Winter Tides, by James P. Blaylock

Book number 98 for 2023. 4/5 stars.

I really enjoyed this book, but it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. While it is a ghost story, the main plot line deals more with a lunatic psycho than the ghost. The ghost does figure into it, though. And, while this is billed as “Ghosts, #2” in a series, I have read all three, but not in the right order. They are standalone books, though, and the order that they are read doesn’t seem to be important.

The story begins in the past, approximately fifteen years ago, when Dave Quinn, a southern California surfer, watches a couple of teenage twin sisters get in trouble in some rough ocean water. Their mother foolishly allows them to play in a strong riptide, and they get caught up in it. Dave manages to save one, but the other slips away, even as he is struggling for his own life. He lives with guilt, through the years, that it is his fault that he didn’t save her.

Fast forward fifteen years, when Anne Morris, a young artist, moves to the town where Dave lives and works. She takes a job, working for the same company as Dave, doing artwork for their theater company. As the story unfolds, it becomes apparent that Anne is the sister who survived. 

The aforementioned psycho turns out to be Edmund Dalton, the son of the owner of the company. Edmund is one of the best-written psycho villains I have ever seen. Blaylock really nails it with this guy. He is so delusional that he thinks everything that happens is either serendipitous, validating his actions, or because of how brilliant he must be. He also has issues that are almost shocking. And, to boot, he is stealing from his dad, Earl, (they call him The Earl, and his company is called Earl of Gloucester), who doesn’t want to hear anything about it. There is also a brother, Casey, who struggles with drinking, but is also an avid surfer and best friends with our “hero,” Dave.

The plot twists and turns as Dave and Anne become romantically involved and Edmund gets jealous because he has desires for Anne as well. Edmund also hates Collier, the guy who actually oversees the small theater, and is trying to get rid of him by framing Collier’s daughter, Jenny, for starting fires. Edmund also appears to be somewhat of a pyromaniac. Once again, I cannot overemphasize what a great job Blaylock did of writing this creep. 

In the midst of all of this, Dave, Anne, and Edmund keep seeing the ghost of Anne’s twin sister, Elinor. Edmund, of course, believes that he has summoned this ghost and that she is his partner in crime. That’s how delusional he is.

For the most part, this is well-written. However, I noticed a rather strong incongruity, toward the end. There is a chapter where Edmund tries to capture Anne, and Dave saves her, and Edmund runs away and hides. All of a sudden, in the next chapter, Edmund has Anne captive, duct-taped in a room and lures Dave into the room to either kill or capture him, as well. There is no explanation of how Edmund caught Anne . . . he just suddenly has her. I found this to be somewhat confusing. But it didn’t really diminish my enjoyment of the book.

TTFN, y’all!

Briefly, A Delicious Life, by Nell Stevens

Book number 81 for 2023. 4/5 Goodreads stars.

This book is, in some ways, difficult to describe. It’s a ghost story. It’s a love story. It’s historical fiction based on actual events. It’s mildly “spicey” in a few spots. It involves controversial subject matter (at least for its time frame). It’s a tragedy.

Blanca, the main character in this story, is a ghost. She died at the age of 14 years old (we don’t find out exactly how until very close to the end of the book), and “haunts” a monastery in Majorca, Spain, close to the village where she lived. She died in 1473.

But our story begins in 1838, almost four hundred years later, when Blanca observes two men kissing. Except it’s not two men, because one of them is the controversial French writer George Sand.

At some point, all of the monks left the monastery (I think it tells why, but I don’t remember), and the caretaker decided to rent rooms out. He rented part of the “Charterhouse” to George Sand and her companion at the time, Frederic Chopin. Yes, that Chopin! There were also two children, of whom Ms. Sand was the mother. At least one of those was by her former husband, but there is a good chance that the other was not by her husband.

I did a little research after finishing this book, and sure enough, George Sand and Chopin had a relationship of about ten years, part of which was spent in Majorca, Spain. Sand had had numerous other relationships, at least one of which was with a woman, actress Marie Dorval. The first such affair was with novelist Jules Sandeau, with whom she collaborated on at least one book. When he didn’t want to collaborate any longer, I believe is when she changed her name, taking part of his last name as her own, because, at that time, women couldn’t get books published.

But I digress. I really liked this book. It was one of my random choices from my “want to read” list, and I’m not disappointed that I read it. The writing, in my opinion, is excellent. This is Ms. Stevens’s first novel, after publishing some memoirs. The narrative is almost lyrical in nature, flowing with such ease and grace.

