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dreamawakebooks's review against another edition
4.0
A Study In Black and White ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I enjoyed this one, suitably creepy and atmospheric and made my skin crawl - just the way it should be!
Thwaite's Tennant ⭐⭐⭐
Not a favourite for me unfortunately, slow and quite tedious to read. A clever protagonist however, and a good ending.
The Eel Singers ⭐⭐⭐
My least favourite of the collection. A very odd storyline, not spooky at all. I found it really hard to concentrate on. Had to keep re-reading parts.
Lily Wilt ⭐⭐⭐
Another strange storyline, the ending appeared quite rushed, and I felt like there was part of the story missing.
The Chillingham Chair - Laura Purcell
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Loved this one! Well thought out with good structure and quite creepy in places. Not all is as it seems.
The Hanging of The Greens
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Another great storyline with a fair amount of mystery to it. Descriptive prose and strong characters.
Confinement
⭐⭐⭐⭐
This one was my favourite, although not a ghost story as such, more the story of a Woman confined for post-partum psychosis in a time when it was little understood. Affected me deeply, Catherine is a very relatable character and I felt great empathy for her. This one is based loosely on a true story.
Monster
⭐⭐⭐
So much more could have been done with this story. Very readable, but felt like something was missing.
Overall rating 4 stars.
I enjoyed this one, suitably creepy and atmospheric and made my skin crawl - just the way it should be!
Thwaite's Tennant ⭐⭐⭐
Not a favourite for me unfortunately, slow and quite tedious to read. A clever protagonist however, and a good ending.
The Eel Singers ⭐⭐⭐
My least favourite of the collection. A very odd storyline, not spooky at all. I found it really hard to concentrate on. Had to keep re-reading parts.
Lily Wilt ⭐⭐⭐
Another strange storyline, the ending appeared quite rushed, and I felt like there was part of the story missing.
The Chillingham Chair - Laura Purcell
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Loved this one! Well thought out with good structure and quite creepy in places. Not all is as it seems.
The Hanging of The Greens
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Another great storyline with a fair amount of mystery to it. Descriptive prose and strong characters.
Confinement
⭐⭐⭐⭐
This one was my favourite, although not a ghost story as such, more the story of a Woman confined for post-partum psychosis in a time when it was little understood. Affected me deeply, Catherine is a very relatable character and I felt great empathy for her. This one is based loosely on a true story.
Monster
⭐⭐⭐
So much more could have been done with this story. Very readable, but felt like something was missing.
Overall rating 4 stars.
whatfern_reads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
livres_de_bloss's review against another edition
2.0
This collection had a strange combination of some of my favourite authors (Natasha Pulley, Laura Purcell), authors who I’ve enjoyed before (Elizabeth Macneal), authors I’ve had bad luck with (Jess Kidd), and some authors I dislike (Bridget Collins, Kiran Millwood Hargrave) so I was on the fence for over a year as to whether to bother with it. In the end, I decided to chance it (mostly because it was on sale).
This book is ultimately let down by the fact that novels and short stories are different mediums and just because a writer does novels well, doesn’t mean their writing will translate to short stories. These didn’t read like short stories (more like excerpts from novels that had been mangled into shorts) and most of them suffered from overwrought prose and bogged-down descriptions that, while might be tolerable in novels, didn’t land right in shorts.
I’m also getting tired of Victorian nonsense - it’s been done to death and many of the stories had a “samey” feel to them as a result of their identikit (bar one) Victorian setting. The spooky enthusiast in me was disappointed that these stories weren’t as chilling/scary as advertised - I’ve read stuff on r/TwoSentenceHorror that’s stuck with me longer than these will. The first two were downright boring and a weak start can be damaging to a collection like this. While a couple of the stories were strong, in many the atmosphere was lacking or nonexistent; without the express shoehorning of Christmas/snow into some, I would have struggled to see the common thread between these stories (apart from the aforementioned Victorian nonsense in 7/8 of them).
The net result was a real mixed bag:
A Study in Black and White: 2
For this one, I had a hard time getting a sense of the time. There were some very outdated terms mixed with quite modern ones which distracted me throughout the story. Chess as a subject doesn’t interest me so I also felt a bit disengaged with the story as there was a fair bit of airtime focused on chess. Overall, the story was fine but not anything new or particularly memorable. The ending wasn’t really the *sharp intake of breath* the author thought it was.
Thwaite’s Tenant: 1.5
Yikes. I didn’t think it possible for a short story to feel this drawn out, overwrought, and meandering but here we are. Glacial pacing aside, most of the text was the self-indulgent, navel-gazing stream of consciousness of the MC peppered with obnoxious outbursts from her bratty kid and hasty generalizations of the ‘all men are bastards’ variety. While some of the others are stretches, this didn’t fit the theme of the book at all - there was absolutely nothing wintery about it!
The Eel Singers: 3
I enjoyed spending time with these characters again! I didn’t feel this worked brilliantly as a short, as there was enough content here for a novella at minimum. I’m glad I had the context of Watchmaker - I’m not sure this would be as engaging for readers unfamiliar with Natasha Pulley’s characters.
Lily Wilt: 3
This one was a bit more gruesome than the preceding stories but it certainly had a darker atmosphere as a result. Despite my best efforts, I’ve never had much luck with Jess Kidd’s novels but this was more engaging than her feature length work in my opinion. The short word count worked in its favour and the pacing was strong compared to the first two stories in the book.
