Title: The Master of Rampling Gate Author: Anne Rice In: By Blood We Live (John Joseph Adams) Rating Out of 5: 3.5 (Liked this) My Bookshelves:Gothic, Horror, Vampires Dates read: 30th June 2021 Pace: Slow, Medium, Fast Format: Short story Publisher: Night Shade Books Year: 2008 5th sentence, 74th page: “What have they done to me?” he whispered.
Two siblings were left with strict instructions of their father’s death – destroy Rampling Gate. But a visit to find out what they are to destroy has them questioning everything.
This had a very gothic / dracula feel to it. But just not quite as horrifying and twisted. Actually, it had kind of surreal sort of happy ending. Not one that I necessarily went head over heels for. But one that I enjoyed nevertheless.
I like that there was a mystery and a feeling of family traditions and horrors throughout this tale. It wasn’t overly dark in and of itself, but that potential lingered throughout the tale. And it left me feeling very happily intrigued as I flicked through the pages.
I’ve heard of Anne Rice many times. I mean, who hasn’t when you like anything paranormal? So it was fun to know what her writing is actually like. I’d definitely be intrigued to buy one of her novels now…
Title: Nothing Will Hurt You Author: David Morrell In: Hauntings (Ellen Datlow) Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect) My Bookshelves:Family, Horror Dates read: 30th June 2021 Pace: Slow, Medium, Fast Format: Short story Publisher: Tachyon Year: 2013 5th sentence, 74th page: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Parents are supposed to be able to protect their children. But what happens when they fail?
To start with I had some pretty amazing Edward Scissorhand vibes. I’m not entirely sure why, maybe there’s a reference I picked up subconsciously from my long ago watching of the movie. And honestly, I thought that reference was dark enough…
It got darker. It got more disturbing and I felt quite uncomfortable by the time I’d finished this short story. Which, I suppose makes sense for the fact that it’s in the Hauntings collection. It also left you with a but of a “haunting” feeling when you turned that final page…
I love the idea that a father will do anything to protect his daughter. I also loved how this story took that protective instinct WAY too far. Combined with the haunting by the daughter, a quest for revenge and just the general creepiness of this story… well, I’m still tingling.
Title: Dracula and Other Horror Stories Author: Bram Stoker In: Dracula and Other Horror Stories (Bram Stoker) Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:Classics, Horror Dates read: 14th September 2020 – 11th May 2021 Pace: Slow Format: Collection Publisher: Barnes and Noble Leatherbound Year: 2010 5th sentence, 74th page: I trust her feeling ill may not be from that unlucky prick of the safety-pin.
Dracula and Other Horror Classics collects the most memorable tales of horror by Bram Stoker. In addition to Dracula–the landmark vampire novel that set the pattern for virtually all vampire fiction written after its publication in 1897–this omnibus collects the novels The Jewel of Seven Stars and The Lair of the White Worm. In also includes a dozen of Stoker’s short tales of the macabre, including “Dracula’s Guest,” a sidebar to his famous novel.
For more than a century, Bram Stoker’s fiction has inspired countless writers of horror and fantasy fiction. This volume allows readers a unique opportunity to appreciate the full range of his dark imagination.
Dracua and Other Horror Classics is one of Barnes & Noble’s leatherbound classic editions. Each volume features authoritative texts by the world’s greatest authors, in exquisitely designed bonded-leather bindings with distinctive gilt edging and an attractive silk-ribbon bookmark. Decorative, durable, and collectible, these books offer hours of pleasure to readers young and old and are an indispensible cornerstone for every home library.
I seriously enjoyed Dracula. And I do have a bit of a penchant for reading classics late at night over a glass of wine. Bram Stokeris the perfect mood writer for such a penchant too. I mean, a collection of mystery-feeling horrors that have a super eerie feeling. Late at night, with a glass of red wine? Seriously awesome vibes there.
Although I enjoyed this collection, it took quite a while to get through – there is only so much mood writing that you can read before you have to switch to something a little simpler… And, honestly, some of this started to feel a little same-same. Still enjoyable, but just too similar to a certain point.
