Ghost Story

Rating:
Summary: One of the scariest books I have ever read!
Review: I read Peter Straub's 'Ghost Story' so many years ago that I can't remember when, but the memories came rolling back when seeing the title listed in your roster. I love scary books, but can't remember one that chilled my bones like this one! Alice Krige's portrayal in the movie (which I saw before reading the book), was convincingly creepy; along with the help of wonderful actors like Fred Astaire.

Rating:
Summary: I'm glad I bought a thrift store copy
Review: ...because i would have regretted spending a lot of money on this book. It was one of the most boring horror novels I have read.

First of all, it isn't about ghosts! It's about people haunted by the past, but that is a very different thing. The supernatural elements are mostly demonic in nature, and the shock value ranks around Buffy the Vampire Slayer level: shocking but not scary.

I found it difficult to become interested in any of the characters, especially because one of the main characters appears in the prologue and then disappears for half the book. I was engaged by the mystery of what happened at Edward's party, but once the answers were given, i didn't find them very compelling. I guess my major beef with this book is that it just didn't make sense for a tragedy in the 1920s to have not really had any effect on the participants until 50 years later. I almost put down the book and didn't finish it. I gave the book two stars because it was at least interesting enough to make me want to know how it ended.

Rating:
Summary: "The Most Dreadful Thing..."
Review: The idyllic little country town of Milburn, Connecticut, is under supernatural siege. Inexplicable suicides and curious accidents are occurring. Livestock are found mutilated in snowy fields, with no footprints around them. Dead loved ones visit the living - who die under bizarre circumstances, shortly after. A dwindling number of affluent old men in the community, who call themselves the Chowder Society, know something about it. But they're not talking. Because they can't believe, themselves, the reason why - and they're running scared, because they're the victims of choice.

This is Straub's most intricate, atmospheric, and satisfying novel, constructed as a highly convoluted Chinese puzzle-box of interlocking stories, with a single underlying, unifying theme. The Chowder Society gather together to tell ghost stories, all centered around exorcizing an unexplainable series of events from their collective youth, which appears to be the root cause of the nightmare events in their little town, not to mention their own lives. "What's the most terrible thing you've ever done?" is the question they continually ask each other. "I won't tell you that," is their pat club answer, "but I'll tell you the worst thing that ever happened to me...the most dreadful thing..." From this, Straub derives his springboard of individual ghost and horror stories, pondering the origin of all humanity's nightmares - and explains them with a uniquely novel answer, better discovered by the reader for himself than revealed (beware, some of the reviews below contain spoilers).

Straub generally demands great patience of his readers, and such is the case here, but he pays off in spades for those who stay the course. The style is occasionally a bit over-the-top, but it achieves the desired effect.

I've read this book a few times, and enjoy it more with successive readings. It's a brilliant piece. Very involving, endlessly fascinating, and scary as frozen hell for the holidays.

Treat yourself. Don't miss it.

Rating:
Summary: Ambivalence..........but, overall, thumbs down
Review: I have mixed feelings about Ghost Story. For one, the title is misleading in that the book is NOT about ghosts in the traditional sense. The story is about immortal, shape-shifting creatures called "nightwatchers" who have special powers. Having this clarified, I feel that this book best belongs under FANTASY instead of the HORROR genre.

In addition, I found the writing to be juvenile. When I was in grade school, my best friend and I used to write our own fantasy / horror stories for our English classes. When reading Ghost Story, I felt like I was reading one of our stories!

Reading Ghost Story was laborious. I found the book to be incredibly slow and an overall tedious read. Towards the end, I was almost pulling my hair out because I just wanted to finish the darned thing. Moreover, I didn't find the story to be scary like the book reviews indicated it would be. There were scary moments, of course (like about 2), but, overall, it just didn't grab me.

The aspects that I DID like about the book concerned its characters. I found Sears to be a humorous, sarcastic old man. Don was a cool dude, too. The steamy love scenes between Don and Alma were worth writing home about also.

The ending, though, was just......dumb. Juvenile. Stupid.
Overall, I would say that I didn't like this book. It sounds like the movie version is better than the book. I bought Shadowland, also by Straub, at a used book store. I hope that it will be better than Ghost Story.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Horror Novels Ever
Review: I read Ghost Story for the first time as a teenager and read a lot of horror, when the book was new. I don't read as much horror now, but wanted to revisit this one. It holds up surprising well. In fact, as an adult, I identify more with the Chowder Society members. Fear means something different as we get older, and this book seems to understand that. Don Wanderly's reactions to the events in Milburn are markedly different to the older men.

