Ghosts in Irish Houses: Halloween 2

Halloween 2015: Day 8

For a truly bizarre read, pick up Ghosts in Irish Houses by James Reynolds. Illustrated by the author, it features numerous stories about a wide variety of hauntings. It's everything from ghosts who have killed multiple people to a glove that reappears decades after its owner loses it or some such drivel. I'm not sure if Reynolds just wasn't a great writer or if the stories are so weird that they don't come across well. Either way, it's a bit of a slog to get through the whole thing. Also, many of the accompanying sketches, which are usually of the main character in the story, are mediocre at best.

There is a pretty interesting recurring theme of strong women in many of the stories. There are warrior queens and vicious murderesses galore.

My favorite story is about a birthday party that could have come straight from Game of Thrones. It went about like this:

     "Hey, hated enemy. I know you slaughtered my warrior queen mother and her army back in the day, but while you're travelling through town, do you want to spend the weekend at my house?"
     "Sure, guy who has probably gotten over me killing his mom. Thank you for your hospitality."
     "No problem. And since you're here, please help us celebrate my oldest son's birthday."
     "That was a great party, but I'm really old and I need to go to bed now. Also, my men are wondering why you wouldn't let them bring their swords into the party."
     "No reason. But before you go to bed--" STAB STAB STAB
     "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal! Agh!"
     "Well that was fun. This one's for you, Ma. Oops the neighbors are coming. Better hide all these bodies under the floor. I'm sure they won't haunt the castle and kill everyone who disturbs their resting place. Happy birthday, Junior!"

The Witch of Lime Street

There's an upcoming book for readers interested in things that go bump in the night, or at least things that go bump under seance tables.

The Witch of Lime Street, by David Jaher, is the true story of "Margery" and her attempt to become the first scientifically approved medium. In the course of her hundreds of seances and trials with the panel of judges assigned to test her, she became a household name to Americans and Brits alike. Houdini tested her as well and found her personally charming but undeniably a charlatan. But even after rigorous examination and numerous battles between her admirers and detractors, the answer to why she did what she did (and more importantly how the heck she did it) is as hard to pin down as the ectoplasm she produced.

Jaher's book is enormously entertaining and opens the door to a time in our country's history when a Ouija Board seemed like the answer to many questions. I received a free advance copy of The Witch of Lime Street from LibraryThing. My full review will follow shortly.

Twenties Girl

Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One of those books that gets much better as it goes along. The characters are sometimes nerve-wracking, but Kinsella turns them into people you can care about.

The story is pretty weird, even if you ignore the ghost aspect, but it's nothing if not entertaining.



View all my reviews