Weird Murmur

Looking back over what I have read in 2025 (you can see the entire reading list HERE ), the following are some favorites (in no particular order). Novels  (favorite 7 of 30) The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe (1794) Titus Groan, Mervyn Peake (1946) The Ghost Pirates, William Hope Hodgson (1909) Conquer, Edward Erdelac (2020) The Exorcist, William Peter Blatty (1971) The Charwoman's Shadow, Lord Dunsany (1926) The Three Imposters, Arthur Machen (1895) Short Stories  (favorite 46 of 393) Walking Aunt Daid, Zenna Henderson Spettrini, Matthew Bartlett No Abiding Place on Earth, Matthew Bartlett Window, Bob Leman Loyalty, Matthew M. Bartlett Bellow of the Steamship Cow, Aaron Dries The Death of Odjigh, Marcel Schwob My Sad Dead, Mariana Enriquez The Happy Children, Arthur Machen Frontier Death Song, Laird Barron The Tower, Marghatina Laski New England Gothic Part 2, Matthew M. Bartlett It Doesn't Do What You Think It Does, Brian Evenson The Strange Design of Master Rignolo, Th...

For the month of December I have been reading a short ghost story everyday as a kind of Ghost Story Advent Challenge. Here are the final five stories!   Day 20: The Family Night Watchman (2024) by Can Xue This story is set in the south of China during the hot summers when the children sleep on water-cooled bamboo beds in the middle of the road. Cars don’t usually drive through overnight, so they don’t worry about that. Most of the kids fear the corpse drivers that make shrieking noises and wander the night on foot. Little Fly isn’t as scared as most, and he wants to meet one. Something about this story captures the way children remember and navigate the world.   Themes : Ghosts of Family, Past/Present/Future, A Child’s Perspective.   Day 21: An Incident in Monte Carlo (2024) by Peter Straub I was saddened when Peter Straub, author of one of the best ghost story novels of all time, Ghost Story , died in 2022. I suppose this story works as a ghost tale on a meta-...

  For the month of December I am reading a ghost story everyday as a kind of Ghost Story Advent Challenge. I’ll post about the stories that I read at the end of each week. I’m discovery some wonderfully weird tales. Day 14: "Those I Have Never Known" (2024) by Katherine Cart   If you feel a little tickle in your throat and then something hairy brushing your back molars, it might be a ghost coming up headfirst. Just reach in there and pull the bugger out! Sometimes ghosts live inside of us and only reveal themselves after we give up all the things we use to cover ourselves. Then repeat, to cover them all up again.  Themes: Ancestral Influence, Commercialism, Haves and Have-Nots, Shame.   Day 15: " Lady Ferry" (1879) by Sarah Orne Jewett A child is sent to a colonial estate, where she befriends an impossibly old woman who lives in the tower.  The relationship between Lady Ferry and the child is a sweet one, and the story, as a recounting of a childhood experience,...

  For the month of December I am reading a ghost story everyday as a kind of Ghost Story Advent Challenge. I’ll post about the stories that I read at the end of each week. I’m discovery some wonderfully weird tales. Day 7: " The Lost Ghost" (1903 ) by Mary E. Wilkins “. . . it don’t do anybody in this world any good to see things that haven’t any business to be seen in it.” Sitting with their sewing and crochet, the two women of the framing story are wonderful characters. The ghost in this story likes to pull the cat’s tail, which the cat clearly does not like. Otherwise, it is a sweet and most helpful little ghost. The ghost is an eerie one, and its back-story is chilling. This is a sad ghost story, though with lots of charm and a happy ending. Themes: Ghost Can’t Find Their Way, Ghost-Child, Tragic Death.       Day 8:  “Drive" (2024) by Brian Evenson As an unwilling would-be ritual sacrifice, you must be careful when attempting your escape. Killing y...

  For the month of December I am reading a ghost story everyday as a kind of Ghost Story Advent Challenge. I’ll post about the stories that I read at the end of each week. I’m discovery some wonderfully weird tales.   Day 1: “Bad Company” (1955) by Walter de la Mare If you thought soul-saving, death-bed confessionals were cutting it close, boy oh boy, get a load of this ghost. I guess dying and all gives you… perspective. If it is true that you should never go to bed angry, I suppose it is even more important not to die angry. Themes: Regret, Unfinished Business, Needing Help of Living.   Day 2: “The Red Room” (1896) by H. G. Wells Ahh, to be eight-and-twenty years again! At that age, even I might have stayed the night in the haunted room of Lorraine Castle. Lots of shadows, lots of blown-out candles, and weird creepy old people in this one. Wells’ description of the three elderly castle custodians and the meeting they have with the young, fearless man at the...