Title: The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women Writer: Various ed. by Marie O’Regan Publishing House: Running Press Date of Publication: October 18th 2012 Rating: 4 stars ”Although the stories vary from tales of ghostly children to those of lost pets, from murder to accidental death, from rage to sorrow and back again, one thing is central to…
Tag: short stories
The Last Séance: Tales of the Supernatural
Title: The Last Séance: Tales of the Supernatural Writer: Agatha Christie Publishing House: William Morrow Paperbacks Date of Publication: September 24th 2019 Rating: 5 stars ”As we entered the grove of trees a curious oppression came over me. I think it was the silence. No birds seemed to nest in these trees. There was a feeling about it of desolation…
The Dark Blue Winter Overcoat & Other Stories from the North
Title: The Dark Blue Winter Overcoat & Other Stories from the North Writer: Various edited by Sjón Publishing House: Pushkin Press Date of Publication: October 9th 2018 Rating: 3 stars ”The wind buffeted me, blowing warm, dry air into my face. He’s here, it said. The one you love is waiting for you. You’ve arrived now. You must find…
Salt Slow
Title: Salt Slow Writer: Julia Armfield Publishing House: Picador Date of Publication: May 30th 2019 Rating: 5 stars ‘’At night, I fall asleep in shreddings and tatterings, my dreams shot through with shouts of violence, bitter notches like bad beads on a rosary. In the still-dark of early morning, I wake to wonder at my face in the wardrobe…
The Apple: New Crimson Petal Stories
Title: The Apple: New Crimson Petal Stories Writer: Michel Faber Publishing House: Canongate Books Ltd Date of Publication: September 7th 2006 (first published 2004) Rating: 5 stars ”Snow continues to whirl through the sky, the windowpanes rattle and creak, but still those damned partridges and turtledoves proliferate. Passerby must be tossing coins to this bawling nuisance; better they should throw…
#Fairytale Friday: Serbia
Title: Serbian Fairy Tales (Σερβικά παραμύθια) Writer: edited and translated into Greek by Momčilo Radić Publishing House: Απόπειρα Date of Publication: 2004 Rating: 5 stars Today we aren’t going to talk about a specific tale. Instead, we’re going on a trip to Serbia, guided by the most characteristic features of the Serbian fairy tale. The fairy tales of…
Faery Tales
Title: Faery Tales Writer: Carol Ann Duffy (illustrated by Tomislav Tomić Publishing House: Faber Date of Publication: November 4th 2014 Rating: 5 stars ”Ungrateful man!”, thundered the creature. ”I have saved your life by letting you into my castle and to thank me you steal one of my roses, which I prize over everything!” My introduction to the world…
A World Full of Spooky Stories
Title: A World Full of Spooky Stories Writer: Angela McAllister (illustrated by Madalina Andronic) Publishing House: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books Date of Publication: September 3rd 2019 Rating: 5 stars Confession time. Once August knocks on our door and long before my summer holidays are completed, I begin to think of Halloween reads, Halloween decorations, Halloween films and pretty much Halloween…
On My Aunt’s Shallow Grave White Roses Have Already Bloomed
Title: On My Aunt’s Shallow Grave White Roses Have Already Bloomed (original title: Από Τη Μέση και Κάτω) Writer: Maria Mitsora (translated by Jacob Moe) Publishing House: Yale University Press Date of Publication: September 18th 2018 Rating: 5 stars ‘’My tutor lived in a beautiful pinkstone house, enveloped in bougainvillea vines. I had heard a few things about his life…
A Nail, A Rose and Other Stories
Title: A Nail, A Rose and Other Stories (original title Sept Nouvelles) Writer: Madeleine Bourdouxhe (translated by Faith Evans) Publishing House: Pushkin Press Date of Publication: October 1st 2019 (first published 1985) Rating: 5 stars ‘’All around them, the earth was black and white. A beautiful winter night-smell rose up from the black and white earth. A…