There is a lot of jumping around, time-wise. We get flashbacks of Blanca’s life, when she was alive, which provide the back story of who she was and why. We also get flashbacks of George Sand’s life, back to when she was married to Francois Casimir Dudevant. Oh, by the way, Sand was born Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin. Sand also dressed like a man (hence Blanca first thinking that two men were kissing) and smoked cigars. We also get flashes into the future, as Blanca discovers that she can enter into the minds of her subjects and see glimpses of where their lives will lead. And, at some point in the narrative, Blanca falls in love with George Sand.

All in all, this is a fascinating historical novel based on the real lives of George Sand and Frederic Chopin. It’s almost magical, really. I believe I gave it 4.5 stars on the Bookly app, because it allows half-star ratings.

TTFN, y’all!

The Turn of the Screw and Other Stories, by Henry James

Book number 53 for the year. 4/5 Goodreads stars.

I have wanted to read this ever since someone informed me that the title story was the basis for Mike Flanagan’s Netflix series, The Haunting of Bly Manor. So when I found this book at a little shop on the square in Glen Rose, I snatched it up.

Just like The Haunting of Hill House, the Netflix series is very loosely based on the short story. It’s a long short story, and perhaps could even be called a novella, coming in at 156 pages of the 316 page book. James’s writing is from the early 20th century and is not easy for me to read, because I’m so used to modern writing. It was, nevertheless, fulfilling.

I’m not sure that I would categorize the titular tale as “horror,” although it certainly lends itself to that. It is definitely a “ghost story,” even if the ghosts in question are only in the imagination of our main character. The story is told from the perspective of the nameless character, who is visiting with someone whom we only know as “Douglas.” Douglas brings out this manuscript that was allegedly sent to him by the woman who winds up being the governess of the two children, Miles and Flora, at Bly Manor. As far as I remember, this governess remains nameless. Flanagan gave her the name Dani Clayton.

The mystery has to do with what happened to the previous governess, known as Miss Jessel. She is said to have left under mysterious circumstances, and then died. We are not told how she died. There is also a mysterious male involved, known as Quint. Early in the story, the governess sees Quint in various places around the manor. Eventually, she begins to see Miss Jessel, as well, especially outside around the small lake on the property.

Her relationship with the children begins well, but later on begins to deteriorate. The governess imagines that the children are seeing the same apparitions as she, but we never know for sure. It’s truly a psychological puzzle, as the blurb on the back cover says. “Are the two children innocent or corrupt? Do ghost have evil power over them–or over their young governess?”

As I was having a conversation with a coworker at the library (I believe she is one of the people who informed me that this story is the basis for the Netflix series), the question came up, were there ghosts, or was she crazy?

I confess that that possibility had not even occurred to me, but the more I think about it, the more I believe that to be the case. At any rate, the ending is a bit shocking, if what I think happened is what really happened. That’s another thing with James. It’s a little difficult to figure out exactly what transpired at the end.

But he does a great job of conveying the psychological mystery.

There are three other stories in this volume. The Pupil, The Tree of Knowledge, and The Figure in the Carpet. None of these is as spooky as the titular story, but still delve into the psychology of human beings.

The Pupil is quite similar to Turn of the Screw in that it deals with a young man who becomes a tutor for a boy who lives with his parents. They travel a lot, and he travels with them. By the end of the story, I believe the boy is at least fifteen years old. The relationships between the boy and his parents, the parents with each other, the tutor with the boy, and the tutor with the parents, are all quite complex. They are made even more so as the parents contrive to constantly get away without paying the young man for his services. Once again, we have a somewhat shocking ending to the story.

The Tree of Knowledge was perhaps a little difficult to grasp. Once again, there is a family, the Mallows, who have a son named Lancelot, and a friend named Peter Brench. Brench is in love with Mrs. Mallow, but never really tells anyone about it. Lancelot has attempted to go to university, but doesn’t do well and wants to become an artist.

And The Figure in the Carpet, while giving us a totally different type of circumstance, still has the interplay of various relationships. This tale is about a literary critic who becomes obsessed with discovering the secret of one particular author’s work, to the point that it damages every relationship he has.

John Felstiner writes an essay at the end of this book, simply called “To the Reader.” In this, he says that James’s central preoccupation is “the exposure of innocence, and the precarious movement of mind from ignorance to knowledge.” That statement, vague as it may sound (especially if one has not read this work), actually helped me in understanding all of the tales. They are quite a bit deeper than surface level.

