The Winter Spirits – Various Authors

Published By: Sphere
Pages: 464
Released On: 19/10/2023

Featuring new and original stories from:

Bridget Collins, author of The Binding
Imogen Hermes Gowar, author of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock
Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies
Andrew Michael Hurley, author of The Loney
Jess Kidd, author of Things in Jars
Natasha Pulley, author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory
Laura Purcell, author of The Silent Companions
Susan Stokes Chapman, author of Pandora
Laura Shepherd-Robinson, author of The Square of Sevens
Stuart Turton, author of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street

The tradition of a haunted tale at Christmas has flourished across the centuries. These twelve stories – authored by some of today’s most loved and lauded writers of historical and gothic fiction – are all centred around Christmas or Advent, boldly and playfully re-imagining a beloved tradition for a modern audience.

Taking you from a haunted Tuscan villa to a remote Scottish island with a dark secret, these vibrant haunted stories are your ultimate companion for frosty nights.

*****

Thanks to NetGalley and Sphere for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

I will say now this will be a long review, I wanted to review each short story separately and then the collection as a whole.

Considering how much of a wuss I am, I really enjoyed reading The Haunting Season – also done in this format – and was thrilled to see a new collection coming out.

On the whole, and I’ve said it before, I dislike short stories. I generally find them a bit…they’re lacking in something. But given the love I have for this collection of authors, I was willing to dive in with an open mind. And if I’m honest, I really liked them all. I would have gladly read longer passages, I was hungry for more detail and more terror, and just more talent from these wonderful writers.

1. Host by Kiran Millwood Hargrave: This started the collection off nice and creepy. I did read it after I’d just woken from a nap so had to reread it to get the full pleasure from it, but it was worth it. I really love Kiran’s books and so there should have been no doubt about loving this. It starts off a bit deceptive, but then ramps up the horror in the few pages it has, and leaves you with quite the image.
2. Inferno by Laura Shepherd Robinson: I found this one quite creepy to begin with. Laura has described just how eery the winter can be, and giving it anthropomorphic qualities suggests that it could be the weather that is the danger.
3. The Old Play by Andrew Michael Hurley: I hadn’t read any of Andrew’s work before and so had no idea what his writing was like. This was the first one that really frightened me, and I think that’s to do with the theatre, somewhere I’ve performed at and spectated from. It’s got this calmness juxtaposed by its rapidness, and you really get a feeling for the characters’ fear.
4. A Double Thread by Imogen Hermes Gowar: This was slow. It was calculated. It was smart. We have all experienced this to some degree, a floorboard creaking, a door opening in the wind, a coat misidentified as a stranger. It felt so real and so cold. I really loved this one.
5. The Salt Miracles by Natasha Pulley: This one felt more about the outer world. It is about nature, about the thick fog, and the things you can’t see in the dark and bad weather. But it’s also about what your mind sees, how your brain can see a shadow and make a demon out of it. And for me, it’s that kind of terror that frightened me the most. The fear of the unknown and what ones own mind can make up.
6. Banished by Elizabeth Macneal: What is fascinating here, is this is based on a true story. If it didn’t say so right at the start, I’d never have believed it. It sounds so fantastical and make-believe. I’m not sure whether knowing it’s real makes it more or less scary. The idea that this isn’t just fiction, that these things can happen in real life.
7. The Gargoyle by Bridget Collins: This one gave me the major creeps. I won’t go as far as saying I didn’t like it, because that makes it sound like I didn’t like the story or it wasn’t well written or well received. Which it was. But it really freaked me out, I could feel it getting under my skin. I had to have a pause after this one to regroup.
8. The Master of the House by Stuart Turton: I’ve only read one of Stuart’s books – The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – and so I didn’t have a thorough understanding of his writing style, but that was enough to tell me has a great grasp of the complex and the mystery. While it does have an element of horror about it, I found this one to be enormously moving and caused a tear or two whilst reading it, which I wasn’t expecting at all.
9. Ada Lark by Jess Kid: This one felt a bit underwhelming. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, it was interesting and good fun and a nice story to read. But it didn’t seem to have as much as the others. I would have liked more detail, more action, more spooks, just to amp up the fear.
10. Jenkin by Catriona Ward: Catriona Ward is the Queen of uncomfortable psychological thrilling horrors and so I had high expectations for her story and she didn’t disappoint. It’s so fabulously weird and quirky but hits all the right notes.
11. Widow’s Walk by Susan Stokes Chapman: This is a slow start in the sense that it really draws you in, gives you enough time to get to know the characters, offers you warmth and comfort and success, and then once it turns, the shocks really get under your skin more and it’s fabulously frightening.
12. Carol of the Bells and Chains by Laura Purcell: My all-time favourite historical thriller writer. This was a proper advent wintery horror, picking up on traditional stories such as the Krampus, and in one word, it was just delicious.

Unless I am mistaken, they all seem to be set in the past – 18th and 19th Century and early 20th. These times seem to lend themselves well to the eery and the mysterious. But now it’s made me wonder what a short horror story like this but set in modern times would be like. I can’t see it being the same. With electricity and lights and the Internet and mobile phones, that doesn’t sound nearly as mysterious as candlelight and the wind and eery silences.

I want to call this a Christmas book, but also a Halloween one, much like Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas, it can be read at both times. There’s something perfect about the wintery months that bodes well for the scary.

Maybe I misread it, I knew they’d be scary horror-type books, which they were an they were great even if I am easily frightened. But I thought they would be more wintery and Christmassy, rather than just using that time period as a setting. It didn’t detract from the reading, but I do wonder if that would have changed any of the stories or not.