The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton Review

I wanted to celebrate Halloween with a spooky short story every day on top of my normal reading. I started with The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton so let’s get to my review.

A Journey

My Rating: 3/5

Liked this one but didn’t love it. Honestly, now that I think about it, I haven’t really enjoyed any story that I’ve read on a train so maybe it’s a me issue. However, this doesn’t seem overly paranormal. Is it creepy and stressful? Yep, but to be the first entry in a ghost story collection the ghosts were a little lacking.

The Duchess at Prayer

My Rating: 4/5

I liked this one. Again, with a lot of these, it didn’t seem to have too much paranormal to it. It was a great short story that reminded me of The Cask of Amontillado a little. I enjoyed it though.

The Lady’s Maids Bell

My Rating: 5/5

The Lady’s Maids Bell is exactly what I want in a ghost story. It was set in a gothic mansion with an eerie atmosphere. It was a straightforward haunting that made for a fun ghost story.

Afterwards

My Rating: 4/5

Afterwards was a solid ghost story. It took a while for everything to come together so I found myself losing interest in spots. But overall, it was a solid story.

The Triumph of Night

My Rating: 3/5

The Triumph of the Night was fine. I didn’t love it, but the story was solid. I didn’t love the characters. The story itself was pretty unique though.

Bewitched

My Rating: 4/5

I really enjoyed Bewitched. It was a change of scenery and vibe that was much appreciated. This one had more of a folklore vibe to it that I really enjoyed.

A Bottle of Perrier

My Rating: 2/5

I honestly didn’t like A Bottle of Perrier, and I don’t believe it fits in a collection of ghost stories. It is a crime story, sure, but there were very little paranormal aspects to it.

This overall collection is fine, but it didn’t blow me away. There were several ghost stories lacking ghosts and I found that disappointing. They were decent gothic stories but that wasn’t necessarily what I wanted from this collection. I think I’ll give this anthology a 3/5.