There is also a segment in this volume, called “Notes on the Stories,” to which no author is credited, that also gave a little more understanding for each one. Finally, the book concludes with a brief biographical sketch of Henry James (in which I learned that Henry was actually the brother of philosopher William James) and a selected bibliography.

All in all, it was enjoyable (probably closer to 3.5 stars), but will not be retained on my shelf, as I have no desire to read it again.

TTFN, y’all!

The Ghost of Bluebell Cottage, by Clair Voet

Book 41 for 2023; 4/5 Goodreads stars

This was a delightfully charming ghost story, set in Great Britain. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It involves a family from the past, named Paxton, who inhabited a couple of cottages in Corfe Castle village, which is named after an existing castle in the area. That castle was inhabited by John Bankes and Lady Mary Bankes in 1635. In this tale, her ghost can be seen in and around the castle.

Regarding the two cottages, one was inhabited by Lilly Paxton, and the other by her sister, Bluebell, hence the name of the cottage.

This book also features two timelines, as it switches back and forth between the timeline of the 1600s (usually being shown in dreams of several of the main characters). During the earlier time, we discover that the two sisters were killed because they were thought to be witches.

Our two main characters, Greg Thomas and Helen, whose last name escapes me, at the moment, are both newcomers to Corfe Castle. They are both having some of the strange dreams that seem to be happening in chronological order, telling a story. They are also both being watched suspiciously by a woman named Peggy Paxton, who is distantly related to the two sisters and their families.

There is a lot going on, here, really, and, at times, it is a little hard to follow. The village vicar is hearing voices in his head, and there are a couple times when it is difficult to tell who is actually talking. This may be because of the way the Kindle version is formatted . . . I’m not sure of that. There are a few spelling issues, but some of those are because it is of British origin (tyres, for example, instead of tires). But there are also at least two dangling participles, which always bug me. Not bad enough to affect my rating, though.

We have ghosts, we have reincarnation, we have spirit possessions, we have witch hunts. We also have betrayal in relationships and romance going on, as well. But, over all, it is a lovely story, and I quite enjoyed it.

TTFN, y’all!

Hark! The Herald Angels Scream, edited by Christopher Golden

4/5 Goodreads stars

Very nearly a five-star rating for me, this book contains stories that incorporate three great things: short stories, horror, and Christmas!

I recognized three of the names included in this collection. I have read work by Christopher Golden, Joe R. Lansdale, and Kelley Armstrong in the past. The rest of the authors represented were, at least as far as I can remember, new to me.

There are a number of the stories that feature somewhat of a surprise ending. Those are always fun. There is a variety of writing styles, though, which is one thing that is always nice about a collection of short stories by different authors. And, as is often the case with the short story, as well, there were a couple that just made me scratch my head and go “huh?”

I will list my favorite stories from the collection.

Christmas in Barcelona, by Scott Smith — A couple with a newborn baby are in Barcelona for Christmas. Things are not going well. In an effort to make things better, the husband goes in search of the perfect Christmas gift. He encounters a strange old woman, who has a collection of toys that have a rare feature that makes them “special.” This is one of the stories with a great surprise ending.

Fresh As the New-Fallen Snow, by Seanan McGuire — A couple, who really don’t get along at all, but who put on pretenses to display to others in their careers, hires a baby sitter for their children, one of whom is adolescent and really doesn’t need one. The baby sitter turns out to be more than she appears to be.

Not Just for Christmas, by Sarah Lotz — this one involves genetically engineered pets, puppies that always stay puppies, but can even be programmed to talk. Of course, these “animals” can also be hacked, it turns out.

Good Deeds, by Jeff Strand — this story is hilarious, one of the funny ones in the group. It still fits the horror description, but I assure you, it is extremely funny. When I realized what was happening, it made it even funnier. You see, and this is a mild spoiler, it is a parody of the writing of one of my least favorite Christmas songs, “Christmas Shoes.” The scenario encountered by the person in the story (it’s in first person) mirrors the beginning of the song, where a young boy is trying to buy a nice pair of shoes for his dying mother. The man buys the shoes for the boy, and it makes him feel so good that he goes home and writes a song about it. He called the song, “A Precious Young Child’s Wish for His Terminally Ill Mother to Have New Shoes to Die In, and How I Granted That Wish One Magical Christmas Eve.” The song does not have the expected effect on its listeners, though.

It’s A Wonderful Knife, by Christopher Golden — A delightful tale that incorporates a fictional event within the making of the movie that almost sounds like the title of the story, and the weapon used in that fictional event. It also involves a sort of karma/justice doled out to a rich producer.

