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A review by yliana
The Turn of the Screw and Other Ghost Stories by Henry James
1.5
i just couldn't get into the writing. i think henry james was really good at making his writing atmospheric and really setting the mood for whatever story he was writing but I ultimately just found most of the stories to be pretty boring. there was no sense of dread or anything that really screamed, "this is a scary story" but maybe the phrase "ghost stories" made me expect something scary.
i wanted to read this collection because i adore mike flanagan and when i found out that the haunting of bly manor was built off of multiple henry james stories, i was so excited. i'm pretty sad that I didn't enjoy this collection enough to make it past the second story.
july 7, 2024: i finished the last story today and i still was less than impressed with all of these stories. i think it definitely is my fault because i couldn't let go of the expectation of a real "ghost story". i think mike flanagan did such an amazing job combining and adjusting some of these stories for bly manor that the original stories just didn't do it for me. i also feel like this is one of those classics that people think of when they say that classics often feel inaccessible to the general public. so many of the sentences are ridiculously long and i had to reread them multiple times to keep track of what was being said. again though, i think henry james is really good at creating slightly spooky, tense atmospheres.
the story, the friends of the friends, was the most interesting to me and i had a very solid interpretation of what happened so seeing other people's interpretations of the story is so fun and interesting.
i wanted to read this collection because i adore mike flanagan and when i found out that the haunting of bly manor was built off of multiple henry james stories, i was so excited. i'm pretty sad that I didn't enjoy this collection enough to make it past the second story.
july 7, 2024: i finished the last story today and i still was less than impressed with all of these stories. i think it definitely is my fault because i couldn't let go of the expectation of a real "ghost story". i think mike flanagan did such an amazing job combining and adjusting some of these stories for bly manor that the original stories just didn't do it for me. i also feel like this is one of those classics that people think of when they say that classics often feel inaccessible to the general public. so many of the sentences are ridiculously long and i had to reread them multiple times to keep track of what was being said. again though, i think henry james is really good at creating slightly spooky, tense atmospheres.
the story, the friends of the friends, was the most interesting to me and i had a very solid interpretation of what happened so seeing other people's interpretations of the story is so fun and interesting.