Book review: The Haunting Season - Ghostly Tales For Long Winter Nights

 Hello,

Gosh it has been a long time since I wrote a blog post. According to the tracker that tells me when I last posted, it has been two whole years since I wrote a book review on the little separate blog space I created and then forgot about. I thought it may be less confusing for me just to use this blog - Antics And Ramblings Of a Twenty Something - for all posts again (at least until I am a lot less rusty).

So much has happened since I last wrote, reader. I moved to a new city, I have moved homes twice, I got engaged, I got married, I've stayed in hosptial three times and been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. I have a new job. I have lost loved ones and I have been to beaches, forests, cities. I have made new friends here and Jack has had two new jobs. So much has changed. I have grown. I have missed writing. 

I am currently not feeling very well whilst starting treatment for EGPA Vasculitus and whilst waiting to start other treatment.  I find myself wanting to talk or to write to someone and at the moment other than family I'm not meeting others at all. So, I feel lucky for family, lucky for the love I have around me, lucky for the wonderful Doctor's helping me and lucky to have this little blog. A blog that is the second edition of my original blog I started at 18 and keep coming back to at the age of 26. 

I have read many books so far this year but as it is fresh in my memory, I will start by reviewing the last book I read. This is called 'The Haunting season' - Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights and is an anthology by a collection of authors' published in 2021. I had seen it, like so many other beautiful books, on the shelves in various bookshops. I usually wait until I see a book second-hand before investing and this is exactly what I did and how it came to be in my possession a few weeks ago. 

The book itself is beautiful. Navy sprayed pages and gold leaves illuminate the lit candle design on the front cover, boasting the names of the authors' as emblems. It is one of the best collections of ghost stories I have ever read (on par with Roald Dahl's collection of ghost stories that includes Rosemary Timperly's "Harry" - the best ghost story I have ever read). The anthology contains eight imaginative, chilling, macabre, mad, unsettling tales. Many take place in Dickensian or Victorian England but all exploring different themes or topics. These include superstition, fortune telling, houses where the inhabitants never really leave, myths, child birth, and all depict moral or spiritual dilemmas that seem to arise from darker aspects of humanity such as ignorance, pride, want, or simply lack of understanding. 

These eight stories, all written in different voices and in very different styles are done to such a standard I can't recommend this book highly enough.

 You may ask why did you start reading winter ghost stories in August? I think because truly a good ghost story with it's subtlety to unsettle and usually written with the protagonist's ability to tell the story as if looking back at events they couldn't change, leaves me equally as unsettled after reading and I wanted to read them when the brighter nights wouldn't mean they could play on my mind. 

Noting here, I love ghost stories and hate horror stories. The difference being subtlety of the unsettling and the ability for the imagination to fill in the gaps with ghost stories as opposed to horror that is too full on and scary for me. 

Ghost stories have their roots in the stories that would be told in families through generations or told in a circle between friends in a playground. Ghost stories are strangely universally intriguing and chilling in equal measure and I have come to see they can be some of the best forms of writing if done well (which I think is really difficult for even the most experienced writers to do). The writers of this anthology are beyond gifted and if you read any ghost story anthology, be sure to make it this one. 

Molly 07/09/2023