn't as enthusiastic about his other books, but I definitely recommend Lost Souls.

One of my favorite ghost story collections is The Oxford Book of Twentieth-century Ghost Stories. The time frame cuts out some of the older classics, but it's how I found some new favorites like "Smoke Ghost" and "Night Fears".

Another book added to the pile. Thanks for the rec on the Oxford Book of 20th Century Ghost Stories, Laura.

The Uninvited is one that has stuck in my mind for years as being excellent, but unfortunately it seems to be out of print. The movie is good, but the book was better.

A recent favourite for me would Christopher Barker's The Thing in the Tree. Hard to get hold of as it was published in a limited edition collection but it really creeped me out - it's a relatively simple story in that a mother and father are working through their fractured relationship after their daughter dies in a car accident & the mother develops a disturbing fixation on the strange tree at the bottom of their garden. The atmosphere is beautifully evoked and the growing sense of doom and despair is handled perfectly.

I just read The Ghost of Dibble Hollow. It's a book for kids about 10 years old +/- a few years. I couldn't believe how good it was after all these years. My review is here:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Estelle, "Smee" is one that I really like, too. Don't ever worry about a post being too long; I'm sure what draws most of us to this group is that we like to read other people's thoughts about this genre. (Compared to some of my posts, yours wasn't long at all!)

Estelle

I reviewed THE UNINVITED here:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

if you're interested.

Estelle, I did a Google search of the two shop names along with "Lovecraft." There is a Magickal Childe occult shop in Manhattan, which was known as the Warlock Shop when it was at its original location in Brooklyn; but it was founded in 1972 by two "high priests" in a modern "witchcraft" cult, Herman Slater and Ed Buczynski. So if Lovecraft mentioned a "Warlock Shop" in any of his stories, this particular real-life shop was not his inspiration.

Actually, the only Lovecraft connection I found to this particular store and its circle is the fact that Slater published a purported Necronomicon in the mid-70s, the idea for which was conceived in a drunken party hosted by the store's owners for a bunch of their friends and customers, and inspired by the claim (which may or may not have been true) that Lovecraft once lived near the site of the store. (He did live in NYC during his marriage to Sonia Greene, but I don't know if he lived anywhere near 400 Henry St. in Brooklyn.) The actual writing of the book, apparently, was an amateur effort that some of the party-goers subsequently collaborated on for the fun of it.

Just from the names, they sound interesting! I'm sure they'd be much more so to actually visit.

Estelle,

I read your review of The Uninvited. Sounds like a great film. I tried to track down the book, but to no avail. Actually, I found several books with that title, but none seemed to fit except possibly a 1942 play. I'll try the movie.

Hmmm... For me, I have to say either Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill or The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (no relation!). Both of them are really eerie and stick with you long after you've finished reading. And the first one pretty much ruined heart-shaped boxes for me forever. Valentine's Day is nothing short of horrifying now. ;P

I loved HSB as well, Jennifer. Genuinely CREEPY. : )

Charlene wrote: "I loved HSB as well, Jennifer. Genuinely CREEPY. : )"

The cover of my first book features a man in a suit with a black bar over his eyes (made long before I read Heart-Shaped Box). I have a large poster in my bedroom of the cover that I use for book signings and such. When I was reading Heart-Shaped Box, I almost had to turn the stupid poster around because it reminded me too much of Craddock's ghost and his squiggled-out eyes. LOL! I felt like such a wuss.

I'm sorry to admit that I didn't realize you were an author until a couple of days ago.
Congratulations!
And yeah, those eyes creeped me out. : )

Two fine choices from Jennifer there.

Anyone read Dark Matter by Michelle Paver? A short ghost novel set in the arctic circle. If the idea of being alone miles from anyone in the cold and constant night isn't scary enough, Paver tosses a good ol' fashioned 'is it real or all in the mind?' ghost story in. Fearsomely good.

Ooh, that one sounds good, James!

Charlene wrote: "I'm sorry to admit that I didn't realize you were an author until a couple of days ago.
Congratulations!
And yeah, those eyes creeped me out. : )"

Thank you! And yeah, I thought the eyes were one of the creepiest details. They're just terribly disturbing! Also, the scene in the diner (I won't spoil it, I promise!) was so eerie.

James wrote: "Two fine choices from Jennifer there.

Anyone read Dark Matter by Michelle Paver? A short ghost novel set in the arctic circle. If the idea of being alone miles from anyone in the cold and constant..."

James, that sounds really creepy. I'm definitely intrigued! Ever since 30 Days of Night, the frozen wasteland setting has freaked me out. :P

I really LOVE the scary stories series

Ghost story is great but it didn't really seem like a ghost story in reality to me. The Haunting of Hill House is awesomoe.