The Chillingham Chair: 4.5
This was a well-crafted and well-paced wee read. The tension and atmosphere were well done and I was quite invested by the end. Again, as with Pulley’s entry, I think this would have worked best as a novella.
The Hanging of the Greens: 2
Super disjointed with wonky pacing and a really rushed ending. I wasn’t feeling much tension here and the writing style wasn’t particularly engaging. Upon reflection, I think the author tried to do too much in too small a space.
Confinement: 4
This was quite spooky! The only things that stopped this from being a cracking story were the waffley flowery writing at the beginning and the graphic description of birth and its after-effects. I think the limited word count really helped this story - the author couldn’t bloat the story out with purple prose and glacial pacing which made Mercies so poor. I was pleasantly surprised by this one.
Monster: 1.5
This was just bizarre and not in a good way. The story was disjointed and I wasn’t expecting so much gratuitous sex in a short story. This was another one that didn’t even try and play to the “theme”, there was nothing wintery, Christmassy, or spooky.
Overall Average Rating: 2.63 Rounded down because I cannot, in good conscience, give this more than two stars.
This book is ultimately let down by the fact that novels and short stories are different mediums and just because a writer does novels well, doesn’t mean their writing will translate to short stories. These didn’t read like short stories (more like excerpts from novels that had been mangled into shorts) and most of them suffered from overwrought prose and bogged-down descriptions that, while might be tolerable in novels, didn’t land right in shorts.
I’m also getting tired of Victorian nonsense - it’s been done to death and many of the stories had a “samey” feel to them as a result of their identikit (bar one) Victorian setting. The spooky enthusiast in me was disappointed that these stories weren’t as chilling/scary as advertised - I’ve read stuff on r/TwoSentenceHorror that’s stuck with me longer than these will. The first two were downright boring and a weak start can be damaging to a collection like this. While a couple of the stories were strong, in many the atmosphere was lacking or nonexistent; without the express shoehorning of Christmas/snow into some, I would have struggled to see the common thread between these stories (apart from the aforementioned Victorian nonsense in 7/8 of them).
The net result was a real mixed bag:
A Study in Black and White: 2
For this one, I had a hard time getting a sense of the time. There were some very outdated terms mixed with quite modern ones which distracted me throughout the story. Chess as a subject doesn’t interest me so I also felt a bit disengaged with the story as there was a fair bit of airtime focused on chess. Overall, the story was fine but not anything new or particularly memorable. The ending wasn’t really the *sharp intake of breath* the author thought it was.
Thwaite’s Tenant: 1.5
Yikes. I didn’t think it possible for a short story to feel this drawn out, overwrought, and meandering but here we are. Glacial pacing aside, most of the text was the self-indulgent, navel-gazing stream of consciousness of the MC peppered with obnoxious outbursts from her bratty kid and hasty generalizations of the ‘all men are bastards’ variety. While some of the others are stretches, this didn’t fit the theme of the book at all - there was absolutely nothing wintery about it!
The Eel Singers: 3
I enjoyed spending time with these characters again! I didn’t feel this worked brilliantly as a short, as there was enough content here for a novella at minimum. I’m glad I had the context of Watchmaker - I’m not sure this would be as engaging for readers unfamiliar with Natasha Pulley’s characters.
Lily Wilt: 3
This one was a bit more gruesome than the preceding stories but it certainly had a darker atmosphere as a result. Despite my best efforts, I’ve never had much luck with Jess Kidd’s novels but this was more engaging than her feature length work in my opinion. The short word count worked in its favour and the pacing was strong compared to the first two stories in the book.
The Chillingham Chair: 4.5
This was a well-crafted and well-paced wee read. The tension and atmosphere were well done and I was quite invested by the end. Again, as with Pulley’s entry, I think this would have worked best as a novella.
The Hanging of the Greens: 2
Super disjointed with wonky pacing and a really rushed ending. I wasn’t feeling much tension here and the writing style wasn’t particularly engaging. Upon reflection, I think the author tried to do too much in too small a space.
Confinement: 4
This was quite spooky! The only things that stopped this from being a cracking story were the waffley flowery writing at the beginning and the graphic description of birth and its after-effects. I think the limited word count really helped this story - the author couldn’t bloat the story out with purple prose and glacial pacing which made Mercies so poor. I was pleasantly surprised by this one.
Monster: 1.5
This was just bizarre and not in a good way. The story was disjointed and I wasn’t expecting so much gratuitous sex in a short story. This was another one that didn’t even try and play to the “theme”, there was nothing wintery, Christmassy, or spooky.
Overall Average Rating: 2.63 Rounded down because I cannot, in good conscience, give this more than two stars.
merlelol's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
kennaelise's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
This is the first short story collection I’ve read, and I don’t think it’ll be my last. Some of the stories were definitely 5 stars, and had me sat at the edge of my seat. Others I didn’t enjoy but as they were short it was easy to get through them quickly.
the_sunken_library's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed around half of the tales but would only consider two of them "ghostly".
The others were more horror/mythology.
I am unsure why, but all but one of them were written in a period style. None of them felt modern, more Dickensian and I really disliked that as they felt old fashioned and stilted.
I guess famous ghost stories do come from the early 20th century but still, modernise!
The others were more horror/mythology.
I am unsure why, but all but one of them were written in a period style. None of them felt modern, more Dickensian and I really disliked that as they felt old fashioned and stilted.
I guess famous ghost stories do come from the early 20th century but still, modernise!
itsmarkwhitey's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5