The Vine: October 14, 2011
So, it’s getting toward Halloween-time, and I’ve had a sudden nostalgic craving for ghost stories. When I was in school, I was hooked on those creepy ghost/scary story books you could snag through the Scholastic catalog, but I’m looking for something with a little more nuanced adult creepyness.
Specifically, I’m dying to have a campfire/candlelight ghost story gathering and I’m looking for great sources. Books, online, podcasts — I’ll take ghost stories or creepy stories however they come. As an example, I recently fell in love with the highly creepy This American Life “The House at Loon Lake” — not a ghost story, but it has ability to give goosebumps.
Tomato Nation’s recommendations are always the best, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Thanks!
Mell P.
Dear Mell,
I can’t wait to see what the readers come up with, but I have a handful for you to get started with.
1. Stephen King’s “The Road Virus Heads North.” A goofy concept in theory whose execution has you faint from holding your breath by the end. It’ll stay with you, too. Mr. S, at a yard sale years after I’d read the story: “Hey, that painting’s pretty coo–” Sarah: “ABSOLUTELY NOT LOOK AWAY.”
2. Rosemary Guiley’s Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits. It has every possible faerie and fright listed, and the crisp writing is, for some reason, quite creepy at times.
3. Hans Holzer’s Haunted America. Often moistly cheesy; occasionally incredibly scary.
And an honorable mention to any account of ghost calls, which put my hairs on end without fail.
Readers, hit us with your favorite creepy culture. Three (3) entries per comment, please! Thank you.
Tags: Ask The Readers ghost stories Hans Holzer popcult Rosemary Guiley Stephen King
Roald Dahl’s “Book of Ghost Stories” absolutely terrified me as a kid, especially the story “Harry” by Rosemary Timperley.
-Stephen King’s ‘Sorry, Right Number’ still gives me chills every. damn. time.
-If you’re looking for short campfire stories, you can find some gems on creepypasta. Plenty of junk but worth sifting through. (One of my favorites is this: http://www.creepypasta.com/the-photographs/ )
-Also, these are novels and technically YA, but contain some of the best creepy scenes I’ve ever read, sprinkled with ghost-story lore. ‘Bad Blood’, ‘Hunter’s Moon’, and ‘Judgment Night’, by Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald.
I recommend Ashes, by Scott Nicholson. It’s a collection of short ghost stories — the two set in Andersonville prison are chilling, scary and evocative.
I would like to give a plug for stories about black-eyed kids. That kept me up for a few nights after obsessively Googling it when I first heard the term. Creepsville.
My librarian just told me that Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son! It’s not on his website that I could find but I saw articles in the NY Times and Huffington Post confirming.
I read a great book of ghost stories that are all related to Nashville. It is called A City of Ghosts by Betsy Phillips. The book reads like someone whispering creepy stories in your ear and I had to sleep with the lights on after I read it.
A friend bought it for me in Nashville but it looks like you can get it at Amazon too.
Two other Jens brought up the very first story that came to mind – the Ray Bradbury scary chapter in Dandelion Wine (never knew it was called The Whole Town’s Sleeping). BESTEST EVER. Maybe it’s a requirement for all Jens to love Ray Bradbury, I dunno, but you cannot go wrong with a fireside reading of that tale.
Off topic a little, but Dandelion Wine is so amazing. There’s wistful nostalgia, wistful nostalgia curdled, the foibles of youth,friendships, love, death, marriage,horror – and more, all in this very tiny paperback. I think of it every time I buy a new pair of sneakers, and eat my last ice cream of the summer.
Dandelion Wine was one of the first books I remember reading where I got that tingle–the one that tells you this book has spoken to a part of you that’s been listening for it the whole time. I’ll never forget that feeling and it’s still one of my very very favorites.
@Georgia: I also love the Roald Dahl collection, but the intro is as bad as the reviewers say, or at least I remember it being that way. (Granted, twelve-year-old me was already a pretty militant feminist . . .)
@Jane: Another second for The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral, which, while not a ghost story proper, still scares the ever-living f*ck out of me at 28.
@Jen S 1.0: Shirley Jackson’s novels are MARVELOUS. And The Haunting of Hill House remains the most disturbing book I’ve ever read.