I'd have to agree with Charles that technically, the supernatural baddies in Ghost Story aren't really ghosts as such, though some could be described as revenants. So the title is something of a misnomer. (I'd also agree that the book is great!)

I read a short ghost story when I was in grade school (late 70s, early 80s), in which a servant girl at an inn, whose heart was broken by a traveler who had stopped there, haunted the place, leaving her thumb print in the pudding. Has anyone else read this story or does anyone have an idea of who its author might be? I tried looking it up on the web, but though I found one other person asking about it, no one knew the name of the story or had a guess regarding its author. I'd love to read it again, since it's stuck with me all these years.

Krisi wrote: "I read a short ghost story when I was in grade school (late 70s, early 80s), in which a servant girl at an inn, whose heart was broken by a traveler who had stopped there, haunted the place, leavin..."

I think I may have read this story. It sounds like something that would have been found in some of the great old collections of ghost stories like Ghosts, Spooks and Spectres, or Ghosts by Gaslight. I'd check out the anthos published in the 50s and 60s maybe

Charles wrote: "Krisi wrote: "I read a short ghost story when I was in grade school (late 70s, early 80s), in which a servant girl at an inn, whose heart was broken by a traveler who had stopped there, haunted the..."

Thanks so much, Charles! I'll check all of those out.

ghost stories are my favorite too. I did a blog post recently on my 5 favorites, since that's what I write too. The five that made my list are below (Jane-Emily is YA):

Madeleine's Ghost

Bag of Bones

Midnight Bayou

Jane-Emily

Vaporetto 13

The Haunting of Hill House for me.

Hi all, newbie to this group just in time for Halloween,lol!

I 'LOVE' Ghost stories and tales of haunted houses/places,and tales of the unexplained.

It's weird but those books written for adults just don't work for creeping me out! Haunting Of Hill House,and Ghost Story were snoozers for me.

I did enjoy The Woman In Black by Susan Hill and her lesser known The Man in the Picture,but the books that I remember really giving me chills/thrills are~

I know Communion is about aliens,but it sure creeped me out!











and





I only read G or PG 'secular' books,don't want any Christian/Inspirational types.

Mary Downing Hahn has many more titles that I want to get to,like The Doll in the Garden,plus I totally loved the movie The Dollhouse Murders (1992) (TV Movie) aka "Secrets in the Attic" which was based on the book by Betty Ren Wright, which I so want to read!...

The Haunting of Hill House

Ben wrote: "Phantom Nights by John Farris is one of my all-time favorites. It's 50s era Southern setting is beautifully (and sometimes horrifically) rendered, and I really loved the train/afterlife concept. Th..."

I'm so putting this on my list

Christine wrote: "Hi all, newbie to this group just in time for Halloween,lol!

I 'LOVE' Ghost stories and tales of haunted houses/places,and tales of the unexplained.

It's weird but those books written for adults ..."

I wasn't scared by Ghost Story or Haunting of Hill House either...Bag of Bones, yes. And Amittyville Horror. I love Mary Downing Hahn, Deep & Dark and Dangerous is our favorite (my kids like her too).

Deep,Dark&Dangerous is on my TBR list!I just don't think anyone does ghost stories as well as Hahn.

I haven't read Bag of Bones (don't read SK anymore, because of the profanity and perverted sex in some of his books),seems like I did read Amittyville Horror, but I can't remember how I felt about it.I know I don't like gruesome gore and will usually stop reading if I come across it,does it have that?

I really can't remember, I read AH so long ago - I do think there was some horror/weirdness in it. Try Jane-Emily, by Patricia Clapp, if you can get your hands on it...it's old, but it's my favorite YA ghost story from when I was a kid. Set in like 1912 and has a very sweet romance piece as well. Also I enjoyed In the Shadows of Blackbirds recently.
Jane-Emily

In the Shadow of Blackbirds

Both of those sound really good,thanks! Have you or anyone by chance read-? I think it sounds really good.

Mystery of the Witches' Bridge by Barbee Oliver Carleton

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0590...

I haven't, but it DOES sound really good!

I just reserved it and some werewolf books from my library.After I read it I will post how I liked it.

Mystery of the Witches' Bridge

Very atmospheric,spooky,and engaging mystery for all ages.
I thought this book sounded like a good one to preview for my 'tween' granddaughter.I got it from the library,and I enjoyed it very much,and I am sure she will too.The writing is excellent and really draws you into the scene.The mystery is interesting enough to keep you turning the pages,plus the attachment you develop for the characters.