The Ghost Story Advent Week Four (Conclusion)

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-level as well, given that it is a post-humous publication out just last year. (It is an excerpt from his incomplete novel Wreckage. Subterranean Press recently released the novel in a limited edition print.

The story recounts a terrifying encounter that the author Henry James has while in Monte Carlo. This story is full of fascinating threads that I’m sure Straub weaves together in the way that only he can in the larger work. As a short piece though, it works nicely to unsettle.

Themes: Henry James, Jack the Ripper, Dark Alleys, A Mysterious Invitation.

Dec 22: Archies (2024) by Paul Tremblay

It is Paul Tremblay, so, of course, the story takes place in a Boston club and involves a post-hardcore band and a friend-of-the-band protagonist. He would love to be in the band, but must settle for a backstage pass. The ghost (Archie) is a cardboard cut-out that probably is just being moved around the club by pranksters, but who knows? The story does a nice job of creating a ghost out of psychological associations and a creepy tale one of the band members recalls about his childhood friend discovering a hanged man named Archie.

Themes: Feeling of Being Watched, Creeping Yourself Out, Abandoned Amusement Park, Haunted Club.

Dec 23: The Ghost Ship (1912) by Richard Middleton

Ghosts don’t have to be scary! The town of Fairfield has a friendly relationship with the many ghosts which inhabit it. Problems develop when a ghost ship arrives carrying some magnificent rum. It leads many of the younger ghosts into drunken, disorderly conduct. As a fan of tall tales (particularly Bierce’s) as well as ghost stories, this one marked both boxes! The 200-ton ship that ends up in the turnip garden and the storm that blows the ghosts of Fairfield all over England (luckily, they find their way back) are outrageous, perfect fun. The attitude that the living inhabitants of Fairfield take toward ghosts strikes me as both advisable, progressive, and ahead of its time.

Themes: Ghosts of Ancestors, Ghostly Pirate Ship, Ghosts Drinking Too Much.

Dec 24: The Shadow in the Corner (1879) by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

This one turns out to be a favorite ghost stories of the month. Its gothic trappings are great, but it is really the psychologies of the people that live at Wildheath Grange that make the story work so well. Each character approaches the haunting in a distinct and personal way. The story is about denial, social positioning, and an inability to actually talk and listen to one another. It all leads to tragic consequences.  The haunting itself has some unique features, and there is a neat distinction drawn between ghosts of body and ghosts of mind.

Themes: Haunted Room, Suicide, Remorse, Skeptic, Social Class.