Review: A Gathering of Ghosts

A Gathering of Ghosts by David Haynes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Silent Bell - 3/5 stars
I love the idea of this one, and there's definitely a creepiness factor, but I feel like it could have had a better delivery. The reasoning was a bit shallow and I'm not really sure why it went down the way it did. But definitely a properly creepy idea that still gave me a shudder at the end.

The Stonegate Manor Collection - 4/5 stars
Yikes, this one is probably going to give me nightmares. *nervous laughter*
This has the classic Victorian horror feel to it - a gloomy manor, an eccentric master, dreary weather and strange happenings. Really liked it! I did keep reading 'Slee' as 'She' which did get super confusing, and I'm not 100% sure of what happened right at the end there, but overall this was definitely dark and spooky and really enjoyable.

The Haunting of Reverend Carson - 4/5 stars
Another one that certainly gave me the creeps! I saw a crow wander past the window while I was reading and it scared the crap outta me.
I enjoyed the way this one played out. Loved Musgrave; he's such an interesting character! Great story.

The Last Waltz - 3.5/5 stars
This was more of a sweet sort of ghost story - less about the chills and more about that longing that exists between the living and their lost loved ones. I was a bit worried his obsession might get a little out of control, but in the end I feel content. No scares here, but still a satisfying ghost story.

The Speaking Tube - 3/5 stars
Well this is clearly a family of despicable people. Hated them all, although revenge is always fun to read about so I quite enjoyed it for that! Not a lot of ghostly chills from this one, more chills at how horrible humans can be. But a fun tale of revenge.

The Ghost Train - 3/5 stars
This was a bit of an unusual start and I have no idea why Godfrey got involved but I liked it anyway. Again, a tale of revenge, so I was invested in a morbid sort of way!

Overall thoughts
I really enjoyed this collection, and it was such a quick read! I loved the writing - it never felt overdone yet it still created the atmosphere effortlessly with as few words as possible. I enjoyed the variety to the stories and how sometimes our protagonist was not someone to root for.

I think The Haunting of Reverend Carson was probably my fave, mostly because I really liked Musgrave - I think he had the best character growth of the whole collection.

Overall, it was just a really fun, creepy read that was light on but still created plenty of chills. Definitely recommend for horror lovers!

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