The World's Favorite Ghost Stories: 13 Creepy Tales from Around the Globe

Bought for our 13 yo Grandson. He was very excited.

This book reminds me of the good ol' days of ghost stories on cassette tapes, with their creepy voiced narrators espousing longer length tales of the supernatural. Their best aspects resided in the s-l-o-w build and mysterious settings within said stories, the 'punch' residing in the build versus often absent crescendo. Meaning, imagination was paramount to scare.This collection of ghost stories captures this legacy nicely, obtained from an array of cultures across the globe and with nice backstories and atmospheres. The biggest criticism lies in they're woefully (centuries) outdated, using old school verbiage and references that don't translate well. Let alone scare.This is a decent gift for fans of the classic horror genre, but avoid for younger and/or modern readers.

Reading "The World's Favorite Ghost Stories: 13 Creepy Tales" is going back in time to look at what earlier people thought was creepy and what editor, Tony Brueski, thinks is still creepy today. All the stories are indeed creepy; my audience I agreed as I read them outloud, one each night as a countdown to Halloween 2019.However, one of the 13 tales, "The Marble Arch" by Pu Songling, was 100% not a ghost story. Three other stories we decided were also not really ghost stories because the "ghosts" seemed more mental and emotional issues than spirits of the deceased. It is this fact that led me to rate this 4 and not 5 stars.I was happy to see non-EuroAmerican stories in this collection. But for readers of a similar background to my household, some of the authors included may be familiar such as Algernon Blackwood, H. Rider Haggard, Ambrose Bierce, or Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I do wish the book had brief introductions to each story to tell us more about the author or the time period.This collection could appeal to not just ghost story lovers or horror lovers but also people interested in the history of such stories.I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in the hopes that I would write a fair and honest review of it.

"The World's Favorite Ghost Stories: 13 Creepy Tales from Around the Globe", from author Tony Brueski, features supernatural storytelling from London, England; South Africa; Nashville, TN; Japan; Ireland; India; USA; Korea; New York City; China; New England; Russia; and Lincolnshire, England. Each eerie story is a blend of fact and historical fiction, with superstition, religion, and cultural and regional influences all shaping the terrifying twists and turns. You'll find "The Listener"; "The Moonlit Road"; "The Specter Lovers"; "The Yellow Wallpaper"; "The Grateful Ghost"; "The Marble Arch"; and "The Shell of Sense". Dare to turn these pages and you will also encounter "Only a Dream"; "Jikininki"; "His Dead Wife's Photograph"; "What Was It?"; "The Marble Arch"; "Silence"; and "Lost Hearts". Whether or not "you do believe in spooks", you will find much to intrigue your imagination in "The World's Favorite Ghost Stories".Book Copy Gratis Callisto Publishers

There has been so much classic literature lost to time and our changing culture. I was absolutely delighted to find this wonderful collection of once-well-known classic spooky stories in one volume. One or two are over a hundred years old - most were written in the early 20th Century, so yes, the language has a different pace from today's. Rediscovering eloquent, elegantly written work is one of the joys of reading classic literature. The time, place, ways of thinking are set by our language.I feel so very fortunate to have found this book, and I enjoyed every single minute of reading it. I was so captivated I took the time to look up the backgrounds of some of the writers - fascinating reading in itself. I recommend it to those who appreciate the horror genre. Take a look a its roots, see how those roots influenced writers through time, and appreciate how we got to where we are today.

If there’s a common element in these international ghost stories other than the creepiness factor, it would be that these are all more than a century old. The thirteen stories range from tales out of England and the United States to Russia, China, and India. Some of them are mildly disconcerting (like “The Specter Lovers”); others are truly terrifying (like “The Yellow Wallpaper”.) Most of the tales are the “slow burn” variety where the tension builds to a supernatural conclusion.My favorite must be “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the story of a nervous young mother whose physician husband has engaged a summer house in which they live while the wife, rests. Under the strict supervision of the husband and his sister, the woman is required to spend most of her time in a bedroom lined with faded yellow wallpaper of a hideous and, to her, malevolent design. The woman, prone to strange imaginings begins to see a figure creeping around behind the design. The figure is especially active at night. The ending raised the hairs at the back of my neck in the best, scary sense.I recommend this collection to anyone who loves a good ghost story and likes supernatural tales from all over the world. The reader may recognize some of the story writers like Algernon Blackwood and Ambrose Bierce. A bonus is each story contains a sketch which adds to the spooky atmosphere.