3.5 out of 5 stars
A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.
Christmas is not just jingle bells and overladen tables, its close association with the Winter Solstice and the dark nights at this time of year means for some people that they are as happy with ghost stories as others are with Elf…
The thinning of this world and the other and the ghosts and other spectres that inhabit the liminal zones are included in this new collection of eighteen stories from the British Library They have gone further into L space in search of stories that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
Of all of the authors that are in here, I had only heard of D. H. Lawrence so the rest were new to me. Judging by the small biography at the beginning of each story, some of these authors are new to the editor too as there was almost nothing known about them.
I must say that I didn’t find the stories overly terrifying, which I am a little relieved about, as I am not a huge fan of horror. Rather the themes are more eerie and unnerving stories with a seasonal or Christmas theme. As with every short story collection, it is a mixed bag with variation in the quality of stories, but there were a couple that I particularly liked, The Mirror in Room 22 by James Hadley Chase and The Wild Wood by Mildred Clingerman.
If you have their other collections, this is an excellent addition to the library and as with all the others, the covers are just great.
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