Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain), From Life on the Mississippi (1883) ****
Shame I didn't meet any morbid vigilante detectives when I was travelling.
Sarah Orne Jewett, The Foreigner (1900) *
10,000 words of torturous regional dialec' building up to a momentary trick of the light.
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Old Woman Magoun & Luella Miller (1902–05) ***
The serial-killing vampire tale is considerably lighter than the down-to-earth one.
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (1898) ***
I own three bloody versions of this in my otherwise efficient anthology bookcase, so I was going to bump into it sooner or later after bailing out previously. A certified classic of gothic psychological haunted house horror, it should theoretically be a favourite, if it wasn't dragged down by dullness. I might reevaluate it the next time we cross paths. The original illustrations would've helped, facsimile editions have spoiled me.
Kate Chopin, Désirée's Baby (1893) ***
Cherry-picked anti-racist ancestry horror, it's nice that it existed.
Charles W. Chesnutt, Po' Sandy & The Sheriff's Children (1888–89) ****
Dark fantasy and darker realism.
George Washington Cable, Jean-ah Poquelin (1875) **
Spooky house story told from the boring outside.
Stephen Crane, The Monster (1898) ****
Friendly neighbourhood Frankingstein.
Ambrose Bierce, The Death of Halpin Frayser (1891) ***
Either a brilliant multi-faceted jewel or just a mess.
Frank Norris, Lauth (1893) ****
Philosophical death simulator turned sci-fi horror.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Giant Wistaria (1891) ***
Victorian Most Haunted.
Paul Laurence Dunbar, From The Sport of the Gods (1902) *
Two episodes from a violent soap, at least we were spared the full reprint this time.
Edwin Arlington Robinson, Six Poems (1897–1921) ***
Set them to some gothic rock and we'll be getting somewhere.
Lafcadio Hearn, The Ghostly Kiss (1880) ***
Polished nightmare vignette.
Edith Wharton, The Eyes (1910) *****
An apparition uncharacteristically lingers to invite close examination and unreliable self-diagnosis.
Jack London, Samuel (1913) **
Leave the island folk alone to murder their bairns in peace, god.
Cabal (1988) ****
This bumper Book of Blood is all the excessive '80s Clive Barker antics you could ask for, from splattering self-abasement to nauseating transformations with a delicious cheese topping. He'd get deeper, but never so much visceral fun.
Terry Pratchett, Death Trilogy
As a young fan of the morbid personification, I was aware of this book seemingly forever before getting around to it, and it pulls off the theological comic fantasy drama very well. The series has a shallow well of stock characters, even when they're not officially recurring, but the eponymous apprentice is one of their better incarnations.
Reaper Man (1991) ***
The low-key pastoral pottering of Discworld's breakout personification will doubtless be one of the series' highlights, but the juxtaposed ensemble mayhem was typically tedious.
Soul Music (1994) **
I was enjoying these until now, but with Death largely in the shadows, it was just another run-of-the-mill thematic Discworld book, and I'm not really into those.
The Hill of Dreams (1907) *****
One of my favourite novels, its ghastly groves were long due cautious revisiting and its troubled bildungsroman is as occult or psychological as you're in the mood for each time. A celebration of literature that achieves its own high standards and rewards attention.
The Great God Pan (1894) ****
Squeamish supernatural serial killer mystery with an incogruous mad scientist prologue.
The Rats in the Walls (1923) ****
Not my favourite of his haunted houses, but more interesting than I remembered, once it got past the dreary family history. It's what every hokey paranormal exploration video wants to be.
The Festival (1925) ****
"Things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl."
This Halloween reading turned out to be an unseasonal and particularly unfestive Christmas Yuletide special. A short, silly treat, it made up for the veiled teasing of the previous story with its monstrous bat people and river of slime. Merry Festival.