The Second Floor of the Christmas Hotel, by Joe R. Lansdale — This very well may be my favorite in the bunch. It’s a good old fashioned ghost story. And a well-written one, at that.

The Hangman’s Bride, by Sarah Pinborough — The last story in the book, this one is also in the running for favorite. It is also a great ghost story, involving a misunderstanding around a young bride’s death, years ago. The ghost of the bride helps a young boy, working as a chimney sweep, reveal the truth of the matter.

There are others, and I am sure some folks will appreciate some of the stories that didn’t do it for me, quite as much. But it’s a great collection, and I’m glad I found it during the season that it represents.

TTFN, y’all!

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson

Spoilers ahead . . . you have been warned. 5/5 Goodreads stars.

It’s hard to know exactly where to begin, with this book. After having read Jackson’s Hillhouse, last year, I came across this one during my shelving duties at the Hurst Public Library, where I work part time. For one thing, I’m not exactly sure where I would classify this book, genre-wise. Is it “horror?” Not exactly, although it has elements of horror. Is it a “ghost story?” To be perfectly honest, I’m not one hundred percent certain. I don’t think it is, but there were moments, during reading, that I wondered.

It definitely has elements of a scary story, though, and acts like a ghost story, much of the time.

Constance and Mary Katherine (Merricat, and I absolutely adore that nickname) are sisters and live together in a large house with their Uncle Julian. They are the last three members of the immediate family. It appears that everyone else in the family died from poisoning a number of years earlier. Constance was accused and tried for the murder, but not convicted. Merricat has a cat named Jonas.

The people of the nearby village, in general, don’t like the Blackwood family (that’s Constance, Merricat, and Uncle Julian). Merricat goes to town a couple days a week, to buy supplies for them, and is not normally treated very well.

One day, out of the blue, cousin Charles shows up. I’m never quite sure of the reason, or his intent, but I suspect he is after money. You see, Constance and Merricat keep all of their money hidden away in the house, most of it in a safe in their late father’s study. In addition, we eventually discover that Merricat, who likes to bury things, has buried numerous silver dollars around the property. This, of course, upsets cousin Charles to no end.

Merricat seems to fancy herself a witch of some sort, as she speaks of days when she has the most power, and also has words that she employs, that she believes protect them and the house. In addition, she is constantly wishing people dead, sometimes in horrific fashion. It must be noted, though, that these wishes are not entirely unwarranted, as the family does experience a bit of persecution, as previously alluded to.

One source of this persecution can be seen in a cruel and taunting rhyme, employed by the villagers.

“Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea?
Oh, no, said Merricat, you’ll poison me.
Merricat, said Connie, would you like to go to sleep?
Down in the boneyard ten feet deep!”

Merricat’s response: “Their tongues will burn, I thought, as though they had eaten fire. Their throats will burn when the words come out, and in their bellies will feel a torment hotter than a thousand fires.”

Okay. Maybe this is a horror story.

My favorite line in the book occurs on the first day that Charles offers to go into town to get supplies. It is Tuesday, and that’s Merricat’s day to do this.

“Since Charles had taken my occupation for Tuesday morning I had nothing to do. I wondered about going down to the creek, but I had no reason to suppose that the creek would even be there, since I never visited it on Tuesday mornings.”

Shades of Shrodinger’s Cat! “If a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one there to hear it . . .” and so on.

Slightly beyond the halfway point, the story takes a tragic turn. Because of Charles’s constant pipe smoking, the house catches fire and the upper portion burns away completely. By this point, Merricat has been conspiring on ways to get Charles to leave, but with no success. Did she have something to do with the fire?

Nevertheless, the village’s firemen arrive and begin to put out the fire. The rest of the village also arrives, to watch. Things get out of hand. Some of the villagers opine that they should just let the house burn, along with Constance and Merricat. They begin trashing what is left of the house, when the fire is put out. Furniture is destroyed; Constance’s harp (I believe it was also their mother’s) was knocked over and broken; food was destroyed. And, to make matters worse, during all of this turmoil, Uncle Julian dies.

Constance and Merricat carry on, afterward, essentially shutting themselves up in the house, and will see no one, whatsoever. People come to the door, begging them to answer, but they will not. Eventually, people feel guilty for their behavior and begin leaving food at the front door, along with notes, “Sorry about the harp,” and so on.

It’s a tragic tale, I believe, about human nature and how we tend to hate things we do not know or understand. The element of ruthless greed is involved, as well, so excellently depicted in Cousin Charles, who does show up one more time, in a shameless attempt to get the money.

