The Haunting Season
by Various Authors
Winter, with its unsettling blend of the cosy and the sinister, has long been a popular time for gathering by the bright flame of a candle, or the warm crackling of a fire, and swapping stories of ghosts and strange happenings.
Now eight bestselling, award-winning authors – master storytellers of the sinister and the macabre – bring this time-honoured tradition to vivid life in a spellbinding collection of new and original haunted tales.
From a bustling Covent Garden Christmas market to the frosty moors of Yorkshire, from a country estate with a dreadful secret, to a London mansion where a beautiful girl lies frozen in death, these are stories to make your hair stand on end, send shivers down your spine and to serve as your indispensable companion to the long nights of winter.
So curl up, light a candle, and fall under the spell of The Haunting Season . . .
The Haunting Season was one of House of Cadmus’ most anticipated releases of autumn 2021. A collection of atmospheric short stories by eight bestselling authors, The Haunting Season promised ghostly tales perfect for the deepening nights of autumn and winter, stories that would send a chill down your spine and make you think twice about turning off the lights. But do the stories live up to that promise?
Related: Anticipated Autumn 2021 Book Releases
A Study of Black and White by Bridget Collins
The collection opens with a short story about a strange house, chess-piece topiaries, and a man on his own in an unfamiliar town. Intriguing and atmospheric from the first page, this story seemed promising until it faded into a run of the mill haunting that lacked impact. It was enjoyable in an overall sense—good writing and atmosphere, intriguing setting, interesting main character—but it ultimately fell short, relying on ghostly happenings that felt incredibly basic to carry the story. In the end, A Study in Black and White read like the beginning of a novel, taking its time slowly building intrigue instead of delivering a short story with impact. It was an interesting slice of ghostly atmosphere, but ultimately unsatisfying.
Thwaite’s Tenant by Imogen Hermes Gowar
Thwaite’s Tenant was, unfortunately, another story that seemed to rely on ghost story tropes without expanding much on them at all. The atmosphere was quiet and suspenseful, but I was largely underwhelmed by the story. It was entertaining, but not fully immersive. Detailing the frustrations and injustices of the main character’s married life and unwrapping pieces of her father’s history was entertaining–I enjoy stories with a bit of a feminist edge–but I found it dull. The ending was a welcomed surprise, but didn’t quite make up for a story that was less than thrilling.
The Eel Singers by Natasha Pulley
Right away, The Eel Singers made it apparent it was going to stand out within this collection. From the first page, the descriptions were rich and evocative, dropping readers into the middle of an unexpected opening scene for a ghost story—a cheery Christmas market. I was immediately drawn in by Pulley’s writing, by the characters and personalities and their strange abilities that were hinted at. While it took a few pages for me to find my footing, I was immersed within this story and these characters’ lives right away. Their trip to the Fens made for one of the best stories within this collection, fantastically atmospheric and—most importantly—unique. It was a haunting unlike any other, eerie and engrossing with a blend of unexpected supernatural elements with vivid, charming personalities and a truly unnerving, intriguing plot.
The Eel Singers made me want to read more by this author. More specifically, it made me want to read more about these characters and their lives outside of this short story. Pulley managed to tell a tale that left me wanting more, but not feeling as if this story was incomplete. Luckily, I’ve discovered this short story is based on characters from two of her other novels—The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and The Lost Future of Pepperharrow—and I will certainly be picking those up.
Lily Wilt by Jess Kidd
While Lily Wilt also managed to stand out from the formulaic hauntings this anthology seemed in danger of slipping into, it didn’t blow me away. Inventive and entertaining, this story is set in a familiar Victorian setting common to ghost stories, but tells an unexpected story focused on a photographer who tries to capture life in the photos he takes of the dead. In the case of Lily Wilt, something much stranger and darker happens. The writing was good and the plot was intriguing, but Lily Wilt stuck too closely to predictable outcomes and didn’t hold my interest enough.
The Chillingham Chair by Laura Purcell
As the one story in this collection by an author I was already familiar with, The Chillingham Chair was a story I found myself looking forward to. After recently reading The Silent Companions and finding it good but not great, I wondered if Purcell could pack more of a punch in a short story. The Chillingham Chair began in a way that worried me initially; the premise seemed banal and not especially exciting. As the story progressed, however, I found myself enjoying it more, fully invested in the mystery of the wheelchair the main character finds herself stuck in and the dark secrets of the family whose home she is in.
Related: The Silent Companions | A Review
The Hanging of the Greens by Andrew Michael Hurley
The Hanging of the Greens was another anticipated story from this collection. While I’m not familiar with Andrew Michael Hurley’s work myself, I’ve heard nothing but great things about his atmospheric writing. This story had such a strong beginning, I was invested immediately in the story of an eager-to-help man of the Church and the recovering alcoholic seeking forgiveness that he offered to help. While I didn’t find myself awed by the writing or the atmosphere created, I couldn’t look away from this story. It was compelling, with a tinge of something that reminded me of stories based in folkloric traditions—beliefs that remain unexplained but seem tied to the land in some ancient way. There were many aspects of The Hanging of the Greens that I enjoyed, it was a very well crafted story, but by the end I felt somewhat unsure about my opinion of it. It was an interesting, engaging reading experience, but I didn’t find myself blown away by the story.
Confinement by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
The firsthand written testimony of Confinement’s main character grabbed my attention from the first paragraph and didn’t let go for the duration of this short story. Immediately, I was lost in the thick, richly described and potent claustrophobic atmosphere of this story. While Confinement touches on some of the same themes as other stories within this collection—the frustrations, limits, and sexism experienced by women during past eras, specifically Victorian—Kiran Millwood Hargrave dives deep into the very real terrors of being a new mother during such a time and blends it with supernatural terror in a way that is impossible to look away from. Confinement, by far, was the most impactful short story within this entire collection. It was my personal favorite—a potent, suspenseful, visceral reading experience suffuse with dread and an ending that did not disappoint.
Monster by Elizabeth Macneal
The final story in this collection was a strange one. Monster focuses on an ambitious, jealous man willing to do anything to make a discovery that will get him the attention and recognition he so greatly desired. While an initially interesting set of circumstances, the story dissolved into something I just did not care much about. There was nothing of a classic haunt within its pages, it lacked the general sense of atmosphere and intrigue that defines a ghost story. It was odd, but not atmospheric or chilling or dreadful. There was no suspense, just an increasing sense of descent into something like madness as the selfish protagonist obsesses over his discovery. It wasn’t a terrible short story, but it was not what I would expect from a collection promising ghostly tales. I was entertained, but didn’t care much for the story.
On the whole, The Haunting Season was a bit of a disappointment simply because most of the tales were very middle of the road. They weren’t terrible, but I found most of them to be unexciting. However, I would still recommend this collection. Perhaps these ghost stories will land with you in a way they didn’t with me and, if not, The Haunting Season is still a great way to sample the works of new authors. Despite not being in love with most of these stories, I’ve identified several new authors I’d like to read more from and explore what they can do within a novel. Perhaps one of those will make for more satisfying reading on the long winter nights to come.