GHOST STORY was my favorite novel for many years-mostly because of the intricacy of it. The stories of these men, the stories about the relatives of these men, and the stories about the town itself, wind around and through each other-to me it's like a beautifully woven tapestry of art. I have to think that the author had it all planned out from the very beginning, otherwise how could it have been so wonderfully done? What's not to like? Several things. first of all, the pace: the book is monstrous slog. A chore to get through. Straub switches between several narrative viewpoints (much like Stoker in Dracula) and the plot plods frequently and slows down so much that reading soon becomes a challenge. There's no doubt that Straub is a great writer - some of his passages I've read several times, because I simply enjoyed them so much - but he becomes lost in what he tries to do, the references he includes so subtly vanish in the detail he describes so voraciously. Not a Straub fan, but this is a good book. One of the better "ghost stories" out there (in spite of the fact that it's not exactly a story about a ghost per-se).

Peter Barnes, this badass young man ended up being my favorite character of them all. If it wasn't for him, this book would have gone in a whole different direction! Must Read Horror Articles 23 October 2023 Welcome to Must Read Horror, where we search the internet… The simple fact is that for most of us, all the terrorists and all the murderers and all the faultily-constructed planes in all the world are not nearly as likely to hurt us than uncontrolled cell growth within our own bodies. Sure, I get a little jittery when my plane hits turbulence; and yes, I sneak around my own house with a baseball bat every time I hear a bump in the night. But truthfully, the only thing that really scares me is cancer.First off, the writing in this one is absolutely top draw. Straub's story telling ability is at the very top end of the horror genre. It's very literary, but never becomes a barrier to the story being told. It was an absolute pleasure to read. New York Times bestselling author Peter Straub's classic tale of horror, secrets, and the dangerous ghosts of the past... One caveat, don't be put off by the opening scenes in this book (some would be and some wouldn't). They could lead one to believe it's a totally different kind of book than it is... I myself almost put it down getting the wrong impression from the way it opened.

I know that I’m keeping this vague but due to spoilers, it’s best to go into this one not knowing much about what’s evil and why the men of The Chowder Society are haunted. olethros6 on The Secret of the Sul’Dam: Subtle Changes to the Way the One Power Works in The Wheel of Time TV Series 1 second ago Ghost Story, directed by John Irvin". Time Out. London. Archived from the original on June 6, 2016 . Retrieved December 14, 2017. The story centres around a group of four elderly gentleman, who meet twice a month as members of the Chowder society. The rules are you dress smartly in dinner attire, you don't drink too much and when it's your turn you have to tell a story of something dreadful. This involves the telling of tales of a terrifying and supernatural nature. Her eyes were brimming behind the big glasses. “Oh, I’m a horrible mess. I knew I should never have come out here. I was happy in Madison. I should never have come to California.”Oh, I’m sorry. Did I say the “most elegant” metaphor? Because I meant to say crass and vaguely disturbing. I realize in the quotes above that I’m not summing up how scary the book can be, but that’s mostly because I don’t want to give too much away. When Straub wants to lull his readers into a slice of life tale, it works perfectly, but the horror, when it hits, is extremely unsettling largely because his characters think they’re living ordinary lives. Weirdly the thing that came to mind the most as I read was Ari Aster’s film Hereditary—Straub creates a similar sense of an implacable evil winding around people’s lives. Ghost Story got way under my skin and promises to stay there. It has evil and horror elements in the book but if you are looking for a haunted house or poltergeist, you’ll not find it in Ghost Story. Sylas K Barrett The Secret of the Sul’Dam: Subtle Changes to the Way the One Power Works in The Wheel of Time TV Series 2 hours ago If you are looking for an elegantly written, unusual and complex horror story this is for you, but how many people are looking for such a thing?

I will not go into plot details at this stage, since these can be had by reading the book synopsis. Instead, in general terms, I'll try and explain just why this book should be on the reading list of any self respecting horror fan. Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique: Drew is fond of Hannah because she acts like a boy. They spend most of their time together, and he even climbs trees with her. One day, John shows up in his father’s car and becomes friends with Hannah. Drew feels jealous because he knows that they will eventually marry each other according to Aunt Blythe’s story about the family history.

Bravo Mr. Straub. I'm so sorry that you've been taken from this world before I've gotten a chance to become a fan. Although GRs marks this as my second read, it's actually my third. (I read this one as a teenager for the first time). One of Straub's best books, imho. Still, this is not one that promises instant gratification, or perfect closure. It's a multi-layerd novel, that leaves a lot to the imagination of the reader. Personally, I enjoy a bit of ambiguity in my horror--often what one can imagine is even more terrifying that what is put down on paper. I adored, and distinctly remember trying to emulate in a short story I wrote in college. What a great conjuring of claustrophobia and unease!

Straub read voraciously from an early age, but his literary interests did not please his parents; his father hoped that he would grow up to be a professional athlete, while his mother wanted him to be a Lutheran minister. He attended Milwaukee Country Day School on a scholarship, and, during his time there, began writing. Narcissus, gazing at his image in the pool, wept. A friend passing by saw him and asked, “Narcissus, why do you weep?” “Because my face has changed,” Narcissus said. “Do you cry because you grow older?” “No. I see that I am no longer innocent. I have been gazing at myself long and long, and so doing have worn out my innocence.” a b Barton, Steve (September 30, 2015). "Scream Factory Details Ghost Story Blu-ray Release". Dread Central. Archived from the original on September 27, 2016 . Retrieved December 10, 2017. Ghost Story takes its time reaching the climax, and this is a good thing. As long as things are still a bit unclear, as long as you can’t quite see around the next corner, the novel retains tension. I’m not saying it will scare you. It won’t make you scream aloud, for the simple reason that, unlike a movie, you can look away at any time and stop the action. However, there are parts that will give you the creeps; and there will be parts where your eyes will try to cheat by skipping ahead; and there is a chance, if you read this before bed and take a slug of Nyquill, you will have odd nightmares. Mary Downing Hahn’s novel, A Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story, is about a boy who goes to spend the summer with his aunt. He visits an old house that has shadows and noises but it turns out to be time travel. The boy meets a ghost of another boy who looks like him and he ends up helping him.Drew reluctantly enters the house, following his parents and aunt at a distance. He navigates empty rooms by listening to their voices. Drew approaches them unnoticed as his father tells Blythe that Drew is “fearful… nervous… too much imagination.” And several more paragraphs along those lines, overflowing with details that create a specific small-town Christmas. And again, he dips in and out of a cross-section of the town—we hear about what the high school kids are doing, as well as the housewives, as well as the folks who spend most of their December under Humphrey’s Christmas lights. Once he’s brought the usual Milburn holiday season to life, he shows us the despair of the current December, with blizzards that haven’t let up since October, food shortages, flare ups of domestic violence, tragic deaths—and everyone in town sensing that something’s wrong, even though they have idea that there’s a monster in town, or that the ridiculous old men of the Chowder Society are trying to fight it.