Honestly, I enjoyed this story quite a bit more than Hillhouse. I especially grew fond of Merricat’s cat, Jonas.

TTFN, y’all!

The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson

Five of five Goodreads stars.

I know that other reviewers have already done this, but I’m going to do it anyway. So, there.

“Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”

Decades before Stephen King began and ended his Dark Tower epic, Shirly Jackson both began and ended her epic horror story with the same words.

I seriously thought I had read this book before. Goodness knows I’ve known about it. But I can’t find it anywhere on my reading list, which extends back to the Spring of 1974, and I honestly did not remember any of the story, so this is my first time to read this classic example of the all-familiar haunted house genre.

The premise of the story is that John Montague, a doctor of philosophy, plans a “scientific” experiment on the psychic phenomenon of house haunting. He purposes to spend some nights in this house, Hill House, of which he has heard about. He enlists the help of several younger people, one of whom is a distant relative of the last owners of the house, because they insisted on having someone connected with the family be present. This person would be Luke Sanderson.

The other two are Eleanor Vance, known as Nell or Nellie, and another young lady who is only known as Theodora, or Theo. We are not provided with a last name.

The only other characters are the long-time caretakers of the property, known only as Mr. and Mrs. Dudley. Oh, oops. And Mrs. Montague, who shows up toward the end, along with a friend known as Arthur, who is a teacher/headmaster with whom she is acquainted. I suspect there might be some romantic involvement, there, but we are never explicitly told that.

Ms. Jackson’s writing is gripping and engaging, at least for me. The “horror” in this story is not constant. In fact, out of the 235 pages in this edition, a small percentage of them could even be called “scary.” But that small percentage is oh, so very frightening. The majority of the rest of the story consists of interactions and conversations among the small group of people.

Some of this interaction and conversation is humorous, some sarcastic. Much of it seems like coping strategies to keep from going completely bonkers during their stay at the house.

The thing that really makes this story effective is that we are never given any kind of explanation about what, exactly, is haunting this house. Or if it is truly “haunted,” as opposed to simply being outright evil.

In other words, was the house haunted by ghosts, or was the house simply an evil entity in its own right?

I, personally, am leaning toward the latter of the two.

And, it seems, the house wants Eleanor. Why? Jolly good question, that. And maybe what this book is all really about is the fact that Eleanor feels guilt over her mother’s death.

Ms. Jackson’s descriptions are so good. That is another thing that really makes this book come alive. Here is the description of Eleanor’s first sighting of the house: “The house was vile. She shivered and thought, the words coming freely into her mind. Hill House is vile, it is diseased; get away from here at once.” But of course, she did not do so.

Almost immediately, at the beginning of the next chapter, we get this: “This house, which seemed somehow to have formed itself, flying together into its own powerful pattern under the hands of its builders, fitting itself into its own construction of lines and angels, reared its great head back against the sky without concession to humanity. It was a house without kindness, never meant to be lived in, not a fit place for people or for love or for hope. Exorcism cannot alter the countenance of a house; Hill House would stay as it was until it was destroyed.”

I may be sleeping with the lights on, tonight.

The edition that I read included two introductions. One by director Guillermo del Toro, added in 2013, and another by Laura Miller, from 2006. Del Toro’s intro seems to be an intro designed for several editions of these Penguin Horror classics, and I got some good fuel for my To Be Read list.

I want to give a very brief comparison to Netflix’s series of the same name. It is vaguely based on the book. There are characters with the same names. However, the story is drastically changed. In the Netflix series, two different actors play Hugh Crain, who was in the book, but was the original owner/builder of the house, who had only two daughters. Nell, Theo, and Luke were all presented by the Netflix series as children of Hugh Crain, along with Steven and Shirley, who are not characters in the book.

Nell/Eleanor’s name did not became Vance in the series until she married a sleep tech named, oddly enough, Arthur. Mr. and Mrs. Dudley are both in the series, as caretakers of the house. The Netflix series seems to be more about family drama than it is about house haunting, although the haunting of the house seems to be the cause of much of the drama. I have not, at this point, however, completed the series, so I have yet to see where it winds up. The outcome of the Nell/Eleanor character is remotely similar, however, and that is all I will say about that, as I try not to include spoilers in my reviews.

I will be on the lookout for an opportunity to see the 1963 film, The Haunting, as it seems to be regarded as the best film adaptation of this book.

I consider it quite appropriate that I finished this book on Halloween.

TTFN, y’all!