Towards the end of this collection, I did begin to skim read a little. However, even in skim reading, I found that I was enjoying the storylines.
This might have been a bit of a rushed read at the end, but it is most certainly a collection that I would read again. There are so many wonderful nuances to Stoker’s writing that I can’t wait to see what I pick up on next time!
<- The Dualitists; or, the Death-Doom of the Double-Born
Title: Delta Sly Honey Author: Lucius Shepard In: Hauntings (Ellen Datlow) Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one) My Bookshelves:Ghosts, Horror Dates read: 16th April 2021 Pace: Medium Format: Short story Publisher: Tachyon Year: 2013 5th sentence, 74th page: But it stains you alla same.
They’re in a warzone and constantly battling for a future. But there may be someone haunting their world.
This short story was a bit of a skim read for me. It wasn’t the kind of story that I’d necessarily return to and be obsessed with, but it was enjoyable all the same. Just an easy and fun read altogether.
The confusion and multiple deaths in this story definitely have a haunting feeling to them. But it was about war, so that kind of lent itself further to this storyline. I mean, war is seriously confusing and terrifying. So why wouldn’t a story about it be seriously confusing?
There is a lot of death in this tale. Mostly I just felt confused and trying to count the number of deaths in this tale. Which kind of works when it’s a story all about hauntings…
Title: Snow, Glass, Apples Author: Neil Gaiman In: By Blood We Live (John Joseph Adams) & Smoke and Mirrors (Neil Gaiman) Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect) My Bookshelves:Fairy tales, Horror, Retellings, Vampires Dates read: 31st March 2021 Pace: Slow Format: Short story Publisher: Night Shade Books Year: 2008 5th sentence, 74th page: He rode with a small retinue: large enough to defend him, small enough that another monarch – myself, for instance – would not view him as a potential threat.
This is the true story of Snow White… one that will leave you feeling seriously uncomfortable.
I’ve read quite a few theories that state that Snow White is a vampire. Which seriously makes a deep, dark, twisted kind of sense. Apparently Gaiman feels the same. And this completely supported the theory in the creepiest most disgusting of ways possible. I’m glad that before I started reading this, there was actually a bit of a warning… it definitely helped prepare me for the ick factor that this awesome short story had.
Not only does this short story deal with vampires, and snow white. There is also necrophilia and all sorts of hints of bad things that I don’t necessarily want to think about. Again, seriously glad that there was a disclaimer at the beginning. But it didn’t stop me from being unable to put the story down and stop thinking about it.
This retelling is dark, twisted and truly glorious. I have not been able to stop thinking about it since I finished it. Which is probably one of the many reasons why I loved it so much. That, and, you know, I just tend to love everything I’ve read by Neil Gaiman.
Title: Cargo Author: E. Michael Lewis In: Hauntings (Ellen Datlow) Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:Horror Dates read: 31st March 2021 Pace: Fast Format: Short story Publisher: Tachyon Year: 2013 5th sentence, 74th page: There was none.
Their job is to ship cargo. They don’t get to know what or why. But this lot of cargo has a much darker secret.
This story seriously and deeply hurt my poor heart. There is nothing more tragic in war than the loss of innocent children’s lives. And I seem to be coming up against this theme quite a bit at the moment. So reading a seriously creepy horror story about this theme… yeah, my heart bled a little. Particularly since I read this so soon after finishing Zlata’s Diary.
War is one of the more horrifying aspects of human nature in my opinion. Reading about it was harsh and kind of sucked. But it most definitely drove home the fact that it’s the innocents that really suffer. And that children, the world over just want to play.
In this story, the fact that children just want to play is kind of creepy. I mean, it’s a great notion. But the actual moments in this story? Yup. Seriously terrifying.
Title: Hunger: A Confession Author: Dale Bailey In: Hauntings (Ellen Datlow) Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect) My Bookshelves:Horror Dates read: 28th February 2021 Pace: Slow Format: Short story Publisher: Tachyon Year: 2013 5th sentence, 74th page: That’s when I remembered Mom’s warning that I wasn’t to fool around down here.
Jeremy has always told the most horrifying stories right before bed time… but this one will make you want to keep the light off.
