Chilling short story collections to make you jump

Halloween may seem a distant memory but November, with it’s darkening nights and chilling temperatures, is the perfect time to curl up with a ghost story. Today’s ‘Books by the Fireplace’ is about two unsettling short story collections to make the toes curl and the skin crawl.

Dead Relatives, by Lucie McKnight Hardy

Gruesome and grisly, these stories are disturbing. But in a good way. The are so well written full of surprises, they take you in directions you don’t expect to go in (or want to, in some cases!) This collection is described as “not for the faint-hearted,” and that is certainly true, but there are also very humorous in places and thoroughly enjoyable to read. If, like me, you like feeling unsettled and creeped out, then this is for you.

The first story of the collection, Dead Relatives, is told from the perspective of Iris, a thirteen-year-old girl, who lives in a big house with her mother, their Cook, and their driver (Clippety Pete), under the watchful eyes of their ancestors. The house is cold and full of secrets, with plenty of dark corners to hide in. We learn that Iris has never left the grounds and knows no life outside of the house and the strange things that go on there.

Iris has to has help Cook and her mother look after three women who arrive in late stages of their pregnancies, it still being a time when abortion is banded and children out of wedlock were frowned upon. At the house, the women are provided with bed and board and “solutions to (their) predicaments procured.” But, of course, this being a short story collection described by the publisher as ‘”no-holds-barred,” as we learn more about the house and what goes on there, the more disturbing and bone-chilling it gets.

Mammy it makes it clear to the Ladies before they arrive that she has already found parents to take on their babbies: barren couples who are desperate for a child to cherish and dote on. She shows them the advertisements she places in the London papers, asking for ‘devoted parents for unfortunate children.’ They’ve already seen the other advertisements she’s placed: ‘Attention: women in a delicate situation seeking accommodation. Bed and board available and solutions to predicaments procured. Apply box number…’ It’s a hidden language, all suggestions and insinuations and such, but everyone knows what it means.

Dead Relatives, by Lucie McKnight Hardy

The most surprisingly twisted story for me was The Pickling Jar, which took a turn I was not expecting, and the one that I can’t stop coming back to in my mind is Jutland, if you know you know…

After a long moment, Mr Brewer chewed and then he swallowed. He opened his eyes. He ran his tongue over his teeth. He put a finger to his mouth and slid it down between incisor and canine, dislodging a miniscule piece of something solid. Gaynor still didn’t dare breathe, but made sure she was standing with her good ear turned towards him.

The Pickling Jar, Dead Relatives by Lucie McKnight Hardy

The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights

There was one island, and on that island, sudden and stark, was the house. Its lights looked disembodied from here, in a way that made Thaniel think of alchemy. He glanced at Mori and grinned. He’d never seen anywhere like this before, much less stayed. He found himself quite hoping for a ghost.

The Eel Singers, by Natasha Pulley

This is a collection of short stories from eight authors including Laura Purcell (the queen of spooky stories – her book The Silent Companions is firm a favourite of mine), Elizabeth McNeal (who’s book The Doll Factory unsettled me so much that I had to find out the ending before I could carry on reading it to make sure I would be able to cope with it), and Kiran Millwood Hargrave (author of The Mercies which I couldn’t put down earlier this year). I had high expectations of this book because of the authors involved and, while there were certainly some similar themes throughout the stories, it did not disappoint.

‘My dear boy!’ he effuses. ‘You have strayed off the well-lit path into a world of thieves and costermongers, whores, and labourers, artists, visionaries and gin-palaces. Rich with stink, even in the deep winter. Rich with clamour, all hours, what with the calling and jibing, fighting and loving.’

‘To Camden, yes.’

‘You have come in the pursuit of knowledge. Wishing to probe the very secrets of nature, finger the mysteries of life and death, verily, to assume the role of God. You want to get your quivering hands upon tomes ancient and occult!’

‘If it’s not too much trouble.’

Lily Whit, by Jess Kidd

I enjoyed the collection of stories, they didn’t unsettle me in the way that Dead Relatives did, these stories were more jumpy ghost stories involving plenty of pieces of furniture moving by themselves, ghostly voices out in the hallways of empty houses, and shadowy shapes in the dark. The collection really revelled in the genre of spookiness and it felt as though the authors each had great fun writing their contribution.

I really enjoyed Natasha Pulley’s The Eel Singers for its slow creep factor as a family escape London to the fens for Christmas and start to forget things. Lily Wilt by Jess Kid, about a man who falls in love with a corpse of a beautiful woman who persuades him to try and bring her back to life, was also fun. But all the stories were enjoyable to read and complimented each other well.

Another creak came from the mechanical chair. Choking on terror, Evelyn let her gaze drift towards it. The contraption was still to her left, beside the chaise longue, but it was no longer turned to the side.

Now it was facing her.

The Chillingham Chair, by Laura Purcell

Short stories are fascinating and thrilling to read. Thrust from one story to the next, each one leaving a lasting impression because of the questions left unanswered. These two collections are no different. Not for the faint-hearted, they are for lovers of all things creepy and ghostly; they will leave you with a distinct sense of being unsettled but loving it.