The History Connection - Ghost Story

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Manufacturer: Pocket

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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780671685638
ISBN: 0671685635
Label: Pocket
Manufacturer: Pocket
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 560
Publication Date: 1989-09-01
Publisher: Pocket
Studio: Pocket

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Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: A Great Book / A Good Story
Comment: As a Novel: 5 stars
As a Thriller: 5 stars
As a Ghost Story: 4 stars

The writing and structure of this book are outstanding as you would expect from Straub. The story is outstanding and this book is an excellent thriller if you use that term in the writing sense, but it is only a "good" ghost story in my opinion.

The premise of the ghost story in this novel is excellent and unique, but it is not as spooky or creepy as I like my ghost stories to be. It has its moments for sure, but for a few exceptions, these were not the kind of spooks that stick with you. This in no ways detracts from this book as what I will call a "supernatural thriller", in that respect it is excellent.

The main characters are interesting and very well developed and believable. The minor characters might have been a little over developed on occasion, and the author may have been a little wordy in some spots, but that is just a personal criticism. The plot is very detailed and may have required more writing than similar novels. The book starts slow, but definitely accelerates in the 2nd half. He ties up all the loose ends nicely. The very end is a little strange, but it is what it is.

I saw the movie long before I read the book. The movie is quite bad whereas the novel is quite good. It is cliché to compare novel and movie because the novel is always better, but in this case the gap is larger than usual. The book is many times more intelligent, interesting and scary...but enough of that.

Overall, a very intelligent and satisfying novel.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Booorrring! Way too long
Comment: This story started slow and remained that way. There are so many character I forgot who's who. Plugged as a horror story is wrong. The scary bits, if you can call them that, are few and far between. The story is predictable and a hard read.

There is no value for money.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Never been so glad that my dog ate the book
Comment: I'm an avid reader, and was looking forward to this book, which was recommended in an article on favorite choices of book clubs. After working my way through the first 200 boring pages which were not even particularly well-written, I was about to just give up when my puppy got hold of the paperback and shredded it. Turns out she did me a favor. How in the world did this book get such good reviews?? I'm stumped.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Tedious
Comment: I found this book to be tedious, uninteresting, and utterly forgettable. Not really much more to say. Try before you buy; it is definately not for everyone despite Stephen King's recommendation.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Solid
Comment: Peter Straub's "Ghost Story" is a compelling piece of literature and one of the finest and best written supernatural novels I have read in a while.

The Chowder Society is a group of mature men who have been an exclusive informal social group for years and must deal with the death of one of their members which they feel happened under unusual circumstances. This death signals the start of an evil resurgence within the town of Milburn and opens the wounds of old sins within the Chowder Society members. As past secrets are revealed and the town is isolated by an on-going winter storm, these men must confront ghosts from their past to save the town and their lives.

Straub takes a lot of time developing his characters and making sure that each has a well defined back "story" to bring them alive. In fact, everything in "Ghost Story" revolves around stories: ghost stories told by the Chowder Society, Don Wanderly's novels that seem to come alive, the Manitou stories.... The book has a wonderful physical ghost story as well as an underlying theme about how the passing of time develops its own stories, and it are these stories that are going to define you and be your ghost in the future.

After reading "Shadowland" recently and feeling that Peter Straub was talking over my head and laughing at the readers who could not pick-up the nuances in his writing, I was a bit apprehensive about "Ghost Story". However, the structure of the story was so well conceived that I found myself continually climbing up the steps Straub layered for me until I realized that I was dangling perilously high and was at the mercy of the author.

The first half of the book laid down the foundation of the story and was never dull. It introduced the characters with fine stories and provided enough mysterious elements to keep the story moving forward. In fact, the party scene where we are introduced to Anne-Veronica Moore is the best written section of the book. Character traits are revealed in an entertaining way and the whole section reads like a John Cheever story. It was a wonderfully written section. Once Straub finishes throwing the puzzle pieces on the table and the reader starts to see the entire picture, the book really takes off. The foreshadowing during the "Town" chapter marks a significant turn in the story. It is here the storm picks-up and the novel begins to spin dizzyingly, like snowflakes in the blizzard. Like a blizzard it never lets up the intensity until the very end.

Great stuff for anyone who has the patience to get lost in a well told and well constructed classic ghost story.

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Editorial Reviews:

In life, not every sin goes unpunished.

GHOST STORY

For four aging men in the terror-stricken town of Milburn, New York, an act inadvertently carried out in their youth has come back to haunt them. Now they are about to learn what happens to those who believe they can bury the past -- and get away with murder.

Peter Straub's classic bestseller is a work of "superb horror" (The Washington Post Book World) that, like any good ghost story, stands the test of time -- and conjures our darkest fears and nightmares.