This was… freaking terrifying. Like. Completely, totally and utterly terrifying. I’m really damn glad that I didn’t read this late at night.
I’m a big sister, and I know that I have done many, many things over the years to torture my little sister. But what was happening in this story… I think she should be glad that I didn’t try and torture and scare her as much as Jeremy did in this. But, the uh…. Comeuppance was waaaaaaay more worse.
This was brilliantly written and completely spine tingling. It is beautiful and wonderful. But yeah… don’t read this late at night. Honestly, it is horrifying.
Title: Eenie, Meenie, Ipsateenie Author: Pat Cadigan In: Hauntings (Ellen Datlow) Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:Ghosts, Horror Dates read: 11th February 2021 Pace: Fast Format: Short story Publisher: Tachyon Year: 2013 5th sentence, 74th page: This was the fourth apartment they’d had since coming to the Midwest, but they’d all been the same.
Milo didn’t want to be IT. And now he’s haunted by the fact that he’ll forever be “IT”.
This was a bit of a meandering story. And one that you tend to fill the gaps in on… it just makes you feel all that much more uncomfortable when you don’t quite know if you have the complete picture. Which I’m convinced is what Cadigan was going for.
There is something extra haunting about a childhood killing. A childhood ghost. I think that it’s something about that loss of potential. Plus the fact that IT is capitalized throughout this whole story made me think of the Stephen King story IT which involves a creepy clown literally feasting about children’s potential… all in all not something that is overly comfortable. And most certainly helps to file this short story safely in my horror shelf.
I finished this short story and honestly felt goosebumps. It was most definitely not a comfortable tale to read. And I kind of want to read it again and again. It may not have been comfortable… but it was intriguing. And there were so many subtleties throughout that I’m sure I totally missed. But I’m pretty sure Milo turned into a killer of children…
25 chilling short stories by outstanding female writers
Women have always written exceptional stories of horror and the supernatural. This anthology aims to showcase the very best of these, from Amelia B. Edwards’s ‘The Phantom Coach’, published in 1864, through past luminaries such as Edith Wharton and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, to modern talents including Muriel Gray, Sarah Pinborough and Lilith Saintcrow.
From tales of ghostly children to visitations by departed loved ones, and from heart-rending stories to the profoundly unsettling depiction of extreme malevolence, what each of these stories has in common is the effect of a slight chilling of the skin, a feeling of something not quite present, but nevertheless there.
If anything, this showcase anthology proves that sometimes the female of the species can also be the most terrifying…
This is a fantastic collection. One which I thoroughly enjoyed but learnt fairly quickly that I shouldn’t be reading this late at night… after all, some of these ghost stories are actually kind of scary. And reading them late at night with the wind blowing through the house while you’re home alone… not the best decision making of my life. To be fair, it’s also not the worst…. But that’s a whole other story.
I love that all of these ghost stories are written by women. I definitely believe that we need a collection of women-only writers more often. Or at least, I need to buy more to put on my shelves… although not all of these stories had strong women as the voice, they still felt more relatable than many of the stories that I read by men. I suppose shared experience and all that nonsense.
As a kid, I was never into ghost stories or tales of things that go bump in the night. Although I’ve gotten more into the genre over the past few years, it’s still sometimes not the most powerful driver for me. This collection though is swaying me more and more towards those horror stories.
A chilling tale of the horrors of the past, as told by the children’s mother’s old nurse.
I really loved the cadence and flow of this story. It had this amazing flow throughout that pulled me in and made me incredibly happy. I also loved the way that the storyline unfolded. It was very easy to follow, but also intricate enough that it was impossible to look away from the pages of the book.
There is something quite scary about children ghosts, which I’m sure I’ve mentioned before. But, the child that is luring the children to their death is not what I would have expected. It gives this sinister feeling to the idea that there is now an orphan left unattached and vulnerable. Something which is kind of tragic and filled with a great backstory.
The Old Nurse’s Story is a wonderful tale that sweeps you away and immerses you in a reality that will take you away from daily life for a short while. It’s gothic and intense. A wonderful story that I look forward to journeying on again in the future.