Tales From A Master’s Notebook: Stories Henry James Never Wrote
Title: Tales From A Master’s Notebook: Stories Henry James Never Wrote Writer: Various ed. by Philip Horne Publishing House: Penguin Random House Date of Publication: April 5th 2018 Rating: 5 stars ‘’It was now the end of September and sudden cold winds visited our lonely road and set the Norfolk pines sighing on their tortured stems. One such gust of…
Fairy Tales for Fearless Girls
Title: Fairy Tales for Fearless Girls Writer: Retold by Anita Ganeri & illustrated by Khoa Le Publishing House: Arcturus Publishing Ltd Date of Publication: July 2019 Rating: 3 stars I believe that we should never stop narrating the so-called ‘’classic’’ fairy tales of our childhood. Yes, for many (including me) Cinderella and the rest of the squad may seem…
Strange Pilgrims
Title: Strange Pilgrims (original title:Doce cuentos peregrinos Writer: Gabriel Garcia Márquez (tr. by Edith Grossman) Publishing House: Vintage Date of Publication: November 14th 2006 (first published 1992) ‘’A continent conceived by the scum of the earth without a moment of love: the children of abductions, rapes, violations, infamous dealings, deceptions, the union of enemies with enemies.’’ Father…
The Haunted Dolls’ House
Title: The Haunted Dolls’ House Writer: M.R.James Publishing House: Penguin Classics Date of Publication: 2008 (first published March 1923) Rating: 5 stars My first ‘’meeting’’ with M.R.James was through the marvelous Classic Ghost Stories series narrated by the living legend that answers to the name Robert Powell. The strange thing is that for some unknown reason I hadn’t actually read…
I Am Heathcliff
Title: I Am Heathcliff: Stories Inspired by Wuthering Heights Writer: Various curated by Kate Mosse Publishing House: The Borough Press Date of Publication: July 26th 2018 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Archetypes. Stories that seem bigger than the books that contain them. Wuthering Heights is such a book. Cathy and Heathcliff are such characters.’’ I have longed and dreaded to read this…
Through the Water Curtain
Title: Through the Water Curtain Writer: Cornelia Funke Publishing House: Pushkin Press Date of Publication: November 1st 2018 Rating: 4 stars ‘’Fairy tales break all the rules of a good story and yet they find such powerful images for the deepest human emotions and fears that we sense deep layers of meaning in a poisonous apple or the grueling setting…
The Doll’s Alphabet
Τitle: The Doll’s Alphabet Writer: Camilla Grudova Publishing House: Coffee House Press Date of Publication: October 17th 2017 (first published February 14th 2017) Rating: 5 stars ‘’A woman discovered that a bunch of her jewels had faces carved into them, someone else a gargoyle tattoo on their back, and a car was found with three stone kings sitting inside.’’ I…
Madame Zero
Title: Madame Zero Writer: Sarah Hall Publishing House: Faber & Faber Date of Publication: July 4th 2017 Rating: 4 stars ‘’The morning is clear, a few high clouds banking on the horizon. Dawn has come and gone, but it still feels fresh and damp and clean. You cycle through the hospital grounds, past the crematorium and across a small…
Suspended Heart
Title: Suspended Heart Writer: Heather Fowler Publishing House: Pink Narcissus Press Date of Publication: May 15th 2019 (originally published December 17th 2010) Rating: 3 stars If you follow my reviews, you’ll know that Magical Realism is a great love of mine, especially when combined with Literary Fiction.Short Stories collections are on the rise and justifiably so. The ambiguous closures and…
False Bingo: Stories
Title: False Bingo: Stories Writer: Jac Jemc Publishing House: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Date of Publication: October 8th 2019 Rating: 5 stars ‘’I am a problem without a solution. I am a question without an answer. I am a poison without an antidote. I will never know what it is I’ve done.’’ I fell under Jac Jemc’s spell what I…