The movie version captured only a fraction of the book and is largely unsuccessful. It is worth seeing, though, for Fred Astaire's portrayal of Ricky Hawthorne. It was Astaire's last film and he is wonderful. It's especially fun to hear his character say that he can't dance!

Rating:
Summary: Aviod the movie and read the book...
Review: One day while reading at my old job one of my boss's asked me if I had ever read Ghost Story. I had not. So i picked it up and read this great book with real fever. It may be the scariest book ever written. Along with The Excorsist, It, and They Thirst, this is one scary book (by the way all those books are in my must read section). The story is simple four old men having to face there past. And suffer the fate of there actions. Just a great, fun book.
And on the movie that was realesed in the 80's. It was really bad and nowhere near as good as the book. My only knock on Straub is that if feel that this book was never equeled. The Tailisman with Stephen King is the closet's he has gotten. Still read this book, during the daytime..........

Rating:
Summary: Definitely a Classic
Review: Peter Straub's "Ghost Story" has become a classic and rightly so. The fear in "Ghost Story" is psychological, it comes from within rather than from without. Much of it is anticipatory. What happens in "Ghost Story" could really happen to any one of us. As such, it is far more chilling than more recent horror novels, most of which end up being either silly or sickening.

Straub manages to keep us a little off-balance throughout the book, thus heightening the suspense. We think we know what's coming next, but we're never really sure. This uncertainty kept me turning pages and reading far into the night, long after I should have turned out my bedside light and gone to sleep.

The characters and situations in "Ghost Story" seemed totally believable even though we "knew" the events portrayed "couldn't" have happened. This made them all the more chilling, at least in my opinion. Several nights I slept with my bedroom light on and even felt haunted by the book when morning came.

I found the setting of "Ghost Story" absolutely perfect and felt the book's atmosphere only added to its overall "ghostly" quality. I was lucky enough to attend college in that part of the United States and I found the setting so "dead on."

For me, at least, "Ghost Story" is the horror story against which I measure all others. So far, nothing else has managed to measure up to the high standards it set. It's truly a classic and rightly so.

Rating:
Summary: Straub's masterpiece
Review: I have read every Peter Straub book ever written (excluding Marriages, of course), and this is the best of them all (with Shadowland and If You Could See Me Now running close seconds). Granted, the story is not about ghosts, but what it IS about is even worse than mere spooks. The horror is slow and brooding, almost Gothic in it's telling, giving the reader the feeling of inexorable descent into madness, and the mystery of Eva Galli - a.k.a Alma Mobley, Anne-Veronica Moore, Angie Maule, and Anna Mostyn - is one of the best-developed plots ever written. The characterization (Straub's trademark), is amazing, especially about Gregory Bate/Benton, the pacing is great, and the increasing sense of "What the h--- is going on?" is a very great touch.
Interestingly enough, the original hardback cover is that of a gray background with the title and author's name written on it in giant black letters, and a giant wasp curling up against the letter "Y" of the title. For those of you who have read the book, you know why.

Rating:
Summary: A timeless horror novel
Review: This is the kind of book one can pick up during any decade and the story would still feel timeless. Its a very literary horror novel, different than the usual genre's reliance on the squeamish, opting for a more psychological approach to frighten the reader.

Its the story of four elderly men who meet each week to tell stories and are all hiding a deep dark secret. The Chowder Society lost a member the year before and feel that their secret is the cause of their problems. After some frightening events and dreams, they enlist the help of the dead man's relative to come to Milburn considering he had written books about the occult. Once Milburn is locked down by months of relentless snow, the town seems to be besieged with ghosts picking off the Chowder Society one by one. From there, its a non-stop fight for survival till the end.

Ghost Story is not a ghost story in the classic vein. Its a supernatural story with a different kind of being than the usual ghost or ghoul. This makes the story more original and at the same time even more frightening. Its a brilliant novel that is far more literary and stylish than most horror novels.

This is a very involved book so its not one for those who like a quick, simple read. This one gets under your skin and is truly one of the most terrifying horror novel of all time. A great work of fiction and a masterpiece in its own right. Ghost Story will scare you, intrigue and keep you hooked till the end.

Rating:
Summary: staub's best
Review: the only reason i'm writing this puppy is because after reading all of straub's books, ghost story is the best. his earlier work (julia, if you could see me now) was pretty good, but not stephen king level. ghost story is, nuff' said.