The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
This is a classic for a reason. A quick, *very* funny read that showcases the author’s SCATHING wit with a combination of takedown and praise of the American sentiment and approach to life. What makes this truly a remarkable story, however, is the sweetness of the heroine, the whiff of pathos, and the possibility of redemption. So many layers, so worth reading!
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
I don’t normally do ghost stories, but I recently joined Book of the Month, and this was the only one of January’s books that seemed like something I might really like, so I ordered it. Plus it was also being touted as a mystery and a thriller, it fit well with my January theme of reading books by and about badass ladies (double check on that here) and with my run of books about shitty men doing bad things to women and girls. Also it’s […]
The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle
I love old black and white movies, especially mysteries and horror movies. I was watching one of my all-time favorites, The Uninvited, a ghost story starring Ray Milland recently (it’s a really superior film – I highly recommend it if you’ve never seen it) and I started to wonder where the idea for the movie had come from. Was it an original screenplay? A short story? A novel? A quick internet search revealed that the film, directed by English director Lewis Allen was based on […]
The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike
How long would you stay if you suspected your new apartment was haunted? A week? Six months? Two hundred pages? Misao, her husband Teppei, and their small daughter move into a gorgeous new apartment building. The price is suspiciously low, because the building is located right next to a cemetery, temple, and crematorium. Also suspicious: half the new apartments are empty, and the ones that are occupied are rapidly losing their tenants. The first day they move in, the family’s parakeet dies, and the little […]
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Sneaking in with a bit to spare, on a borrowed computer, and one book behind last year’s pace I’m finally posting my last review of Cannonball Read 10. This was the Read Harder 2018 task I was looking least forward to, and I managed to push it off until the last possible moment, but at least I am completing the challenge this year. Task 24 was to “read an assigned book you hated (or never finished)”. In reality I have very few books that I […]
