Customer Reviews

The Horror Writers Association Presents Peter Straub's Ghosts

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After a lengthy (41 page) Introduction by Peter Straub (worth the read, its actually a story), the shivering tales begin. The book is divided into five separate categories: Dark, The Kids, Mom And Dad, Cold, and Our Work. Like many of the collections from Horror Writer's Association, the stories here may introduce you to a new favorite talent or give you a fresh tale from a chosen author.

Table Of Contents:
Hunger: An Introduction by Peter Straub
DARK:
Styx by Norman Partridge
Jubilee by Kathe Koja
Not Far From Here by Tim Smith
THE KIDS:
Momma Ghost by Alan Rodgers
Daddy's Girl by Gordon R. Ross
Coventry Carol by Chet Williamson
MOM AND DAD:
And He Who Mourns by David B. Silva
His Mother's Hands by Clark Perry
COLD:
Bill Smith's Sleigh Ride by Tyson Blue
Sotto Voce by Lawrence Greenberg
A Real Babe by Brad Linaweaver
OUR WORK:
Looking For Mr. Flip by Thomas F. Monteleone
Present In Spirit by Don D'Ammassa
The Wedding Party by Paul M. Sammon

My favorites include 'Not Far From Here' by Tim Smith, a tale of ghostly, ghastly psychopaths with a strange tie-in to the ether world; the strange haunting of young parents by their lost child in 'Coventry Carol' by Chet Williamson; who is haunting who in Clark Perry's 'His Mothers Hands'; a childhood terror-toy haunts Jack in 'Looking For Mr. Flip' written by Thomas F. Monteleon; the corporate downfall of James Nicholson as the people he's stepped on in the past come back to him in 'Present In Spirit' by Don D'Ammassa; will you recognize mysterious Albert and Mr. Z. in Paul M. Sammon's nineteenth century horror tale called 'The Wedding Party'?

What I love about the collections from Horror Writers Association is that your often get the unexpected in their stories. Though telling of ghosts or witches or vampires, there's always one or two that will stretch your imagination to its limits while still molding to the form of the theme. Many authors mean many views, and Ghosts doesn't disappoint in bringing us ghosts from the early 1900's to the most modern of hauntings. If you like a good ghost collection, be sure to pick this one up. Enjoy!

Peter Straub has selected some extremely interesting ghost stories in this book. Very systematically he looked for stories that depict a deranged mind more than real paranormal phenomena. The ghosts are living in the minds of the main characters and that gives a real twang to the book. No special effects, no monsters with a zipper in the back but phantasms, imaginary beings, delusions, all the result of a mind that does not know where to stand any more. And when you lose your footing, you have the tendency to see the ground floating over your head and the air harbouring a lot of incredible beings and creatures. In other words these stories are perfectly plausible, most of them, and they give you a real feeling of unease because you know you could experience the same thing under some circumstances.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan

I thought the stories in this collection were well-written, in some cases sliding over into the realm of 'pretentious'. Lots of blood and gore, which I don't particularly care for in a ghost story (in fact, I hurled the book into the wastebasket after reading one particularly bloody specimen). My main objection to the stories is that none of them were particularly scary.

Choosing Peter Straub, author of the classic supernatural tale Ghost Story, as the editor for this was another neat marketing trick by the HWA. Too bad the tales he gathered are less than impressive. Straub's story "Hunger" is literate and fascinating, but most of the rest fall flat. Chet Williamson's offering does get under the skin though, causing a rash of gooseflesh. Die hard horror fans will want to check it out, so I recommend it for at least those two tales.