👻 Halloween Read ~ Spooky Ambiguous

 

Crumps Barn Studio

15 September

My thanks to the publisher and Daphne Denley for my copy of this book

Spooky Ambiguous: ghost stories and poetry, fangs and fairy tales

Ghosts and vampires, zombies and werewolves. A mirror with danger at its heart. A child is delighted to discover she is a witch, and a village disappears under a fairy curse. Then a selkie finds her way back to the waves, before a blood moon rises, bringing its own secrets ...

Full of the spooky and the gothic, fairy tales and poetry, this is a brilliant and intriguing collection where nothing and no one is as they seem.

👻 My Review...

I do like to have a book set aside for Halloween. There's something about settling down in a cosy corner, with a cup of hot chocolate and a few creepy stories to set the mood for the time when ghosties, ghouls and witches make their annual appearance.

This lovely collection helps to set the mood and with a nice blend of short stories and expressive poetry the book can be comfortably read in one sitting or read in snatched moments when you just need to escape the world. The fifteen short stories and poems caught my attention and the whole collection is brought to life with eleven eerie illustrations which help to create a sombre mood. The writers who have contributed to this set of stories vary in style but collectively they all work really well. I won't single any out for particular praise as that would be unfair but suffice to say I found much to enjoy in this creepy set of Gothic stories and poems.

  

☕ Best Read with... a cup of frothy hot chocolate

FeaturedAuthors

Penny Ayers, Michael Bartlett, Patrick Booth, Amaris Chase, Holly Anne Crawford, Ivor Daniel, Amanda Jane Davies, Daphne Denley, J. J. Drover, Harriet Hitchen, Rebecca McDowall, Jane Phillips, Angela Reddaway, Joe Robson and Margaret Royall, with illustrations by Lorna Gray.

Each of the authors who have contributed to this collaboration brings a unique voice to the genre. Whether dealing with life and loss, love and laughter, or stepping beyond into the danger of the supernatural, each of these short stories and poems evokes the true essence of the Gothic – its power to draw upon emotion.

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